the _San Felipe_. And then, all things being ready, the _Bonaventura_
cast off and made sail, beating up against the wind as she retraced the
course we had followed before.
The sun was rising as she came out into the open sea beyond the
south-eastern corner of the island. 'Twas Hilary's design to set a
straight course for England.
"There is treasure enough aboard," he said, "and did we essay to gain
more we might lose what we have. Remember the dog in the fable; let us
not lose the substance by grasping at the shadow."
"I fear me we shall have trouble with Captain Q," I said. "His mind is
set on taking up his old trade of corsair, and he will not readily quit
these haunts of the sea-rovers."
"Then he will e'en be a Jonah, and we had best cast him at once
overboard," cried Tom Hawke.
"Nay, let us leave him to Kitt," said Hilary. "Mind ye how Kitt wrought
upon us with his tongue when we discovered him in the hold? Kitt shall
be our ambassador."
As we made the north-eastern corner of the island we espied, far away to
the west, two Spanish galleons making what speed they could against the
wind, and, we doubted not, coming in chase of us. At sight of them
Captain Q was beset by a great excitement, and called upon our master to
heave-to and await the villain Dons.
"Ay, ay, sir," was the ready reply. But seeing that the moment was now
come when I must employ my best arts to bring him to accord with us
(and, for all that Hilary had said, I had no great faith in my tongue's
persuasiveness), I led him apart, and by degrees brought him to an
understanding of the resolution to which we had come. 'Twas for some
time a question whether the Captain's passion for fight or his avarice
would get the better of it in his unstable mind, but the balance turned
in our favour when I took him down into the cabin, and, pointing to the
treasure-chests, asked him whether he could endure to risk the loss of
things so precious. He stood in deep thought for a while; then, heaving
a great sigh, he yielded.
All that day the Spaniards continued to hold us in chase, and when with
the veering of the wind they gained somewhat upon us, I marked how the
eyes of Captain Q lit up as it seemed that we must fight in our own
despite. But they dropped away again, and at nightfall were hull down
upon the sea-line, and when next morning's sun arose they were nowhere
to be seen.
From that time the Captain fell into a settled melancholy. 'Twould seem
that the sudden changes that were come about in his life, after eleven
years of solitude, had put a strain upon his already enfeebled intellect
'twas unable to bear. He sat for long hours on deck, gazing towards the
shores he would never see again, silent, taking no heed of us or of
aught that happened around him. Nay, he ceased to watch over his
treasure with the same jealousy, and when Hilary and the other
adventurers could no longer curb their impatience, but demanded to see
the wealth which they were to share, he consented, with a wan and feeble
smile. We opened the chests in his presence, only Hilary, Tom Hawke,
and I being there with him.
[Illustration: WE OPENED THE CHESTS IN HIS PRESENCE]
My report had prepared my friends to see gold and jewels of great price,
but they were none the less amazed beyond measure when the contents of
the chests were displayed before them. One, the property of Don Alfonso
de Silva de Marabona (his name was writ in full upon the cover), held
enough to make us all rich beyond our dreams. The other, consigned to
his Catholic Majesty King Philip himself, was filled with rare gems, the
value whereof we could not so much as guess. "By my beard, Kitt," cried
Hilary, "'twas a rarely kind fate that sent thee as slave to thy Admiral
Marrow-bones. We might have roved the seas full ten years without
getting a tithe of this treasure."
"And it vexes me sorely to think that my friend Antonio can profit
nothing by it," said I.
"Reck nothing of him," cried Tom Hawke. "What does that little chest of
thine contain? Let us see, old lad."
"'Tis only papers, as Captain Q told me," said I, looking for
confirmation at the Captain, who, however, sat listless and inattentive
in his chair.
"Well, let us see them," said Hilary. "Maybe they will give us the true
value of this store of gems."
We opened the chest, and Tom Hawke sniffed and hemmed when he saw that
it held indeed nought but a few documents, somewhat mildewed and yellow.
They were all writ in the Spanish tongue, not one of us could read them;
and though Richard Ball had some skill in speaking the language, he
confessed when I asked him that he could not even read his own native
English, and so was not like to be of service here. We laid the
parchments again in the chest, I promising myself that when we came to
port I would have them overlooked by some one who was well acquainted
with the language of Castile.
