THE REGAINING OF THE FLEET
Now during all these weary adventurous weeks in which he had been
wandering about the Caribbean, more like a humble knight-errant of old
than a modern prince of birth, Rupert had never forgotten that he had
pawned the King's fleet to that detestable person, Monsieur D'Ogeron,
the Governor of Tortuga. On what employ it had been used, no rumour
had reached him. But the period for which it had been pawned was near
to run out, and Rupert was anxious to resume command on the first day
it was due to be surrendered to him.
The voyage back from Coro in the newly captured carrack could not be
direct for many reasons. In the first place there was plunder from his
other ventures to be collected, and this, after the buccaneer fashion,
Rupert had buried in spots known to himself alone, and in the second
place, in the hurry of cutting out the carrack from La Vela harbour, no
one had troubled to notice that she was not victualled. They had been
keen enough to note the treasure and the rich merchandise which trimmed
her so desirably low in the water, but it was not found that she lacked
the necessary vulgar details of grain and dried meat, of wood and
water, till she was well at sea, and these were not to be had for the
mere asking. Consequently the crew were well-nigh starving before it
was found possible to put into a river which supplied fish for an
immediate meal, and offered savannahs on which the hunters shot deer
meat to take them further.
[Illustration: THERE IS NO MISTAKING THE MANNER OF BUCCANEERS RETURNING
WELL-LADEN]
But even this supply did not provision them for long, and they were
forced to run across to Hispaniola, come into touch with the French and
English hunters there, and buy from them bucaned cows' flesh in the
usual way. There is a routine about these matters, and when it is
departed from one soon finds that the routine has its reason for being.
It will be seen that here were all the makings of a voyage which would
be prosperous, if somewhat slow; but it must be owned that all was not
peace and easiness. The Spaniards on board were the root of the
unpleasantness. They held that they had worked equally with the others
in gathering the plunder. The French and English held that they were
duly-admitted members of the Brotherhood of the Coast, and therefore of
superior clay to any Spaniard; and, moreover, when it came to the
distribution of the plunder, they attended armed to the teeth and
certainly took the lion's share. They said at the time that the
Spaniards might feel grateful that they were given so much as a
flavour; and on that day, being overawed by weapons, these Spaniards
accepted what was left for them with at least an outward show of
civility. But it seems they still carried rage and discontent in their
hearts, which indeed is the custom of their disgusting nation, and from
then onwards were forever making a great plot or cabal.
In number these Spaniards might well be vainglorious, seeing that there
were one hundred and forty of them, to some twenty-seven all told of
the buccaneers, and in fierceness they were above the ordinary. They
were criminals all of them, condemned to the galleys by their own
countrymen, who found them intolerable at home, and had it not been
that their liberation was useful at the time to Prince Rupert, one is
free to confess that the galleys was their proper place, as they were
unfitted for any other rank in society. However, there they were on
the carrack, possessors of some considerable store of plunder, and very
wishful to seize more and to have a say in their final destination.
Once indeed a deputation came aft to put forward their views.
What was to be the carrack's destination?
"Tortuga," said Rupert, civilly.
They appeared to hear the name with consternation.
"But, _Señor_," said their spokesman, "that is the metropolis of the
buccaneers."
"To me," said Rupert, "Tortuga is my rendezvous with my own fleet."
"We bow to your esteemed convenience, _Señor_. But what chance shall
we have there? We shall be lambs in a wolf-fold. They will rob us
certainly; if we escape out of the place with our lives, we shall be
fortunate. Surely, _Señor_, as we have borne much of the burden of the
fighting, we are entitled to some say in future schemes."
"As duly elected Captain, all decision in these matters appears to rest
with me. But I do not wish to make my command unpalatable, and if what
is arranged, and what indeed suits the French and English of this crew
very pleasantly, goes against your sentiments, I am willing to come to
a composition with you. Once in Tortuga, I personally and Master
Laughan here rejoin my fleet; Master Simpson and the buccaneers go
ashore, according to their convivial custom, for a merry time amongst
the wine-shops and the ladies of Tortuga, and possibly for a turn at
the dice box with Monsieur D'Ogeron up at the castle; and the carrack
will remain for sale. I believe prices for ships rule easy in Tortuga,
as there is somewhat of a glut of them on the market, and the titles to
them are obscure. Here, then, is your chance: you are men of capital;
hand back into the store the plunder that has been shared out to you,
and the carrack is yours after she had carried us for our voyage."
