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diff --git a/13812-0.txt b/13812-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..fd08c8a --- /dev/null +++ b/13812-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6785 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13812 *** + +Sir Mortimer + +A Novel + +BY + +Mary Johnston + +AUTHOR OF "TO HAVE AND TO HOLD" +"PRISONERS OF HOPE" ETC. + +1904 + + + + +TO + +J.A.J. AND W.A.J. + + + + +Illustrations + +"'OH, I ENVIED HER!' SHE CRIED" . . . . . . . . . . . . _Frontispiece_ + +"SIR JOHN THRUST HIMSELF BETWEEN THE TWO" . . . . . . . ._Facing p_. 16 + +"IT WAS BALDRY'S SHIP, THE LITTLE _STAR_" . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52 + +"'DO YOU PURPOSE, THEN, THAT HE SHALL DIE?' DEMANDED BALDRY" . . . . 138 + +"'I BEG THE SHORTEST SHRIFT THAT YOU MAY GIVE'" . . . . . . . . . . 174 + +"'DAMARIS, THEY CALL HIM TRAITOR'" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190 + +'"AH, LOOK NOT SO UPON ME!'" . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 244 + +"THE FRIAR PRESENTED A BLANK COUNTENANCE TO SIR MORTIMER'S QUERIES" 260 + +"'LAD, LAD,' HE WHISPERED, 'WHERE IS THY MASTER?'" . . . . . . . . . 284 + + + +_Sir Mortimer_ + +I + +"But if we return not from our adventure," ended Sir Mortimer, "if the +sea claims us, and upon his sandy floor, amid his Armida gardens, the +silver-singing mermaiden marvel at that wreckage which was once a tall +ship and at those bones which once were animate,--if strange islands +know our resting-place, sunk for evermore in huge and most unkindly +forests,--if, being but pawns in a mighty game, we are lost or changed, +happy, however, in that the white hand of our Queen hath touched us, +giving thereby consecration to our else unworthiness,--if we find no +gold, nor take one ship of Spain, nor any city treasure-stored,--if we +suffer a myriad sort of sorrows and at the last we perish miserably--" + +He paused, being upon his feet, a man of about thirty years, richly +dressed, and out of reason good to look at. In his hand was a great +wine-cup, and he held it high. "I drink to those who follow after!" he +cried. "I drink to those who fail--pebbles cast into water whose ring +still wideneth, reacheth God knows what unguessable shore where loss may +yet be counted gain! I drink to Fortune her minions, to Francis Drake +and John Hawkins and Martin Frobisher; to all adventurers and their +deeds in the far-off seas! I drink to merry England and to the day when +every sea shall bring her tribute!--to England, like Aphrodite, +new-risen from the main! Drink with me!" + +The tavern of the Triple Tun rang with acclamation, and, the windows +being set wide because of the warmth of the June afternoon, the noise +rushed into the street and waylaid the ears of them who went busily to +and fro, and of them who lounged in the doorway, or with folded arms +played Atlas to the tavern walls. "Who be the roisterers within?" +demanded a passing citizen of one of these supporters. The latter made +no answer; he was a ragged retainer of Melpomene, and he awaited the +coming forth of Sir Mortimer Ferne, a notable encourager of all who +would scale Parnassus. But his neighbor, a boy in blue and silver, +squatted upon a sunny bench, vouchsafed enlightenment. + +"Travellers to strange places," quoth he, taking a straw from his mouth +and stretching long arms. "Tall men, swingers in Brazil-beds, +parcel-gilt with the Emperor of Manoa, and playfellows to the nymphs of +Don Juan Ponce de Leon his fountain,--in plain words, my master, Sir +Mortimer Ferne, Captain of the _Cygnet_, and his guests to dinner, to +wit, Sir John Nevil, Admiral of our fleet, with sundry of us captains +and gentlemen adventurers to the Indies, and, for seasoning, a handful +of my master's poor friends, such as courtiers and great lords +and poets." + +"Thinkest to don thy master's wit with his livery?" snapped the +poetaster. "'Tis a chain for a man,--too heavy for thy wearing." + +The boy stretched his arms again. "'Master' no more than in reason," +quoth he. "I also am a gentleman. Heigho! The sun shineth hotter here +than in the doldrums!" + +"Well, go thy ways for a sprightly crack!" said the citizen, preparing +to go his. "I know them now, for my cousin Parker hath a venture in the +_Mere Honour_, and that is the great ship the Queen hath lent Sir John, +his other ships being the _Marigold_, the _Cygnet_, and the _Star_, and +they're all a-lying above Greenwich, ready to sail on the morrow for the +Spanish Main." + +"You've hit it in the clout," yawned the boy. "I'll bring you an emerald +hollowed out for a reliquary--if I think on't." + +Within-doors, in the Triple Tun's best room, where much sherris sack was +being drunk, a gentleman with a long face, and mustachios twirled to a +point, leaned his arm upon the table and addressed him whose pledge had +been so general. "_Armida gardens_ and _silver-singing mermaiden_ and +_Aphrodite England_ quotha! _Pike and cutlass and good red gold!_ saith +the plain man. O Apollo, what a thing it is to be learned and a maker +of songs!" + +Athwart his laughing words came from the lower end of the board a deep +and harsh voice. The speaker was Captain Robert Baldry of the _Star_, +and he used the deliberation of one who in his drinking had gone far and +fast. "I pledge all scholars turned soldiers," he said, "all courtiers +who stay not at court, all poets who win tall ships at the point of a +canzonetta! Did Sir Mortimer Ferne make verses--elegies and epitaphs and +such toys--at Fayal in the Azores two years ago?" + +There followed his speech, heard of all in the room, a moment of amazed +silence. Mortimer Ferne put his tankard softly down and turned in his +seat so that he might more closely observe his fellow adventurer. + +"For myself, when an Armada is at my heels, the cares of the moon do not +concern me," went on Baldry, with the gravity of an oracle. "Had Nero +not fiddled, perhaps Rome had not burned." + +"And where got you that information, sir?" asked his host, in a most +courtier-like voice. + +"Oh, in the streets of Rome, a thousand years ago! 'Twas common talk." +The Captain of the _Star_ tilted his cup and was grieved to find +it empty. + +"I have later news," said the other, as smoothly as before. "At Fayal in +the Azores--" + +He was interrupted by Sir John Nevil, who had risen from his chair, and +beneath whose stare of surprise and anger Baldry, being far from actual +drunkenness, moved uneasily. + +"I will speak, Mortimer," said the Admiral, "Captain Baldry not being my +guest. Sir, at Fayal in the Azores that disastrous day we did what we +could--mortal men can do no more. Taken by surprise as we were, ships +were lost and brave men tasted death, but there was no shame. He who +held command that lamentable day was Captain--now Sir Mortimer--Ferne; +for I, who was Admiral of the expedition, must lie in my cabin, ill +almost unto death of a calenture. I dare aver that no wiser head ever +drew safety for many from such extremity of peril, and no readier sword +ever dearly avenged one day's defeat and loss. Your news, sir, was +false. I drink to a gentleman of known discretion, proved courage, +unstained honor--" + +It needed not the glance of his eye to bring men to their feet. They +rose, courtiers and university wits, soldiers home from the Low +Countries, kinsmen and country friends, wealthy merchants who had staked +their gold in this and other voyages, adventurers who with Frobisher and +Gilbert had sailed the icy seas, or with Drake and Hawkins had gazed +upon the Southern Cross, Captain Baptist Manwood, of the _Marigold_, +Lieutenant Ambrose Wynch, Giles Arden, Anthony Paget, good men and tall, +who greatly prized the man who alone kept his seat, smiling upon them +from the head of the long table in the Triple Tun's best room. Baldry, +muttering in his beard that he had made a throw amiss and that the wine +was to blame, stumbled to his feet and stood with the rest. "Sir +Mortimer Ferne!" cried they all, and drank to the seated figure. The +name was loudly called, and thus it was no slight tide of sound which +bore it, that high noon in the year 158-, into the busy London street. +Bow Bells were ringing, and to the boy in blue and silver upon the bench +without the door they seemed to take the words and sound them again and +again, deeply, clearly, above the voices of the city. + +Mortimer Ferne, his hand resting upon the table before him, waited until +there was quiet in the tavern of the Triple Tun, then, because he felt +deeply, spoke lightly. + +"My lords and gentlemen," he said, "and you, John Nevil, whom I +reverence as my commander and love as my friend, I give you thanks. Did +we lose at Fayal? Then, this voyage, at some other golden island, we +shall win! Honor stayed with us that bloody day, and shall we not now +bring her home enthroned? Ay, and for her handmaidens fame and noble +service and wealth,--wealth with which to send forth other ships, hounds +of the sea which yet may pull down this Spanish stag of ten! By my +faith, I sorrow for you whom we leave behind!" + +"Look that I overtake you not, Mortimer!" cried Sidney. "Walter Raleigh +and I have plans for next year. You and I may yet meet beneath a +palm-tree!" + +"And I also, Sir Mortimer," exclaimed Captain Philip Amadas. "Sir Walter +hath promised me a ship--" + +"When the old knight my father dies, and I come into my property," put +in, loudly, a fancy-fired youth from Devon, "I'll go out over bar in a +ship of my own! I'll have all my mariners dressed like Sir Hugh +Willoughby's men in the picture, and when I come home--" + +"Towing the King of Spain his plate-fleet behind you," quoth the +mustachioed gentleman. + +"--all my sails shall be cloth of gold," continued wine--flushed +one-and-twenty. "The main-deck shall be piled with bars of silver, and +in the hold shall be pearls and pieces of gold, doubloons, emeralds as +great as filberts--" + +"At Panama saw I an emerald greater than a pigeon's egg!" cried one who +had sailed in the _Golden Hind_. + +Sir Mortimer laughed. "Why, our very speech grows rich--as did thine +long since, Philip Sidney! And now, Giles Arden, show these stay-at-home +gentlemen the stones the _Bonaventure_ brought in the other day from +that coast we touched at two years agone. If we miss the plate-fleet, my +masters, if we find Cartagena or Santa Marta too strong for us, there is +yet the unconquered land, the Hesperidian garden whence came these +golden apples! Deliver, good dragon!" + +He of the mustachios laid side by side upon the board three pieces of +glittering rock, whereat every man bent forward. + +"Marcasite?" said one, doubtfully. + +"El madre del oro?" suggested another. + +"White spar," said Arden, authoritatively, "and containeth of gold ten +pounds to the hundredweight. Moreover--" He sifted down upon the dark +wood beside the stones a thimbleful of dull yellow grains. "The sands of +Pactolus, gentlemen! Sure 'twas in no Grecian river that King Midas +bathed himself!" + +Those of the company to whom had never before been exhibited these +samples of imperial riches craned their necks, and the looks of some +were musing and of others keenly eager. The room fell silent, and still +they gazed and gazed at the small heap of glistening stones and those +few grains of gold. They were busy men in the vanguard of a quickened +age, and theirs were its ardors, its Argus-eyed fancy and potent +imagination. Show them an acorn, and straightway they saw a forest of +oaks; an inch of a rainbow, and the mind grasped the whole vast arch, +zenith-reaching, seven-colored, enclosing far horizons. So now, in +addition to the gleaming fragments upon the table before them, they saw +mountain ranges with ledges of rock all sparkling like this ore, deep +mines with Indian workers, pack-trains, and burdened holds of ships. + +After a time one lifted a piece of the ore, hesitatingly, as though he +made to take up all the Indies, scrutinized it closely, weighed it, +passed it to his neighbor. It went the round of the company, each man +handling it, each with the talisman between his fingers gazing through +the bars of this present hour at a pageant and phantasmagoria of his own +creating. At last it came to the hand of an old merchant, who held it a +moment or two, looking steadfastly upon it, then slowly put it down. + +"Well," said he, "may God send you furthering winds, Sir Mortimer and +Sir John, and make their galleons and galliasses, their caravels and +carracks, as bowed corn before you! Those of your company who are to +die, may they die cleanly, and those who are to live, live nobly, and +may not one of you fall into the hands of the Holy Office." + +"Amen to that, Master Hudson," quoth Arden. + +"The Holy Office!" cried a Banbury man. "I had a cousin, sirs,--an +honest fellow, with whom I had gone bird's-nesting when we were boys +together! He was master of a merchantman--the _Red Lion_--that by foul +treachery was taken by the Spaniards at Cales. The priests put forth +their hands and clutched him, who was ever outspoken, ever held fast to +his own opinion!... To die! that is easy; but when I learned what was +done to him before he was let to die--" The speaker broke off with an +oath and sat with fixed gaze, his hand beating upon the table a +noiseless tattoo. + +"To die," said Mortimer Ferne slowly. "To die cleanly, having lived +nobly--it is a good wish, Master Hudson! To die greatly--as did your +cousin, sir,--a good knight and true, defending faith and loyalty, what +more consummate flower for crown of life? What loftier victory, supremer +triumph? Pain of body, what is it? Let the body cry out, so that it +betray not the mind, cheat not the soul into a remediless prison of +perdition and shame!" + +He drank of his wine, then with a slight laugh and wave of his hand +dismissed a subject too grave for the hour. A little later he arose with +his guests from the table, and since time was passing and for some there +was much to do, men began to exchange farewells. To-morrow would see the +adventurers gone from England; to-day kinsmen and friends must say +good-by, warmly, with clasping of hands and embracing, even with tears, +for it was an age when men did not scorn to show emotion. A thousand +perils awaited those who went, nor for those who stayed would time or +tide make tarrying. It was most possible that they who parted now would +find, this side eternity, no second inn of meeting. + +From his perch beside the door, the boy in blue and silver watched his +master's guests step into the sunlight and go away. A throng had +gathered in front of the tavern, for the most part of those within were +men of note, and Sir John Nevil's adventure to the Indies had long been +general talk. Singly or in little groups the revellers issued from the +tavern, and for this or that known figure and favorite the crowd had its +comment and cheering. At last all were gone save the adventurers +themselves, who, having certain final arrangements to make, stayed to +hold council in the Triple Tun's long room. + +Their conference was not long. Presently came forth Captain Baptist +Manwood of the _Marigold_ with his lieutenants, Wynch and Paget, and +Captain Robert Baldry of the _Star_. The four, talking together, +started towards the waterside where they were to take boat for the ships +that lay above Greenwich, but ere they had gone forty paces Baldry felt +his sleeve twitched. Turning, he found at his elbow the blue and silver +sprig who served Sir Mortimer Ferne. + +"Save you, sir," said the boy. "There's a gentleman at the Triple Tun +desires your honor would give him five minutes of your company." + +"I did expect a man of my acquaintance, a Paul's man with a good rapier +to sell," quoth Baldry. "Boy, is the gentleman a lean gentleman with a +Duke Humphrey look? Wait for me, sirs, at the stairs!" + +Within the Triple Tun, Sir John Nevil yet sat at table pondering certain +maps and charts spread out before him, while Mortimer Ferne, having +re-entered the room after a moment's absence, leaned over his +commander's shoulder and watched the latter's forefinger tracing the +coastline from the Cape of Three Points to Golden Castile. By the window +stood Arden, while on a settle near him lounged Henry Sedley, lieutenant +to the Captain of the _Cygnet_; moreover a young gentleman of great +promise, a smooth, dark, melancholy beauty, and a pretty taste in +dress. In his hands was a gittern which had been hanging on the wall +above him, and he played upon it, softly, a sweet and plaintive air. + +In upon these four burst Baldry, who, not finding the Paul's man and +trader in rapiers, drew himself up sharply. Sir Mortimer came forward +and made him a low bow, which he, not to be outdone in courtesy, any +more than in weightier matters, returned in his own manner, fierce and +arrogant as that of a Spanish conquistador. + +"Captain Robert Baldry, I trusted that you would return," said Ferne. +"And now, since you are no longer guest of mine, we will resume our talk +of Fayal in the Azores. Your gossips lied, sir; and he who, not staying +to examine a quarrel, becomes a repeater of lies, may chance upon a +summer day, in a tavern such as this, to be called a liar. My +cartel, sir!" + +He flung his glove, which scarce had felt the floor before the other +snatched it up. "God's death! you shall be accommodated!" he cried. +"Here and now, is't not? and with sword and dagger? Sir, I will spit you +like a lark, or like the Spaniard I did vanquish for a Harry shilling +at El Gran' Canario, last Luke's day--" + +The three witnesses of the challenge sprang to their feet, the gittern +falling from Sedley's hands, and Sir John's papers fluttering to the +floor. The latter thrust himself between the two who had bared their +weapons. "What is this, gentlemen? Mortimer Ferne, put up your sword! +Captain Baldry, your valor may keep for the Spaniards! Obey me, sirs!" + +"Let be, John Nevil," said Ferne. "To-morrow I become your sworn man. +To-day my honor is my Admiral!" + +"Will you walk, Sir Mortimer Ferne?" demanded Baldry. "The Bull and +Bear, just down the street, hath a little parlor--a most sweet retired +place, and beareth no likeness to the poop of the _Mere Honour_. Sir +John Nevil, your servant, sir--to-morrow!" + +[Illustration: "SIR JOHN THRUST HIMSELF BETWEEN THE TWO"] + +"My servant to-day, sir," thundered the Admiral, "in that I will force +you to leave this quarrel! Death of my life! shall this get abroad? Not +that common soldiers or mariners ashore fall out and cudgel each other +until the one cannot handle a rope nor the other a morris-pike! not +that wild gallants, reckless and broken adventurers whose loss the next +daredevil scamp may supply, choose the eve of sailing for a duello, in +which one or both may be slain; but that strive together my captains, +men vowed to noble service, loyal aid, whose names are in all mouths, +who go forth upon this adventure not (I trust in God) with an eye single +to the gain of the purse, but thinking, rather, to pluck green laurels +for themselves, and to bring to the Queen and England gifts of waning +danger, waxing power! What reproach--what evil augury--nay, perhaps, +what maiming of our enterprise! Leaders and commanders that you are, +with your goodly ships, your mariners and soldiers awaiting you, and +above us all the lode-star of noblest duty, truest honor--will you thus +prefer to the common good your private quarrel? Nay, now, I might say +'you shall not'; but, instead, I choose to think you will not!" + +The speech was of the longest for the Admiral, who was a man of golden +silences. His look had been upon Baldry, but his words were for Mortimer +Ferne, at whom he looked not at all. "I have been challenged, sir," +cried Baldry, roughly. "Draw back? God's wounds, not I!" + +His antagonist bit his lip until the blood sprang. "The insult was +gross," he said, with haughtiness, "but since I may not deny the truth +of your words, John Nevil, I will reword my cartel. Captain Robert +Baldry, I do solemnly challenge you to meet me with sword and dagger +upon that day which sees our return to England!" + +"A far day that, perhaps!" cried Baldry. "But so be it! I'll not fail +you, Sir Mortimer Ferne. Look that you fail not me!" + +"Sir!" cried Ferne, sharply. + +The Admiral struck the table a great blow. "Gentlemen, no more of this! +What! will you in this mood go forth side by side to meet a common foe? +Nay, I must have you touch hands!" + +The Captain of the _Cygnet_ held out his hand. He of the _Star_ first +swore, then burst into a great laugh; finally laid his own upon it. + +"Now we are turtle-doves, Sir John, nothing less! and the _Star_ and the +_Cygnet_ may bill and coo from the Thames to Terra Firma!" Suddenly he +ceased to laugh, and let fall his hand. "But I have not forgotten," he +said, "that at Fayal in the Azores I had a brother slain." + +He was gone, swinging from the room with scant ceremony, loudly ordering +from his path the loiterers at the inn door. They whose company he had +quitted were silent for a moment; then said Sir Mortimer, slowly: "I +remember now--there was a Thomas Baldry, master of the _Speedwell_. +Well, it was a sorry business that day! If from that muck of blood and +horror was born Detraction--" + +"The man was mad!" thrust in young Sedley, hotly. "Detraction and you +have no acquaintance." + +Ferne, with a slight laugh, stooped to pick up the fallen gittern. "She +kept knighthood and me apart for a year, Henry. 