my eyes I saw Captain Badillo standing in the door betwixt the
guard-room and his own apartment, and gazing at us in the manner of one
bereft of his wits. I left trussing my fellow and sprang towards the
captain, whom I caught by the scruff of his neck, and, showing him my
dagger, bade him hold his peace on peril of his life. At that same
conjuncture some one cried that the cookmen were crossing the outer
court, bearing hugeous baskets of biscuit and great two-handed caldrons
of meagre broth, as they were wont to do at this time. Extremity, I
must believe, sharpens a man's wits, for in the twinkling of an eye I
thrust the captain into the passage and towards the outer door, straitly
charging him to bid the men carry their burdens to the Captain-General's
galley, since he had taken a sudden purpose to go a cruise. I had
Spanish enough, to be sure, to give the command myself, but I knew it
would come with authority from Captain Badillo, whereas from me, a
stranger, it might be slighted. My naked dagger was sufficient
enforcement of my bidding, and in a trice I saw with satisfaction the
cookmen change their course and stagger with their loads to the
quayside. By this means I obtained for the slaves a modest dole of
food, whereof I doubted not they stood in need.
[Illustration: SHOWING HIM MY DAGGER, I BADE HIM HOLD HIS PEACE]
Hasting back to the slaves' hall, I found that Raoul had ranged them all
in readiness for departure. I had bidden Stubbs see to it that the
slaves in the guard-room should don as much as they could of the
soldiers' garments and cover their bald pates with their morions, and
bring also the weapons from his bundles, and then, myself going at the
head, holding Captain Badillo by the sleeve, we marched out and made our
way as swiftly as we might without sign of hurry to where the galley
awaited us. There was a sentry at the gate of the munition-house some
two-score paces distant, but the dusk in some sort enshrouded us, and
certain it is we came to the galley without molestation or so much as a
cry.
But there a peril that I had not foreseen lay in wait for us. The
cookmen, having bestowed their burdens aboard, stood carelessly on the
quay to witness our embarkation. A dozen of the slaves had shipped
themselves before these men were aware of aught amiss; but then one
spied the villainous countenance of a notorious desperado beneath a
soldier's morion, and communicating his discovery to his fellows, they
with one consent took to their heels and fled towards their quarters
with hue and cry. Sundry of them were felled by the slaves whom they
encountered, but the rest got themselves clear away, and it was plain
that ere long the alarm would be sounded in every part of the town. I
cast Captain Badillo into the galley, and urged the rest of the men to
quicken their speed, and they came helter-skelter, falling one over
another in their haste.
Now it seemed that all were aboard, but I had not observed Stubbs among
them, and began to fear lest he had been intercepted. But I then
perceived him, and three of the galley-slaves, staggering towards me
with a heavy burden which as they drew near I discerned to be none other
than the mountainous bulk of Don Ygnacio de Acosta. I cried to them to
hasten their steps, the which they did, and arriving at the quayside
they let their load fall with no more tenderness than if it had been a
bale of merchandise, and the Captain-General fell with a monstrous
thwack upon the galley's deck.
At Raoul's bidding the men had already gotten out the sweeps. But at
this the eleventh hour I observed a pile of sails lying over against the
sea-wall, and I commanded Stubbs and those with him to bring them to the
galley. The men who were aboard, in their haste to depart, had slipped
the moorings, and could hardly be restrained from pushing off without
us. I heard Raoul upbraid them with great vehemency, and ask them how
they supposed they could escape with oars alone, whereupon they left
their striving and gave us time to tumble the sails in among them. Then
the rest of us leapt aboard, I last of all, and the slaves, thrusting
their oars with desperate violence against the quay-wall, drove the
rocking vessel out into the basin.
It was high time, for already there was stir and hubbub not a great way
from the quay, and at the very moment when we sheered off a shot was
fired, I doubt not by the sentry at the munition-house. Through the
gathering dusk I saw a concourse of folk swarm upon the sea-wall and the
quay, there being not a few soldiers among them. But all things had
been done so suddenly as that none but the sentry had had time to kindle
his match, and the galley was come forth out of the dock ere they
arrived at the quay. Shouting and cursing they ran hither and thither,
in a perfect medley and confusion, there being as yet none to direct
them what they should do. I could not forbear making them a most
courteous salutation with my hat, though I fear the darkness and their
fury forbade them to mark the exceeding grace of it.