At this proposition, the Spaniards appeared to get very angry, and
indeed were for making some foolish demonstration if they had not been
incontinently driven away forward. But the buccaneers, who have a more
nice appreciation for wit, laughed heartily, and swore that Rupert was
a prince of good fellows. But at the same time they did not take the
Spaniards too much on trust, and in fact wore their weapons and their
wakefulness with great diligence.
Had there been liquor on board it is a sure thing that the buccaneers
would have drunk themselves silly, and the Spaniards, who are too
feeble-stomached for an orgie, would not have failed to use their
soberness to bring about a massacre. But, as has been said, the
carrack was a dry ship; she was carried off with neither wine nor rum
in her store; and to this alone may her safety be credited. Indeed so
especially keen were these thirsty buccaneers to arrive at Tortuga and
commence their debauch, that they employed extra watchfulness to make
sure no impediment came in their way, and by this means alone
discovered the hateful plot which the Spaniards were hatching against
them.
There was amongst the Spaniards it seems an apothecary, who had earned
a certain ill-omened fame. The city which he polluted by his residence
contained husbands who wished to be rid of their wives, and wives who
had tired of their husbands. The apothecary supplied the means; indeed
it was the wretch's boast that he had plied this horrid trade of
poisoner for ten whole years with immunity, and then got found out only
by jealousy of a business rival. Indeed so large was his circle of
patrons, and so strong his power, that even at his trial he was used
leniently and spared the torture, lest he might tell too much, and in
the end was condemned only to the galleys, when he should most justly
have been slowly burned.
So when a plot was formed against the buccaneers, here on the carrack
was a task in his old trade ready to the apothecary's hand, and that
was no less than to kill outright by poison all who were not Spaniards.
It seems there was a parcel of herbs and roots and snake's teeth
amongst the cargo suited for his purpose, and he got hold of these, and
set about making his tinctures and decoctions. Even then he might have
succeeded, if he had done his work quick and sudden after the plot was
made; but it seems that there can be artists amongst poisoners as there
are in other trades, and here was one that took a most dainty pride in
his horrid craft. A crude, rasping poison would not suit him. He must
needs purify and distil a dozen times over till he had made a death
drug of the most exquisite fineness; and his hundred and forty
compatriots who were all in the secret, sat round and watched and
gloated over their coming triumph and vengeance.
What made the deed one of such plain simplicity was the manner in which
the two parties had separated themselves. From the very first day on
board, the English and French buccaneers had taken the cabins that are
set apart for officers and passengers under the half-deck and poop; and
the Spaniards did not presume to harbour anywhere except in the forward
castle, or the upper holds. There is a sea sumptuary law or etiquette
about these dispositions that is very strict. Moreover, gradually as
the feeling between the two bodies became more strained, there was less
and less intercourse between them. Indeed, by Rupert's direction, the
buccaneers posted constantly a couple of armed sentries on the break of
the poop with a loaded culverin by each, trained so as to sweep the
waist and the lower deck, and with lighted matches in tubs standing by
their side. The sentries were changed with every watch, and the
Spaniards knew quite well that they would fire on small occasion. And
moreover, after nightfall, battle-lanterns were hung in the rigging, so
that there should be no rushing the after deck under cover of darkness.
The matter that gave the apothecary his opening was a sea custom of the
buccaneers. Ashore these men are the most dextrous of cooks, often
killing a cow especially so that her udder may provide them with a
delicate joint, and serving it with pimento and other sauces to lend it
piquant flavour. In a word, on dry land they are gourmands and glory
in the fact. But at sea they are quite different; they can live there
on victual of the roughest; and it is their conceit moreover to rate
the office of cook as the lowest on shipboard. Either they make their
prisoners do the work, or they carry a slave to dress their victual, or
they are even content to swallow it raw sooner than grease their tarry
fingers with either roasting-spit or boiler. On this captured carrack,
then, as may be supposed, they pressed a couple of Spaniards into the
caboose (as the cookhouse is named at sea), and although these showed a
stiff lip at first, and required some beating before they would serve,
presently (after their devilish plot was concocted) they made the boils
and the stews and the other sea dishes with docility, and, it must be
confessed also, with appetising skill.
To the Yorkshireman Simpson must be credited the first hint that all
was not as it should be. He and the Prince and the secretary were
sitting on the taffrail one night between two of the great poop
lanterns, and Rupert found occasion to comment that the voyage was
drawing towards its conclusion very peacefully.