'Tis a powerful dame, a +most subtle and womanish foe, who knoweth not or esteemeth not the rules +of chivalry. Having yielded to plain Truth, she yet, as to-day, raiseth +unawares an arm to strike." He hung the gittern upon its peg, then went +across to the Admiral and put both hands upon his shoulders. The smile +was yet upon his lips, but his voice had a bitter ring. "John, John," +he said, "old wounds leave not their aching. That tall, fanfaronading +fellow hath a power to anger me,--not his words alone, but the man +himself.... Well, let him go until the day we come sailing back to +England! For his words--" He paused and a shadow came over his face. +"Who knows himself?" he said. "There are times when I look within and +doubt my every quality that men are pleased to give me. God smiles upon +me--perhaps He smiles with contempt!... I would that I had followed, not +led, that day at Fayal!" + +Arden burst into a laugh. The Admiral turned and stared at him who had +spoken with a countenance half severity, half deep affection. "What! +stings that yet?" he said. "I think you may have that knowledge of +yourself that you were born to lead, and that knowledge of higher things +that shame is of the devil, but defeat ofttimes of God. How idly do we +talk to-day!" + +"Idly enough," agreed Ferne with a quick sigh. He lifted his hands from +the other's shoulders, and with an effort too instantaneous to be +apparent shook off his melancholy. Arden took up his hat and swung his +short cloak over his shoulder. + +"Since we may not fight," he said, "I'll e'en go play. There's a pretty +lady hard by who loves me dearly. I'll go tell her tales of the Carib +beauties. Master Sedley, you are for the court, I know. Would the gods +had sent me such a sister! Do you go to Leicester House, Mortimer? If +not, my fair Discretion hath a mate--" + +"I," answered Ferne, "am also for Greenwich." + +Arden laughed again. "Her Grace gives you yet another audience? Or is it +that hath come to court that Nonpareil, that radiant Incognita, that +be-rhymed Dione at whose real name you keep us guessing? I thought the +violet satin was not for naught!" + +"In that you speak with truth," said the other, coolly, "for thirty +acres of good Devon land went to its procuring. Since you are for the +court, Henry Sedley, one wherry may carry the two of us." + +When the two adventurers and the boy in blue and silver had made half +the distance to the pleasant palace where, like a flight of multicolored +birds, had settled for the moment Elizabeth's migratory court, the +gentlemen became taciturn and fell at length to silent musing, each upon +his own affairs. The boy liked it not, for their discourse had been of +armor and devices, of war-horses and Spanish swords, and such knightly +matters as pleased him to the marrow. He himself (Robin-a-dale they +called him) meant to be altogether such a one as his master in violet +satin. Not a sea-dog simply and terrible fighter like Captain Manwood or +Ambrose Wynch, nor a ruffler like Baldry, nor even a high, cold +gentleman like Sir John, who slew Spaniards for the good of God and the +Queen, and whose slow words when he was displeased cut like a rope's +end. But he would fight and he would sing; he would laugh with his foe +and then courteously kill him; he would know how to enter the presence, +how to make a great Queen smile and sigh; and then again, amid the +thunder and reek of the fight, on decks slippery with blood, he would +strain, half naked, with the mariners, he would lead the boarders, he +would deal death with a flashing sword and a face that seen through the +smoke wreaths was so calm and high!--And the Queen might knight +him--one day the Queen might knight him. And the people at home, turning +in the street, would look and cry, "'Tis Sir Robert Dale!" as now they +cry "Sir Mortimer Ferne!" + +Robin-a-dale drew in his breath and clenched his hands with +determination; then, the key being too high for long sustaining, came +down to earth and the contemplation of the bright-running Thames, its +shifting banks, and the shipping on its bosom. The river glided between +tall houses, and there were voices on the water, sounding from stately +barges, swift-plying wherries, ships at anchor, both great and small. +Over all played mild sunshine, hung pale blue skies. The boy thought of +other rivers he had seen and would see again, silent streams gliding +through forests of a fearful loveliness, miles of churned foam rushing +between black teeth of jagged rock to the sheer, desperate, +earth-shaking cataract, liquid highways to the realms of strange dreams! +He turned involuntarily and met his master's eye. Between these two, +master and boy, knave and knight, there was at times so strange a +comprehension that Robin-a-dale was scarcely startled to find that his +thoughts had been read. + +"Ay, Robin," said Ferne, smiling, "other and stranger waters than those +of Father Thames! And yet I know not. Life is one, though to-day we +glide through the sunshine to a fair Queen's palace, and to-morrow we +strive like fiends from hell for those two sirens, Lust of Gold and Lust +of Blood. Therefore, Robin, an you toss your silver brooch into the +Thames it may come to hand on the other side of the world, swirling +towards you in some Arethusa fountain." + +"I see the ships, master!" cried the boy. "Ho, the _Cygnet_, the bonny +white _Cygnet!_" + +They lay in a half-moon, with the westering sun striking full upon the +windows of their high, castellated poops. Their great guns gleamed; mast +and spar and rigging made network against the blue; high in air floated +bright pennants and the red cross in the white field. To and fro plied +small boats, while over the water to them in the wherry came a pleasant +hum of preparation for the morrow's sailing. Upon the _Cygnet_, lying +next to the _Mere Honour_, and a very noble ship, the mariners began +to sing. + +"Shall we not row more closely?" cried Sedley. "The _Cygnet_ knows not +that it is you who pass!" + +Sir Mortimer laughed. "No, no; I come to her arms from the Palace +to-night! Trouble her not now with genuflections and salutings." His +eyes dwelt with love upon his ship. "How clearly sounds the singing!" +he said. + +So clearly did it sound over the water that it kept with them when the +ships were passed. Robin-a-dale had his fancies, to which at times he +gave voice, scarce knowing that he had spoken. "'Tis the ship herself +that sings," he now began to say to himself in a low voice, over and +over again. "'Tis the ship singing, the ship singing because she goes on +a voyage--a long voyage!" + +"Sirrah!" cried his master, somewhat sharply. "Know you not that the +swan sings but upon one voyage, and that her last? 'Tis not the _Cygnet_ +that sings, but upon her sing my mariners and soldiers, for that they go +forth to victory!" + +He put his hands behind his head, and with a light in his eyes looked +back to the dwindling ships. "Victory!" he repeated beneath his breath. +"Such fame, such service, as that earthworm, that same Detraction, shall +raise no more her lying head!" He turned to Sedley: "I am glad, Harry, +that your lot is cast with mine. For we go forth to victory, lad!" + +The younger man answered him impetuously, a flush of pride mounting to +his smooth, dark cheek. "I doubt it not, Sir Mortimer, nor of my +gathering laurels, since I go with you! I count myself most fortunate." +He threw back his head and laughed. "I have no lady-love," he said, "and +so I will heap the laurels in the lap of my sister Damaris." + +By now, the tide being with them, they were nearing Greenwich House. +Ferne dipped his hand into the water, then, straightening himself, shook +from it the sparkling drops, and looked in the face of the youth who was +to make with him his maiden voyage. + +"You could heap laurels in the lap of no sweeter lady," he said, +courteously. "I thought you went on yesterday to say farewell to +Mistress Damaris Sedley." + +"Why, so I did," said the other, simply. "We said farewell with our +eyes in the presence, while the Queen talked with my Lord of Leicester; +in the antechamber with our hands; in the long gallery with our lips; +and when we reached the gardens, and there was none at all to see, we +e'en put our arms about each other and wept. It is a right noble wench, +my sister, and loves me dearly. And then, while we talked, one of her +fellow maids came hurriedly to call her, for her Grace would go +a-hawking, and Damaris was in attendance. So I swore I would see her +again to-day though 'twere but for a moment." + +The rowers brought the wherry to the Palace landing. Sir Mortimer, +stepping out upon the broad stairs, began to mount them somewhat slowly, +Sedley and Robin-a-dale following him. Half-way up, Sedley, noting the +rich suit worn so point-device, and aware of how full in the sunshine of +the Queen's favor stood for the moment his Captain, asked if he were for +the presence. Ferne shook his head: "Not now.... May I know, Henry, +where you and your sister meet?" + +"In the little covert of the park where we said good-by on yesterday." +There were surprise and some question in the youth's upward glance at +the man in violet satin, standing a step or two above him, his hand +resting upon the stone balustrade, a smile in his eyes, but none upon +the finely cut lips, quite grave and steady beneath the slight mustache. + +Ferne, reading the question, gave, after just a moment's pause, the +answer. "My dear lad," he said, and the smile in his eyes grew more +distinct and kindly, "to Mistress Damaris Sedley I also would say +farewell." He laid his hand upon the young man's shoulder. "For I would +know, Henry--I would know if through all the days and nights that await +us over the brim of to-morrow I may dream of an hour to come when that +dear and fair lady shall bid me welcome." His eyes looked into the +distance, and the smile had crept to his lips. "It was my meaning to +speak to her to-night before I left the Palace, but this chance offers +better. Will you give me precedence, Henry? let me see and speak to your +sister alone in that same covert of which you tell me?" + +"But--but--" stammered Sedley. + +Sir Mortimer laughed. "'But ... Dione!' you would say. 'Ah, faithless +poet, forsworn knight!' you would say. Not so, my friend." He looked far +away with shining eyes. "That unknown nymph, that lady whom I praise in +verse, whose poet I am, that Dione at whose real name you all do vainly +guess--it is thy sister, lad! Nay,--she knows me not for her worshipper, +nor do I know that I can win her love. I would try ..." + +Sedley's smooth cheek glowed and his eyes shone. He was young; he loved +his sister, orphaned like himself and the neglected ward of a decaying +house; while to his ardent fancy the man above him, superb in his violet +dress, courteous and excellent in all that he did, was a very Palmerin +or Amadis de Gaul. Now, impetuously, he put his hand upon that other +hand touching his shoulder, and drew it to his lips in a caress, of +which, being Elizabethans, neither was at all ashamed. In the dark, +deeply fringed eyes that he raised to his leader's face there was a +boyish and poetic adoration for the sea-captain, the man of war who was +yet a courtier and a scholar, the violet knight who was to lead him up +the heights which long ago the knight himself had scaled. + +"Damaris is a fair maid, and good and learned," he said in a whisper, +half shy, half eager. "May you dream as you wish, Sir Mortimer! For the +way to the covert--'tis by yonder path that's all in sunshine." + + + +II + +Beneath a great oak-tree, where light and shadow made a checkered round, +Mistress Damaris Sedley sat upon the earth in a gown of rose-colored +silk. Across her knee, under her clasped hands, lay a light racket, for +she had strayed this way from battledore and shuttlecock and the +sprightly company of maids of honor and gentlemen pensioners engaged +thereat. She was a fair lady, of a clear pallor, with a red mouth very +subtly charming, and dark eyes beneath level brows. Her eyes had depths +on depths: to one player of battledore and shuttlecock they were merely +large brown orbs; another might find in them worlds below worlds; a +third, going deeper, might, Actæon-like, surprise the bare soul. A +curiously wrought net of gold caught her dark hair in its meshes, and +pearls were in her ears, and around the white column of her throat +rising between the ruff's gossamer walls. She fingered the racket, idly +listening the while for a foot-fall beyond her round of trees. Hearing +it at last, and taking it for her brother's, she looked up with a proud +and tender smile. + +"Fie upon thee for a laggard, Henry!" she began: "I warrant thy Captain +meets not his Dione with so slow a step!" Then, seeing who stood before +her, she left her seat between the oak roots and curtsied low. "Sir +Mortimer Ferne," she said, and rising to her full height, met his eyes +with that deeper gaze of hers. + +Ferne advanced, and bending his knee to the short turf, took and kissed +her hand. "Fair and sweet lady," he said, "I made suit to your brother, +and he has given me, his friend, this happy chance. Now I make my +supplication to you, to whom I would be that, and more. All this week +have I vainly sought for speech with you alone. But now these blessed +trees hem us round; there is none to spy or listen--and here is a mossy +bank, fit throne for a faery queen. Will you hear me speak?" + +The maid of honor looked at him with rose bloom upon her cheeks, and in +her eyes, although they smiled, a moisture as of half-sprung tears. "Is +it of Henry?" she asked. "Ah, sir, you have been so good to him! He is +very dear to me.... I would that I could thank you--" + +As she spoke she moved with him to the green bank, sat down, and clasped +her hands about her knees. The man who on the morrow should leave behind +him court and court ways, and all fair sights such as this, leaned +against the oak and looked down upon her. When, after a little silence, +he began to speak, it was like a right courtier of the day. + +"Fair Mistress Damaris," he said, "your brother is my friend, but to-day +I would speak of my friend's friend, and that is myself, and your +servant, lady. To-morrow I go from this garden of the world, this +no-other Paradise, this court where Dian reigns, but where Venus comes +as a guest, her boy in her hand. Where I go I know not, nor what thread +Clotho is spinning. Strange dangers are to be found in strange places, +and Jove and lightning are not comfortable neighbors. Ulysses took moly +in his hand when there came to meet him Circe's gentlemen pensioners, +and Gyges's ring not only saved him from peril, but brought him wealth +and great honor. What silly mariner in my ship hath not bought or begged +mithridate or a pinch of achimenius wherewith to make good his voyage? +And shall not I, who have much more at stake, procure me an +enchantment?" + +The lady's fringed lids lifted in one swift upward glance. "Your valor, +sir, should prove your surest charm. But there is the new alchemist--" + +"He cannot serve my need, hath not what I want. I want--" He hesitated +for a moment; then spoke on with a certain restrained impetuosity that +became him well: "There is a honey-wax which, being glazed about the +heart, holdeth within it, forever, a song so sweet that the chanting of +the sirens matters not; there is that precious stone which, as the +magnet draweth the iron, so ever constraineth Honor, bidding him mount +every breach, climb higher, higher, higher yet! there is that fragrant +leaf which oft is fed with tears, and often sighing worn, yet, so worn, +inspireth valor more heroical than that of Achilles! Such a charm I +seek, sweet lady." + +Mistress Damaris Sedley, a favorite of the Countess of Pembroke, and a +court lady of some months' standing, could parley euphuism with the +best, and yet to-day it seemed to her that plain English might better +serve the turn. However: + +"Good gentleman," she answered, sedately, "I think that few are the bees +that gather so dainty a wax, but if they be flown to Hymettus, then to +Hymettus might one follow them; also that precious stone may be found, +though, alack! often enough a man is so poor a lapidary that, seeing +only the covering of circumstances, he misses the true sapphire! and for +that fragrant leaf, I have heard of it in my day--" + +"It is called truelove," he said. + +Damaris kept to the card: "My marvel, sir, is to hear you speak as +though you had not the charm you seem to seek. One blossom of the tree +Alpina is worth all store of roses; one ruby outvalueth many pearls; he +who hath already the word of magic needeth to buy no Venus's image; and +Sir Mortimer Ferne, secure in Dione's love, saileth, methinks, in +crystal seas, with slight danger from storm and wreck." + +"Secure in Dione's love!" repeated Ferne. "Ah, lady, your shaft has +gone wide. I have sailed, and sailed, and sailed--ay, and in crystal +seas--and have seen blooms fairer than the tree Alpina, and have been in +the land of emeralds and where pearls do grow, and yet have never +gathered the fragrant leaf, that leaf of true and mutual love. It should +grow with the laurel and blend with the bay--ay, and be not missing from +the cypress wreath! But as yet I have it not--as yet I have it not." + +Damaris gazed upon him with brown, incredulous eyes, and when she spoke +her words came somewhat breathlessly, having quite outgone the courtly +affectation of similes run mad. + +"What mean you, sir? Not the love of Astrophel for Stella is better +known than that of Cleon for Dione! And, lo! now your own lines--Master +Dyer showed them to me but the other day copied into his book of songs: + + 'Nor in my watery wanderings am I crossed; + Where haven's wanted, there I haven find, + Nor e'er for me is star of guidance lost--'" + +Her voice breaking a little, Ferne made nearer approach to the green +bank where she rested. "Do you learn by heart my verses, lady?" +he asked. + +"Ay," she answered, "I did ever love sweet poetry." Her voice thrilled, +and she gazed past him at the blue heaven showing between the oak +leaves. "If prayer with every breath availeth," she said, "no doubt your +Dione will bring your safe return." + +"Of whom do I write, calling her Dione?" + +She shook her head. "I know not. None of us at court knows. Master Dyer +saith--but surely that one is not worthy--" She ceased to speak, nor +knew there had been in her tone both pain and wistfulness. Presently she +laughed out, with the facile gayety that one in her position must needs +be practised in. "Ah, sir, tell me her name! Is she of the court?" + +He nodded, "Yes." + +Damaris clapped her hands. "What lovely hypocrite have we among us? What +Lady Pure Innocence, wondering with the rest of the world?