Produced by Al Haines.
[Illustration: SUDDENLY THERE WAS A ROAR OF MUSKETS, AND THROUGH THE
SMOKE I SAW THE SPANIARDS RUSHING TOWARDS US]
A GENTLEMAN-AT-ARMS:
BEING PASSAGES IN THE LIFE OF
SIR CHRISTOPHER RUDD, KNIGHT,
AS RELATED BY HIMSELF IN THE
YEAR 1641 AND NOW SET FORTH BY
HERBERT STRANG
WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY
CYRUS CUNEO
AND T. H. ROBINSON
LONDON
HENRY FROWDE
HODDER & STOUGHTON
[Illustration: Title page]
_First printed in 1914_
*CONTENTS*
INTRODUCTORY
THE FIRST PART
CHRISTOPHER RUDD'S ADVENTURE IN HISPANIOLA, AND THE STRANGE STORY OF
CAPTAIN Q
THE SECOND PART
CHRISTOPHER RUDD'S ADVENTURE IN FRANCE, AND HIS BORROWING OF THE WHITE
PLUME OF HENRY OF NAVARRE
THE THIRD PART
CHRISTOPHER RUDD'S ADVENTURE IN THE LOW COUNTRIES, AND HIS QUAINT DEVICE
OF THE SILVER SHOT
THE FOURTH PART
CHRISTOPHER RUDD'S ADVENTURE IN SPAIN, AND THE FASHION IN WHICH HE
PLAYED THE PART OF A PHYSICIAN
THE FIFTH PART
CHRISTOPHER RUDD'S ADVENTURE IN IRELAND, AND THE MANNER OF HIS WINNING A
WIFE
POSTSCRIPT
*LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS*
COLOUR PLATES BY CYRUS CUNEO
SUDDENLY THERE WAS A ROAR OF MUSKETS, AND THROUGH THE SMOKE I SAW THE
SPANIARDS RUSHING TOWARDS US (see p. 52) . . . _Frontispiece_
I BEHELD THE MAN KNEELING BEFORE AN OPEN CHEST, GLOATING OVER IT,
PLUNGING HIS HANDS INTO IT
THE SIEUR DE LANGRES GAVE ONE CHOKING SIGH, AND FELL AT THE KING'S FEET
RAISING HIS SWORD HIGH ABOVE HIS HEAD, HE BROUGHT IT DOWN WITH A
VEHEMENT STROKE
PINNING HIM DOWN UPON A CHAIR, I BADE HIM STERNLY GIVE HEED TO CERTAIN
CONDITIONS ON WHICH I WOULD SPARE HIS LIFE
DOWN HE WENT UPON THE COBBLES, AND I STOOD OVER HIM WHILE HE LAY AND
GROANED
INSTANTLY RAOUL WAS AT DON YGNACIO'S THROAT
I FOUND MY LADY KNEELING BESIDE ME, HOLDING A CUP
DRAWINGS BY T. H. ROBINSON
I LAY HID UNTIL THE MAN HAD COME FORTH AND GONE HIS WAY
HE CAUGHT THE SWIMMER AS HE WAS ON THE POINT OF SINKING
THE SPANIARDS LEAPT INTO THE RAVINE AND CLAMBERED UP THE OTHER SIDE
THE SWIFTNESS OF OUR ONSET TOOK THE SPANIARDS ALL ABACK
WE OPENED THE CHESTS IN HIS PRESENCE
I FELT A SHARP PANG IN THE CALF OF MY LEFT LEG
A FIGURE SPRANG AT ME OUT OF THE DARK ENTRY
I SAW A MAN LYING IN A HUDDLED HEAP
WE CREPT SOFTLY AS FOXES TOWARD THE WALL
"SIR, YOU COME FROM THE ILLUSTRIOUS PRINCE MAURICE OF NASSAU?"
RIGHT MERRY WERE THE CITIZENS AT THE SUCCESS OF OUR ENTERPRISE
VOLMAR READ THE LETTER BY THE AID OF A LANTERN
I BEHELD THREE MEN AS BLACK BLOTS MOVING IN THE DARKNESS
"TO-MORROW THE ORDER WILL BE GIVEN TO THE CAPTAIN OF THE GUARD TO ARREST
YOU"
I TOLD HIM VERY SHORTLY, AND NEVER IN MY LIFE HAVE I SEEN SO PITEOUS A
SPECTACLE AS THAT LITTLE ROUND RUBICUND MAN
I FOUND SIR WALTER IN HIS GARDEN
HE THRUST INTO MY HAND SOME PAPERS
I MADE BOLD TO ACCOST HIM
I BETOOK MYSELF TO AN APOTHECARY'S
"OUT OF MY SIGHT, RAPSCALLION!"
SHOWING HIM MY DAGGER, I BADE HIM HOLD HIS PEACE
HE PLIED THE WHIP RIGHT MERRILY
THEY DID BUT MOCK ME WITH JEERS AND HORRID EXECRATIONS
"I WILL SURELY EXECUTE UPON YOU ANY VIOLENCE OR INDIGNITY THAT MY FATHER
MAY SUFFER"
GATHERING MY SPEED, IN FOUR LEAPS I WAS UPON HIM
HE CLUTCHED ME BY THE ARM AND POINTED TO A REGIMENT OF DUSKY SHAPES
I CROSSED THE GUARD OF RORY MAC SHANE, AND GAVE HIM THE POINT OF MY
SWORD
"HOW NOW, MY BULLY ROOK!"