Turning to observe how things were ordered, I perceived that Raoul,
whose knowledge of the harbour was the fruit of long and bitter travail,
had established himself at the helm. I descended to the lower deck,
where Stubbs had put himself over the oarsmen, who were set in their due
ranks, and tugged at the sweeps with a vigour wherewith they had never
laboured before, I warrant you. In sooth, Stubbs was constrained to bid
them moderate their ardour, inasmuch as there lay a reef of rocks on the
starboard side, and it would go hard with us if we by any ill-hap ran
upon them. But the resolute and assured look upon their faces,
villainous and forbidding as the most part were, confirmed me in my
belief that, barring any untoward accident, we should in no long time be
beyond reach of pursuers.
The harbour of Cadiz, you are to understand, hath a northward trend to
the mouth of the river Guadaloto, whence the coast of the mainland runs
north-westerly until we come to the mouth of the Guadalquivir. Four
galleys, as I have said, were at anchor nigh the munition-house, and at
the bulwark of Saint Philip at the north-east extremity of the island
lay other sixteen. The first four we had already passed, but we must
run the gauntlet of the sixteen, the which when we should have done we
had nought to fear save perchance from the ordnance established on the
coast of the bay of Caleta. I knew right well that notwithstanding the
clamour that filled the town, where alarm bells were dinning amain, some
time must needs be consumed before the occasion of the pother was
thoroughly known, and the galleys could be put in fair trim to pursue
us. So indeed the event answered to my expectation, for we came pretty
near to the mouth of the harbour without anything whatsoever happening
to mar our security.
It was now dark, yet not so black but that we could see our course, and
besides there were the lights of the town to serve our helmsman as guide
posts. That the town was mightily astir was demonstrated by a shot that
was belched out upon us by one of the great pieces mounted on the
bulwark of Saint Philip. But it did us no harm, unless some slight
defacement of our figurehead that I observed next day was the work of
this shot. Taking warning, Raoul steered the vessel hard over against
the mainland, though I deplored the loss of time we suffered thereby.
Indeed, but for this circuit which we made, and which, being a prudent
measure, I could not gainsay, verily I believe we should have run out
into the open sea without any let or hindrance whatsoever. But it
happed that as we again bore westward, I perceived the black shape of a
galley move from its anchorage in our wake, and presently after other of
the same sort. This gave me no manner of apprehension, for we were
fully manned, and our men, rowing for their very lives, were not like to
be outdone by the hapless slaves in our pursuers, even though they were
urged by the whip.
We were in another case when, as we came abreast of the point at the
northern extremity of the bay of Caleta, a galley shot forth by the
skirts of the rocks and made great speed to sea, not directly towards
us, but taking a slantwise course with intent to head us off, as seamen
say. It was a hard matter in the darkness to make a nice reckoning, yet
I thought we should outstrip even this the most threatening of our
pursuers. Being ware of a steady fair breeze off the land, I deemed it
mere foolishness to neglect it; accordingly I bade Stubbs choose some
few men among the oarsmen that were mariners, and send them on deck to
bend the sails. This proceeding caused us to lose way somewhat, the
sails having been cast aboard without any care, and so needing time to
order them rightly. And when I saw that the captain of the galley in
chase of us had foregone me, and being now come into the wind had
already gotten his sails ahoist, I was not a little dismayed.
Bethinking me of Don Ygnacio and Captain Badillo, hitherto mere idle
passengers and burdensome, I resolved to put them to the oars, not
without a secret relish in the thought that they would now taste of the
toil they had heretofore inflicted upon the slaves. With my own hands
therefore I cast Don Ygnacio loose, and bundled both him and the lesser
captain to the lower part of the vessel, giving them into the charge of
my good Stubbs, with a strait injunction that he should urge them to a
decent industry. I did not see with my own eyes how they accommodated
themselves to their task, because I returned to the deck to look to the
sails and also to keep a watch on the enemy. But Stubbs told me
afterwards that he plied the whip right merrily on the backs of those
two proud Spaniards, and so wrought them to a just activity, to the
great delectation of the galley-slaves, who themselves rowed with the
more cheerfulness, beholding their tormentors dealt with after the
manner they delighted in.