"'Appen," said Simpson, "and again, Captain, 'appen not. Them
Spaniards makes out to be a sight too contented for my liking. They
were as mad as hay about the way we shared up that treasure, an'
they're far from liking t' idea of a happy week near owd Skin-the-Pike
i' Tortuga. Now tha'llt not tell me they've forgotten; Spaniards is
vengeful devils an' they niver forgets. And I tell tha' what, young
feller, I'd be a deal more comfortable if they was up an' fighting with
us."
"Pooh!" said Rupert lightly. "Spaniard-hating has grown to be a
disease with you, Master Simpson. And, besides, we have taken our
precautions. Look at the sentries. You can see the matches burning in
their tubs from here."
"A Spaniard is as artful as a bagful of monkeys."
"And we fancy we are not without some strategy ourselves."
Simpson put a thumb on his chin. "Look here, now, young feller. I'd
like t' 'ave tha' a bet on about it. I'll lay tha' an even pint potful
o' silver pieces they try to have their knives into us before we've an
anchor down in Tortuga Harbour."
"I'll take your wager with pleasure."
"Well," said Simpson, with a wink, "it's my brass," and there the talk
ended.
But that night, when Master Laughan was officer of the watch and was
patrolling the poop with due form and ceremony, the Yorkshireman came
up and made an announcement of his plans in a cautious whisper. "I'm
bahn to win yon bet, if cleverness will do it, and just to give Captain
Rupert a suck in."--He winked, and patted the secretary's arm
confidentially.--"I know these Spanish beggars more than a bit, an'
it's my belief they wouldn't cower so quiet unless they were hatching
mischief. Now say note to Rupert, lad, an' if tha' hears them cutting
my throat forrard, call all the hands aft here and clear the decks for
bloody war. By gum, I'll win yon potful of pieces, choose 'ow."--With
which he took himself off up the mizzen rigging, and was lost in the
blackness of the night overhead.
It was clear that the man thought more of winning his paltry wager than
of insuring the safety of his fellow-buccaneers, and the secretary
smiled (but with tears in her eyes) as she thought of his crazy daring.
But it seemed, when he came back afterwards to tell his tale, that
Master Simpson had a shrewd notion of taking care of his own skin even
when he so dangerously risked it. As has been said, the waist and the
lower maindeck of the carrack was lit with battle lanthorns, but these
only accentuated the darkness which wrapped the rest of her. The
Yorkshireman, despite his size and weight, could climb with an ape's
handiness. He made his way up to the mizzen topmast head, keeping
always in the shadow of the spars and canvas; then like some uncouth
crawling insect laid out along the stays, reaching first the main, and
then the fore top mast head and finally slipping down the outer
bolt-sprit stay, and crouched in the top of the mast there for a moment
to recover breath. Below him, past the gammoning of the bolt-sprit,
was the open-work of the ship's beak, upheld by her figure-head, and in
the high wall of the forward castle beyond, the lamplight gleamed out
warmly through the two open gun-ports.
Quietly Master Simpson made his way down by the foot ropes, keeping
most jealously to the shadows, and finally took up his post beneath one
of these openings, settling himself comfortably so as to avoid
unnecessary cramp. He would certainly have been killed a hundred times
over if he had been caught there, but he stayed coolly on, listening to
the chatter inside, hour after hour, and still hearing nothing of
especial moment. It was terribly risky work. But as he explained
afterwards he learned nothing of moment and wasn't inclined to give up
hope of winning the bet till daylight came in and clearly routed him.
He said he came from a country where they meant winning when they laid
a wager, whatever it might cost to bring success.
But at last he heard what suited him, and what indeed saved every life
in the after part of the ship, and returning laboriously by the way he
had come, high over the rigging, he dropped down to the poop deck at
the exact spot he had left it.
Master Laughan met him there, heavy-eyed for want of sleep, and soaked
with the dew of night, and somewhat crabbedly inquired his news. The
fellow had given her a good racking of anxiety, and she did not wish to
show it. But he laughed at her whimsically enough, and said his news
would keep till breakfast time, and that for the present he was all
yawns, and with that went below to his bed place. Which example the
secretary in some annoyance followed forthwith.
Sentries challenged and bells clanged, watches were relieved and the
routine of the night went on in its rigid way, and at last the
timekeeper in charge of the glass cried seven o'clock and bade all
hands rouse and bit. The toilettes of shipboard are hasty, as all when
on the unstable sea sleep in their clothes to be ready for the sudden
alarms which are so frequent. Indeed it has been neatly expressed,
that seamen like dogs give one good shake, and are awake and dressed.