HEADINGS ON PAGES . . . 17, 81, 129, 217, 311
TAILPIECES ON PAGES . . . 75, 123, 209, 304, 382
*INTRODUCTORY*
The Rudds, like many another ancient family, have come down in the
world, as the saying goes. They no longer live on the toil of others,
but work for their own livelihood. They no longer own manors, or follow
their feudal lords to court in armour; but here and there about the
world, in business, at the Bar, in the Army or administrative offices,
they worthily sustain the honour of their name.
The present head of the family cherishes an heirloom, which has
descended from father to son through three centuries. It has no
commercial value; it would not fetch a shilling in the auction room:
indeed, the mere hint of selling it would shock a Rudd. It is a flat
leather case, discoloured, frayed at the edges, almost worn out with
age. But upon its side may still be seen faint traces of the initials
C.R., and within it lies a bundle of faded papers, with the following
inscription on the cover:
_Certeyn Passages in the Life of Syr Christopher Rudde, knyghte, related
by himselfe in the yeare of our Lorde 1641, and written down by his
grandsonne Stephen._
It is easy to understand why this old manuscript is treasured by the
Rudd family. The "certain passages" in their ancestor's life are
interesting in themselves, as narratives of romantic adventure in
various countries of the old world and the new. They give incidental
pictures of remarkable scenes and personages, and throw not a little
light on the manners and conditions of bygone times. Above all, they
seem to me to portray an English gentleman of the great age of
Elizabeth--a gentleman who had a proper pride in his country without
scorning others, and was ever ready to draw his sword chivalrously in
the cause of freedom and justice.
The grandson, Stephen Rudd, professes to have written these stories as
they were told him by his grandfather; but I cannot help suspecting that
he dealt with them somewhat as the parliamentary reporters of the
present day are said to deal with the speeches delivered on the floor of
the House--arranging, giving form and coherence. You can detect in the
style echoes of the prose of Elizabeth's day, but it is on the whole
less coloured, less vigorous, more formal, in the manner of the Caroline
writers; and it has not the unconstraint of a man talking at ease in his
armchair. The events related are separated by wide intervals of time,
and Stephen has filled up the gaps with brief accounts of the course of
public affairs, as well as of the personal history of his grandfather.
In printing these along with Sir Christopher's stories, I have thought
it best, for the sake of uniformity, to modernise the spelling: there
would be no object in perplexing the reader with such antique forms, for
instance, as _beesyde_, _woordes_ and _tunge_.
Sir Christopher's first story plunges at once into an adventure of his
seventeenth year, and it is perhaps advisable to preface it with a few
particulars of his earlier life. He was born, it appears, on July 15,
1571, the son of a country gentleman who owned a manor on the outskirts
of the New Forest. This was the year of the discovery of the Norfolk
plot against the life of Queen Elizabeth, and the opening of a period of
great moment in the history of England and Europe. The boy was six
years old when Drake set sail on his famous voyage to the Pacific; and
during the next few years he must have heard many stirring events talked
about in his father's hall--Alva's persecutions in the Netherlands, the
assassination of the Prince of Orange, the buccaneering exploits of the
English sea-dogs. At the age of twelve he entered William of Wykeham's
great school at Winchester, and we may imagine how eagerly he discussed
with his school fellows such items of exciting news as filtered through
from the greater world. It is not surprising that his imagination was
fired, that the lust of adventure gripped him, and that at last the call
proved irresistible, bringing his schooldays to an abrupt end, and
luring him forth to a career of activity and enterprise.
HERBERT STRANG
*THE FIRST PART*
*CHRISTOPHER RUDD'S ADVENTURE IN
HISPANIOLA, AND THE STRANGE STORY OF
CAPTAIN Q.*
[Illustration: headpiece to First Part]
*I*
I was a lank youth of sixteen years when I fell into the hands of the
Spaniards of Hispaniola--an accident wherein my grandam saw the hand of
Providence chastising a prodigal son; but of that you shall judge.
In the summer of the year 1587, riding from school home by way of
Southampton, I was told there of a brigantine then fitting out, to
convey forth a company of gentlemen adventurers to the Spanish Main in
quest of treasure. Sir Francis Drake had lately come home from spoiling
the Spaniards' ships in the harbour of Cadiz, and the ports of our south
coast were ringing with the tale of his wondrous doings; and I, being
known for a lad of quick blood and gamesome temper, was resolved to go
where Francis Drake had gone aforetime, and gain somewhat of the wealth
then lying open to adventurers bold to pluck the King of Spain's beard.
Wherefore one fine night I stole from my bed-chamber, hied me to the
quay at Southampton, and bestowed myself secretly aboard the good ship
_Elizabeth_.
Of my discovery in the hold, and the cuffs I got, and the probation I
was put to, and my admission thereafter to the company of gentlemen
adventurers, I will say nothing. The _Elizabeth_ made in due time the
coast of Hispaniola, and when Hilary Rawdon, the captain, sent a party
of his crew ashore to fill their water-casks, I must needs accompany
them; 'twas the first land we had touched for two weary months, and I
felt a desperate urgency to stretch my legs. And while we were about
our business, up comes a posse of Spaniards swiftly out of the woods,
and there is a sudden onfall and a sharp tussle, and our party, being
outnumbered three to one, is sore discomfited and utterly put to the
rout, but not until all save myself and another are slain, and I find
myself on my back, with a Spanish bullet in my leg. And you see me now
borne away among the victors, and when I am healed of my wound, I learn
that I am a slave on the lands of a most noble hidalgo of Spain, one Don
Alfonso de Silva de Marabona, and an admiral to boot.