[Illustration: HE PLIED THE WHIP RIGHT MERRILY]
When our sails took the wind, the speed of the galley sensibly
increased, but it was not long before I was troubled to see that our
pursuer was gaining on us. She had far outstripped her consorts, the
which indeed were no longer visible, and might be left out of the
reckoning. The darkness was waxing deeper, and I could scarce have seen
our resolute pursuer had we not come opposite to the extreme westward
point of the island, where, before the friary of Saint Sebastian, a
great fire had been kindled, without doubt of set purpose to enfurther
the chase. It was the customary place where beacon fires were made, to
give warning of danger on the side of the sea. The ruddy glare, shining
forth over the water, showed me that the galley was no more than two
furlongs astern. We made all the speed we might, but I could not but
perceive that the pursuer crept ever nearer, and I began to be exceeding
apprehensive. Her oarsmen, having rowed not above a quarter of the
distance we had come, must needs be fresh by comparison with my own men,
who had been straining at the oar without remission for close upon an
hour. Furthermore, she would certainly have soldiers aboard her, maybe
to the number of fifty or more, and we had no sufficiency of arms
wherewith to oppose them.
We had come beyond the cast of the beacon fire, into a vast impenetrable
blackness. Pacing the deck in sore travail of spirit, and setting my
wits on the rack if haply I might devise some stratagem that should
profit us, on a sudden I spied by the fore hatch a large vessel of iron
shaped like a round bucket, and pierced with holes, which I knew was
designed to hold fire, whether for cooking or for illumination. I stood
for a while chewing upon a device which the sight of this vessel had set
a-working in my mind, and then hied me to Raoul to make him partner of
the merry conceit I had fashioned. He heard it joyfully, and I went
without delay to put it in practice.
I gathered together some shreds of canvas and rope ends and stuffed them
lightly into the vessel, mixing them plentifully with grease that was
employed about the rowlocks, and liquid tar out of pots left in the
galley by the men that had been caulking her. Then I thrust two short
pikes through the topmost holes of the vessel opposite one to the other,
as it were at the cardinal points of the circumference, and stopped the
others as well as I could. This done I strewed upon the top a handful
of gunpowder, and set in the midst a length of slow match that might be
two or three minutes in burning. Having kindled the match at its utmost
end, I let down the vessel over the stern into the water, and with great
satisfaction watched it float in our wake until nought was visible in
the darkness save the red glow of the match. Then I ran below and bade
Stubbs put the rowers to a very frenzy of labour, so that we might draw
as far as we could from the pursuer while that their strength endured.
Returning to the deck I beheld my beacon burst into a bright flare; and
the pursuer coming upon it, I saw the galley with great clearness, and
sparkling reflections from the morions and harness of the soldiers that
were aboard. I knew that so long as the light endured our own galley
must be wholly hid from their eyes, and besides, they would be perplexed
to know the meaning of the light, and might even suppose it to betoken a
floating mine whereof they must be ware. Without doubt it would delay
them somewhat, and give me the few minutes I needed for the full
accomplishment of my design.
As soon as I saw the galley come within the circle of light I gave the
word to Raoul, who put up the helm, so that our vessel swung round in a
wide circuit until she was a cable length of her former course. I had
already commanded the slaves to cease from rowing, lest the sound of
their oars should acquaint the enemy with our movement. As we came
round I saw the galley draw out from the radiance, and heard the voices
of the men upon her. She sped directly forward, following the course
her captain supposed us to have taken.
When she was almost abreast of us, and scarce three fathom length away,
I bade the rowers pull with all their might, and Raoul steered straight
for the galley. The rattle of the oars must have apprised the enemy
that we were nearer than they supposed, but they were not thoroughly
aware of us until we were upon them. Then, as they spied our vessel
looming big out of the darkness, there was a great outcry among them,
and it appeared that divers commands were given, for one moment she
seemed to be swinging round to oppose the imminent shock, the next she
held on her course as if endeavouring to evade us. By her greater speed
she might without difficulty have drawn clear, but in bearing up she
lost way, and so enabled us to diminish the gap between her and our
galley.