The _Bonaventura_ made quick sailing, and we had fair weather until we
came off the Azores, where we suffered a heavy buffeting from a storm.
Somewhat battered, our galleon sailed into Southampton Water one day in
March of 1588. Captain Q had aged ten years in his aspect during the
two months' voyage. He rarely broke his silence, yielded with a patient
smile to my least suggestion, and seemed even to have forgotten the
treasure which had once been so dear to him. When it came to be
divided, a tenth share was set apart by general consent for the poor
witless gentleman, and being well placed through the offices of an
attorney of our town, the Captain might live in his own house and enjoy
great comfort for the rest of his days. One-third was apportioned among
the mariners, every man of them becoming possessor of means sufficient
to keep him luxuriously for his rank and condition. An eighth was
allotted to me, and the remainder parted out among Hilary and his
fellow-adventurers.
As soon as might be I placed the documents from my chest in the hands of
a man well skilled in the Spanish tongue. And then to my great joy
'twas proved that one of them had a vast importance for my friend
Antonio. The story told him by the admiral, his uncle, was false. Don
Antonio, so far from having sold his estates in Hispaniola to his
brother, had in fact purchased the admiral's estates; the document in
question was a conveyance drawn up in due form according to the law of
Spain. Having learnt this, I was hot set to have the document conveyed
to Antonio, so that the wrong he had suffered might be undone. It may
well be conceived that, in that year when the great Armada was being
fitted out against us, there was no communication between us and Spain,
and if I had waited until the two nations were reconciled, 'tis like
that the admiral would have enjoyed his ill-got wealth for long years
undisturbed. But I found means, through some excellent friends, to
dispatch the document to Don Antonio's lawyers in Madrid (their name
being writ upon it) by way of Paris; and many years afterwards, when I
had a humble place at her Majesty's court, I learnt through the Spanish
ambassador that right had been done.
Eighteen years ago, when I journeyed to Madrid for behoof of Prince
Charles, there seeking a bride, ('twas on my return that King James made
me a knight), I found my old friend Antonio a grandee of Spain, and a
very stout and (I must own) pompous gentleman. He did not recognise me:
indeed, 'twas not to be expected that he should, seeing that when he had
known me my cheeks were as smooth as the palm of your hand, and the hair
of my head thick and strong; whereas now I am bearded like the pard (as
Will Shakespeare says), and my locks, alas! are sparse and grizzled.
But when I made myself known to him he clipped me by the hand, and
thanked me with exceeding warmth for what I had been able to do for his
good. Moreover, he told me that his own uncle Don Alfonso had been
aboard the foremost galleon of those two that stood in chase of us when
we sailed away that day from Tortuga. The noble admiral was cast into a
wondrous amazement when he came upon the _San Felipe_, the which had
been so long lost, and lived ever after in a constant dread lest his
ill-doing should be brought to light. This wrought so heavily upon his
mind that it became disordered, and when the full tale of his crime was
brought in due time from Spain he sank into a dotage and shortly after
died. Don Antonio was pleased to give me, in remembrance of our ancient
friendship, a signet ring which had been his father's, and I have it in
my cabinet, not caring overmuch to wear such gauds.
As for Captain Q, he dwelt for many a year in the house we bought for
him at Bitterne, across the river. I saw him often; his wits were quite
gone, poor gentleman! and he remembered nothing of the strange
happenings that brought us together. 'Tis forty years and more since I
made a journey to the little village of Quimperle in Brittany, in hope
that I might discover somewhat of the family of one who must have been a
notable figure there in his youth. 'Twas a bootless quest. Some of the
more ancient inhabitants remembered a young Huguenot named Marcel de
Monteray who had fought in the wars of religion, and had been, 'twas
said, a captain in the army of Conde; but he had never returned to his
native place, and all his kinsfolk were long since dead. Whether Marcel
de Monteray and Captain Q were the same person I do not know, and never
shall. When I spoke the name in the Captain's hearing it brought
nothing to his remembrance. To all Southampton, as to me, he was ever a
mysterious personage. As Captain Q he lived, and when his time came to
die (and he was then of a very great age), as Captain Q he was buried.