Now I had left home to spoil the Spaniards and with no other intent;
wherefore to toil and sweat under a hot sun on the fields of a Spanish
admiral, however noble, was no whit to my liking. Moreover, Don Alfonso
proved an exceeding hard taskmaster, and bore heavily upon me his
prisoner, a thing that was perhaps no cause for wonder, seeing that of
all who had suffered when Master Drake sacked San Domingo, he had
suffered the most. His mansion had been plundered and burnt; his pride
had been wounded by the despite done to his galleons; and when a
Spaniard is hurt both in pride and in pocket, he is not like to prove
himself a very generous foe. And so I was in a manner the scapegoat for
Master Drake's offences, and had in good sooth to smart for it. My
noble master made no ado about commanding me to be flogged if he were
not content with me; and to rub the juice of lemons, laced with salt and
pepper, into the wounds made by the lash, is a marvellous shrewd way
(though nowise commendable) of fostering penitence and remorse.
But in this unhappy plight I was not left without a friend. One midday,
when I was resting from my toil in the fields, there came to me a spare
and sallow boy, somewhat younger than myself, and spoke courteously to
me in a kind of French, the which I, being by no means without my
rudiments, made shift to understand. I soon perceived that we had a
something in common, namely, a heavy and grievous grudge against Don
Alfonso de Silva de Marabona, the which became a bond of unity betwixt
us. Antonio (so was he named) was nephew to the admiral, and dependent
on him--though his father had been a rich man,--by him, moreover,
treated with great rigour. Ere long I was well acquainted with
Antonio's doleful case. It was eleven years since his father the elder
Antonio had sailed away for Spain, being summoned thither about some
question of law concerning his estates in Castile. He took with him, in
the galleon _San Felipe_, a store of treasure belonging to his brother
the admiral, together with a yet costlier freight for behoof of his
Catholic Majesty of Spain. And there was Antonio, a motherless infant
of four years, left in his uncle's charge, his father purposing to
return for him in the following summer, by the which time he hoped to
have set his affairs in order.
The stormy season of the year was at hand when he departed, and divers
of his friends had warned him against the perils of the long voyage.
But Don Antonio feared the elements less than the French and English
rovers who then infested the seas, and he had indeed chosen this time
advisedly, for that it was little likely to tempt the pirates from their
lairs. It fell out, however, that he had not left port above three days
when a great tempest arose, suddenly, as the manner is in those regions,
and to the wonted terrors of the tornado was added an earthquake, with
fierce rumblings and vast upheavals of the soil, so that the admiral
made great lament about his brother and the wealth he had in charge.
Don Antonio came no more to Hispaniola; the galleon _San Felipe_ was
heard of never more; and his son had remained under the austere
governance of Don Alfonso, who showed him no kindness, but ever seemed
to look upon him as a burthen. When Antonio came to the age of twelve,
he inquired of his uncle whether the estates of his late father would
not one day be his; but the admiral made answer that he had long since
purchased the property from his brother, who had purposed sometime to
quit the island and spend the remnant of his days in Spain.
Such was Antonio's story, as he told it to me. He called his uncle a
fiend; as for me, I called him, in the English manner, Old Marrow-bones;
we both signified one and the same thing--that we held him in loathing
and abhorrence. This was our bond of union, and soon it became our
custom to meet daily and rehearse our woes in consort. Antonio was ever
careful to keep these our meetings secret, since he knew that, coming
perchance to the admiral's ears, they would be deemed a cause of
offence, and be punished, beyond doubt, with many stripes.
But to dub your enemy with opprobrious names brings you no contentment,
and does him no hurt. In no great while I began to consider of some
means whereby I might contrive to slip the leash of my illustrious
master. Having made Antonio swear by all his saints that he would not
betray me, I took counsel with him; indeed, I essayed to persuade the
boy to put all to the hazard, and make his escape with me. But Antonio
could not screw his resolution to this pitch. He was content to throw
himself with right good-will into the perfecting of my plans. And so it
came to pass that one fine day, about sunset, I took French leave (as
the saying is) and set off on my lonely way to liberty. I had nothing
upon me save my garments, and a long machete (so their knives are
called) given me by Antonio; but as Samson slew countless Philistines
with the jawbone of an ass, and David laid Goliath low with a pebble
from the brook; so I, though I did not liken myself to those heroes of
old, yet knew myself to be a fellow-countryman with Francis Drake, and
needed no doughtier ensample to inspire me.
Following Antonio's wise and prudent counsel I set my face towards the
north-west angle of the island, for the reason that, parted from it by
only a narrow strip of sea, there lay the smaller island of Tortuga,
where it was possible that some countrymen of my own might be. Tortuga
had been at some time a settlement of the Spaniards, but they had now
abandoned it, and if an English ship should chance to have put in to
water there, or to burn the barnacles off its hull, I might light upon
the crew and join myself to them, and so bring my tribulations to an
end. And after near a week's trudging--with herbs for my meat and water
from the streams for my drink--I came one day to the further shore of
Hispaniola, and with great gladness beheld the strange hump-backed
island, like a monstrous tortoise floating on the sea, for which cause
it was named Tortuga.
A day or two I spent in roaming to and fro, gazing hungrily seawards for
a ship. And when none appeared, I bethought me that I should certainly
be none the worse conditioned--nay, I might be a great deal the
better--if I should cross to the smaller island and there make my abode.
Having once been the habitation of Christian folk, methought it would
retain some remnants of its former plantations, so that I need not want
for food; and of a surety, with a wider expanse of sea before me, I
should be in better case to spy a passing vessel than if I remained on
Hispaniola. I was minded at first to swim the channel--'twould be no
great feat--but, observing at the water's edge a pair of ground-sharks
lying in wait for a toothsome meal, I gave up this design very readily,
and considered of some safer way.