--and all the +while Cleon's latest sonnet hot against her heart! Is she tall, sir, +or short?" + +"Of your height." + +The lady shrugged. "Oh, I like not your half-way people! And her +hair--but halt! We know her hair is dark: + + 'Ah, darkness loved beyond all light!' + +Her eyes--" + +He bent his head, moving yet nearer to her. "Her eyes--her eyes are +wonderful! Where got you your eyes, Dione--Dione?" + +Crimsoning deeply, Damaris started up, the racket escaping her clasp, +and her hands going out in a gesture of dismay and anger. "Sir,--sir," +she stammered, "since you make a mock of me, I will begone. No, sir; let +me pass! Ah, ... how unworthy of you!" + +Ferne had caught her by the wrists. "No, no! Dear lady, to whom I am +wellnigh a stranger--sweetheart with whom I have talked scarce thrice in +all my life--my Dione, to whom my heart is as a crystal, to whom I have +written all things! I must speak now, now before I go this voyage! Think +you it is in me to vex with saucy words, to make a mock of any +gentle lady?" + +"I know not what to think," she answered, in a strange voice. "I am too +dull to understand." + +"Think that I tell you God's truth!" he cried. "Understand that--" He +checked himself, seeing how pale she was and how flutteringly came her +breath; then, trained as she herself to instantly draw an airy veil +between true feeling and the exigency of the moment, he became once more +the simple courtier. "You read the songs that I make, sweet lady," he +said, "and now will you listen while I tell you a story, a _novelle_? So +I may make you to understand." + +As he spoke he motioned to the mossy bank which she had quitted. She +raised her troubled eyes to his; then, with her scarlet lip between her +teeth, she took her seat again. For a minute there was silence in the +little grove, broken only by the distant voices of the players whose +company she had forsworn; then Ferne began his story: + +"In a fair grassy plain, not many leagues removed from the hill +Parnassus, a shepherd named Cleon sat upon a stone, piping to himself +while he watched his sheep, and now and then singing aloud, so that the +other shepherds and dwellers of the plain, and travellers through it, +paused to hear his song. He sang not often, and often he laid his pipe +aside, for he had much to think of, having been upon the other side of +the mountain, and having seen cities and camps and courts,--for indeed +he was not always shepherd. And now, because his thoughts left the plain +to hover over the place where danger is, to visit strange coasts and +Ultima Thule, to strain ever towards those islands of the blest where +goes the man who has endured to the end, his notes when he sang or when +he played became warlike, resolved, speaking of death and fame and stern +things, or of things of public weal.... But all the time the shepherd +was a lonely man, because his spirit was too busy to find ease for +itself, and because, though he had helped other shepherds in the +building of their cottages, his own heart had no hearthstone where he +might warm himself and be content. Sometimes as he lay alone upon the +bare earth, counting the stars, he caught the gleam from such a home +clear shining over the plain, and he told himself that when he had +numbered all the stars like sheep in a fold, then would he turn and give +his heart rest beside some lower light.... So he kept on with his +Phrygian melodies, and they brought him friends and enemies; but no +lover hastening over the plain stayed to listen, and the shepherd was +sorry for that, because he thought that the others, though they heard, +did not fully understand." + +The narrator paused. The maid of honor's hands were idle in her lap; +with level gaze she sat in a dream. "Yet some there be who might have +understood," she said, and scarce knew that she had spoken. + +"Now Cleon had a friend whom he loved, the shepherd Astrophel, who sang +more sweetly than any in all that plain, and Astrophel would oft urge +Cleon to his dwelling, which was a fair one, with shady groves, sunny +lawns, and springing fountains." + +"Ah, sweet Sidney, dear Penshurst!" breathed the lady, softly. + +"Now upon a day--indeed, 'tis little more than a year ago--Cleon, +returning to the plain from a far journey, found Astrophel, who, taking +no denial, would have him to those sunny lawns and springing fountains. +There was dust upon the spirit of the shepherd Cleon: that had happened +which had left in his mouth the taste of Dead Sea fruit; almost was he +ready to break his pipe across, and to sit still forever, covering his +face. But Astrophel, knowing in himself how he would have felt in his +dearest part that wound which his friend had received, was skilled to +heal, and with wise counsel and honeyed words at last won Cleon to +visit him." + +"A year and more ago," said Damaris, dreamily. + +"On such a day as this, Cleon and Astrophel came to the latter's home, +where, since Astrophel was as a magnet-stone to draw unto him the +noblest of his kind, they found a goodly gathering of the chiefest of +the dwellers in the plain. Nor were lacking young shepherdesses, nymphs, +and ladies as virtuous as they were fair, for Astrophel's sister was +such an one as Astrophel's sister should be." + +"Most dear, most sweet Countess," murmured Damaris. + +"Cleon and Astrophel were made welcome by this goodly company, after +which all addressed themselves to those sports of that country for which +the day had been devised. But though he made merry with the rest, nor +was in anything behind them, Cleon's heart was yet heavy within him.... +Aurora, fast flying, turned a rosy cheek, then the night hid her path +with his spangled mantle, and all this company of shepherdish folk left +the gray lawns for Astrophel's house, that was lit with clear wax and +smelled sweet of roses. And after a while, when there had been comfit +talk and sipping of sweet wine, one sang, and another followed, while +the company listened, for they were of those who have ears to hear. +Colin sang of Rosalind; Damon, of Myra; Astrophel, of Stella; Cleon, +of--none of these things. 'Sing of love!' they cried, and he sang of +friendship;' Of the love of a woman!' and he sang to the honor of +a man." + +"But in that contest he won the Countess's pearl," said the maid of +honor, her chin in her hands; "I knew (dear lady!) what, being woman, +was her inmost thought, and in my heart I did applaud her choice." + +The man bent his eyes upon her for a moment, then went on with his +story, but somewhat slowly. + +"When it had thus ended the day, that goodly company betook itself to +rest. But Cleon tossed upon his bed, and at the dawn, when the birds +began to sing, he arose, dressed himself, and went forth into the dewy +gardens of that lovely place. Here he walked up and down, for his unrest +would not leave him, and his heart hungered for food it had never +tasted.... There was a fountain springing from a stone basin, and all +around were set rose-bushes, seen dimly because of the mist. Presently, +when the light was stronger, issued from the house one of those nymphs +whom Astrophel's sister delighted to gather around her, and coming to +the fountain, began to search about its rim for a jewel that had been +lost. She moved like a mist wreath in that misty place, but Cleon saw +that her eyes were dark, and her lips a scarlet flower, and that grace +was in all her motions. He remembered her name, and that she was loved +of Astrophel's sister, and how sweet a lady she was called. Now he +watched her weaving paces in the mist, and his fancy worked.... The mist +lifted, and a sudden sunshine lit her into splendor; face, form, spirit, +all, all her being into fadeless splendor--into fadeless +splendor, Dione!" + +The maid of honor left once more her grassy throne, and turning from +him, moved a step away, then with raised arms clasped her hands behind +her head. Her upturned face was hidden from him, but he saw her white +bosom rise and fall. He had made pause, but now he continued his story, +though with a changed voice. + +"And Cleon, going to her with due greeting, knelt: she thought (sweet +soul!) to aid her in her search, but indeed he knelt to her, for now he +knew that the gods had given him this also--to love a woman. But because +the blind boy's shaft, designed to work inward ever deeper and deeper +until it reached the heart's core, did now but ensanguine itself, he +made no cry nor any sign of that sweet hurt. He found and gave the nymph +the jewel she had lost, and broke for her the red, red roses, and while +the birds did carol he led her through the morning to the entrance of +the house. Up the stone stairs went she, and turned in splendor at the +top. A red rose fell ... the sunlight passed into the house." + +The voice of the speaker altered, came nearer the ear of her who stood +with heaving bosom, with upturned face, with hands locked tight upon the +wonder of this hour. + +"The rose, the rose has faded, Dione," said the ardent voice. "Look how +dead it lies upon my palm! But bend and breathe upon it, and it will +bloom again! Ah, that day at Penshurst! when I sought you and they told +me you were gone--a brother ill and calling for you--a guardian, no +friend of mine, to whose house I had not access! And then the Queen must +send for me, and there was service to be done--service which got me my +knighthood.... The stream between us widened. At first I thought to span +it with a letter, and then I wrote it not. 'Twas all too frail a bridge +to trust my hope upon. For what should have the paper said? _I am so +near a stranger to thee that scarce have we spoken twice +together--therefore love me! I am a man who hath done somewhat in the +busy world, and shall, God willing, labor once again, but now a cloud +overshadows me--therefore love me! I have no wealth or pomp of place to +give thee, and I myself am of those whom God hath bound to +wander--therefore love me! I chanced upon thee beside a fountain ringed +with roses, gray with mist; the sun came out and I saw thee, golden in +the golden light--therefore love me!_ Ah no! you would have answered--I +know not what. Therefore I waited, for I have at times a strange +patience, a willingness to let Fate guide me. Moreover, I ever thought +to meet you, to speak with you face to face again, but it fell not so. +Was I with the court, the country claimed you; went I north or west, +needs must I hear of you a lovely star within that galaxy I had left. +Thrice were we in company together--cursed spite that gave us only time +for courtly greeting, courtly parting!" + +The voice came nearer, came very near: "Have I said that I wrote not to +you? Ay, but I did, my only dear! And as I wrote, from the court, from +the camp, from my poor house of Ferne, I said: 'This will tell her how +in her I reverence womankind,' and, 'These are flowers for her +coronal--will she not know it among a thousand wreaths?' and, 'This, ah, +this, will show her how deeply now hath worked the arrow!' and, 'Now she +cannot choose but know--her soul will hear my soul cry!' And that those +letters might come to your eyes, I, following the fashion, sealed them +only with feigned names, altered circumstance. All who ran might read, +but the heartbeat was for your ear ... Dione! Didst never guess?" + +She answered in a still voice without moving: "It may be that my soul +guessed.... If it did so, it was frightened and hid its guess." + +"I have told you," said the man. "But, ah, what am I more to you now +than on that morn at Penshurst--a stranger! I know not--even you may +love another.... But no, I know that you do not. As I was then, so am I +now, save that I have served the Queen again, and that cloud I spoke of +is overpast. I must go forth to-morrow to seek, to find, to win, to +lose--God He knoweth what! I would go as your knight avowed, your favor +in my helm, your kiss like holy water on my brow. See, I kneel to you +for some sign, some charm to make my voyage good!" + +Very slowly the rose-clad maid of honor let fall her gaze from the +evening skies to the man before her; as slowly unclasped her hands so +tightly locked behind her upraised head. Her eyes were wide and filled +with light, her bosom yet rose and fell quickly; in all her mien there +was still wonder, grace supreme, a rich unfolding like the opening of a +flower to the bliss of understanding. Trembling, her hand went down, and +resting on his shoulder, gave him her accolade. She bowed herself +towards him; a knot of rosy velvet, loosened from her dress, fell upon +the turf beside his knee. Ferne caught up the ribbon, pressed it to his +lips and thrust it in the breast of his doublet. Rising, he took her in +his arms and they kissed. Her breath came pantingly. + +"Oh, I envied her!" she cried. "Now I know that I envied while I blessed +her--that unknown Dione!" + +"My lady and my only dear!" he said. "Oh, Love is as the sun! So the +sunshine bide, let come what will come!" + +"I rest in the sunshine!" she said. "Oh, Love is bliss ... but anguish +too! I see the white sails of your ships." + +She shuddered in his arms. "All that go return not. Ah, tell me that you +will come back to me!" + +"That will I do," he answered, "an I am a living man. If I die, I shall +but wait for thee. I see no parting of our ways." + +One hour was theirs. Bread and wine, and flower and fruit, and meeting +and parting it held for them. Hand in hand they sat upon the grassy +bank, and eyes met eyes, but speech came not often to their lips. They +looked and loved, against the winter storing each moment with sweet +knowledge, honeyed assurance. Brave and fair were they both, gallant +lovers in a gallant time, changing love-looks in a Queen's garden, above +the silver Thames. A tide of amethyst fell the sunset light; the +swallows circled overhead; a sound was heard of singing voices; violet +knight and rose-colored maid of honor, they came at last to say +farewell. That night in the lit Palace, amid the garish crowd, they +might see each other again, might touch hands, might even have slight +speech together, but not as now could heart speak to heart. They rose +from the green bank, and as the sun set, as the moon came out, and the +singing ceased, and the world grew ashen, they said what lovers say on +the brink of absence, and at the last they kissed good-by. + + + +III + +They were not far north of the Canary Islands, when the sky, which for +several days had been overcast, grew very threatening, and the _Mere +Honour_, the _Cygnet_, the _Marigold_, and the _Star_ made ready to meet +what fury the Lord should be pleased to loose upon them. It came, a +maniac unchained, and scattered the ships. Darkness accompanied it, and +the sea wrinkled beneath its feet. The ships went here and went there; +throughout the night they burned lights, and fired many great pieces of +ordnance,--not to prevail against their enemy, but to say each to the +other: "Here am I, my sister! Go not too far, come not too near!" Their +voices were as whispers to the shouting of their foe; beneath the +rolling thunders the sound of cannon and culverin were of less account +than the grating of pebbles in a furious surge. + +Day came and the storm continued, but with night the wind fell and +quiet possessed the deep. The sea subsided, and just before dawn the +clouds broke, showing a waning moon. Below it suddenly sprang out two +lights, one above the other, and to the _Cygnet_, safe, though with her +plumage sadly ruffled, came the sound of a gun twice fired. + +The darkness faded, the gray light strengthened, and showed to the +watchers upon the _Cygnet's_ decks the ship in distress. It was Baldry's +ship, the little _Star_. She lay rolling heavily in the heavy sea, her +masts gone, her boats swept away, her poop low in the water, her +beak-head high, sinking by the stern. Her lights yet burned, ghastly in +the dawning; her people, a black swarm upon her forecastle, lay +clinging, devouring with their eyes the _Cygnet's_ boats coming for +their deliverance across the gray waste. Of the _Mere Honour_ and the +_Marigold_ nothing was to be seen. + +The swarm descended into the boats, and all pushed off from the doomed +ship save a single craft, less crowded than the others, which waited, +its occupants gesticulating angry dismay, for the one man who had not +left the _Star_. He stood erect upon her bowsprit, a dark figure +outlined against the livid sky. + +[Illustration: "IT WAS BALDRY'S SHIP, THE LITTLE _STAR_"] + +The watchers upon the _Cygnet_, from Captain to least powder-boy, drew +quick breath. + +"Ah, sirs, he loved the _Star_ like a woman!" ejaculated Thynne the +master, and, "He swore terribly, but he was a mighty man!" testified the +chief gunner. Robin-a-dale swung himself to and fro in an ecstasy of +terror. "He rides--he rides so high!" he shrilled. "Higher than the +gallows-tree! And he stands so quiet while he rides!" + +Upon the poop young Sedley, standing beside his Captain, veiled his eyes +with his hand; then, ashamed of his weakness, gazed steadfastly at the +lifted figure. Arden, drumming with his fingers upon the rail, looked +sidewise at Sir Mortimer Ferne. + +"It seems that your quarrel will have to wait some other meeting-place +than England," he said. "Perhaps the laws of that _terra incognita_ to +which he goes forbid the duello." + +"He will not leave our company yet awhile," answered Ferne, with +calmness. "As I thought--." + +The dark figure had dropped from the bowsprit of the _Star_ into the +waiting boat, which at once put after its fellows. Behind the deserted +ship suddenly streamed out a red banner of the dawn; stark and black +against the color, lonely in the path that must be trod, she awaited her +end. To the seafaring men who watched her she was as human as +themselves--a ship dying alone. + +"All that a man hath will he give for his life," quoth Arden, somewhat +grimly, for he was no lover of Baldry, and he was now ashamed of the +emotion he had shown. + +"To go down with her," said Ferne, slowly,--"that had been the act of a +madman. And if to live is a thing less fine than would have been that +madness, yet--" + +He broke off, and turning from the _Star_, now very near her death, +swept with his gaze the billowing ocean. "I would we might see the _Mere +Honour_ and the _Marigold_," he said, impatiently. "What is lost is +lost, and Captain Baldry as well as we must stand this crippling of our +enterprise. But the _Mere Honour_ and the _Marigold_ are of more account +than the _Star_." + +Out of a cluster of mariners and landsmen rose Robin-a-dale's shrill +cry: "She's going down, down, down! Oh, the white figurehead looks no +more into the sea--it turns its face to the sky! Down, down, the _Star_ +has gone down!" + +A silence fell upon the decks of the _Cygnet_ and upon the overfreighted +boats laboring towards her. Overhead mast and spar creaked and the low +wind sang in the rigging, but the spirit of man was awed within him. A +ship was lost, and the sea was lonely beneath the crimson dawn. Where +were the _Mere Honour_ and the _Marigold_, and was all their adventure +but a mirage and a cheat? Far away was home, and far away the Indies, +and the _Cygnet_ was a little feather tossed between red sky and +heaving ocean. + +The thought did not last. As the crowded boats drew alongside, up sprang +the sun, cheering and warming, and at the Captain's command the +musicians of the _Cygnet_ began to play, as at the setting of the watch, +a psalm of thanksgiving. Sailors and volunteers, there had been but +sixty men aboard the _Star_, and all were safe. As they clambered over +the side, a cheer went up from their comrades of the _Cygnet_. + +The boat that carried Baldry came last, and that adventurer was the +latest to set foot upon the _Cygnet's_ deck. Her Captain met him with +bared head and outstretched hand. + +"We grieve with you, sir, for the loss of the _Star_," he said, gravely +and courteously. "We thank God that no brave man went down with her. The +_Cygnet_ gives you welcome, sir." + +The man to whom he spoke ignored alike words and extended hand. A +towering figure, breathing bitter anger at this spite of Fortune, he +turned where he stood and gazed upon the ocean that had swallowed up his +ship. Uncouth of nature, given to boasting, a foster-child of Violence +and Envy, he yet had qualities which had borne him upward and onward +from mean beginnings to where on yesterday he had stood, owner and +Captain of the _Star_, leader of picked men, sea-dog and adventurer as +famed for daredevil courage and boundless endurance as for his +braggadocio vein and sullen temper. Now the _Star_ that he had loved was +at the bottom of the sea; his men, a handful beside the _Cygnet's_ +force, must give obedience to her officers; and he himself,--what was he +more than a volunteer aboard his enemy's ship? Captain Robert Baldry, +grinding his teeth, found the situation intolerable. + +Sir Mortimer Ferne, biting his lip in a sudden revulsion of feeling, was +of much the same opinion. But that he would follow after courtesy was as +certain as that Baldry would pursue his own will and impulse. Therefore +he spoke again, though scarce as cordially as before: + +"We will shape our course for Teneriffe, where (I pray to God) we may +find the _Mere Honour_ and the _Marigold_. If it please Captain Baldry +to then remove into the _Mere Honour_, I make no doubt that the Admiral +will welcome so notable a recruit. In the mean time your men shall be +cared for, and you yourself will command me, sir, in all things that +concern your welfare." + +Baldry shot him a look. "I am no maker of pretty speeches," he said. +"You have me in irons. Pray you, show me some dungeon and give me leave +to be alone." + +Young Sedley, hotly indignant, muttered something, that was echoed by +the little throng of gentlemen adventurers sailing with Sir Mortimer +Ferne. Arden, leaning against the mast, coolly observant of all, began +to whistle, + + "'Of honey and of gall in love there is store: + The honey is much, but the gall is more,'" + +thereby bringing upon himself one of Baldry's black glances. + +"Lieutenant Sedley," ordered Ferne, sharply, "you will lodge this +gentleman in the cabin next mine own, seeing that he hath all needful +entertainment. Sir, I do expect your company at dinner." + +He bowed, then stood at his full height, while Baldry sufficiently +bethought himself to in some sort return the salute, even to give +grudging, half--insolent acknowledgment of the debt he owed the +_Cygnet_. At last he went below--to refuse the bread and meat, but to +drink deep of the _aqua vita_ which Sedley stiffly offered; then to lock +himself in his cabin, bite his nails with rage, and finally, when he had +stared at the sea for a long time, to sink his head into his hands and +weep a man's tears for irrevocable loss. + +Of his fellow adventurers whom he left upon the poop, only Mortimer +Ferne held his tongue from blame of his insupportable temper, or +refrained from stories of the _Star's_ exploits. The _Cygnet_ was under +way, the wind favorable, her white and swelling canvas like clouds +against a bright-blue sky, the dolphins playing about her rushing prow, +where a golden lady forever kept her eyes upon the deep. In the wind, +timber and cordage creaked and sang, while from waist and main-deck came +a cheerful sound of men at work repairing what damage the storm had +wrought. Thynne the master gave orders in his rumbling bass, then the +drum beat for morning service, and, after the godly