Under the sturdy strokes of our oarsmen the galley in a manner leapt
towards her. We were greeted with a pretty hot salvo from her
musketeers, but there were no more than two or three of us upon the
deck, and we were flat on our faces, all save Raoul, so that what with
the sway and toss of the vessels and the flurried aim they took, we
suffered no hurt. While the smoke still hung in the air there was a
mighty crash: the bow of our galley had cut the other a little abaft of
the mainmast. Being fashioned for this very device of ramming, our beak
had, I doubted not, stove a hole in her side, whereas I could not
suppose that we had been endamaged, though the vessel quivered from stem
to stern.
Immediately after we struck I commanded the oarsmen to back water, by
which means, and the cunning handling of the helm, we withdrew a space.
From the enemy's galley came loud shouts of fear and consternation, and
I heard some say that she was sinking. It troubled me that, to save our
own skins, we had perforce imperilled the lives of three-score hapless
slaves that had done us no wrong, but were indeed in a like case with
our own men; but the breeze brought with it the rattle of the oars of
the galleys that had first set off to pursue us, and I could very well
leave the men of the foundering vessel to be rescued by their fellows.
Our need was to draw clear away as swiftly as we might. Accordingly I
commanded our men again to ply their oars, and this they did the more
willingly, despite their fatigue, because they exulted in the crippling
of their adversaries.
We were now come into the open sea. Our men pulled with measured
strokes for a full half-hour before I deemed it prudent to suffer any
intermission. Then I bade them lie upon their oars while I hearkened
for sounds of our pursuers. There was not so much as a whisper. I could
not but believe that the commanders of the galleys had given over the
attempt to come up with us. Yet, as I took counsel with Raoul, I durst
not rest thoroughly assured that all danger was past, nor all need for
labour and watchfulness vanished. The galleons in the harbour would
surely make sail as soon as they could be put in trim, and scour the sea
for leagues around. Furthermore, we might fall in with some vessel
homeward bound, or perchance outward bound from Lisbon to the Americas.
It behoved us then to be very wary, and, as our proverb says, not to
holla until we were out of the wood.
Our men, having fasted since the morning and toiled very hard, were in
dire need of food, and I hazarded to rest for so long as they might take
their fill of the broth and biscuit which the cookmen had brought
aboard, bidding them spare enough for another meal. We should not be
utterly safe until we made a French port, Bordeaux being the most
likely, and we were distant thence, at the very least reckoning, upwards
of three hundred leagues. Within a single day we must needs be in dire
straits for food, but I had conceived a plan for supplying ourselves so
soon as we were free from the immediate fear of pursuit.
When we had all eaten and drunk very heartily, though in good sooth the
fare was of the poorest, we sped on again, the men taking turns to row,
and so continued all that night. We directed our course at a venture,
but at break of day we saw with thankfulness that we were not a great
way from the shore. There was no safety for us but in boldness;
accordingly Raoul steered directly for the land, that was very barren
hereabout, and we put into a small bay, and ran the vessel abeach,
purposing to lie up there and take our rest. I parted the whole company
into watches, and we slept by turns, the men of each watch being
straitly charged not to stray from the low beach to higher ground.
While we stayed in that place I saw several galleys and one great
galleon cruising in the offing, which I guessed to be hunting for us;
but we were very well hid, and I thought it would scarce come into the
heads of the Spaniards that we had adventured ourselves ashore.
During one of the watches I talked long with Raoul concerning the
occasion of my venturing upon this course for his behoof. He was in
perfect ignorance of the complicity of the Count de Sarney in his
kidnapping, and was loath to believe that his uncle could have descended
to such a depth of villainy. I was at no pains to bring him to my own
persuasion, being content to leave the unravelling of the plot until we
should come safely to his home. He drew from me the full tale of my
adventures, breaking into a great gust of laughter when I related the
manner of my dealing with Don Ygnacio. I assured him that he owed all
to my honest mariner William Stubbs, on whom he bestowed thanks without
stint, promising me in secret that, if we got safe to Torcy, he would
reward him with much more than barren words.