And so when the timekeeper gave his cry and turned his glass, almost
before the sand had begun to run the other way, all of the carrack's
afterguard were turned out, and ready for their breakfasts.
There is no delicate napery at sea, and on this carrack, then, there
was not so much as a salt vat to decorate the table. To each man was a
wooden platter and a leathern cup, fitting into cavities cut in the
board to keep them in place against the vessel's rolling, and the
benches which served as seats were built into the solid fabric of the
deck. A savoury smell advertised the cook's coming, and the ship's
company seated themselves on the benches before the table, and each
drew his knife and laid it before him in readiness. Then the cook came
into the great cabin bearing the mess kid in his arms, a lean,
dark-faced man with a notable squint. The rude men at the table
sniffed appreciatively, and the cook, setting the mess-kid on the deck,
took out his great ladle and began filling the platters one by one as
they were handed to him, and then when all were loaded, the fellow that
had been appointed chaplain, rose to his feet, shut his eyes, and
prepared to say the grace.
But at this point Simpson slipped round to the door of the cabin and
cried a loud "Halt!" Many faces were turned upon him frowningly. They
brooked ill, these buccaneers, any interference with their religious
exercises. But Simpson was not the man to be quieted by a scowl.
"Captain," said he, "I'll have to ask tha' for yon half-pint o' silver
pieces."
"It is yours, Master Simpson," said the Prince politely, "but I'd take
it as courteous if you'd tell how you've earned it."
"Simple enough," said the Yorkshireman. "I just ask you to force the
cook to sample his own wares."
"Why, we have a new cook to-day," said Rupert, staring at the Spaniard
who held the mess-kid.
"True enough," said Simpson, "and afore turning cook, he was
galley-slave, and afore that he practised as apothecary. It sticks in
my mind that to-day he's mixed t' two businesses together and given us
some apothecary's drugs in his cook's stew. If he hasn't, well,
Captain, I may yet owe you the bet, but, if he has, I think you might
pay up t' brass."
"Most certainly," said Rupert, "and I think the thing is easy proved,
by watching the man eat a platter full of his own mess. _Señor el
Cocinero_," he said, dropping into the Spanish tongue, "by its savoury
smell to-day your cooking has surpassed even its previous excellence."
The cook gave a doubtful little bow.
"But there exists some doubt as to the wholesomeness of the condiments
wherewith you have flavoured it. The nearest vacant place at the table
appears to be my own. May I beg of you to honour me by sitting in it
and to show by your own appreciation how excellent is the mess you have
brought for us."
The cook gripped tight on to his ladle and glared about him like a
trapped wild animal. "I am not hungry," he said, "and besides I am a
Catholic and could not eat after the meat has been blessed by your
chaplain. But the food is quite wholesome."
"I might point out to you that our honoured chaplain has not yet said
the grace, nor will he till we know more about what is set before us."
"I will not eat," said the cook, and shivered violently. "I tell you I
have no appetite. I am not hungry."
"My good man," said Rupert, "I stand in the position of king over this
vessel, and my courteous invitation may be construed as a royal
command. If you have no appetite, we must find you one." He signed to
those of the buccaneers who sat nearest at the table, and these, who
began to realise how matters lay, were nothing loath to give the cook
some rough handling. He was forced into the chair at the head of the
board, and those who held him began sawing at his ears with their
knives. For long enough he withstood the torture, and sat there
sullenly with the blood dripping on to his shoulders, and the
buccaneers down the table, with the untouched platters still smoking
before them, rested on their elbows and watched him. Prince Rupert, a
man who was usually averse to these rude proceedings, looked on with a
face that was hard and frowning, and except for the secretary, who felt
herself pale as she watched, there was not a trace of pity shown by
anyone.
Stoically this monster of a cook held out, proving by his very
stubbornness how complete was his guilt, but at length he began to
recognise that the grim men who held him were not the sort that show
undue leanings towards mercy. He had to choose between eating or being
carved alive; and as a poisoner of long and loathly experience, the
full horrors of his dish were well known to him. But the sharp, cold
pain of the knives daunted him at last, and with a cry he stretched out
his hand and began to scoop up the food in the platter before him, and
to cram it into his mouth. He fed like a beast, the sooner to get it
over, but those who watched him expressed neither disgust nor interest;
remained, in fact, immovable; and his eyes roved over the board and
glared at them horribly.
At last the platter was cleaned, and he sat back in his chair with a
face lividly white and beaded with perspiration. No one spoke; all in
the great cabin watched him with unwinking eyes. Presently he reached
out his hand for a mug of water, and gulped it down. His teeth
chattered against the lip of the drinking vessel; black rings grew
round his eye-sockets.