There were woods growing almost to the shore. To a boy with his mind
set on it, and a sharp knife to his hand, the making of a raft is a task
of no great labour or hardship. 'Twas the work of two days to lop
branches meet for my purpose, strip them, and bind them together with
strands of bejuca, a climbing plant of serviceable sort; and on the
third day I launched my raft, and oared myself across the still water,
being companied by a disappointed shark the better part of the way. I
went ashore in some fear and trembling lest I should meet Spaniards, or
other hostile men; but I saw no sign of present habitation, and wandered
for near a day without lighting on any traces of mankind. But at length
in my course I spied a heap of wood ashes, and some rinds of fruit, and
a little beyond a broken hen-coop, whereby I knew that men sometimes
resorted to the island, as Antonio had said. It came into my mind that
my late companions of the _Elizabeth_ had perchance set foot here no
long while before me, and I felt a great longing to look on them again.
I wondered where they might be, whether they had fought the Spaniards on
the Main and gained great treasure, or whether they had given up their
quest and sailed away for home.
Some days I spent in solitude, never straying far from the coast, lest I
should be out of sight if a ship came near. There was food in
plenty--such is the bounty of Providence in those climes; and of nights
I ensconced myself in a little hut I built of branches in a nook on the
shore.
One evening as I roamed upon the cliff, and with vain longing scanned
the sea, on a sudden I espied, moving among the tree trunks on my right
hand, a patch of red. In great perturbation of spirit I sprang behind a
tree. I had not seen clearly what the object was: it might be a man, it
might be a beast. In the wildernesses about the middle of Hispaniola
there were, I knew, herds of wild dogs and boars, a terror to human
kind; and a fear beset me lest Tortuga also were the haunt of savage
creatures, which might come upon me in the night. Meseemed I must at
the least resolve my doubts, wherefore I went forward stealthily,
bending among creeping plants, skipping from trunk to trunk, straining
my eyes for another glimpse of that patch of red. For some little while
I sought in vain, and I was in a sweat of apprehension lest I should
stumble into danger; but after stalking for near half-an-hour, as I
supposed, of a sudden I saw some moving thing among the trees within a
hundred paces of me. Even as I watched, a quaint and marvellous figure
came forth into a little open space--the form of a man, arrayed from
doublet to shoes in garments of bright red. His head was bare; a rapier
hung at his side; and as I looked he plucked the weapon by the hilts,
and made sundry passes in the air, going from me slowly into the
woodland. Never in my life had I beheld a man so oddly apparelled, and
to find such an one here, on this lone island of Tortuga, set me athrill
with admiration. I deemed that I should have no security of mind until
I had learnt somewhat of this stranger, and whether there were others
with him; wherefore with stealthy steps I followed him into the
woodland, and there, after near losing him, I saw him enter a little hut
set in the midst of a narrow laund. From behind a tree I watched the
red man. He kindled a fire, and I looked for him to cook his supper;
but instead, he laid himself down on a bed of dried grass, so that the
smoke from the fire might be carried by the light wind across him, the
which in a moment I guessed to be his device for warding off the
insects; I had suffered many things from their appetite in the nights I
had slept in the woods of Hispaniola.
Seeing that the red man had composed himself to sleep, I returned
quietly to my hut on the shore, and when I fell asleep dreamed that I
beheld him defending at the rapier's point young Antonio against the
whip of the noble admiral Don Alfonso de Silva de Marabona. I rose with
the sun and stole back to the woodland, in hope to see the man quit his
sleeping-place and to gain some light upon his manner of life and his
doings upon this lone island. But the hut was empty; its inhabitant was
already astir. Not that day nor for several days after did I set eyes
on him again; but one high noon I had a glimpse of him roaming along the
cliff, and while I was following, a great way off, he suddenly vanished
from my sight as 'twere into the earth.
The numbness of terror seized upon me; I stood fixed to the ground,
never doubting (being then but a boy) that 'twas the foul fiend in his
very person who had descended into the bowels of the earth. But
bethinking me that I had discerned no horns upon his head, nor the tail
that was his proper appendage, but, instead, a rapier such as mortal men
use, I plucked up heart to draw nigh to the spot where he had
disappeared. And when I came to it, 'twas not, as I feared, a chasm,
horrid with blue flame and sulphurous fume, but a short, steep path in
the cliff-side.
Gathering my courage, I trod with wary steps until I came to a small
opening in the cliff. And when I had overcome my tearfulness and
ventured to peep in, I was struck with a great amazement, for I beheld a
vast vaulted chamber. There came some little daylight into it through
fissures in its further wall, and when my eyes had grown accustomed to
the twilight, and comprehended the whole space, I saw there, before and
below me, the hull of a galleon, lying somewhat upon its side, with a
little water about its keel. And as I looked, I beheld the red man how
he waded to the vessel, whose side he ascended by a ladder of rope, and
then, having gained the deck, he was no more to be seen.
I stood rooted in amazement. I durst not follow the red man further,
conceiving that in a land where all save Spaniards were intruders, the
odds were that he was of that race, and that to accost him, even to
discover myself to him, might put my life in jeopardy. Besides, the
man's aspect, and my remembrance of the fierceness of his sword-play as
I saw it in my dream, counselled wariness: he was not a man to approach
but with caution. Moreover, I was in presence of a great marvel,
perceiving no means whereby the galleon had come into this vault. Save
for the narrow entrance, and the jagged rents in the walls, the chamber
was wholly enclosed; nor was there any passage whereby so great a vessel
could have been hauled in from the sea.
Perplexed and bewildered, I waited long, but vainly, for the red man to
show himself again. Then, when from sheer weariness and hunger I was in
a mind to return to the cliff, I beheld him rise from below deck,
descend by the ladder, and, again wading through the water, make towards
me. Incontinently and in silence I fled, but halted when I gained the
cliff, and lay hid until the man had come forth and gone his way.