fashion of the time, +there poured from the forecastle, to worship the Lord, mariners and +landsmen, gunners, harquebusiers, crossbow and pike men, cabin and +powder boys, cook, chirurgeon, and carpenter--all the varied force of +that floating castle destined to be dashed like a battering-ram against +the power of Spain. The Captain of them all, with his gentlemen and +officers about him, paused a moment before moving to his accustomed +place, and looked upon his ship from stem to stern, from the thronged +decks to the topmost pennant flaunting the sunshine. He found it good, +and the salt of life was strong in his nostrils. Inwardly he prayed for +the safety of the _Mere Honour_, and the _Marigold_, but that picture of +the sinking _Star_ he dismissed as far as might be from his mind. She +had been but a small ship--notorious indeed for fights against great +odds, for sheer bravado and hairbreadth escapes, but still a small ship, +and not to be compared with the _Cygnet_. No life had been forfeited, +and Captain Robert Baldry must even digest as best he might his private +loss and discomfiture. If, as he walked to his place of honor, and as he +stood with English gentlemen about him, with English sailors and +soldiers ranged before him giving thanks for deliverance from danger, +the Captain of the _Cygnet_ held too high his head; if he at that moment +looked upon his life with too conscious a pride, knew too well the +difference between himself, steadfast helmsman of all his being, and +that untutored nature which drove another from rock to shoal, from shoal +to quicksand--yet that knowledge, detestable to all the gods, dragged at +his soul but for a moment. He bent his head and prayed for the missing +ships, and most heartily for John Nevil, his Admiral, whom he loved; +then for Damaris Sedley that she be kept in health and joyousness of +mind; and lastly, believing that he but plead for the success of an +English expedition against Spain and Antichrist, he prayed for gold and +power, a sovereign's gratitude and man's acclaim. + +Three days later they came to Teneriffe, and to their great rejoicing +found there the _Mere Honour_ and the _Marigold_. The Admiral signalled +a council; and Ferne, taking with him Giles Arden, Sedley, and the +Captain of the sunken _Star_, went aboard the _Mere Honour_, where he +was shortly joined by Baptist Manwood from the _Marigold_, with his +lieutenants Wynch and Paget. In his state-cabin, when he had given his +Captains welcome, the Admiral sat at table with his wine before him and +heard how had fared the _Cygnet_ and the _Marigold_, then listened to +Baldry's curt recital of the _Star's_ ill destinies. The story ended, he +gave his meed of grave sympathy to the man whose whole estate had been +that sunken ship. Baldry sat silent, fingering, as was his continual +trick, the hilt of his great Andrew Ferrara. But when the Admiral, with +his slow, deliberate courtesy, went on to propose that for this +adventure Captain Baldry cast his lot with the _Mere Honour_, he +listened, then gave unexpected check. + +"I' faith, his berth upon the _Cygnet_ liked him well enough, and though +he thanked the Admiral, what reason for changing it? In fine, he should +not budge, unless, indeed, Sir Mortimer Ferne--" He turned himself +squarely so as to face the Captain of the _Cygnet_. + +The latter, in the instant that passed before he made any answer to +Baldry's challenging look, saw once again that vision of the other +morning--the flare of dawn, and high against it one desperate figure, a +man just balancing if to keep his life or no, seeing that for the thing +he loved there was no rescue. Say that the doomed ship had been the +_Cygnet_--would Mortimer Ferne have so cheapened grief, have grown so +bitter, be so ready to eat his heart out with envy and despite? Perhaps +not; and yet, who knew? The _Cygnet_ was there, visible through the port +windows, lifting against serenest skies her proud bulk, her castellated +poop and forecastle, her tall masts and streaming pennants. The _Star_ +was down below, a hundred leagues from any lover, and the sea was deep +upon her, and her guns were silent and her decks untrodden.... He was +wearied of Baldry's company, impatient of his mad temper and peasant +breeding, very sure that he chose, open-eyed, to torment himself from +Teneriffe to America with the sight of a prospering foe merely that that +foe might feel a nettle in his unwilling grasp. Yet, so challenged, when +had passed that moment, he met Baldry's gloomy eyes, and again assured +the adventurer that the presence of so brave a man and redoubted fighter +could but do honor to the _Cygnet_. + +His words were all that courtesy could desire: if tone and manner were +of the coldest, yet Baldry, not being sensitive, and having gained his +point, could afford to let that pass. He turned to the Admiral with a +short laugh. + +"You see, sir, we are yoke-brothers--Sir Mortimer Ferne and I,--though +whether God or the devil hath joined us!... Well, the two of us may send +some Spanish souls to hell!" + +With his yoke-brother, Arden, and Sedley he returned to the _Cygnet_, +and that evening at supper, having drunken much sack, began to loudly +vaunt the deeds of the drowned _Star_, magnifying her into a being +sentient and heroical, and darkly-wishing that the luck of the +expedition be not gone with her to the bottom of the sea. + +"Luck!" exclaimed Ferne at last, haughtily. "I hate the word. Your +luck--my luck--the luck of this our enterprise! It is a craven word, +overmuch upon the lips of Christian gentlemen." + +"I was not born a gentleman," said Baldry, playing with his knife. "You +know that, Sir Mortimer Ferne." + +"I'll swear you've taken out no patent since," muttered Arden, whereat +his neighbor laughed aloud, and Baldry, pushing back his stool, glared +at each in turn. + +"I know that a man's will, and not a college of heralds, makes him what +he is," said Ferne. "I have known churls in honorable houses and true +knights in the common camp. And I submit not my destinies to that +gamester Luck: as I deserve and as God wills, so run my race!" + +"Oh, every man of us knows our Captain's deserving!" quoth Baldry. +"Well, gentlemen, on that occasion of which I was speaking, the devil's +own luck being with me, I sunk both the carrack and the galley, and +headed the _Star_ for the castle of Paria." + +On went the wondrous tale, with no further interruption from Sir +Mortimer, who sat at the head of the table, playing the part of host to +Captain Robert Baldry, listening with cold patience to the adventurer's +rhodomontade. When spurred by wine there was wont to awaken in Baldry a +certain mordant humor, a rough wit, making straight for the mark and +clanging harshly against an adversary's shield, a lurid fancy dully +illuminating the subject he had in hand. The wild story that he was +telling caught the attention of the more thoughtless sort at table; they +leaned forward, encouraging him from flight to flight, laughing at each +sally of boatswain's wit, ejaculating admiration when the _Star_ and her +Captain fairly left the realm of the natural. One splendid lie followed +another, until Baldry was caught by his own words, and saw himself thus, +and thus, and thus!--a sea-dog confessed, a gatherer of riches, a dealer +of death from the poop of the _Star_! In his mind's eye the lost bark +swelled to a phantom ship, gigantic, terrible, wrapped with the mist of +the sea; while he himself--ah! he himself-- + + "He struck the mainmast with his hand, + The foremast with his knee--" + +All that he had been and all that he had done, if man were only +something more than man, if devil's luck and devil's power would come to +his whistle, if the seed of his nature could defy the iron stricture of +the flesh, reaching its height, shooting up into a terrible +upas-tree--so for the moment Baldry saw himself. Into his voice came a +deep and sonorous note, his black eyes glowed; he began to gesture with +his hand, stately as a Spaniard. And then, chancing to glance towards +the head of the board, he met the eyes of the man who sat there, his +Captain now, whom he must follow! What might he read in their depths? +Half-scornful amusement, perhaps, and the contempt of the man who has +done what man may do for the yoke-fellow who habitually made claim to +supernatural prowess; in addition to the scholar's condemnation of +blatant ignorance, the courtier's dislike of unmannerliness, the +soldier's scorn of unproved deeds, athwart all the philosophic smile! +Baldry, flushing darkly, hated with all his wild might, for that he +chose to hate, the man who sat so quietly there, who held with so much +ease the knowledge that by right of much beside his commission he was +leader of every man within those floating walls. The Captain of the +_Star_ struck the table with his hand. + +"Ah, I had good help that time! My brother sailed with me--Thomas +Baldry, that was master of the _Speedwell_ that went down at Fayal in +the Azores.... Didst ever see a ghost, Sir Mortimer Ferne?" + +"No," answered Ferne, curtly. + +"Then the dead come not to haunt us," said Baldry. "I would have sworn a +many had passed before your eyes. Now had I been Thomas Baldry I would +have won back." + +"That also?" demanded Sir Mortimer. His tone was of simple wonder, and +there went round the board a laugh for Baldry's boasting. That +adventurer started to his feet, his eyes, that were black, deep-set, and +very bright, fixed upon Ferne. + +"That also," he answered. "An I should die before our swords cross, that +also!" + +He turned and left the cabin. + +"Now," said Arden, as his heavy footsteps died away, "I had rather +gather snow for the Grand Turk than rubies with some I wot of!" + +Henry Sedley, a hot red in his cheek, and his dark hair thrown back, +turned from staring after the retreating figure. "If I send him my +cartel, Sir Mortimer, wilt put me in irons?" + +"Ay, that will I," said Ferne, calmly. "Word and deed he but doth after +his kind. Well, let him go. For his words, that a man's deeds do haunt +him, rising like shadows across his path, I believe full well--but for +me the master of the _Speedwell_ makes no stirring.... Take thy lute, +Henry Sedley, and sing to us, giving honey after gall! Sing to me of +other things than war." + +As he spoke he moved to the stern windows, took his seat upon the bench +beneath, and leaning on his arm, looked out upon the low red sun and the +darkening ocean. + + "'Ring out your bells, let mourning shows be spread: + For love is dead: + Love is dead, infected + With plague of deep disdain--'" + +sang Sedley with throbbing sweetness, depth of melancholy passion. The +listener's spirit left its chafing, left pride and disdain, and drifted +on that melodious tide to far heavens. + + "'Weep, neighbors, weep; do you not hear it said + That Love is dead? + His death-bed peacock's folly; + His winding sheet is shame; + His will false-seeming wholly; + His sole executor blame!'" + +rang Sedley's splendid voice. The song ended; the sun sank; on came the +invader night. Ferne took the lute and slowly swept its strings. + +"How much, how little of it all is peacock's folly," he said; "who +knoweth? Life and Living, Love and Hate, and Honor the bubble, and Shame +the Nessus-robe, and Death, which, when all's done, may have no answer +to the riddle!--Where is the fixed star, and who knoweth depth from +shallow, or himself, or anything?" He struck the lute again, drawing +from it a lingering and mournful note. + +"Now out upon the man who brought melancholy into fashion!" ejaculated +Arden. "In danger the blithest soul alive, when all is well you do ask +yourself too many questions! I'll go companion with Robert Baldry, who +keeps no fashions save of Mars's devising." + +"Why, I am not sad," said Ferne, rousing himself. "Come, I'll dice with +thee for fifty ducats and a gold jewel--to be paid from the first +ship we take!" + +On sailed the ships through tranquil seas, until many days had fallen +into their wake, slipping by them like painted clouds of floating +seaweed or silver-finned vagrants of the deep. Great calms brooded upon +the water, and the sails fell idle, flag and pennant drooped; then the +trade-wind blew, and the white ships drove on. They drove into the blue +distance, towards unknown ports--known only in that they would surely +prove themselves Ports of All Peril. At night the sea burned; a field of +gold it ran to horizons jewelled with richer stars than shone at home. +Above them, in the vault of heaven, hung the Great Ship, blazed the +Southern Cross. Every hour saw the flight of meteors, and their trains, +golden argosies of the sky, faded slowly from the dark-blue depths. When +the moon arose she was ringed with colors, but the men who gazed upon +her said not, "Every hue of the rainbow is there." They said, "See the +red gold, the pearls and the emeralds!" The night died suddenly and the +day was upon them, an aureate god, lavish of splendor. They hailed him +with music; as they pulled and hauled, the seamen sang. Other winds than +those of heaven drove them on. High purpose, love of country, religious +ecstasy, chivalrous devotion, greed of gain, lust of aggrandizement, +lust of power, mad ambitions, ruthless intents--by how strong a current, +here crystal clear, there thick and denied, were they swept towards +their appointed haven! In cruelty and lust, in the faith of little +children and the courage of old demi-gods, they went like homing +pigeons; and not a soul, from him who gave command to him who, far +aloft, looked out upon the deep, recked or cared that another age would +call him pirate or corsair, raising brow and shoulder over the morality +of his deeds. + +In the realms which they were entering, Truth, shattered into a thousand +gleaming fragments, might be held in part, but never wholly. There man's +quarry was the false Florimel, and she lured him on and he saw with +magically anointed eyes. Too suddenly awakened, the imagination of the +time was reeling; its sap ran too fast; wonders of the outer, +revelations of the inner, universe crowded too swiftly; the heady wine +made now gods, now fools of men. The white light was not for the heirs +of that age, nor yet the golden mean. Wonders happened, that they knew, +and so like children they looked for strange chances. There was no +miracle at which their faith would balk, no illusion whose cobweb tissue +they cared to tear away. Give but a grain whereon to build, a phenomenon +before which started back, amazed and daunted, the knowledge of the age, +and forthwith a mighty imagination leaped upon it, claimed it for its +own. There had been but a grain of sand, an inexplicable fact--lo! now, +a rounded pearl shot with all the hues of the morning, a miracle of +grace or an evidence of diabolic power, to doubt which was heresy! + +Adventurers to the Spanish Main believed in devil-haunted seas, in +flying islands, in a nation of men whose eyes were set in their +shoulders, and of women who cut off the right breast and slew every male +child. They believed in a hidden city, from end to end a three days' +march, where gold-dust thickened the air, and an Inca drank with his +nobles in a garden whose plants waved not in the wind, whose flowers +drooped not, whose birds never stirred upon the bough, for all alike +were made of gold. They believed in a fair fountain, hard indeed to +find, but of such efficacy that the graybeard who dipped in its shining +waters stepped forth a youth upon ever-vernal banks. + +So with these who like an arrow now clave the blue to the point of +danger. In this strange half of the world where nature's juggling hand +dealt now in supernal beauty, now in horror without a name, how might +they, puppets of their age, hold an even balance, know the mirage, know +the truth? Inextricably mingled were the threads of their own being, and +none could tell warp from woof, or guess the pattern that was weaving or +stay the flying shuttle. What if upon the material scroll unrolling +before them God had chosen to write strange characters? Was not the +parchment His, and how might man question that moving finger? + +One day they discerned an island, fair and clear against the +horizon--undoubtedly there, although no chart made mention of it. All +saw the island; but when one man cried out at the amazing height of its +snowy peak another laughed him to scorn, declaring the peak a cloud, and +spoke of sand-dunes topped with low bushes. A third clamored of a fair +white city, an evident harbor, and the masts of great ships; a fourth, +every whit as positive, stood out for unbroken forests and surf upon a +lonely reef. While they contended, the island vanished. Then they knew +that they had seen St. Brandon's Isle, and in his prayer at the setting +of the watch the chaplain made mention of the matter. On a night when +all the sea was phosphorescent, Thynne the master saw in the wake of the +_Cygnet_ a horned spirit, very black and ugly, leaping from one fiery +ripple to another, but when he called on Christ's name, rushing madly +away, full tilt into the setting moon. Again, Ferne and young Sedley, +pacing the poop beneath a sky of starry splendor, and falling silent +after talk that had travelled from Petrarch and Ariosto to that _Faerie +Queene_ which Edmund Spenser was writing, heard a faint sweet singing +far across the deep. "Hark!" breathed Sedley. "The strange sweet +sound.... Surely mermaiden singing!" + +"I know not," replied Ferne, his hands upon the railing. "Perchance 'tis +so. They say they are fair women.... The sound is gone. I would I might +hear thy sister singing." + +"How silver and how solemn is the sky!" said his companion. "Perhaps it +was the echo of some heavenly strain. There goeth a great star! They say +that the fall of such stars is portentous, speaking to men of doom." + +His Captain laughed. "Hast added so much astrology to thy store of +learning? Now, good-wife Atropos may cut her thread by the light of a +comet; but when the comet has flared away and the shearer returned to +her place, then in the deep darkness, where even the stars shine not, +the shorn thread may feel God's touch, may know it hath yet its uses.... +How all the sea grows phosphorescent! and the stars do fall so thickly +that there may be men a-dying. Well, before long there will be other +giving of swords to Death!" + +In the silence which followed his words, lightly spoken as they were, +young Sedley, who indeed owed very much to Mortimer Ferne, laid +impulsively his hand upon his Captain's hand. "On the night you give +your sword to Death, how great a star shall fall! An I go first, I shall +know when the trumpet sounds for your coming." + +"When I give my sword to Death," said Ferne, absently. "Ay, lad, when I +give my sword to Death.... There again, do you not hear the singing? It +is the wind, I think, and not the people of the sea. It hath a mocking +sound.... When I give my sword to Death." + +From the tops above them fell a voice of Stentor. "Sail ho! sail ho!" +Upon which they gave for the remainder of the tropic night small +attention to aught but warlike matters. With the morning the three ships +counted to the general gain the downright sinking of a small fleet from +Hispaniola, and the taking therefrom porcelain, many bales of rich silk +and rosaries of gold beads, a balass-ruby, twenty wedges of silver, and +a chest well lined with ducats. + +With this treasure to hark them forward, on and on sailed the ships; and +now land birds came to them, and now they passed, floating upon the +water, the leafy branch of a strange tree with red, cuplike blossoms. +Full--sailed upon the quiet sea they held their course, while the men +upon them, eager-eyed and keen, watched for land and for the galleons of +Spain. Content with the taking of the _Star_, calamity now kept away +from the ships. None upon them died, few were sick, master and captains +were kind, mariners and landsmen trusted in their tried might and +wealthy promises, and all the gales of heaven prospered the voyage. + +On the last day of July, seven weeks from that leave-taking in the +tavern of the Triple Tun, they came to the rocky island of Tobago; +watered there; then, driven by the constant wind, went on until faint +upon the horizon rose the coast of the mainland. + +The mountains of Maccanoa in the island of Margarita loomed before them; +they passed Coche, and on a night when light clouds obscured the moon +approached the pearl islet of Cubagua. With the dawn the _Mere Honour_ +and the _Marigold_ entered the harbor of New Cadiz, and began to bombard +that much-decayed town of the pearl-fishers. The _Cygnet_ kept on to the +slight settlement of La Rancheria, and met, emerging in hot haste from +a little bay of blue crystal, the galleon _San José_, one thousand tons, +commanded by Antonio de Castro, very richly laden, sailing from Puerto +Bello to Santo Domingo, and carrying, moreover, a company of soldiers +from Nueva Cordoba on the mainland to Pampatar in Margarita. + + + +IV + +Myriads of sea-birds, frightened by the thunder of the guns, fled +screaming; the palm-fringed shores of the bay showed through the smoke +brown and dim and far removed; hot indeed was the tropic morning in the +core of that murk and flame and ear-splitting sound. Each of the +combatants carried three tiers of ordnance; in each the guns were served +by masters at their trade. Cannons and culverins, sakers and falcons, +rent the air; then the _Cygnet_, having the wind of the Spaniard, laid +her aboard, and the harquebusiers, caliver, and crossbow-men also began +to speak. Together with the great guns they spoke to such effect that +the fight became very deadly. Twice the English strove to enter the huge +_San José_, and twice the Spaniards, thick upon her as swarming bees, +beat them back with sword and pike and blinding volleys from their +musketeers. From the tops fell upon them stones and heated pitch; the +hail-shot mowed them down; swordsmen and halberdiers thrust many from +their footing, loosening forevermore their clutching fingers, forever +stayed the hoarse shout in their throats. Many fell into the sea and +were drowned before the soul could escape through gaping wounds; others +reached their own decks to die there, or to lie writhing at the feet of +the unhurt, who might not stay for the need of any comrade. At the +second repulse there arose from the galleon a deafening cry of triumph. + +Ferne, erect against the break of the _Cygnet's_ poop, drawing a cloth +tight with teeth and hand above a wound in his arm from which the blood +was streaming, smiled at the sound, knotted his tourniquet; then for the +third time sprang upon that slanting, deadly bridge of straining ropes. +His sword flashed above his head. + +"Follow me--follow me!" he cried, and his face, turned over his +shoulder, looked upon his men. A drifting smoke wreath obscured his +form; then it passed, and he stood in the galleon's storm of shot, +poised above them, a single figure breathing war. Seen through the +glare, the face was serene; only the eyes commanded and compelled. The +voice rang like a trumpet. "St. George and Merry England! Come on, +men!