He lay back again in the chair, gripping hard upon the arms, and
closing his eyes tightly. He knew the symptoms which should arrive,
and in imagination endured half their torments before they actually
came to him. When one remembered how he would have dealt out similar
anguish to all the French and English of the ship's company, one could
not deny that he was rightly served. But being human, one perforce had
to pity as one watched.
But at last the pains began to grip him in real grinding earnest. He
strained himself to that side and to this. He writhed like a wounded
worm. He screamed aloud for someone in pity to kill him. But the
mercy that he had dealt out to others was given him in full measure
then. He was taken out through a door on to the main deck and laid
there on a hatch, and the platters with the poisoned food were laid in
a ring round him, and there he was left for his friends to deal with as
they chose. And the exact manner of his wicked end, the present
historian does not know.
On the poop above, the matches smoked in their tubs and the sentries
stood by the loaded culverins which commanded the main deck. In the
great cabin below Prince Rupert was paying to Master Simpson the amount
of his wager. Simpson spat on the last coin for luck before he
pocketed it.
"I'll give tha' a revenge," he said. "I'll bet tha' on onything that
comes, nobbut just mention it."
"You're too shrewd for me," said Rupert laughing. "But I'd like to bet
you another small wager that our Spaniards give us no more trouble
after to-day."
"Tha'rt bahn to be shut o' t' lot of them, eh? There's an island close
aboard, an' tha'st a mind to set 'em all ashore to laak about as they
please? That's what we Bretheren of the Coast call marooning, an' it's
just what they deserve. They were all i' t' poisoning, an' they all
deserve what t' druggist got, an' worse. An' when we're shut o' them,
we'll just tak' their share o' t' brass an squander it under owd
Skin-the-Pike's nose in Tortuga along wi' t' rest."
"H'm," said Rupert, and appeared to consider. And then he sighed and
said: "Well, Master Simpson, I suppose by the time money is carried
across to The Hague that one piece will look so much like another that
the King will not be able to distinguish between any of them. I am
beginning to learn the lesson that it does not do to be too nice about
small matters here in these seas of the New World."
"Not when there's Jack-Spaniards i' question," assented Simpson, and
there the talk broke off, and the Prince began making his dispositions
for the capture of the carrack by the buccaneers.
As it chanced the powder room was aft, and those in the forward portion
of the ship could neither use great guns or small arms, and when other
pieces were drawn up on the poop, and men stood beside them with
smoking lintstocks all ready to fire, the Spaniards had no stomach for
a rush, but incontinently surrendered. The prestige of the buccaneers
was so great amongst these people, that it saved even the semblance of
a skirmish. Prince Rupert cried his orders, and with their own hands
they hove the carrack to, hoisted out the two boats which lay on the
booms, and tumbled over one another in their anxiety to be in them and
off to try their fortune on the island which lay close under their lee.
As was natural, they had done their best to leave the ship ablaze
behind them as a souvenir, but the buccaneers anticipated this, and
went forward when the last of the wretches had gone, and had small
trouble in extinguishing the flames. After which they let fly a
shotted salvo from all the great guns after their common fashion, and
once more trimmed sail, and got along their course.
Again see the finger of fate. That very afternoon they came across a
small pink out of Nombre de Dios, loaded with rum. They gave her
freedom for being engaged in so desirable a trade, only exacting some
dozen puncheons of the liquor as a ransom, and when the sun went down
upon the sea, there was the carrack in charge of Prince Rupert and
Master Laughan, as being the only two sober souls in all her company.
The rest of the tipsy dogs were making night shiver with their
shoutings, and their shootings, and their singings, and all the other
insanities of debauch. And if the Spaniards had been on board, the
silly fellows would have got drunk just the same. There is no trusting
these buccaneers of the Spanish Main once they have got liquor to their
hands, and that is the great reason why they are so unthrifty with
their lives. Even a hard-witted fellow like Simpson the Yorkshireman
could addle his brain on these occasions like the weakest of them.
Still with that happy-go-lucky navigation which is one of the features
of the Carib Sea, the carrack sailed on, missing the reefs and
shallows, coming to no harm in the gales, and in time she came to the
harbour of Tortuga, for which she aimed. The buccaneers stood to the
guns, firing shot from them in joyous salvos, and caring not one iota
where the said shot flew. The carrack fluttered with banners and
ancients, and the castle, and the squalid town by the water's edge, and
the shipping at anchor quickly hoisted flags in welcome. There is no
mistaking the manner of buccaneers returning well laden, and the
harpies of Tortuga who live on such are not niggard in showing their
joy that more ruffians have come in to be fleeced. Boats put out from
the beach manned by vintners and tawdry hussies, each desirous of being
first to catch a man, and on the castle of the Governor three trumpets
and a drum made desirable music.