We lay in that spot for near six hours, and then, having consumed all
our food, saw ourselves faced by the prospect of famine. Certain of the
galley-slaves, who were for the most part desperate and abandoned
ruffians that richly deserved their fate, began to murmur, and not
without reason, for it is no profit to a man to leap out of the
frying-pan into the fire. In this strait I bethought me of the use
whereto I had imagined putting our noble prisoners, Don Ygnacio and
Captain Badillo. We launched our galley when the tide was full, and
mounting into her, coasted along for a league or two until we descried a
village of fishers nestling in a hollow between the cliffs. We then ran
ashore, and made Don Ygnacio write on his tables a formal requisition
for meat and wine, signing it with his full name and titles. And I went
up the land with Stubbs and Captain Badillo, together with a dozen of
the galley-slaves bearing baskets and buckets; and giving the captain to
know that I would certainly use my dagger upon him if he by word, deed,
or even with wink of eye betrayed us, we marched boldly to the village,
where he presented his mandate to the people, and received from them
enough to supply our instant needs. When I saw how grudgingly they
furnished us, I pitied the poor folk, and wished with all my heart that
I could pay them, suspecting that the minions of the Spanish king were
not over scrupulous in honouring this sort of debt; but my purse was
well-nigh empty, and I could only trust that Providence would in due
season repay them a hundredfold.
The story we gave out was that the Captain-General of the King's galleys
was making a voyage to inspect the coast, and we found this served us to
a miracle among the ignorant fisher folk, both at this place and at the
many other villages on the coast of Portugal where we made like
perquisitions on the days succeeding. We pursued our way every night,
and rested every day, choosing only small paltry places whereat to
obtain food, and such as we might adventure into without raising a wind
of suspicion. Nowhere did we come within an ace of danger save at one
village, whose parish priest, a canon of Salamanca, would not be stayed
from paying a visit of ceremony to the illustrious and worshipful
Captain-General. It was a marvellous whimsical thing to behold their
meeting, the priest offering gracious incense of flattery to the royal
officer, who received his compliments and felicitations, I being at his
elbow, in a mood betwixt dudgeon and impotent rage. I caught a look of
puzzlement on the worthy canon's face as he made his adieu, and I fear
me he carried to his humble parsonage a blighted estimate of the
courtliness of princes' servants. As for me, I thanked my stars that
the peril of discovery had as it were but lightly brushed us.
Our plan of hugging the coast, yet not so close as to risk our bottom on
rocks or shoals, kept us far away from the track of sea-going vessels,
and the weather being exceedingly fair, we accomplished fifteen or
twenty leagues a day without danger from the elements or man. The
voyage was tedious beyond telling, but I did not grudge it, for joy at
beholding the amelioration it wrought in the health of my dear friend.
I laughed often to think how the transfusion I had proposed in trickery
to Don Ygnacio was in process of accomplishment by the agency of nature.
He became leaner in proportion as Raoul indued flesh, and my scrupulous
care that he should not have the means to overeat, but should perform a
fitting share of labour at the oar, did not only reduce his bulk, but
also brought his body to a healthful condition whereto he had been
strange for many a year. He showed me no gratitude, and paid me no
fees, though I declare without boasting that I did more for him than any
physician or chirurgeon that ever mixed a powder or wielded a scalpel.
I used my endeavour to wrest from him a full confession of his
villainies, but he would never admit further than what we knew: that he
had received moneys from his cousin the Count de Sarney. As for the
kidnapping, he avouched most solemnly that he was as ignorant as
innocent in respect of it; but inasmuch as Raoul had acquainted him of
his name and condition, and besought him with many promises to set him
free, I concluded that he had found his best interest in playing the
horse-leech upon his cousin.
We came in due time to Bordeaux, where our story, when it leaked out,
became a nine-days' wonder. I am very sure it would have mightily
pleased the Sieur Michel de Montaigne, had he been yet alive; of whose
Essays I purchased a very pretty copy before I departed. We sold the
galley at a price much above its value, to a rich noble of Perigord, who
declared his intention of keeping it for his private pleasure, and for a
perpetual memorial of the gullibility of Spaniards. Every galley-slave
received his freedom and his proper share of the purchase money, though
I confess I was uneasy in my mind when I thought of such rapscallions
being loosed among honest people. We delivered Don Ygnacio and Captain
Badillo to the mayor, who threw them into prison until he should advise
himself concerning their future. Then one fair day I took ship with
Raoul and worthy Stubbs in a vessel bound for Calais, being somewhat in
pocket by my adventure.
*V*