Whereupon I stole back and descended to the floor of the vault, to
quench, if I might, my burning curiosity.
[Illustration: I LAY HID UNTIL THE MAN HAD COME FORTH AND GONE HIS WAY]
I walked about the vessel, and when I came to the stern, I started back,
smitten with stark amazement. Her name was painted in great golden
letters there; I read it: 'twas SAN FELIPE, the name of the galleon
wherein the father of my friend Antonio had sailed from San Domingo
eleven years since, and which had never more been heard of.
I thought of witchcraft, and questioned whether 'twere not the very work
of the devil, for sure no mortal hands had brought the vessel through
solid walls into this rock-bound chamber. But the galleon itself was in
truth a thing of substance; thee were real shells at the brink of the
water; the water itself (when I dipped my finger and licked it) was
salt; beyond doubt the vault had communication with the sea. And even
while I stood there I perceived the water to be rising; 'twas deeper now
than when the man had first waded through it to the vessel. In haste I
made the full circuit of the place, searching for an entrance, but in
vain. Save the fissures letting in the light, there was not a hole
through which a rat might wriggle, nor could I find the passage by which
the water came.
In much perplexity, oppressed by the wonder of it, I left the place by
and by and returned to my hut. But I could not long withhold myself
from the cavern, the which lured and (in a manner) beckoned me by some
strange spell. Next day I came again to it, and did as I had seen the
red man do--to wit, waded through the water and climbed on board. My
feet had scarce touched the deck when I beheld the red form standing in
the narrow entrance at the further end of the vault. Quick as thought I
slipped into hiding on the lofty poop and there kept watch. The man
came aboard and descended by the companion, and a little after I heard
the tinkling of metal. I was drawn as by strong cords to learn what he
was doing, and crept silently as a mouse after him to the cabin. As I
drew near I heard again the clink of metal, and when I came to the door
I beheld the man kneeling before an open chest, gloating over it,
plunging his hands into it, bathing them in the pieces of eight that
filled it to the brim.
[Illustration: I BEHELD THE MAN KNEELING BEFORE AN OPEN CHEST, GLOATING
OVER IT, PLUNGING HIS HANDS INTO IT]
Spellbound, I stood and gazed. This discovery did but deepen the
wonder. I questioned whether this were Antonio's father, who had never
sailed to Spain at all, but by some strange means, belike with the help
of demons, had brought the vessel hither. And then, as I mused, the red
man seemed to become aware by some subtle sense that he was not alone.
Suddenly he turned his head, espied me, sprang to his feet, and,
whipping out his rapier, leapt with a fierce cry towards me. I turned
to flee, being unarmed save for my machete, the which was no match for a
rapier. But I was a thought too late. The red man was upon my heels
ere I could slip overboard, crying out upon me in words which I was too
busy saving my life to heed.
Then began a hot chase round the deck of the galleon, the which might
have continued until the pursuer, being the elder, became exhausted, had
not I espied, in my running, a half-pike lying over against the
bulwarks. This I snatched up, and put myself in a posture of defence.
"Voleur! voleur!" cried the red man, glaring at me; and now I had
certainty he was no Spaniard. We fought, and doubtless I had fared ill
but for my youth and the exercise I had had in this very opposition of
pike against sword upon the voyage in the _Elizabeth_. I was but
sixteen; the Frenchman wore the grave aspect of a man of fifty; and
though he fought as one well practised in the handling of his weapon,
'twas with a stiffness and want of sureness that bespoke disuse.
Yet 'twas a desperate fight. Once and again I came very near to lose my
life, and escaped the Frenchman's point solely by my nimbleness. Twice,
indeed, the weapon found my flesh; there was blood upon my sleeve. And
then came my opportunity. The Frenchman in lunging at me over-reached
himself, and I brought my pike down with all my strength upon his arm.
His rapier fell to the deck, and before he could recover himself I
sprang upon him, and, by a trick of wrestling I had learnt in bouts at
our country fairs, threw him upon his back.
And there were we two, he stretched on the deck, I pinning him down, and
both of us breathing hard, and gazing each into the other's eyes. Then I
spoke in French: what I said I know not; but he smiled, a vacant smile
that made me sorry I had hurt him.
"Thou art one of my children," he said. "How didst thou escape?"
By this, and the strangeness of his smile, I knew that his wits were
wandering, and deemed it best to humour him.
"Yes, one of your children," I made answer, understanding the word
_enfants_ as doubtless he intended, as meaning his company, or crew.
"You were mistaken, sir; and I hope I have not broken your arm."
"It is bruised, not broken," said the man, lifting it and smiling upon
me again. "I do not remember thy name, but thou shalt be my corporal."
"Wherein I am mightily favoured," said I. "Marvellously, too, I have
forgotten your name, mon Capitaine."
"My name!" he said, in manifest puzzlement. "My name!" And then,
smiling once more, he said, "I cannot tell. It is so long, so long
since I heard it. My children called me Captain, but that was before
the storm. I forget many things; my children left me; they were reft
from me by the storm; they died--all but you; and I cannot remember your
name! They called me Captain; and in truth I am Captain, by the choice
and election of the great Conde. Yes, the great Conde made me Captain, a
stripling from Quimperle."
"Captain Q," said I, on the spur of the moment.
He looked puzzled; then the same smile, like the empty smile of a babe,
beamed upon his face, and he said--
"Captain Q; and thou shalt be Corporal R. Is it not so?"
"And so it is," I said. "My name is Rudd; I am an Englishman."