There was a fleet of three ships anchored apart from the others in the
harbour, and Rupert's eye moistened as he looked upon them. They were
the ships of His Majesty Charles II., which had come out to these seas
with Rupert as Admiral to gain moneys for the upkeep of the Court at
The Hague. They had been pawned to Monsieur D'Ogeron as a ransom for
those distressed cavaliers that the accursed Cromwell had sold to the
buccaneers. And here they were, out of their period of service, and
ready once more to take on board their natural Admiral.
"Shall I round up the carrack amongst the fleet?" asked Master Laughan,
who stood at the helm. "It will be a joyful moment for our people when
they know who's returned to them."
"Let them keep their joy, then, for another hour or so," said Rupert,
"and do you carry on to an anchorage beyond. Seeing for how long a
time we've been parted, it is only civil that first I should go up to
the castle and pay my respects to Monsieur D'Ogeron. He and I have
still an account to settle before I leave this desirable harbour."
So the carrack was brought to an anchor, with her courses roughly
brailed and topsails lowered. But there was no attempt at stowing the
canvas tidily, as the buccaneers were too keen to get ashore for their
organised debauch, and, indeed, were already too drunk to venture aloft
and out upon the foot-ropes. So all went off in shore-boats to the
beach, and Rupert took the secretary's arm and turned to stroll up to
the hill-top, where the castle crouched menacingly over the harbour.
The women of the place tried hard with their loathly blandishments to
detain them, but Prince Rupert was not the man to heed such tawdry
Circes as these, though indeed he declined their invitation civilly,
and even with a laughing word. So by degrees they walked up under the
baking sunshine, and passed underneath the massive beam of the gateway,
where the heads of Monsieur D'Ogeron's most recent enemies grilled
under an outrageous sun.
The entrance yard was a mere rat-pit, a trap in which the unfriendly
could be shot down without a chance of retaliation. The only entrance
door was in the upper story, and the ladder which gave access to this
was hauled up with a chain and a pulley. However, after an exacting
parley with a sentinel, Monsieur D'Ogeron consented to give audience to
his visitors, and, once inside, extended to them his usual coarse
amiability. "_Mon Prince_," he cried, "you have come back to claim
your fleet within a week of the day on which it reverts to your
command. If one may judge by your clothes, you've been seeing service.
I trust that your outlay of courage has brought you a full financial
return?"
"So--so," said Rupert.
"Well, try my brew of sangoree. You'll have found by now that this
climate breeds a most delicious thirst."
"I thank you, but I will not drink."
The Governor laughed pleasantly. "You still stick to your Old-World
courtesies, I see. Now, to me, one drink's as good as another, and I'd
not refuse a man's invitation to swallow his sangoree, even if I were
going to cut his throat next minute."
"I can believe it of you. You are a very nasty fellow, Monsieur."
The Governor of Tortuga shrugged his shoulders and blew a long mouthful
of tobacco smoke from his pipe. But he took no offence. "You didn't
come up here to quarrel with me in words, I'll be bound, _mon Prince_.
Neither did you call with the intention of putting your sword through
me, as you know well by this how cunningly I can defend myself, and how
unpleasant it is for callers to annoy me. Your Highness is a man of
observation. You'll have noted the heads above the gateway?"
"They are all new since I was here last. Your Excellency is right. I
did not come to exchange courtesies, civil or otherwise. I came for
business: in a word, I am here to receive an account of my fleet's
performance."
"Oh, they served me passing well, thanks to my own officers who were on
board to keep tally and give directions. They caught five ships on the
sea, and skimmed one a nice fat town. They brought no women back with
them, having some foolish scruple, which even my officers could not get
over--indeed, come to think of it, their obedience at times was none of
the best--and, thirsty dogs that they were, they drank up all the wine
they captured long before they sailed back into harbour here. But I'll
not complain. They brought me a most appetising cargo of gold bars and
plate."
"Which should have gone to the King."
Monsieur D'Ogeron reached out for the smouldering lintstock which stood
on the table, and relit his pipe. "What, you still toy with that old
fable of loyalty? Well, I've accounted myself no small judge of men,
but it's a strange world, this. Why, by this, they'll have forgotten
you in Europe."