[Illustration: tailpiece to First Part]
*Interim*
My grandfather told me that upon his return, after near a year's
absence, his parents' joy was such that they forbore to upbraid and
scold him; indeed, they killed for him the fatted calf, as it were, and
made much of him. His father was for putting him again to school, but
he protested that he had had enough of schooling, and desired nothing
more than to follow a man's vocation. Thereto his father consented,
provided he first kept a term or two at one of the Inns of Court, and
learnt so much of law as would suffice for a justice of the peace when
he should have come to man's estate.
It was in the summer after his return that the great fleet upon which
the King of Spain had spent so much pains and treasure came at last to
invade our shores; and my grandfather, being then at home, hied him to
Southampton, to learn the course of its progress. He watched enviously
the English vessels sail out from the haven, even the smacks and
shallops being filled with young lads and gentlemen of the county eager
to bear their part in the fray, or at the least to witness the unequal
combat between the cumbersome great vessels of the Spaniards and the
light, nimble ships that my Lord Howard commanded, with his lieutenants
Drake and Hawkins and Frobisher and the rest. To serve with those great
seamen was not permitted him, but he accompanied Sir George Carey when
he ran out in a pinnace on the night of July 24, and found himself, as
he wrote, "in the midst of round shot, flying as thick as musket-balls
in a skirmish on land." But for the strict command of his father,
doubtless he would have followed the Armada up the Channel, and beheld
how it was stung and chevied, and finally discomfited in the Calais
roads.
About twelve months thereafter, claiming the fulfilment of his father's
promise, he joined himself to the company that his friend and captain
Hilary Rawdon was raising for service under King Henry of Navarre, whose
fortunes were at that time at a turning point. King Henry III, his
cousin, had fallen to the assassin's knife, and Henry of Navarre should
then have ascended the throne of France; but he was of the Huguenot
party, and the Catholic League was bent upon crushing the Huguenots and
excluding Henry from the enjoyment of his heritage. The army of the
League, commanded by the Duke of Mayenne, held Paris; and Henry,
desiring to put an end to the religious struggle that rent France
asunder, and to make himself master of a united kingdom, saw himself
constrained to fight for his crown. His army was choice and sound, but
small, and in his extremity he sought the help of Queen Elizabeth, who
sent him aid in money and men, and permitted gentlemen to enlist
voluntarily under his flag. Many flocked to him, both as upholding his
rightful cause, and from the love of adventure, and hatred of the
Spaniards, with whom the Leaguers were in alliance. At that time my
grandfather, his age being but eighteen, was moved rather by the latter
considerations than by the former, though in after years the justice of
a cause held ever the foremost place in his mind.
Henry of Navarre had broken up the siege of Paris and withdrawn with his
army into Normandy, hoping thereby to tempt the Duke of Mayenne to
follow him, and so enforce him to a decisive battle. Mayenne, on his
side, issuing forth from the city, had sworn to drive the Bearnais into
the sea, or to bring him back in chains. Such was the posture of
affairs when that adventure befell my grandfather which I set down as he
told it me, as now follows.
*THE SECOND PART*
*CHRISTOPHER RUDD'S ADVENTURE IN FRANCE,
AND HIS BORROWING OF THE WHITE PLUME
OF HENRY OF NAVARRE*
[Illustration: headpiece to Second Part]
*I*
When I survey the backward of my life, and con over its accidents and
adventures, my thoughts are drawn as by a magnet to one point of
time--the moment when, through mirk and darkness, benighted in a strange
place, I saw the glimmer of a light.
'Twas as foul a night as ever I saw: the sky black as Erebus; the wind
howling like unnumbered poor lost souls; the rain, that smote me full in
the face as I rode, stinging my flesh as each particular drop were a
barb of fire. I pulled my cloak about me, and bent low over the pommel,
to gain some shelter from the storm; but little comfort had I thereby,
for the rain beat in betwixt my neck and the collar, and, moreover, my
horse's hoofs cast up a plentiful bespattering of mud from the sodden
road.