--come on, come on!" + +They poured over the side and across the chasm dividing them from their +foes. A resistless force they came, following the gleam of a lifted +sword, the "On--on!" of a loved leader's voice. Sir Mortimer touched the +galleon's side, ran through the body a man of Seville whose sword-point +offered at his throat, and stood the next moment upon the poop of the +_San José_ Robert Baldry, a cutlass between his teeth, sprang after him; +then came Sedley and Arden and the tide of the English. + +The Spanish captain met his death, as was fitting, at Ferne's hand; the +commandant of the soldiers fell to the share of Henry Sedley. The young +man fought with dilated eyes, and white lips pressed together. Sir +Mortimer, who fought with narrowed eyes, who, quite ungarrulous by +nature, yet ever grew talkative in such an hour as this, found time to +note his lieutenant's deeds, to throw to the brother of the woman he +loved a "Well done, dear lad!" Sedley held his head high; his leader's +praise wrought in him like wine. He had never seen a man who did not his +best beneath the eyes of Sir Mortimer Ferne.... There, above the +opposite angle of the poop, red gold, now seen but dimly through the +reek of the guns, now in a moment of clear sunshine flaunting it +undefiled, streamed the Spanish flag. Between him and that emblem of +world-power the press was thick, for around it at bay were gathered many +valiant men of Spain, fighting for their own. They who by the law of the +strong were to inherit from them had yet to break that phalanx. Sedley +threw himself forward, beat down a veteran of the Indies, swept on +towards the goal of that hated banner. His enemies withstood him, closed +around him; in a moment he was cut off from the English, was gazing into +Death's eyes. With desperate courage he strove to thrust aside the +spectre, but it came nearer,--and nearer,--and nearer. The blood from a +cut across his temple was blinding him. He dashed it from him, and +then--that was not Death's face, but his Captain's.... Death slunk away. +Ferne, whose dagger had made that rescue, whose sword was rapidly +achieving for the two of them a wizard's circle, chided and laughed as +he fought: + +"What, lad! wouldst have played Samson among the Philistines? A man +should better know his strength.--There, señor! a St. George for your +San Jago!--Well done again, Henry Sedley! but I must show you a better +_passado_.--Have at _thee_, Don Inches!--Ah, Captain Baldry, Giles +Arden, good Humphrey, give you welcome! Here's room for +Englishmen.--Well, die, then, pertinacious señor!--Now, now, Henry +Sedley, there are lions yet in your path, but not so many. Have at their +golden banner an you prize the toy! No, Arden, no--let him take it +single-handed. Our first battle is far behind us.... Now who leads here, +since I think that he who did command is dead? Is it you, señor?" + +The poop was a shambles, the _San José_ from stem to stern in sorry +case. Underfoot lay the dead and wounded, her guns were silenced, her +men-at-arms overmastered. They had fought with desperate bravery, but +the third attack of the English had been elemental in its force. A +rushing wave, a devastating flame, they had swept the ship, and defeat +was the portion of their foes. Waist and forecastle were won, but upon +the poop a remnant yet struggled, though in weakness and despair. It was +to one of this band that the Captain of the _Cygnet_ addressed his +latest words. Even as he spoke he parried the other's thrust, and felt +that it had been given but half-heartedly. He had used the Spanish +tongue, but when an answer came from the mailed figure before him it was +couched in English. + +"Not so, valiant sir," it said, and there was in the voice some haste +and eagerness. "Say rather I am led. Alas! when a man fights with his +sword alone, his will being traitor to his hand!" + +"Since it is with the sword alone you fight, Spaniard with an English +tongue," replied his antagonist, "I do advise you to go seek your sword, +seeing that without it you are naught." As he spoke he sent the other's +weapon hurtling into the sea. + +Its owner made a gesture of acquiescence. "I surrender," he said; then +in an undertone: "He yonder with the plume, now that De Castro lies +dead, is your fittest quarry. Drag him down and the herd is yours." + +Ferne stared, then curled his lip. "Gramercy for your hint," he said. "I +pray you that henceforth we become the best of strangers." + +A shout arose, and Sedley bore down upon them, his right arm high, +crumpled in his hand the folds, tarnished with smoke, riddled by shot, +of the great ensign. It was the beginning of the end. Half an hour later +the red cross of St. George usurped the place of the golden flag. That +same afternoon the _Cygnet_ and the _San José_--the latter now manned by +an English crew, with her former masters under hatches--appeared before +La Rancheria, stormed the little settlement, and found there a slight +treasure of pearls. More than this was accomplished, for, boat-load +after boat-load, the Spanish survivors of the fight were transferred +from the galleon to a strip of lonely shore, and there left to shift for +themselves. One only of all that force the Captain of the _Cygnet_ +detained, and that was the man who had used the tongue of England and +the sword of Spain. With the sunset the _Mere Honour_ and the +_Marigold_, having left desolation behind them at New Cadiz, joined the +_Cygnet_ and her prize where they lay at anchor between the two spits +of sand that formed the harbor of La Rancheria. + +In the _Mere Honour's_ state-cabin the Admiral of the expedition +formally embraced and thanked his Captain, whose service to the common +cause had been so great. It was, indeed, of magnitude. Not many hours +had passed between the frenzy of battle and this sunshiny morning; but +time had been made and strength had been found to look to the cargo of +the _San José_". If wealth be good, it was worth the looking to, for not +the _Cacafuego_ had a richer lading. Gold and silver, ingots and bars +and wrought images, they found, and a great store of precious stones. To +cap all fortune, there was the galleon's self, a great ship, seaworthy +yet, despite the wounds of yesterday, mounting many guns, well supplied +with powder, ammunition, and military stores, English now in heart, and +lacking nothing but an English name. This they gave her that same day. +In the smoke and thunder of every cannon royal within the fleet _San +José_" vanished, and in his place arose the _Phoenix_. + +Exultant, flushed, many of them bearing wounds, the officers of the +expedition and the gentlemen adventurers who had staked with them +crowded the cabin of the _Mere Honour_. The sunshine streaming through +the windows showed in high light bandaged heads or arms and faces +haggard with victory. Wine had been spilled, and in the air there was +yet the savor of blood. About each man just breathed some taint of +savagery that was not yet beaten back after yesterday's wild outburst +and breaking of the bars. In some it took the form of the sleek +stillness of the tiger; others were loud-voiced, restless, biting at +their nails. Only to a few was it given to bear triumph soberly, with +room for other thoughts; to the most it came as a tumultuous passion, an +irrational joy, a dazzling bandage to their eyes, beneath which they +saw, with an inner vision, wealth a growing snowball and victory their +familiar spirit. Among the adventurers from the _Cygnet_ there was, +moreover, an intoxication of feeling for the man who had led them in +that desperate battle, whose subtle gift it was to strike fire from +every soul whose circle touched his own. He was to them among ten +thousand the Captain of their choice, not loved the least because of +that quality in him which gave ever just the praise which bred strong +longing for desert of fame. Now he stood beside the Admiral, and spoke +with ardor of the Englishmen who had won that fight, and very tenderly +of the dead. They were not a few, for the battle had been long and +doubtful. Simply and nobly he spoke, giving praise to thirsty souls. +When he had made an end, there was first a silence more eloquent than +speech, pregnant with the joy a man may take in his deed when he looks +upon it and sees that it is good; then a wild cheer, thrice repeated, +for Sir Mortimer Ferne. The name went out of the windows over the sea, +and up to every man who sailed the ship. One moment Ferne stood, tasting +his reward; then, "Silence, friends!" he said. "To God the victory! And +I hear naught of New Cadiz and other fortunate ships." He drew swiftly +from its sling his wounded arm and waved it above his head. "The +Admiral!" he cried, and then, "The _Marigold_!" + +When at last there was quiet in the cabin, Nevil, a man of Humphrey +Gilbert's type, too lofty of mind to care who did the service, so that +the service was done, began to speak of the captured galleon. "A noble +ship--the _Star_ come again, glorious in her resurrection robes! Who +shall be her captain, teaching her to eschew old ways and serve the +Queen?" His eyes rested upon the galleon's conqueror. "Sir Mortimer +Ferne, the election lies with you." + +Ferne started sharply. "Sir, it is an honor I do not desire! As Admiral, +I pray you to name the Captain of the _Phoenix_." + +A breathless hush fell upon the cabin. It was a great thing to be +captain of a great ship--so great a thing, so great a chance, that of +the adventurers who had bravely fought on yesterday more than one felt +his cheek grow hot and the blood drum in his ears. Arden cared not for +preferment, but Henry Sedley's eyes were very eager. Baldry, having no +hopes of favor, sat like a stone, his great frame rigid, his nails white +upon the hilt of his sword, his lips white and sneering beneath his +short, black, strongly curling beard. + +The pause seemed of the longest; then, "Not so," said the Admiral, +quietly. "It is your right. We know that you will make no swerving from +your duty to God, the Queen, and every soul that sails upon this +adventure, which duty is to strengthen to the uttermost this new sinew +of our enterprise. Mailed hand and velvet glove, you know their several +uses, and the man whom you shall choose will be one to make the +galleon's name resound." + +Ferne signed to the steward, and when the tankard was filled, raised the +sherris to his lips. "I drink to Captain Robert Baldry, of the +_Phoenix_!" he said, bowed slightly to the man of his nomination, then +turned aside to where stood Henry Sedley. + +Around the cabin ran a deep murmur of reluctant assent to the wisdom of +the choice and of tribute to the man who had just heaped before his +personal enemy the pure gold of opportunity. Few were there from whom +Baldry had not won dislike, but fewer yet who knew him not for a captain +famous for victory against odds, trained for long years in the school of +these seas, at once desperate and wary, a man of men for adventure such +as theirs. He had made known far and wide the name of that his ship +which the sea took, and for the _Phoenix_ he well might win a yet +greater renown. + +Now the red blood flooded his face, and he started up, speaking thickly. +"You are Admiral of us all, Sir John Nevil! I do understand that it is +yours to make disposition in a matter such as this. I take no favor from +the hand of Sir Mortimer Ferne!" + +"I give you none," said Ferne, coldly. "Favors I keep for friendship, +but I deny not justice to my foe." + +The Admiral's grave tones prevented Baldry's answer. "Do you appeal to +me as Admiral? Then I also adjudge you the command of the galleon. The +_Star_ did very valiantly; look to it that the _Phoenix_ prove +no laggard." + +"Hear me swear that I will make her more famous than is Drake's _Golden +Hind_!" cried Baldry, his exultation breaking bounds. "Sir John, you +have knowledge of men, and I thank you! Sir Mortimer Ferne, I will give +account--" + +"Not to me, sir," interrupted Ferne, haughtily. "I have but one account +with you, and that my sword shall hereafter audit." + +"Sir, I am content!" cried the other, fiercely, then turning again to +the Admiral, broke into a laugh that was impish in its glee. "Ah, I've +needed to feel my hand on my ship's helm! Sir John, shall I have my +sixty tall fellows again, with just a small levy from the _Mere Honour_, +the _Marigold_, and the _Cygnet_?" + +"Yes," answered the Admiral, and presently, by his rising, declared the +council ended, whereupon the adventurers dispersed to their several +ships where they lay at anchor in the crystal harbor, the watchmen in +the tops straining eyes, on the decks mariners and soldiers as jubilant +as were ever men who did battle on the seas. Only the _Cygnet's_ boat, +rocking beneath the stern of the _Mere Honour_, waited for its Captain, +who tarried with the Admiral. + +In the state-cabin the two men sat for some moments in silence, the +Admiral covering with his hand his bearded lips, Ferne with head thrown +back against the wall and half-closed eyes. In the strong light with +which the cabin was flooded his countenance now showed of a somewhat +worn and haggard beauty. Drunken and forgotten was the wine of battle, +gone the lofty and impassioned vein; after the exaltation came the +melancholy fit, and the man who, mailed in activities, was yet, beneath +that armor, a dreamer and a guesser of old riddles, had let the fire +burn low, and was gone down into the shadowy places. + +"Mortimer," spoke the Admiral, and waited. The other moved, drew a long +breath, and then with a short laugh came back to the present. + +"My friend ... How iron is our destiny! Do I hate that man too greatly? +One might say, I think, that I loved him well, seeing that I have lent +my shoulder for him to climb upon." + +"Mortimer, Mortimer," said Nevil, "you know that I love you. My friend, +I pray you to somewhat beware yourself. I think there is in your veins a +subtle poison may work you harm." + +Ferne looked steadfastly upon him. "What is its name?" + +The other shook his head. "I know not. It is subtle. Perhaps it is +pride--ambition too inwrought with fairest qualities to show as +such,--security of your self of selves too absolute. Perhaps I mistake +and your blood doth run as healthfully as a child's. But you are of +those who ever breed in others speculation, wilding fancies.... When a +man doth all things too well, what is there left for God to do but to +break and crumble and remould? If I do you wrong, blame, if you will, my +love, which is jealous for you--friend whom I value, soldier and knight +whom I have ever thought the fair ensample of our time!" + +"I hold many men, known and unknown, within myself," said Ferne, slowly. +"I think it is always so with those of my temper. But over that hundred +I am centurion." + +"God forgive me if I misjudge one of their number," answered the other. +"The centurion I have never doubted nor will doubt." + +Another silence; then, "Will you see that Spaniolated Englishman, my +prisoner?" asked Sir Mortimer. "He is under charge without." + +The Admiral put to his lips a golden whistle, and presently there stood +in the cabin a slight man of not unpleasing countenance--blue eyes, +brown hair, unfurrowed brow, and beneath a scant and silky beard a chin +as softly rounded as a woman's.--His name and estate? Francis Sark, +gentleman.--English? So born and bred, cousin and sometime servant to my +lord of Shrewsbury.--And what did my English gentleman, my cousin to an +English nobleman, upon the galleon _San José_? Alack, sirs! were +Englishmen upon Spanish ships so unknown a spectacle? + +"I have found them," quoth the Admiral, "rowing in Spanish galleys, +naked, scarred, chained, captives and martyrs." + +Said Ferne, "You, sir, fought in Milan mail, standing beside the captain +of soldiers from Nueva Cordoba." + +"And if I did," answered boldly their prisoner, "none the less was I +slave and captive, constrained to serve detested masters. Where needs +must I fight, I fought to the purpose. Doth not the galley-slave pull +strongly at the oar, though the chase be English and of his own blood?" + +"He toils under the whip," said Ferne. "Now what whip did the Spaniard +use?" + +"He is dead, and his men await succor on that lonely coast where you +left them," was Master Francis Sark's somewhat singular reply. "There is +left in the fortress of Nueva Cordoba a single company of soldiers; the +battery at the river's mouth hath another. Luiz de Guardiola commands +the citadel, and he is a strong man, but Pedro Mexia at the Bocca is so +easy-going that his sentinels nod their nights away. In the port ride +two caravels--eighty tons, no more--and their greatest gun a +demi-cannon. The town is a cowardly place of priests, women, and rich +men, but it holds every peso of this year's treasure gathered against +the coming of the plate-fleet. There is much silver with pearls from +Margarita, and crescents of gold from Guiana, and it all lies in a house +of white stone on the north side of the square. Mayhap De Guardiola up +in the fortress watches, but all else, from Mexia to the last muleteer, +think themselves as safe as in the lap of the Blessed Virgin. The +plate-fleet stays at Cartagena, because of the illness of its Admiral, +Don Juan de Maeda y Espinosa.... I show you, sirs, a bird's nest worth +the robbing." + +"You are a galley-slave the most circumstantial I have ever met," said +Ferne. "If there are nets about this tree, I will wring your neck for +the false songster that you are." + +"You shall go with us bird's-nesting," said the Admiral. + +"That falls in with my humor," Master Sark made answer. "For, look you, +there are such things as a heavy score and an ancient grudge, to say +nothing of true service to a true Queen." + +"Then," quoth the other, "you shall feed fat your grudge. But if what +you have told me is leasing and not truth, I will hang you from the +yard-arm of my ship!" + +"It is God's truth," swore the other. + +Thus it was that, having, like all English adventurers upon Spanish +seas, to trust to strange guides, the _Mere Honour_, the _Cygnet_, the +_Marigold_, and the _Phoenix_ shaped their course for the mainland and +Nueva Cordoba, where were bars of silver, pearls, and gold crescents, +and up in the castle that fierce hawk De Guardiola, who cared little for +the town that was young and weak, but much for gold, the fortress, and +his own grim will and pleasure. + + + +V + +Luiz De Guardiola, magnificent Castilian, proud as Lucifer, still as the +water above the reef offshore, and cruel as the black fangs beneath that +serenity, looked over the wall of the fortress of Nueva Cordoba. He +looked down into the moat well stocked with crocodiles, great fish his +mercenaries, paid with flesh, and he looked at the tunal which ringed +the moat as the moat ringed the squat white fortress. A deadly girdle +was the tunal, of cactus and other thorny things, thick, wide, dark, and +impenetrable, a forest of stilettoes, and for its kings the rattlesnake +and viper. Nor naked Indian nor mailed white man might traverse that +thicket, where wall on wall was met a spiked and iron growth. One +opening there was, through which ran the road to the town, but a battery +deemed impregnable commanded this approach, forming an effectual clasp +for that strong cestus which the fecund, supple, and heated land made +possible to all Spanish fortifications. Beyond the tunal the naked +hillside fell steeply to a narrow plain, all patched with golden +flowers, and from this yellow carpet writhed tall cacti, fantastic as +trees seen in a dream. Upon the plain, pearl pink in the sunset light, +huddled the town. Palm-trees and tamarinds overhung it; palm-trees, +mimosas, and mangroves marked the course of a limpid river. Above the +battery at the river's mouth drooped a red cross in a white field. +Caravels there were none in the road, but riding there, close inshore, +the four ships that had sunk the caravels and silenced the battery. + +High in the air of evening, blown from the town, a trumpet sounded. De +Guardiola ground his teeth, for that jubilant silver calling was not for +San Jago, but St. George. The notes gathered every memory of the past +few days and pressed them upon him in one cup of chagrin. The caravels +were gone, the battery at the Bocca gone, the town surrendered to these +English dogs who now daily bared their teeth to the fortress itself. De +Guardiola admitted the menace, knew from experience in the Low +Countries that this breed of the North sprang strongly, held firmly. +"Hounds of hell!" he muttered. "Where is the fleet from Cartagena?" + +The tropic ocean answered not, and the words of the wind were +unintelligible. The sun dropped lower; the plain appeared to move, to +roll and welter in the heated air and yellow light. Tall starvelings, +the cacti spread their arms; from a mimosa wood arose a cloud of +vultures; it was the hour of the Angelus, but no bells rang in the +churches of the town. The town sat in fear, shrinking into corners from +its cup of trembling. "Ransom!" cried the English from their ships and +from their quarters in the square. "Pay us ransom, or we burn and +destroy!" "Mother of God!" wailed Nueva Cordoba. "Why ask but fifty +thousand ducats? As easy to give you the revenue of all the Indies! +Moreover, every peso is housed in the fortress. Day before yesterday we +carried there--oh, señors, not our wealth, but our poverty!" Quoth the +English: "What has gone up may come down," and sent messengers, both +Spanish and English, to Don Luiz de Guardiola, Governor of Nueva +Cordoba, who from his stronghold swore that he found himself willing to +hang these pirates, but not to dispense to them the King of Spain his +treasure. Ransom! What word was that for the lips of Lutheran dogs! + +A sea bird flew overhead with a wailing cry; down in the moat a +crocodile raised his horrible, fanged snout, then sank beneath the still +water. Don Luiz turned his bloodshot eyes upon the town in jeopardy and +the bland and mocking ocean, so guileless of those longed-for sails. The +four ships in the river's mouth!