"I flatter myself they'll keep me longer in memory."
The Governor shook his head and his pipe. "And your King will have
written off your ships from his accounts as a speculation that's
failed. Now, if I were your Highness, I'd not surprise him. I'd keep
those ships. And I'd found myself a pretty little kingdom out here,
and be absolute, and not go home to be servant again to an unstable
Stuart. Why, Prince, you've got all the materials for a kingdom ready
and waiting: the men are in your own ships; the women you can gather
from any city of the Main you like to fetch them from, and there you
are with the essentials complete. You choose your site, you build your
town and fort, you catch your Indians, or you import Guinea blacks for
slaves, and for occupation and revenue you raid the Spanish, when
indeed you are not enjoying domestic joys at home. And, let me tell
you, that domestic joys out here are not things to be valued lightly.
They grow upon a man."
"Sir," said Rupert, "have done. By now you might have known that such
talk disgusts me. You appear to find enjoyment in living over that
swinish village, which you miscall a town, on the beach yonder; but
other men are built different, and, for myself, it would make me sick."
Monsieur D'Ogeron remained unruffled. "I see what you're at," he said
with a wink. "You want to make me lose my temper and consent to fight
you. Why should I? For honour? I haven't any. For chivalry? I've
forgotten what it is. To please your whim? Why, there my own
disinclination comes first. I haven't a particle of quarrel with you,
_mon Prince_, and I really do not see how you can scratch one up. I've
got the best of the bargain over the fleet, I've got the best of the
bargain all through, and I quite see you've your sore. But I refuse to
let you heal it by carving holes in me.--Here's to your speedy
mending," said he, and swigged deeply at the sangoree.--"I do wish your
Highness would drink. This abstinence is a slur on my hospitality."
Prince Rupert sat biting his nails in bitter anger. He knew well the
dispositions of the Governor of Tortuga's audience-room from previous
humiliating experience. Behind one curtain stood a demi-bombarde, with
a gunner and a lighted lintstock beside it, which could blow him to
pieces at a word. Behind another curtain was another rogue, holding
strings that governed those traps in the flooring which shot Monsieur
D'Ogeron's unwelcome visitors into the dungeons beneath. And for aught
the Prince knew, there might be other monkey pranks in readiness
equally nasty. To be beaten by anyone was bad enough, but to be beaten
by a creature of the low, dishonourable cunning of this Monsieur de
Tortuga was past a gentleman's endurance. And so Rupert bit his nails
through helpless rage.
The Governor lay back in his chair, watching the fumes from his tobacco
pipe as they drifted towards the beams above, but withal keeping the
tail of one eye warily upon the Prince. He was a man well-used to
danger, and he plumed himself that he knew where danger lay, and by
forethought was amply secured against it. But he had all his mind for
the Prince, and not so much as a thought for the secretary, and indeed
openly sneered at the poor creature for her slim figure and (what he
was pleased to term) mincing, finicking ways. Indeed, if the bare
truth be told, it was as much resentment at this contemptuous neglect
(and to show the brute that she could be as dangerous as any man) that
the poor secretary made the move that cut the Gordian knot of the
situation. For by a sudden leap she stood behind Monsieur D'Ogeron's
chair, pressing her poniard down upon his left shoulder.
She cried out that she would assuredly drive the weapon down into his
heart if he moved, or if any of those who watched round the room so
much as stirred, and of a truth would have murdered him there in sheer
self-defence if he had disobeyed, though the mere thought of doing it
turned her sick.
Rupert, with his quick appreciation of events, sat himself suddenly on
the table (knowing the instability of the floor), and the frowns on his
face changed to merry laughter. "Bravo, Stephen, lad," cried he.
"Strike home if there's any discourtesy shown you. And now, Monsieur
D'Ogeron, our diplomacy has come down to a plane where you may find
yourself more amenable to reason."
The Governor smoked on unmoved. A curtain at one side of the room
whisked across and showed a gunner, lighted match in hand, standing
over the touch-hole of his piece. Another curtain moved away, and
there was the man who commanded the strings of the traps of the floor,
and behind him a dozen uncombed fellows, each with pistols and hanger.
"We seem at a deadlock," said the Governor, with a wave of his
pipe-stem.
"As for the lock, that's to be proved, Monsieur," said Master Laughan
from behind him; "but as for being dead, why, there you will take
precedence of all in this chamber when action begins." And in emphasis
she twisted the poniard so that it might prick the Governor's shoulder
through his clothing.