My outer man being thus discommoded, I was yet more ill at ease in my
mind, for I had some little while suspected, and was now assured, that I
had lost my way. I had ridden that road but once before, when I made
one of Hilary Rawdon's troop that he took from Dieppe on outpost duty to
St Jacques. By this time, according to my recollection, I should have
come to the Bethune river, by whose bank the road runs nearly straight
to Arques; but having met with some hindrance in my journey, night had
overtaken me or ever I was aware, and with the darkness came the sudden
bursting of the storm. What with the one and the other I could not
doubt that I had strayed into one of the by-roads about Dampierre, and
was now as helpless as a mariner without compass or glimpse of star.
I was musing how best to escape out of this pother when, on a sudden
lifting of my head, I saw upon my left hand, level with my eyes, the
blurred twinkle of the light. With a muttered benediction I turned my
horse's head towards it, resolved, whether it shone from prince's
mansion or shepherd's cot, to beg shelter there until the fury of the
storm was abated. But I had not ridden above five yards before I found
myself checked by a quickset hedge, the which made me to dismount and
lead my horse up and down, seeking for some gate or gap whereby I might
approach the light. Within a little my groping hand taught me that the
hedge was neighbour to a low wall, and searching further, I knew that
the wall was ruinous, the top being ragged and uneven where bricks or
stones had fallen away. Then, touching a gatepost, and so learning that
the gate was removed, I was on the point of leading my horse through the
gap when my good genius whispered a hint of caution. Hilary Rawdon had
dispatched me back on an errand of moment to the King; I should prove
but a sorry messenger if, for my comfort's sake, I ran into any peril;
'twas meet that I should first find out what manner of house this was;
for all I could tell, it might harbour an enemy. With this thought I
led my horse across the lane ('twas no more), and coming after a few
paces to a clump of trees, I hitched his bridle to a bough, took a
pistol from the holster, and made my way afoot through the mire towards
the beacon light.
The mud lay very thick, and there were besides many obstacles in the
path, whereon I stumbled, being unable to see them for the darkness.
Nevertheless, I picked my way among them as well as I could, holding my
sword close lest it should clash upon a stone, and so came to the house,
the which I perceived now to be of a good largeness. The ray shone
through a chink in the shutter of a window some few feet above my head.
The door was at my left hand, at the top of a flight of steps. Being
resolved not to seek admittance until I had learnt somewhat of the
inmates, I clambered upon the window-sill, the which being very wide
gave me good foothold, and setting my eyes to the chink, I peered into
the room.
My eyes were at first dazzled, from so long being in the dark; but
within a little I saw two men seated at a table, between me and the
light, the which came from two large candles set close together. Their
backs were towards me, so that I could not tell with any certainty what
manner of men they were; but from their shape I judged them not to be of
the labouring kind; and indeed the room, so much of it as I could see,
the chink in the shutter being but narrow, appeared to be an apartment
of some splendour.
Now I had been sent by Hilary Rawdon to let King Henry know that the
Duke of Mayenne was moving towards him from the eastward with a great
army, without doubt intending to give him battle, word having been
brought to St Jacques by a peasant that the duke was no more than forty
miles away. The house whereto I had come could not be above four or
five miles from the King's camp at Arques, wherefore it might be
supposed that these men were friends of the King. Yet it crossed my
mind that they might peradventure be Leaguers, and while I was in any
uncertainty I durst not seek shelter with them, nor could I with any
conscience proceed on my way. It behoved me, therefore, to make some
further discovery, if that were possible, and having no satisfaction in
what I had seen, I descended from my perch, and treading very warily,
crept along the wall at my right hand, purposing to make the circuit of
the house, in the hope to learn something more. By good hap the rain had
now ceased, the sky was clearing, and, the month being August, the
darkness was not so deep as heretofore; indeed, the stars were now
visible, and there was a lightness that seemed to foretell the rising of
the moon.