--silently he cursed their every mast +and spar, the holds agape for Spanish treasure, the decks whereon he saw +men moving, the flags and streaming pennants flaunting interrogation of +Spain's boasted power. A cold fury mounted from Don Luiz's heart to his +brain. Of late he had slept not at all, eaten little, drunken no great +amount of wine. Like a shaken carpet the plain rose and fell; a mirage +lifted the coasts of distant islands, piling them above the horizon into +castles and fortifications baseless as a dream. The sun dipped; up from +the east rushed the night. The tunal grew a dark smudge, drawn by a +wizard forefinger around De Guardiola, his men-at-arms, the silver bars +and the gold crescents from Guiana. Out swung the stars, blazing, +mighty, with black spaces in between. Again rang the trumpet, a high +voice proclaiming eternal endeavor. The wind began to blow, and on the +plain the cacti, gloomy and fantastic sentinels, moved their stiff +bodies, waved their twisted arms in gestures of strangeness and horror. +The Spaniard turned on his heel, went down to his men-at-arms where they +kept watch and ward, and at midnight, riding like Death on a great, pale +steed, led a hundred horsemen out of the fortress, through the tunal, +and so down the hillside to the town. + +The English sentries cried alarm. In the square a man with a knot of +velvet in his helm swung himself into the saddle of a captured +war-horse, waved aside the blue-jerkined boy at the rein, in a word or +two cried over his shoulder managed to impart to those behind him sheer +assurance of victory, and was off to greet Don Luiz. They met in the +wide street leading from the square, De Guardiola with his hundred +cavaliers and Mortimer Ferne with his chance medley of horse and foot. +The hot night filled with noise, the scream of wounded steeds and the +shouting of men. Lights flared in the windows, and women wailed to all +the saints. Stubbornly the English drove back the Spanish, foot by foot, +the way they had come, down the street of heat and clamor. In the dark +hour before the dawn De Guardiola sounded a retreat, rode with his +defeated band up the pallid hillside, through the serpent-haunted tunal, +over the dreadfully peopled moat into the court of the white stone +fortress. There, grim and gray, with closed lips and glowing eyes, he +for a moment sat his horse in the midst of his spent men, then heavily +dismounted, and called to him Pedro Mexia, who, several days before, had +abandoned the battery at the river's mouth, fleeing with the remnant of +his company to the fortress. The two went together into the hall, and +there, while his squire unarmed De Guardiola, the lesser man spoke +fluently, consigning to all the torments of hell the strangers in +Nueva Cordoba. + +"Go to; you are drunken!" said De Guardiola, coldly. "You speak what you +cannot act." + +"I have three houses in the town," swore the other. "A reasonable +ransom--" + +"There is no longer any question of ransom," answered Don Luiz. +"Fellow"--to the armorer,--"fetch me a surgeon." + +Mexia sat upright, his eyes widening: "No question of ransom! I thank +the saints that I am no hidalgo! Now had simple Pedro Mexia been +somewhat roughly handled, unhorsed mayhap, even the foot of an English +heretic planted on his breast, I think that talk of the ransom of Nueva +Cordoba would not have ceased. But Don Luiz de Guardiola!--quite another +matter! Santa Teresa! if the town is burnt I will have payment for my +three houses!" His superior snarled, then as the surgeon entered, made +signs to the latter to uncover a bruised shoulder and side. + +At sunrise a trumpet was blown without the tunal, and the English again +made demand of ransom money. The fortress crouching upon the hilltop +gave no answer, stayed silent as a sepulchre. Shortly afterwards from +one quarter of the town arose together many columns of smoke; a little +later an explosion shook the earth. The great magazine of Nueva Cordoba +lay in ruins, while around it burned the houses fired by English +torches. "Shall we destroy the whole of your city?" demanded the +English. "Judge you if fifty thousand ducats will build it again!" + +Nueva Cordoba, distracted, sent petitioners to their Governor. "Pay +these hell-hounds and pirates and let them sail away!" "Pay," advised +also Pedro Mexia, "or presently they may have the fortress as well as +the town! The squadron--it is yet at Cartagena! Easier to torment the +caciques until more gold flows than to build another Nueva Cordoba. +Scarpines and strappado won't lay stone on stone!" + +Don Luiz kept long silence where he stood, a man of iron, cold as the +stone his long fingers pressed, venomous as any snake in the tunal, +proud as a Spaniard may be, and like the rest of his world very mad for +gold; but at last he turned, and despatching to the English camp a white +flag, proposed by mouth of his herald a brief cessation of hostilities, +and a meeting between himself, Don Luiz de Guardiola, Governor of Nueva +Cordoba, and the valorous Señor John Nevil, commandant of Englishmen. +Whereto in answer came, three-piled with courtesy, an invitation to Don +Luiz de Guardiola and ten of his cavaliers to sup that evening in Nueva +Cordoba with John Nevil and his officers. Truce should be proclaimed, +safe-conduct given; for table-talk could be no better subject than the +question of ransom. + +Facing the square of Nueva Cordoba was a goodly house, built by the +Church for the Church, but now sacrilegiously turned to other uses and +become the quarters of Sir John Nevil and Sir Mortimer Ferne, who held +the town and menaced the fortress, while Baptist Manwood and Robert +Baldry kept the fleet and conquered battery. The place had a great +arched refectory, and here the English prepared their banquet. + +Indian friends by now had they, for in the town they had found and set +at liberty three caciques, penned like beasts, chained with a single +chain, scored with marks sickening to look upon. The caciques proved not +ungrateful. Down the river this very day had come canoes rowed by men of +bronze and filled with spoils of the chase, fish of strange shapes and +brilliant hues, golden, luscious fruits, flowers also fairer than +amaranth or asphodel, gold beads and green stones. Gold and gems went +into the treasure-chests aboard the ships, but all besides came kindly +in for the furnishing of that rich feast. Nor were lacking other viands, +for grain and flesh and wine had been abundant in Nueva Cordoba, whose +storehouses now the English held. They hung their borrowed +banqueting-hall with garlands of flowers, upon the long table put great +candles of virgin wax, with gold and silver drinking-vessels, and +brought to the revel of the night a somewhat towering, wild, and +freakish humor. Victory unassuaged was theirs, and for them Fortune had +cogged her dice. They had taken the _San José_ and sunk the caravels, +they had sacked the pearl-towns and Nueva Cordoba, they had gathered +laurels for themselves and England. For the fortress, they deemed that +they might yet drain it of hoarded treasure. The poison of the land and +time had touched them. The wind sang to them of conquest; morn and eve, +the sun at noon, and at night the phosphorescent sea, were of the color +of gold, and the stars spoke of Fame. The great mountains also, to the +south,--how might the eye leap from height to height and the soul not +stir? In Time's hornbook ambition is an early lesson, and these +scholars had conned it well. Of all that force, scarce one simple +soldier or mariner in whom expectation ran not riot, while the gentlemen +adventurers in whose company were to sup De Guardiola and his ten +cavaliers saw that all things might be done with ease and that evil +chances lurked not for them. + +The Captain of the _Cygnet_ and the Captain of the _Phoenix_, with Arden +and Sedley, awaited beside the great window of the hall their guests' +appearance. The sunset was not yet, but the moment was at hand. The +light, dwelling upon naked hillside and the fortress crowning it, made +both to seem candescent, hill and castle one heart of flame against the +purple mountains that stretched across the south. Very high were the +mountains, very still and white that fortress flame; the yellow plain +could not be seen, but the palm-trees were gold green above the walls of +Nueva Cordoba. The light fell from the hilltop, a solitary trumpet blew, +and forth from that guarded opening in the tunal rode De Guardiola on +his pale horse, and at his back ten Spanish gentlemen. + +"The dark line of them is like a serpent creeping from the tunal," said +Henry Sedley. "Last night I dreamed a strange thing.... It concerned my +sister Damaris. She came up from the sea, straight from the water like +blown spray, and she was dressed in white. She looked down through the +sea and her tears fell, and falling, they made music like the +mermaiden's singing that we heard. '_Lie still_,' she said. '_Thou under +the sea and I under the sod. Lie still: dream well: all's over_.' To +whom did she speak?" + +"If I were a dead man and she called my name, I would answer," said +Ferne. "She under the sod and I under the sea.... So be it! But first +one couch, one cup, one garland, the sounded depths of love--" + +"I dreamed of home," quoth Baldry, "and of my mother's calling me, a +little lad, when at twilight work was done. '_Robert, Robert_!' +she called." + +"I had no dreams," said Sir Mortimer. "Now sounds John Nevil's +trumpets--our guests have made entry." + +"Why, señors," answered Mexia, flattered and flown with wine, "I learned +to speak your tongue from a man of your country, who also gave me that +knowledge of English affairs which you are pleased to compliment. I make +my boast that I am no traveller--I have not been home to Seville these +twenty years--yet, as you see, I have some trifling acquaintance--" + +"Your learning is of so shining a quality," quoth Sir Mortimer, with +courteous emphasis, "that here and there a flaw cannot mar its curious +worth. Smerwick Fort lies in Ireland, señor, not in England. Though +verily the best thing I know of Edmund Campion is the courageousness of +his end; yet indeed he died not with a halo about his head, nor were +miracles wrought with his blood. Her Gracious Majesty the Queen of +England hath no such distemperature as that you name, and keepeth no +sort of familiar fiend. The Queen of Scots, if a most fair and most +unfortunate, is yet a most wicked lady, who, alas! hath trained many a +gallant man to a bloody and disastrous end." + +"Who is that Englishman, your teacher?" came from the head of the board +the Admiral's grave voice. + +"He is dead," said De Guardiola at his right hand. + +"Of his fate, valiant señors," began the fuddled Mexia, "you alone may +be precisely aware--" + +"He is dead," again stated with deliberation Don Luiz. "I know, señors, +the pool where these fish were caught and the wood where alone grows +this purple fruit. So you set at liberty those three slaves, the +caciques?... Well, I had reason to believe that they had hidden gold." + +"Where is Master Francis Sark?" demanded Nevil, of Ferne. "I did command +his attendance here to-night." + +"He plead a tertian fever--would not mar our warmth with his shivering," +said the other. "I sent the chirurgeon to his cell--for indeed the man +shook like a reed." + +It would appear that Francis Sark was an unknown name to their guests, +for no flicker of recognition passed over the countenance of any +Spaniard. They sat at the long table, and foe drank to foe while fiddle +and hautboy made music and the candles slowly wasted and in the hot +night the garlands withered. Perfumes were lit in the room, and the +smoke of their burning made a violet haze through which quivered the +heart-shaped candle flames. The music had a wild ring, and laughter as +wild came easily to a man's lips. The English laughed for that their +spirits were turned thistle-down, and the Spaniards laughed because a +man's foe should not see his chagrin. + +For a while compliment and courtesy led each party in chains; they +masked distrust and hatred beneath cloth-of-gold ceremoniousness, +punctiliously accepted a Roland for an Oliver, extravagantly praised the +prowess of men and nations whom they much desired to sweep from the face +of the earth. But as time wore on and the wine went round, this cloak of +punctilio began to grow threadbare and the steel beneath to gleam +dangerously. There was thunder in the air, and men were ready to play at +ball with the apples of discord, though as yet they but tossed to each +other the poisonous flowers which should grow that fruit. "How mightily +on such a day did your little island!" cried the Spaniards. "Ah, señors, +the invincibleness of your conquistadores!" ran the English testimony. +"El Draco, Juan Acles, yourselves, valorous gentlemen, what daring past +most pirates to sail the King of Spain his seas!" came the +Spanish retort. + +"The King of Spain his seas!" an Englishman echoed, softly. + +"Why, had you not heard?" said Arden. "God gave them to him on creation +morning." + +"Pirates! That is a prickly word!" swore Baldry. + +"Why do you smile, señor?" demanded De Guardiola of the gentleman +opposite him, this being Sir Mortimer Ferne. + +"Did I smile, señor? I but chanced to think of a hound of mine who once +was king of the pack, but now grows old." The Englishman shrugged. "True +he thinks himself yet the fleetest and the strongest, but the younger +dogs outstrip him. Presently they will snatch from him every bone." + +"Now, by the Mother of God, I agree not with you!" said De Guardiola. + +"Now, by the power of God, yet will it come to pass!" affirmed Sir +Mortimer. + +The Admiral, to whom Pedro Mexia, an easy man, was making voluble +narration of the latest futile search for Manoa, turned his glance for +a moment from that frank Spaniard. But Mortimer Ferne sat at ease, a +smile upon his beautiful mouth, and his hand, palm uppermost, upon the +board. Opposite him Don Luiz de Guardiola also smiled, and if that +widening of the lips was somewhat tigerish, why, if all accounts were +true, the man himself was of that quality, as cruel, stealthy, and +remorseless as any jaguar in those deep woods behind his castle. The +Admiral returned to his discourse with Mexia, who might drop some useful +hints as to the road to El Dorado. + +"We have met before," said De Guardiola. "It was you who led your +landing-party, capturing the battery." + +"The fortune of war, senior! What says your proverb--" + +"I gave ground, it is true.... There may come an hour when with a whip +of iron I will drive you from Nueva Cordoba. Did you lead the attack +upon the town?" + +"Not so, señor. Sir John Nevil very valiantly held that honor, and to +him Nueva Cordoba surrendered." + +"Last night--when I thought to take you by-surprise--were you the +leader then?" + +"Yes, señor." + +"Wore you," the Spaniard spoke slowly--"wore you black armor? Wore you +in your helm a knot of rose-colored velvet?... Ah, it was you unhorsed +me, then!" + +"Again, señor, the fortune of war." + +A spasm distorted for the moment De Guardiola's every feature. So often +of late had chagrin been pressed to his lips that the cup had grown +poisonous. When he spoke it was with a hollow voice: "Had not Mexia come +in between us!... The light caught the velvet knot upon your helm and it +flamed like a star. I, Luiz de Guardiola, lying at your feet, looked up +and saw it blaze above me like an evil star!" His hand fell heavily upon +the table. "The star may fall, Englishman!" + +"The helm that bore the star may decline to earth," answered Ferne. "The +star is fixed--beyond thy snatching, Spaniard!" + +Thrust in Mexia, leaving El Dorado for the present less gilded plight of +the Spanish: "Fifty thousand ducats! Holy Virgin! Are we Incas of +Peru--Atahualpas who can fill a hall with gold? Now, twenty thousand--" + +"I will not pay one peso," said De Guardiola. His voice, low and +vibrant, was as a warder thrown down. On the instant, all the length of +the table, the hurried speech, the growing excitement, the interchange +of taunt and bravado, ceased, and men leaned forward, waiting. The +silence was remarkable. Down in the square was heard the sentinel's +tread; from a bough that drooped against the wall a globe of vegetable +gold fell with the noise of stone-shot. + +"Raze every house in Nueva Cordoba," went on the Spaniard, "play the +earthquake and the wave--then sail away, sail away, marauders! and leave +the fortress virgin, and the treasure no lighter by one piece, and Luiz +de Guardiola to find a day when English dogs shall cringe before him!" + +He had risen from his place, and at that movement sprang also to their +feet his ten cavaliers. At once arose a tumult that might have resulted +in the severance of the truce with sharp steel had not the leaders of +the several parties stayed with lifted arm and stern command that +threatened disgrace. At last was compelled a stillness sinister as that +of the air before a storm. + +"I bid our guests good night," said the Admiral. "Our enemies we shall +meet again. I think that so slight a ransom will not now content us. As +you ride through the streets of Nueva Cordoba look your last, señors, +upon her goodly houses and pleasant places." + +"Do thy worst!" answered De Guardiola, grinning like a death's-head. + +Mexia wiped the sweat from his brow. + +"Let us go--let us go, Don Luiz! I stifle here. There's a strangeness in +the air--my heart beats to bursting! Holy Teresa, give that the wine was +not poisoned!" + +Back to their fortress rode the Spaniards, up the bare, steep, pallid +hillside, through the tunal, past their strong battery; back to the town +rode the English, who with the punctilio of the occasion had accompanied +their foes to the base of the hill. They rode through the streets which +that morning they had laid waste, and through those that the stern +Admiral had sworn to destroy. There black ruin faced them starkly; here +doomed things awaited mutely. The town was little, and it seemed to +cower before them like a child. Almost in silence did they ride, lifted +and restless in mind, thought straining at the leash, but finding no +words that should free it. + +"How hot is the night!" spoke Baldry at last. "Hast noticed the smell of +the earth? We killed a great serpent coming across the plain to-day." + +"How the sea burns!" said Henry Sedley. "There is a will-o'-the-wisp +upon the marsh yonder." + +"Here they call it the soul