The Governor reached slowly for his sangoree and drank it with an air.
"_Mon Prince_," he said, "the needs of your gracious sovereign at The
Hague really begin to touch my conscience. If so lowly a creature as
myself might help with a mite, it would give me vast pleasure to become
his banker to the extent of--well, I am in an open mood to-day--say
anything up to ten thousand pieces-of-eight."
"It is strange," said Rupert, "but our wishes seem to jump the same
way. In fact you could not have made a more pleasing suggestion,
Monsieur, except that you made one small tongue-slip in the figures.
Surely the sum you had in mind was fifty thousand?"
"You are quite right. I meant to have said twenty thousand, though it
will leave my treasury dangerously bare."
"Fifty," said Rupert pleasantly.
"One cannot do the impossible. I have some very ingenious torture
instruments in this castle, and some very patient tormentors who are
skilled in their use. Between them they have brought about some
marvellous changes of opinion, but even they could not make me say more
than thirty thousand. If you doubt me, and carry this matter too far,
perhaps presently you will be persuaded to go down into the torture
chamber and test the perfection of my instruments for yourselves?"
"Ah, there," said Rupert, "I fear we must decline your invitation,
Monsieur. Strange though it may seem in these seas of the New World,
both Master Laughan and I have a certain niceness of nature which makes
the sight of such things unpalatable. But I think, Stephen, that if
you pressed your point a little further home, Monsieur D'Ogeron might
still be brought to see things in our light."
Upon which the secretary in her nervousness thrust at the poniard so
shrewdly, that the Governor with a bundle of oaths yelled out that he
was beaten, and only prayed that the beastly dagger might be taken away
from his shoulder.
"Young man," said he, "you had your iron far enough in for me to feel
the chill. Do you know this is a very dangerous prank to play with one
of my habit of life?"
There was still a difficulty remaining as to how the money was to be
taken from the Castle treasury to the cabin of his flagship in the
fleet where Rupert wished to see it stowed. The Prince distrusted
Monsieur D'Ogeron implicitly, and (to own the bare truth) Monsieur
D'Ogeron was indecently wary lest he should get himself too far into
the Prince's hands. But in the end the pair of them left the castle
arm-in-arm as though they had been the dearest of friends, and Master
Laughan, as a dependent should, marched humbly behind them, though with
a dagger very handy.
Chairs and a table were set upon the beach, and presently drink was
brought (without which little business is done in the New World) and
the pair of them toasted one another very handsomely. Even a creature
like the Governor of Tortuga could not but admire the splendid parts of
Rupert Palatine, and it seems that Rupert found points of excellence
even in Monsieur D'Ogeron.
Meanwhile the money was brought down in sacks, and taken out in boats
to the fleet, where a receipt was duly given, and the Governor saw his
ill-got riches taken away from him for the service of the King without
a frown or an angry word. He had the virtue of philosophy, this
monarch of the buccaneers, and accepted the unavoidable like a man of
sense. And moreover, as he said, the harvest of those seas was
inexhaustible. The Spaniard, like the devil, was always with them, and
it was an honest buccaneer's duty to get the better of both.
So the money was paid, and the parting was made, and Prince Rupert was
rowed out across the still waters of the harbour to take his proper
place once more as Admiral of the King's fleet. Master Laughan
followed at his heels with a heart loaded with cheerful emotions.
Alas, poor fond creature, little did she know that they were posting
towards that lamentable quarrel which (soon after the horrid drowning
of Prince Maurice) separated them eternally. Little did Rupert guess
that he was so soon to be separated from one whose love and
faithfulness towards him has been abundantly proved to all the world.
Little did the secretary dream that she would lose as her patron that
most noble, fearless and adorable man ever born since history began.
One weapon alone could the secretary have used that would have stilled
the quarrel the moment it began; if she had declared her sex Rupert
would have taken back the bitter word that drove her from his side.
But she would have died sooner than make confession; and when she left
her Prince, he was still ignorant that it was the maid Mary Laughan,
and not Stephen the youth who had so lovingly and truly served him.
THE END.
THE RIVERSIDE PRESS LIMITED, EDINBURGH
BY THE SAME AUTHOR
THE FILIBUSTERS
THE LOST CONTINENT
THE RECIPE FOR DIAMONDS
HONOUR OF THIEVES
THE STRONGER HAND
THE PARADISE COALBOAT
ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN KETTLE
FURTHER ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN KETTLE
THROUGH ARCTIC LAPLAND
MR HORROCKS, PURSER