The house was all in darkness, save where I had seen the light. When I
came to the corner I saw a smaller building some dozen rods apart, and
there, as I passed it, I heard the sound of horses drawing their
halters, whereby I guessed it to be the stables. And I perceived now
many signs of disorder in the garden--statues overthrown and broken,
fragments of wood and porcelain, and other things which led me to
believe that the house had lately been put to the sack, and made me go
with the more caution. Stealing through the garden to the back of the
house, I found a door, which, when I pushed it, yielded an inch or two,
but no more, by reason of some barricade behind. A little beyond it,
however, I came to a window hanging loose upon its hinges; and after I
had waited a moment to be sure that I was neither seen nor heard, I
squeezed my body through, and entered a small room which, when my eyes
became accustomed to the dimness, I perceived to be empty. There was a
door at the left hand. Holding my sword under my arm, I drew my dagger,
and crept across the room to the door, which, when I came to it, I found
to be ajar. I pulled it towards me, desisting for a moment when it
creaked, and listening, with a fear that the sound might have been
heard. But there was nothing to alarm me, and having opened the door
just so wide as that I might pass through, I came out into a long wide
hall, which I could not doubt led to the chief entrance.
Here I paused, as well to recover breath--for my excitement had winded
me--as to listen again. From my right came the low rumble of voices,
and in an interval of silence I heard on my left hand, towards the main
entrance, as I guessed, the sound of deep breathing as of a man asleep.
Though the storm had ceased, there was still a slight moaning of the
wind as its gusts took the eaves, and trusting to this to shroud my
movements, I crept along the passage in the direction whence I had heard
the voices, which came more clearly to my ear, yet muffled, as I
advanced. Thus I arrived at a door on my left hand, and perceiving this
to be open, I entered very stealthily, and saw that I was in a large and
lofty chamber divided in two by a curtain.
I heard the voices yet more clearly now, but not distinctly, so that I
could not catch the words. There were one or two shafts of light coming
through the curtain, which when I ventured to draw near to it I found to
be old and torn. Peeping through a rent that was just below the level
of my head, I saw, not two men, but four, seated at the table, all
masked, and wearing, as I perceived in the case of the two men whose
faces were towards me, their cloaks being thrown back, the cuirasses of
men of war. I listened very eagerly, to catch something of their
discourse, but they were at a good distance from me, and spoke in low
tones, so that I heard but a word here and there, and could not by any
means piece them together. This irked me not a little, but I durst not
part the curtain, for then I should have been in full view of the men on
the further side of the table, whose backs I had seen when I peeped
through the shutter; and I was troubled, also, by having, as it were, to
strain one ear towards them and the other towards the man at the end of
the hall, who might wake at any moment and, for all I knew, come to this
very room. So in much impatience and fearfulness I listened, and went
hot and cold when I caught the word "Bearnais," for that was the name by
which the Leaguers called the King, and I had reason to suspect by this
that these men were no friends of his. And by and by I heard other
names, "Rosny" and "Biron," the King's friends, and then all again
became confused, until one of the two that had their faces from me leant
back in his chair, lifting his arms above his head as if to stretch
himself, and said very clearly, and yet without raising his voice: "It
were easy to snare the game, but the keepers are wary."
While I was still wondering what these words might mean, and vague
surmise was making me uneasy, I heard very faintly the neighing of a
horse, and a moment afterwards an answering whinny, but this much
louder. The men had given over talking, and he that had last spoken
still lay back in his chair, with his hands clasped behind his head, and
so he remained while a man might count ten. Then of a sudden he
straightened himself, flinging his hands apart, and leant across the
table, and said: "The second horse is in the open." The men over
against him looked at each other, their eyes glittering strangely
through the masks, and I waited to see no more, for I could not doubt
that the second horse was my own, and it was time for me to go. As
quickly as I might, yet with great quietness, I stepped across the room
towards the door, and had but just got myself out into the hall when I
heard the grating sound of chairs pushed back as when men rise in a
hurry, and saw a light flash through the doorway as the curtain was
parted. With my heart in my mouth I fled on tiptoe along the hall and
into the room I had first entered, and had not even time to close the
door behind me when the men passed, their spurs ringing as they trod. I
heard them come to the great door, and one of them kick the sleeping
sentry, and then the door was thrown open with a mighty creaking, and I
knew that they were betwixt me and my horse.