of the tyrant Aguirre," answered Ferne. "A +lost soul." + +A little longer and they parted for the night to meet early next morning +in the council with the Admiral. If to Nueva Cordoba, stripped and +beaten, trembling beneath the fear of worse things to come, an army with +banners held the land, so, in no lesser light, did the English see +themselves, and they meant to have the treasure and to humble that white +fortress. But it must be done quickly, quickly! Pampatar in Margarita, +the castle of Paria or Berreo's settlement in Trinidad, could send no +ships that might contend with the four swinging yonder in the river's +mouth, but from the west at any hour, from La Guayra or Santa Marta, +thunderbolts might fall. Would they indeed be wholly victors, then a +general and overwhelming attack must soon be planned, soon made. + +Weary enough from the day's work, yet, when he and his fellow +adventurers had exchanged good night, Mortimer Ferne went not to his +quarters. Instead he passed through a dim corridor to the little +cell-like room where was lodged Master Francis Sark, whom the English +kept under surveillance, and who, under another name, had given to Pedro +Mexia his knowledge of English speech and English history. What +persuasion the Captain of the _Cygnet_ used, what bribe or promise or +threat, what confidence that there was more to tell thereby like a +magnet compelling any wandering information, is not known; nor is known +what hatred of his conqueror, of a gallant form and a stainless name, +may have uncoiled itself to poisonous ends in the soul of the small, +smug, innocent-seeming man to whom he spoke; but at the end of a +half-hour the Captain of the _Cygnet_ left his prisoner of the _San +José_, moved swiftly and lightly down the corridor to his own apartment, +where he crossed to the window and stood there with his eyes upon the +fortress of Nueva Cordoba, rising shadowy upon its shadowy hill. So +often had he looked upon it that now, despite the night, he saw with +precision the squat, white walls, the dark sweep of the encircling +tunal, and, strong clasp for that thorny girdle, the too formidable +battery defending the one apparent opening. "Another path!" he said to +himself. "Masked and hidden, unguarded, known only to their leaders.... +To come upon them from the rear while, catlike, they watch the highway +yonder!" His breath came in a long sigh of satisfaction. "What if he +lies? Why should he lie, seeing that he is in our power? But if he +does ..." + +Minutes passed and yet he stood there, gazing with thoughtful eyes at +hill and fortress rising above the silent town. Finally he went over to +Robin-a-dale, asleep upon a pallet, and shaking him awake, bade the lad +to follow him but make no noise. To the sentinels at the great door, in +the square, at the edge of the town, he gave the word of the night, and +so issued with the boy from the huddle of flat-roofed houses, overhung +by palm-trees, to the open plain. + +Overhead innumerable stars, between heaven and earth incalculable swarms +of luminous insects, from the soil a heavy exhalation as of musk, here +arid places, there cacti like columns, like candelabra, like dark +writhing fingers thrust from the teeming earth;--Robin-a-dale liked not +the place, wondered what dangerous errand his master was upon, but since +he as greatly feared as greatly loved the man he served, cared not to +ask. Presently Ferne turned, and a few moments found them climbing the +long western slope of the hill, above them the dim outline of the +fortress, the dark fringe of the tunal. Half-way up they came to a +little rocky plateau, and here Ferne paused, hesitated a moment, then +sat down upon a great stone and looked out to sea. He was waiting for +the moon to rise, for with her white finger she must point out that old +way through the tunal of which Master Francis Sark had told him. Was it +indeed there? The man, he thought, had all the marks of a liar. Again, +why should he lie, being in their power?--unless treachery were so +ingrained that it was his natural speech. By all the tokens Sark had +given, the opening should not be fifty yards away. When the moon rose he +would see for himself.... + +A pale radiance in the east proclaimed her approach. Since wait he must +he waited patiently, and by degrees withdrew his mind from his errand +and from strife and plotting. The boy crouched in silence beside him. +There was air upon these heights, and the stir of it made Robin-a-dale +to shiver. He gazed about him fearfully, for it was a dismal place. From +behind those piled rocks, from the shadow of those strange trees, what +things might creep or spring? Robin thought it time that the adventure +were ended, and had he dared had said as much. Lights were burning upon +the _Cygnet_ where she rode in the pale river, near to the _Phoenix_, +with the _Mere Honour_ and the _Marigold_ just beyond, and there came +over the boy a great homesickness for her decks. He crept as closely as +he might to her Captain, sitting there as quietly as if the teeming, +musky soil were good Devon earth, and that phosphorescent ocean the gray +waves of English seas, and he laid his hand upon Sir Mortimer's booted +knee, and so was somewhat comforted. + +Upon Ferne, waiting in inaction, looking out over the vast, dim panorama +of earth and ocean, there fell, after the fever and exaltation, the +stress and exertion of the past hours, a strange mood of quiet, of +dreaming, and of peace. Sitting there in listless strength, he thought +in quietude and tenderness of other things than gold, and fame, and the +fortress which must be taken of Nueva Cordoba. With his eyes upon the +gleaming sea he thought of Damaris Sedley, and of Sidney, and of a day +at Windsor when the Queen had showed him much favor, and of a little, +windy knoll, near to his house of Ferne, where, returning from hunting +or hawking, he was wont to check his horse that he might taste the sweet +and sprightly air. + +Now this man waited at the threshold of an opening door, and like a +child his fancy gathered door-step flowers, recking nothing of the +widening space behind, the beckoning hands, the strange chambers into +which shortly he must go. Some faint and far monition, some breath of +colder air may have touched him, for now, like a shriven man drowsing +into death, his mind dwelt lightly upon all things, gazed quietly upon a +wide, retreating landscape, and saw that great and small are one. He was +wont to think of Damaris Sedley with ardor, imagining embraces, kisses, +cries of love, sweet lips, warm arms,--but to-night he seemed to see her +in a glass, somewhat dimly. She stood a little remote, quiet, sweet, and +holy, and his spirit chastened itself before her. Dear were his friends +to him; his heart lodged them in spacious chambers and lapped them with +observance; now he thought whimsically and lightly of his guests as +though their lodgings were far removed from that misty central hall +where he himself abode. Loyal with the fantastic loyalty of an earlier +time, practiser of chivalry and Honor's fanatic, for a moment those +things also lost their saliency and edge. Word and deed of this life +appeared of the silver and the moonlight, not of gold and sunlight; +existence a dream and no matter of moment. He plucked the flowers one by +one, looked at them tranquilly, and laid them down, nor thought, This +is Farewell. + +Nueva Cordoba lay still amongst her rustling palms; the ocean rippled +gold, and like gold-dust were the scintillating clouds of insects; the +limpid river palely slid between its mangrove banks, a low wind sighed, +a night-bird called; far, far in the forest behind the hill a muffled +roar proclaimed that the jaguar had found its meat. The moon rose--such +a moon as never had England looked upon. Pearl, amethyst, and topaz were +her rings; she made the boss of a vast shield; like God's own candle she +lit the night. "At home the nightingales would sing," thought Sir +Mortimer. "Ah, Philomela, here befits a wilder song than thine!" He +looked towards the _Cygnet_, still as a painted ship upon the silver +sluggish flood. "When there shall be no more sea, what will seamen do?" +Over the marsh wandered the _ignes fatui_. "How restlessly and to no +bourne dost thou move, lost soul!" The boy at his feet stirred and +sighed. "Poor Robin! Tired and sleepy and frightened, art not? Why, dear +knave, the jaguar is not roaring for thee!" Bending, he put an arm about +the lad and drew him to his side. "I only wait for the brightness to +grow," he said. "Do not shiver so! In a little while we shall be gone." + +The moon rose higher and the plain grew spectral, the town a dream town, +and the ships dream ships. Ferne turned slightly so that he might behold +the Cordillera. In mystery and enormity the mountains reared themselves, +high as the battlements of heaven, deep as those of hell. The +Elizabethan looked long upon them, and he wreathed that utter wall, that +sombre and terrific keep, with strange imaginings. + +At last the two, master and boy, arose, and climbing the farther slope +to the tunal, began to skirt that spiked and thorny circlet, moving +warily because to the core it was envenomed. Beneath the sun it swarmed +with hideous life; beneath the moon the poison might yet stir. The moon +silvered the edge of things, drew illusion like a veil across the +haunted ring; below, what hidden foulness!... Did the life there know +its hideousness? Those lengths and coils, those twisting locks of +Medusa, might think themselves desirable. These pulpy, starkly branching +cacti, these shrubs that bred poignards, these fibrous ropes, dark and +knotted lianas, binding all together like monstrous exaggerations of the +tenants of the place, like serpents seen of a drunkard, were they not +to themselves as fair as the fairest vine or tree or flower? The +dwellers here deceived themselves, never dreamed they were so thwart and +distorted. + +As he walked, the halo of the moon seemed to widen until it embraced a +quarter of the heavens. The sea beneath was molten silver. A low sound +of waves was in his ears, and a wind pressed against him faintly, like a +ghost's withstanding. From the woods towards the mountains came a long, +bestial cry, hoarse and mournful. "O God," said Sir Mortimer, "whither +dost Thou draw us? What am I? What is my meaning and my end?" + +Beyond loomed the fortress, all its lineaments blurred, softened, +qualitied like a dream by the flooding moonlight. A snake stretching +across their path, Sir Mortimer drew his sword, but the creature slipped +away, kept before them for a while, then turned aside into its safe +home. They came to the place they were seeking. Here was the cactus, +taller than its fellows, and gaunt as a gallows-tree, and here the +projecting end of a fallen cross. Between showed no vestige of an +opening; dark, impervious, formidable as a fortress wall, the tunal met +the eye. Ferne, attacking it with his sword, thrust aside a heavy +curtain of broad-leaved vine, came upon a network of thorn and spike and +prickly leaf, hewed this away, to find behind it a like barrier. +Evidently the man had lied!--to what purpose Sir Mortimer Ferne would +presently make it his business to discover.... There overtook him a +sudden revulsion of feeling, depression of spirit, cold and sick +distaste of the place. Tom and breathless, in very savagery over his +defeated hope and fool's errand, he thrust with all his strength at the +heart of this panoplied foe. His blade, piercing the swart curtain, met +with no resistance. With an exclamation he threw himself against that +thick-seeming barrier, and so, with Robin-a-dale behind him, burst into +a narrow, secret way, masked at entrance and exit, and winding like a +serpent through the tunal which surrounded the fortress of +Nueva Cordoba. + + + +VI + +"Now Neptune keep the plate-fleet at Cartagena!" whistled Arden. "When I +go home I'll dress in cloth of gold, eat tongues of peacocks, and drink +dissolved pearls!" + +"When I go home I'll build again my father's house," cried Henry Sedley. + +"In Plymouth port there's a bark I know," quoth Baldry. "When I go home +she's mine,--I'll make of her another _Star_!" + +"When I go home--" said Sir Mortimer, and paused. The early light was on +his face, a deeper light within his eyes that saw the rose which he +should gather when he went home. Then, since he would not utter so deep +and dear a thought--"When we go home," he said, and began to speak--half +in earnest, half in relief from the gravity of the past council--of that +returning. By degrees the fire burned, and he whose spirit the live +coal touched as it touched Sidney's and, more rarely, Walter Raleigh's, +bore his listeners with him in a rhapsody of anticipation. Long fronds +of palm drooped without the room which held them, Englishmen in a world +or savage or Spanish, but their spirits followed the speaker to green +fields of Kent or Devon. They saw the English summer, saw the twilight +fall, heard the lonely tinkle of far sheep-bells, heard the nightingales +singing beneath the moon that shone on England. Friends' homes opened to +them; Grenville welcomed them to Stowe, Sidney to charmed Penshurst. +Then to London and the Triple Tun! Bow Bells rang for them; they drank +in the inn's long-room; their names were in men's mouths. What welcome, +what clashing of the bells, when they should sail up the Thames +again--the _Mere Honour_, the _Cygnet_, the _Marigold_, and the +_Phoenix_--with treasure in their holds, and for pilot that bright angel +Fame! What should they buy with their treasure? what should they do with +their fame? Treasure should beget stout ships, stout hearts to sail +them; fame, laid to increase, might swell to deathless glory! +Sea-captains now, sea-kings would the English be, gathering tribute +from the waters and the winds, bringing gifts to England--frankincense +of wealth, myrrh of knowledge, spikenard of power!--till, robed and +crowned, she rose above the peoples, Joseph's sheaf, Joseph's star! + +On went the charmed words, each a lantern flashed on thought, grave, +poetic, telling of triumph, yet far removed from gross optimism, not +without that strange, melancholy note sounding now and again amongst the +age's crashing chords. Abruptly his voice fell, but presently with a +lighter note he broke the silence in which his listeners gazed upon the +stately vision he had conjured up. "Ah, we will talk to Frank Drake of +this night! Canst not hear Richard Hawkins laugh in the Triple Tun's +long-room? The Queen, too, in her palace will laugh,--like a man with +the flash in her eye and her white hand clenched! And they whom we +love.... What is the word for to-night, John Nevil? I may give it? +Then--Dione!" + +It was the red dawn after his vigil on the fortress hill: in the great +room of the stone house the leaders of the expedition had followed, line +by line, his sword point as it drew upon the flagging a plan of attack, +to which they gave instant adoption; Master Francis Sark had been +dismissed, and to the Admiral's grave hint of possible treachery Ferne +had answered, "Ay, John Nevil, I also think him a false--hearted craven, +Spaniolated and perverse, a huckster, whose wares do go to the highest +bidder! Well, with our hand at his throat we do not bid the highest?" + +Now as he raised his tankard to thirsty lips, suddenly from the square +below, shattering all the languid stillness of the tropic dawn, brayed a +trumpet, arose a noise of hurrying steps and hasty voices. Baldry, at +the window, wheeled, color in his cheeks, light in his deep eyes. + +"War is my mistress! Down the hillside come those to whom I can +speak--can speak as well as thou, Sir Mortimer Ferne!" The door was +flung open, and Ambrose Wynch, a mighty man in a battered breastplate +and morion, looked joyfully in upon them. + +"The Dons supped so well last night, Sir John, that now they're coming +to breakfast! 'Tis just a flourish--no great sortie. Shall a handful of +us go out against them?" + +That sally from the fortress was led by Mexia, who somewhat burned to +wipe out the memory of his lost battery at the river's mouth. And as +blind Fortune's dearest favor flutters often to the lackey while the +master snatches vainly, so it befell in this case, for Mexia's chance +raid, a piece of mere bravado to which De Guardiola had given grudging +consent, was productive of results. Bravado for bravado, interchange of +chivalric folly, of magnificence that was not war,--forth to meet the +Spaniard and his company must go no greater force of Englishmen! Luiz de +Guardiola, Governor of Nueva Cordoba, kept his state in his fortress; +therefore, Sir John Nevil, Admiral of the English and of no less worth +than the Castilian, remained for this skirmish inactive. On both sides +their captains played the game. + +Sir Mortimer Ferne and Robert Baldry at the head of threescore men, some +mounted, some on foot, deemed themselves and this medley sufficient for +Pedro Mexia. Nor can it be said that their reckoning was at fault, since +Mexia, deep in curses, had at last to make hasty way across the strip +of plain between Nueva Cordoba and its fortress. Too easily did the +English repel an idle sortie, too eagerly did they follow Mexia in +retreat, for suddenly Chance, leaving all neutrality, threw herself, a +goddess armed, upon the Spanish side. In the very shadow of the hill, +the mounted English, well ahead of those on foot, Mexia's disordered +band making for the shelter of the tunal, a Spaniard turned, raised his +harquebus and fired. The great bay steed which bore Sir Mortimer Ferne +reared, screamed, then fell, hurling its rider to earth, where he lay, +senseless, stark in black armor, with a knot of rose-colored velvet in +his crest. + +No hawk like De Guardiola was Pedro Mexia, but when luck pinioned his +prey his talons were strong to close upon it. Now on the instant he +wheeled, swooped with all his might upon the disordered vanguard of the +English. Baldry and those with him fought madly, the English on foot +made all haste; the prostrate figure, pinned beneath the dying bay, +became the centre of a wild melee, the hotly contested prize of friend +and foe! Then burst from the tunal, came at a run down the hill, +re-enforcements for Mexia.... + +Erelong, Don Luiz de Guardiola sent to inform Sir John Nevil that he had +for his prisoner one of the latter's captains. It appeared to the +Governor of Nueva Cordoba that the English held the man in some +esteem,--perchance even that he was their leader's close friend. Sir +John Nevil would understand that to a Spanish soldier and good son of +the Church the prisoner was, inevitably, mere pirate and heretic, to be +dealt with as such. + +To this announcement John Nevil returned curt answer. Nueva Cordoba lay +in the hollow of his hand, and at his disposal were some Spanish lives +perhaps not altogether valueless in the eyes of Don Luiz de Guardiola, +since their kindred and friends and Spain herself might hold him +responsible for their sudden and piteous taking off. + +When an hour had dragged itself away the fortress spoke again, and its +speech was of a piece with the Governor's mind. The peril of the town +and the lives within it were ignored. Bluntly, the price of Sir Mortimer +Ferne's life was this--and this--and this! + +The Admiral made reply that Honor was too dear a price for the life of +any English gentleman. He and Sir Mortimer Ferne declined the terms of +Don Luiz de Guardiola. The safety of his friend should, however, ransom +a city. Deliver the captive sound in life and limb, and the English +would withdraw from Nueva Cordoba, and proceed with their ships upon +their way. Reject this offer, let harm befall the prisoner, and Don Luiz +de Guardiola should see how John Nevil mourned his friends! + +The Governor answered that his terms held. The evening before, the +English leader had been pleased to announce that if by moonrise of this +night he had not in hand fifty thousand ducats, Nueva Cordoba should lie +in ashes; now Don Luiz de Guardiola, more generous, gave Sir John Nevil +until the next sunrise to heap upon the quay at the Bocca all gold and +silver, all pearls, jewels, wrought work and other treasure stolen from +the King of Spain, to withdraw every English soul from the galleon _San +José_, leaving her safe anchored in the river and above her the Spanish +flag, to abandon town and battery and retire to his ships, under oath, +upon the delivery to him of the prisoner, to quit at once and forever +these seas. Did the first beams of the sun find the English yet in Nueva +Cordoba, then the light should also behold the death with ignominy of +the prisoner. + +"He will not die with ignominy," spoke the Admiral when the herald had +come and gone. "Death cannot wear a form so base that he, nobly dying, +will not ennoble." + +"Do you purpose, then, that he shall die?" demanded Baldry, roughly. + +"I purpose that if he lives I may look him in the face," answered the +other. "We may not buy his life with the dishonor of us all." His stern +face working, he covered his bearded lips with his hand. "But as God +lives, he shall not die! We have until the next sunrising." + +"There is more in it than meets the eye," said Arden. "These monstrous +conditions!... One