"And we will fight the Spaniards together, shall we not? They must
never get my gold--never!"
"Indeed they shall not!" I replied. "And now let us go out into the
open, and I will bathe your arm at a brook. 'Tis pity we did not
remember each other sooner."
"Ah, but it is such a long time!" said Captain Q.
We went out together, and after I had bathed his arm ('twas bruised from
elbow to wrist) the Captain invited me to his hut, and to a share of his
dinner of herbs.
Such was the strange beginning of a friendship that endured for near
forty years. Though he was by so much my elder, he dealt with me as
though I had been his brother. We roamed the shore together, together
fished and snared animals in the woods, and would have shared the same
lodging but that I preferred to keep my little hut on the shore, where I
had fresher air and was within close call of any ship that should chance
to pass in the night. Little by little I pieced together the story of
the rock-girt galleon and of Captain Q. He could not talk in orderly
sequence for long together, but whatsoever the subject of our discourse,
he would break off to prattle of his childhood in the little village of
Quimperle, and of his youth and manhood to the time when destiny brought
him to Tortuga. He was a Huguenot, and had fought under Conde at St.
Denis, and under Admiral Coligny at Jarnac. After the dread day of St.
Bartholomew he fled from France, and became a corsair in his own vessel,
haunting the coasts of the Spanish Main. One day he fell in with the
galleon _San Felipe_, and took it after a long fight. His own ship
being small, he put his crew aboard the galleon, and the crew and
company of the galleon upon his ship, and then sailed away for Tortuga,
designing to land there and divide the spoil. And his little vessel,
with the Spaniards on board, had gone down before his very eyes, having
received sore damage in the action.
Before the _San Felipe_ made Tortuga she was caught in a great storm,
which swept upon her suddenly and sent her masts by the board. During a
lull she was warped into a cove on the Tortuga coast, and there
refitted. Then, as she was being towed out, all hands busy in the work,
the sea was cast up by a great earthquake; the cliffs on either hand
were upheaved and flung sheer upon the vessel, killing outright every
man upon it and in the boats save only the Captain and two or three
beside. The Captain was struck on the head by a fragment of rock, and
thrown senseless to the deck. (And here, as he told the story, he
lifted his long, grizzling locks and showed a great seam upon his
skull.) When he came to himself all was at first mere blankness to him.
He got upon his feet, lost in amaze to behold the galleon encompassed by
a vault of rock, and tended the few men that had survived the cataclysm,
but they lingered for a little and then all died, leaving him alone.
Little by little the past came back to him, and he was not aware of any
change in himself save that his memory played him tricks. But I
perceived that the shock and the blow on the head had done his
intellects more harm than he knew. He had long fits of silence, wherein
he would sit and gaze vacantly out to sea, or would march with drawn
sword into the woodland, seeking an enemy that had come to steal his
gold. Other whiles he would weave baskets of grass, humming little
songs, or babbling in the manner of children. He never ceased to regard
me as one of his whilom crew, and in my pity I said nought to undeceive
him.
He knew not how long he had dwelt upon the island. I asked him whether
he had been alone all the time, and why he had not discovered himself to
the French and English pirates who had doubtless sometimes come ashore.
He smiled cunningly, and said, "Could I trust them? They were not my
friends. Say that I told them of the ship, and the great treasure it
contained, think you they would not have desired it for their own, and
taken it from me, and left me poor? I trusted La Noue" (his thoughts
were straying to his youth and the siege of La Rochelle): "all men
trusted him. He was saved at Jarnac."
And then he fell a-musing. At another time he told me that he had been
minded once to join a party that had landed, telling them nothing, with
intent to return at some convenient season for his treasure. But he
feared lest during his absence it should be discovered, and he might
return only to find that the vessel had been stripped bare. The
treasure was the sole thing he clung to; he could not bring himself to
part from it even for a day; once a day at the least he descended into
the cabin and feasted his eyes on the great store of gold and jewels.
He had become a miser. And so he carefully shunned such men as had come
ashore; and once he had been near to starving, when a crew encamped
beneath the cliff wherein was the entrance to his cavern, and remained
there for several days, he not daring to issue forth for food, lest he
should be seen.
I marvelled often that the Captain never showed any distrust of me. He
took me often into the cabin, and sometimes set me to count the money
piece by piece, and to display the jewels on the lids of the chests.
Indeed, he took, methought, a childish pleasure in thus exhibiting his
wealth, and when the precious things were all set in array before him,
he would gaze from them to me with a simple pride and contentation which
I found infinitely moving.
*II*
Thus many days passed. I looked often out to sea for a friendly ship,
but none touched on the island, and those that sailed by were Spanish
built, and I durst not hail them.
One night a great storm arose. Rain fell in floods, thunder roared all
around, the sky was by moments ablaze with lightning such as I had never
seen. Driven from my hut, I wended my way toilsomely through the
blinding torrents to the cavern, and took shelter for the remainder of
the night with Captain Q on board the galleon. Towards morning the fury
of the storm abated, but the wind was still high, and when we left our
refuge and stood on the cliff, so that the sunbeams might dry our
drenched garments, we espied a ship fast on the rocks a little distance
from shore. The sea was tempestuous: mighty waves smote and battered
upon the vessel, and I perceived very clearly that she was fast going to
pieces.
While we stood watching, and pitying the poor wights gathered upon deck,
a man sprang overboard with a rope, and struck out for the land, the
waves buffeting him sorely, dashing over him, so that many times he
seemed to have sunk to the bottom. Stirred by the spectacle, the
Captain put off his caution and timorousness, and stepped forth from
behind the rock where hitherto he had stood at gaze. His red garb
flashed upon the eye of the swimmer, and methought I heard a despairing
cry for help. On the instant I ran down to the shore, with Captain Q at
my side. Half witless as he was in general, the Captain had all his
faculties at this moment of great need. With me he plunged to his waist
into the sea, with no less calmness than a man might wade a brook, and
caught the swimmer as he was on the point of sinking. And as we hauled
him safe ashore, I lifted my voice in a shout of joy: for the
half-drowned seaman was none other than Richard Ball, boatswain of my
own ship, the _Elizabeth_.
[Illustration: HE CAUGHT THE SWIMMER AS HE WAS ON THE POINT OF SINKING]
"Why, Dick, man," I cried, "'tis you!"
"God bless 'ee!" panted the man, and then, unable to speak more, he
pointed to the wreck, and seemed to urge that something should be done
for his messmates there.
And now Captain Q once more showed the mettle of a man. Catching up the
rope that was looped about the boatswain's body, he called to me to help
him to lash it about a rock; and when this was done, the crew and the
adventurers came along it one by one, hand over hand, from the vessel,
until all, to the number of thirty-seven, were safe on shore. Joyously
I greeted them, calling each man by name. Hilary Rawdon, the captain,
came the last; and he had but set his feet upon the strand when the
hapless vessel fell apart, and was swept away upon the waves.
Groans and cries of lamentation broke from the shipwrecked mariners;
their grief at the loss of their vessel for a time outweighed all
thankfulness for their escape from death. But Hilary clapped me on the
back, and wrung my hand, and cried--
"Gramercy, lad, but 'tis good to see thee once again. Verily I believed
thee dead, and what was I to say to thy good folk at home?"
And then we fell a-talking eagerly, and the other adventurers flocked
about us, desiring to know what had befallen me since the day when I
went ashore on Hispaniola and returned not. And I was so rapt with joy
at the sight of my friends that I laughed, and for sheer gladness
greeted them again by name--"Tom Hawke, old friend!" and "Harry Loveday,
my bawcock!"--and was so possessed by my ecstasy that I forgot Captain Q
until Hilary recalled me to the present with a question--
"And who is our blood-red friend, old lad?"
I swung myself about. The Frenchman was gone.
"'Tis Captain Q," I said, and was about to tell more, when I caught
myself up, in doubt of what the Captain would say if his secret were
disclosed. Having trusted me, peradventure he would deem himself
betrayed if I should make any revelation. 'Twas borne upon me that I
must needs consult with him before telling any whit of his story.
"Methinks your Captain Kew is of a backward disposition, seeing that he
hath departed without our thanks," said Hilary. "We must e'en go after
him, my lad. But let us hear all that hath happed to thee since we gave
thee up for dead."
I told how I was taken prisoner, and of my captivity and servitude under
Don Alfonso de Silva de Marabona, and Tom Hawke, in his boyish way,
instantly caught at the name, and wished he might live to pluck Old
Marrow-bones by the beard. Then I told of my escape and journey to
Tortuga, where I had been, as I guessed, a matter of a month.
"And your Captain Kew, what of him?" asked Hilary. "Is he of the Kews
of Ditchingham, and how came he here?"
And I saw that the secret must come out. If I did not myself tell it,
my friends would certainly not rest until they had discovered it for
themselves, and 'twas not unlike that Captain Q would fare very ill at
their hands, and lose all the treasure whereby he set such store.
Better that his story should be told by one who had fellow-feeling for
him than that all should be left to chance. So I took Hilary Rawdon
aside and acquainted him with my discoveries.
"Why, 'tis he that is the thief," cried Hilary when he had heard all.
"We have as good a right to the treasure as he."
"Some of it belongs by right to Antonio de Marabona, whom his uncle has
defrauded," I replied.
"Tuts, lad, in this part of the world it belongs to them that can take
it. Did we not sail hither, I ask you, in quest of treasure? Have we
not lost men and suffered shipwreck in this very adventure against the
Queen's enemies? Should we not have captured this very galleon had we
come but eleven years ago? Is not your answer 'Yes,' and 'Yes,' and
'Yes'?"
He looked at me with triumph. Certainly there was no gainsaying his
reasoning, though the third of his questions had a smack of
inconsequence that bid for laughter. But I made a condition, as seemed
to me just.
"Give me your word," I said, "that Captain Q shall suffer no hurt, and
shall have a fair share of the treasure. As for Antonio, I fear me he
must suffer for having been born a Spaniard."
"He is no worse off than he was," said Hilary. "The galleon, as he
believes, lies at the bottom of the sea; and I trow if you returned to
him, and brought him here, and restored to him what was once his, Tom
Hawke or Harry Loveday, or one of the mariners, would incontinently
knock him on the head (being a Spaniard), and all be as before. And as
for Captain Q, 'tis the fortune of war, my lad; we take from him what he
himself took."
"Yet 'tis by his help that you, and Tom Hawke, and Harry Loveday, and
all the mariners, are this moment alive," I said.
"True, old lad," said he, "and we must not forget it. But come, let us
wend to this wondrous vault of his, and see with our own eyes the marvel
you tell us of."
With us we took only Hawke and Loveday, leaving the mariners to their
devices. This was at my wish, for I feared lest the men, if they in
their present distress should learn of rich treasure so close at hand,
should forget gratitude and discipline, and leap like hungry wolves upon
their prey. They were good seamen, and honest souls withal, but lawless
and ill-taught, and possessed with a marvellous scorn of men of other
race. And now they stood upon the beach and bemoaned their fate, and
cursed the day when they sailed out of Southampton on this ill-starred
and bootless quest.
We four went on to the cavern. Captain Q seemed to have expected us,
for when we came to the entrance, there was he, sword in hand, ready to
dispute our advance. Tom Hawke, a wild young spirit, was for rushing
upon him there and then, and beating him down by main force, and indeed
he stepped forward to cross swords with the Frenchman. But I could not
endure that my friend should be dealt with thus, and calling Tom Hawke
back (who indeed already repented of his discourtesy), I proposed that
we should humour the Frenchman--call him Captain, place ourselves at his
orders, and promise to attempt to make a passage for the vessel, so that
he might once more sail the seas with a merry crew.
"I'faith, a right excellent conceit!" cried Hilary. "I salute you,
Captain Q," he added, with a profound bow. "Unfold to him our purpose,
Kitt."
And I went before them and spoke to the Captain, and when he understood
he smiled with pleasure, dropped his point, and, with a commanding
gesture that mightily became him, bade us bring up his new company to
set about the work.
"Oui, certainement, mon Capitaine," said Hilary; and when by and by the
men, in sober mood, came up, and the matter was put to them, "Ay, ay,
sir," cried Richard Ball, the boatswain; "Ay, ay, sir," the men chimed
in, and the Captain led us into the cavern.
Cries of astonishment broke from the men's lips when they saw that
miracle of Nature, and of admiration as they walked around about the
galleon and marked her noble lines.
"A rare craft indeed!" said Hilary. "She is worth a fortune to us,
Kitt, even without the treasure she contains. And that same treasure,
my lad--I yearn to dip my fingers into it."
"Wait; let me bargain with Captain Q," I said, and I followed the
Frenchman up the ladder to the deck, and stood long in talk with him.
When I returned to my friends I told them that the Captain was willing
to share a great portion of his gold among them, if they would bring the
vessel to the sea and rig her for a voyage.
"Vive le Capitaine Q!" cried Hilary, and the whole company broke forth
into lusty cheers. The Captain's eyes gleamed with pleasure; he called
them his children, vowing to lead them a-roving and do great despite
upon the Spaniards. But his face darkened when Hilary offered to mount
on board and inspect the treasure.
"No, no," he cried; "that is for none to see but my corporal."
And I persuaded my friends to accept the denial for the time, and to
accompany me in a circuit of the cavern to find a spot where a passage
might be made to the sea.
The fore-part of the cavern, towards the cliff, was much encumbered with
fragments of rock, large and small. The sides were of rock; if the
fore-wall was of rock also, 'twas clear that with all the tools we had
at hand--pikes and belaying-pins, and such-like gear--'twould be
impossible to open a passage. With gunpowder we might have blasted the
rock but for the water which flowed in at every tide, and so shut us
from access to the lower part of the wall. But if this were of earth,
the task was one that could be compassed with time and patience. 'Twas
our first concern to discover the thickness of the wall, and to this end
Richard Ball clambered on to the loftiest of the rocky fragments, and
another man mounted upon his shoulders, so that he might reach to one of
the narrow fissures that let the daylight in. And then, by passing a
pike through it, he proved by the report of a man without that the wall
was no more than six feet thick.
Next, our task was to remove a number of rocks that lay without like a
natural rampart about the base of the cliff, and were washed by a strong
current. Ropes, whereof the galleon held a plenty, were fixed about
them, and by dint of much hauling, the rocks were displaced one by one,
and being removed, the sea entered the cavern more freely, though 'twas
clear that the water in it would never be of depth enough to float the
galleon.
As soon as the tide was gone down, we essayed to pierce a hole through
the wall a little above the water level. To our great joy, we found
that this portion of the wall was of earth, and before the tide rose
again the men had cut a narrow tunnel through to the base of the cliff.
It being night by the time this was done, the men made for themselves
beds of grass and leaves upon the skirts of the woodland, being divided
into watches as on board ship.
With morning light we took up our task again. We perceived that the ebb
tide had carried away a great deal of the loose earth, and so made the
tunnel wider. The men toiled all day by companies, increasing the
passage both in width and height, the sides and roof being shored up
with timber from the woods against a fall of earth from above. Captain
Q watched the labour with a childish curiosity, and, in pursuance of my
plan of humouring him, I now and then prompted him with commands to give
the men, and they responded with obsequious and cheerful cries of "Ay,
ay, sir," winking to each other the while.
So the work went on, day after day, until an opening had been made of
width enough for the passage of the galleon. There was a danger now
lest it might be espied from a passing ship, the which to prevent, the
men brought down great armfuls of brushwood from above, and arranged
them to form a screen. A sentinel was posted at a point on the rising
ground behind the cliff to give warning of any vessel that should
approach. While some of the men had been employed at the hole, others,
the more skilful of the crew, were set to work to caulk the seams of the
galleon, to fell trees for new masts and spars, and to repair the sails
which were found on board. By the time this was accomplished, nought
remained but to dislodge the rocks that still choked the passage-way
from the cavern. Some of these were so large as to require the labour
of our whole company to remove them. We had hauled away many and laid
them at the foot of the cliff, when one day, a week or more after the
beginning of the work, the sentinel gave out that he saw two vessels
beating up against the wind towards the island.
"Maybe they are the Spaniards that were in chase of us when we were
wrecked," said Hilary. "'Tis not unlike they have come to see what has
become of us. Mayhap they saw us run aground, and I doubt not would
have been here before but that the wind has been too strong against them
all this while."
Our whole company being gathered in the cavern, arms were served out to
the men from the galleon's armoury in case the Spaniards should land.
The news of their coming wrought marvellously upon Captain Q. He
sharpened his sword, donned a breastplate, and told the men, with great
exaltation of spirit, that the moment was at hand when we should rove
the seas and deal doughtily with our enemies.