would say that the Spaniard means there shall be +no rescue." + +Henry Sedley broke in passionately. "Ay, that is it! Did you not hear +their talk last night?" + +"For many a year, as I have gone jostling up and down, I have studied +the faces of men," pursued Arden. "With this Governor the cart draws the +horse, and his particular quarrel takes precedence of his public duty. I +think that in the wreaking of a grudge he would stand at nothing." + +The Admiral paced the floor. Arden, eying him, spoke again with emotion. + +"Mortimer Ferne is as dear to me as to you, John Nevil!... I think of +the men of the _Minion_ and of John Oxenham." + +In the silence that followed his words each man had his vision of the +men of the _Minion_ and of John Oxenham. Then Baldry spoke, roughly and +loudly, as was his wont: + +"I think not of the dead, for whom there's no help. For the living man, +he and I have yet to meet! There is to-night--there is the path he +found--no doubt he counts upon our attacking as was planned! He is +subtle with his words--no doubt he'll hold them off--insinuate--make +them look only to the seaward--" + +[Illustration: "'DO YOU PURPOSE, THEN, THAT HE SHALL DIE?' DEMANDED +BALDRY"] + +The Admiral, coming to the table, leaned his weight upon it. "Gentlemen, +you all do know that this is my friend, whom I love as David of old +loved Jonathan. Of the value of his life, of that great promise which +his death would cut short, I will not speak. I also think that this +Governor, believing himself, the treasure, and his men-at-arms secure, +careth naught for the town whose protector he is called. Therefore an we +would save the man who is dear to us and to England from I know not what +fate, from the fate perhaps of John Oxenham, this night must we take by +storm the fortress, using the plan of attack, the hour, ay and the word +of the night, which he gave us. If it is now less simple a thing, if +this Spaniard will surely keep watch and ward to-night, yet there is +none to tell him that, offering at his face, we do mean to strike him in +the back. If our onslaught be but swift and furious enough we may, God +willing, bring forth in triumph both the treasure and the man whose +welfare so outweighs the treasure." + +"Amen to that," answered Arden; "but I have a boding spirit. It seems to +me that the blessed sun himself hath shrunken, and I would I might wring +the neck of yonder yelling bird!... That Englishman, that Francis +Sark--he is well guarded?" + +"Ralph Walter guards him," said the Admiral, briefly. "There is but the +one door--the window is barred and too narrow for the passage of a +child.... Yea, I grant, as did Mortimer Ferne, his knavery, but now, as +nearly as we can sail to the wind of the truth, the man, desiring +restitution and reward, speaks plain honesty." + +"He spoke 'plain honesty' after the taking of the _San José_," muttered +Arden. "Yet we found a hawk where we looked for a wren's nest. Oh, I +grant you there were explanations enough to stand between him and the +yard-arm, and that Fortune, having turned her wheel in our favor, +apparently left her industry and fell asleep! She awakened +this morning." + +"Wring thine own neck for a bird of ill omen!" began Baldry, to be cut +short by the Admiral's grave "Where all's danger, whatever course we +shape, who gives a safer chart?" Then, as no one spoke: "To our loss we +have found both shoal and reef between us and yonder castle. Think you +not that I know, as knew Sir Mortimer Ferne, that we are shown a +doubtful channel by a shifty pilot? But beyond is the open sea of all +our hopes. Fortune and her wheel, Giles Arden!--nay, rather God and His +hand over the issues of life and death!" + +Up in his white fortress that same hour De Guardiola heard in silence +the Admiral's message of defiance, then when he and Mexia were again +alone frowned thoughtfully over a slip of paper which by devious ways +had shortly before reached his hand. With all their vigilance not every +hole and crevice could the English stop; Spanish was the town and +Spanish the overhanging fortress, and the former was the place of many +women and priests. The conquerors strove to secure the place as with a +fowler's net, yet now and again a bird of the air fluttered through +their meshes. The paper which Don Luiz held ran as follows: "May not a +countryman of heretics choose his own king? When Death peers too +closely--as was the case upon the galleon _San José_--may not a man turn +his coat and send Death seeking elsewhere? Death gone by, may not the +man be willing (if it be so that he is not well entreated of his new +masters) to take again the colors to which on a Corpus Christi day of +which you wot he swore fealty? At sunrise this morning the English laid +toils for you. I have knowledge to sell. Will you buy my wares with five +thousand pesos of silver and the letter to Cartagena which I desired?... +I wrap this in a fig-leaf and drop it from the window to Dolores +laughing with the seamen below. If you will buy, then raise above the +battery a pennant of red that may be seen from the room with the hidden +door in the Friar's House." + +"The dog! I thought that he perished with Antonio de Castro!" spoke +Mexia. + +"That he did not," answered the Governor. "He is so false that were +there none else with whom to play the traitor, his right hand would +betray his left.... The English called him Francis Sark." + +"You'll pay?" + +"He shall think I'll pay," said the other. "So they lay their toils!--it +needs not this paper to tell me that;" he tapped it as it lay before +him. "Somewhat will this Englishman, this Nevil, do to-night. He hath +his game in his mind,--his hand on this piece, his eye on that, these +pawns in reserve, those advanced for action." De Guardiola leaned back +in his chair and studied the ceiling. "Ha, Pedro! we must discover what +he would do! When I know his dispositions, blessed Mother of God, what +check may I not give him!" + +"But if Desmond escapes not," began the duller Mexia, "we may learn not +at all, or we may learn too late. Then all's conjecture. They fight like +fiends, and day by day we lose. What if they overbear us yet?" + +Don Luiz brought his gaze from the ceiling to meet the look of the +lesser man. Mexia fidgeted, at last burst forth: "There are times when +the devil dwells in your eye and upon your lip! 'Twas so you smiled in +the Valdez matter and when that slave girl died! What do you mean?" + +"Mean?" answered De Guardiola, still smiling. "I mean, my friend, that +we must know what traps they bait down yonder." He called to those who +waited without, wrote an order and sent it to the officer in command at +the battery. "Up goes one traitor's signal!... Good Pedro, when Fate +gives to you your enemy; says, 'Now! Revenge yourself to the +uttermost!'--what do you do?" + +"Why, I take his life," answered Mexia. "Then shall he trouble me no +more." + +"Now I," said Don Luiz, "I give him memories of me. Mayhap the dead do +not remember. So live my foe! but live in hell, remembering the brand +upon thy soul and that it was I who set it glowing there!" + +"Well, I am thy friend, am I not?" quoth Mexia, comfortably. "I am not +Englishman nor Valdez nor Cimmaroon slave, and so I fear not thy smile. +It is twelve of the clock.... Do you think that Desmond knows so much?" + +"Not more than one other," answered De Guardiola, and called for a flask +of wine. + +The day wore on in heat and light, white glare from the hill, and from +the sea fierce gleams of blue steel. The coasts loomed, the plain moved +in the hot air. Here the plain was arid, and there yellow flowers turned +it to a ragged Field of Cloth of Gold. The gaunt cacti stood rigid, and +the palms made no motion where they dropped against the blue. In cohorts +to and fro went the colored birds; along the sandy shores, rose pink and +scarlet and white, crowded the flamingoes. Crept on the noonday +stillness; came the slow afternoon, the sun declined, and every hour of +that day had been long, long! One would have said that it was the +longest day of the year. Throughout it, dominant upon its ascending +ground, white, impregnable, and silent as a sepulchre, rose the +fortress. Before the fortress, slumberous also, couched the long, low +fortification of stone and earthwork commanding in its turn the road +through the tunal. In the town below, alcalde and friar waited trembling +upon the English Admiral with representations that the quality of mercy +is not strained. The slight rills of gold yet hidden in Nueva Cordoba +burst forth and began to flow fast and more fast towards the English +quarters. From the churches, Dominican and Franciscan, wailed the +_miserere_, and the women and children trembled beneath the roofs which +at any moment might no longer give them sanctuary. For all the blazing +sunshine, the place began to wear a look of doom. + +During the day the English dragged Mexia's conquered guns to the edge of +the town, and under their cover threw up earthworks and planted their +artillery where it might speak with effect. Spanish soldiery appeared +before the battery, and, according to the tactics of the time, began to +make thorny with abattis, poisoned stakes, and other devices the way of +the enemy across the open space which it guarded. English marksmen +picked them off, others took their place; they falling also, one great +gun from the fort bellowed defiance. Its echoes ceasing, silence again +wrapped the white ascent and all that crowned it. For days now each +antagonist had that knowledge of the other that ammunition was the pearl +of price only to be fully shown by warrant of circumstance. + +The sun in sinking cast a strange light. It stained the sea, and the air +so partook of that glow that town and fortress sprang into red +significance. The river also, where swung the dark ships, was +ensanguined, as was every ripple upon the shore, where now the birds +grew very clamorous. There were no clouds; only the red ball of the sun +descending, and a clear field for the stars. The evening wind arose; at +last the day died; unheralded by any dusk, on came the night. Color of +blood changed to color of gold, gleamed and glistened the sea, sparkled +the fire-flies, shone the deep stars; over the marsh flared the +will-o'-the-wisp like a torch lit to bad ends. + +Nueva Cordoba was held by two-thirds of the English force; now for the +Spaniards' greater endangering down from each ship's side came, man by +man, wellnigh all of that division which looked to the safety of the +fleet. So great was the prize, so intolerable any idea of defeated +purpose, that for this night--this night only--the balances could not be +evenly held. Precaution lifted from one side added weight to the other, +and the borrowing from Peter became of less moment than the paying of +Paul. Day by day, north and east and west, watchmen in the tops of the +_Mere Honour_, the _Cygnet_, the _Marigold_, and the _Phoenix_ had seen +no hostile sail upon the bland and smiling ocean. The river ran in +mazes; undulating like a serpent it came from hidden sources, and its +heavy borders of tamarind and mangrove sent long shadows out towards +midstream. The watchmen looked to the river also; but no greater thing +ever appeared than some Indian canoe gliding down from illimitable +forests. Now the ships were left maimed for what was meant to be the +briefest while. The sick manned them; together with a handful of the +unhurt they looked down from the decks and whispered envious farewells +to their comrades in the boats below. High above the boats towered the +black hulls; the topmasts overlooked sea and land; the bold figureheads, +that had drunk the brine of many a storm and looked unmoved upon strange +sights, gazed into the darkness with inscrutable, blank eyes. + +Silently the boats made landing, swiftly and silently through the +darkness two hundred men crossed the little plain, and their leader was +Robert Baldry. Out from Nueva Cordoba, stealing through the ruined and +depopulated quarter of the town, came a shadowy band, and they from the +town and they from the river met at the base of the long, westward slope +of the hill. Thence they climbed to the rocky plateau where, the night +before, Sir Mortimer Ferne had made pause. Here they halted, while Henry +Sedley and ten men went on to the tunal as, the night before, one man +had gone. By the signs that Ferne had given them they found the entrance +which they sought, and when they had thrust aside the curtain of branch +and vine, saw the clearing through the tunal. It lay beneath the stars, +a narrow defile much overgrown, walled on either side by impenetrable +wood. On went Sedley and his men, cautiously, silently, until they had +wellnigh pierced the tunal, that was scarce wider, indeed, than an +English copse. Before them, quiet as the tomb, rose the fortress--no +sound save their stealthy movement and the stir of the life that was +native to the woods, no sign of sentience other than their own. Back +they went to the plateau and made report, then with Baldry and half of +all the English force waited for the Admiral's attack upon that notable +fortification which guarded the known entrance through the tunal. + +Rising ground and the bulk of the fortress hid from them the battery; +they would hear, not see, John Nevil's onslaught, so now they watched +the east for the silver signal of attack. Not long did they watch. Above +the waters the firmament became milk white; an argent line appeared, +thickened:--one moment of the moon, then tumult, shouting, the blast of +a trumpet, the sound of small arms, and the roar of those guns which +must be rushed upon and silenced! Noises of bird and beast had the +tropic night, all the warfare and the wrangling with which life exacts +tribute from life, but now the feud of man with man voiced itself to the +stars. So great and stern was the uproar that it seemed as though John +Nevil might oversweep with his iron determination that too formidable +battery and unaided seize upon the fortress. + +No tarrying after the burst of sound and light made Baldry and his men. +Up the steep ground they swept towards that pale, invulnerable castle +borne upon the shoulder of the hill, faintly outlined against the pallid +east. On they came, a long thin line of men of England to that secret +path through the tunal. Devon was there, and Kent and Sussex, and many a +goodly shire beside. Men of land-fights and of sea-fights were they, and +of old adventures to alien countries, strong of heart and frame, and +very fiercely minded towards the fortress of Nueva Cordoba. It withheld +from them the gold they wanted, and now within its grasp was a life they +valued. To-night their will was set to take the one and rescue the +other. They saw the treasure heaped and gleaming, and they saw the face +and waved hand of Mortimer Ferne. They heard him laugh and gayly cry +his thanks. + +They entered the defile. To the right and the left rose the impenetrable +wood; before them wound a path thorny and difficult, where not more than +three men might go abreast; beyond, was the mass of the fortress. On +through the impeding growth, where passage was just possible, rushed +Baldry and his men. The way was not long, larger loomed the fortress, +louder grew the noise of attack and defence. At last the edge of the +tunal was reached, and they in the van, freed from hindrance and delay, +sprang forward over open ground, marked here and there by low bushes and +some trailing growth, sweeping around the fortress to the rear of the +battery, and apparently of a solidity with the universal frame +of things. + +Suddenly, beneath the footing of the foremost, the earth gave way and a +line of men stumbled, and pitched forward into a trench which had been +digged, which had been planted with pointed stakes, which had been +cunningly covered over by a leafy roof so thin that a child had broken +through. Not until towards the sunset of that day had Don Luiz de +Guardiola received information which enabled him to lay snares, but +since that hour he had worked with frantic haste. Now he knew the moment +when his springe would be trodden upon, the number of them who would +come stealthily through the tunal to that gin, the nature of Nevil's +attack upon the front, what guard had been left in the town, what upon +the ships. His information was minute and accurate, and, hawk and +serpent, he acted upon it with fierceness and with guile. + +The onward rush of the English had been impetuous. They in the rear of +the first upon that frail bridge, unable to stay their steps, plunged +also into the trench; those who were latest to clear the tunal surged +forward in consternation and confusion. Suddenly, from a low earthwork +hastily raised in the shadow of the fortress wall, and masked by bushes, +burst a withering fire of chain-shot from cannon and culverin, of +slighter missiles from falcon and bastard and saker, caliver and +harquebus. The trench, dug in a half-circle, either end touching the +tunal, made with the space it enclosed, and which was now crowded by +the English, an iron trap, into which with thunder and flame the Spanish +ordnance was pouring death. + + + +VII + +They who saw the full promise of the night in one instant of time dashed +from their lips and lost in desert sands struggled fiercely with their +fate. Baldry's great figure at their head, Baldry's great voice shouting +encouragement, they strove to pass the trench, to rush upon and +overwhelm the masked batteries, the hidden marksmen. An effectual +_chevaux-de-frise_, the pointed stakes withstood them, tore them, and +threw them back. Effort upon effort, a wild crossing over the interlaced +bodies of the fallen, a forward rush upon the guns, a loud "'Ware the +vines!" from Baldry--another and a wider ditch, irregular and shallow, +but lined with thorns like stilettos, and strung from side to side with +lianas strong as ropes to entangle, to bring prone upon the thorns the +desperate men who strove in the snare. A small band won to the farther +side, but the shot was as a blast of winter among sere leaves, and +terribly thinned their ranks. All was vain, all hopeless; to advance, +destruction, to tarry in that arena amidst the deadly thunder of the +guns, no less a thing. + +"Back, back!" shouted Baldry. "Back through the tunal--back to the +Admiral at the main battery! Here all's lost!" + +Above the din rose his voice. Back to the one door of safety surged the +English, but the way was narrow from that pit into which they had been +betrayed. The guns yet spoke; men dropped with an answering groan or +with a wild cry to their comrades not to leave them behind in that fatal +trench, upon Death's harvest-field. How in the murk and rain of death +could the whole gather the maimed, know the living from the dead? Barely +might the uninjured save themselves, give support perhaps to some hurt +and staggering comrade. Happy were the dead, for the fallen whose wounds +were not mortal, perhaps the fate of the men of the _Minion_! Of the +company which had come with Robert Baldry through the tunal to take by +surprise the fortress of Nueva Cordoba hardly a third found again its +shelter, turned drawn faces to the sea, rushed from that death-trap, +through the bitter and fatal wood, towards hillside and plain, and the +Admiral's attack upon that fortification which with all their force they +had twice endeavored to storm and found impregnable. + +Baldry himself? Surely he was among them!--in that shadowy pass was not +this his great form--or this--or this? + +"Baldry! Robert Baldry!" cried Sedley, and there came no answer. High +and shrill as a woman's wail rang again the young man's voice. "Captain +Robert Baldry!" + +"He's not here, sir," said a Devon man, softly. "God rest his soul!" + +Sedley raised his white face to the stars, then: "On men, on! We've to +help Sir John, you know!" Tone of voice, raised arm, and waving hand, +subtle and elusive likeness to the leader whom he worshipped, upon whom +he had moulded himself--for the moment it was as though Sir Mortimer +Ferne had cried encouragement to their sunken hearts, was beckoning them +on to ultimate victory plucked from present defeat. A cheer, wavering, +broken, touched with hysteria, broke from throats that were dry with +the horror of past moments. On with Henry Sedley, their leader now, they +struggled, making what mad haste they might through the tunal. + +In wrath and grief, set of face, hot of heart, they burst at last from +the tunal into the open with sky and sea, the plain, the town and the +river before them--the river where the ships lay in safety, the _Cygnet_ +and the _Phoenix_ close in shore, the _Mere Honour_ and the _Marigold_ +in midstream. The ships in safety--then what meant those distant cries, +that thrice repeated booming of a signal gun, that glare upon the river, +those two boats filled with rowers making mad haste up the stream, that +volley from the _Mere Honour's_ stern guns beneath which sank one of the +hurrying craft? + +Turned to stone they upon the hillside watched disaster at her work. The +_Cygnet_ was a noble ship, co-equal in size and strength with the _Mere +Honour,_ well beloved and well defended. Now for one instant of time a +great leap of flame from her decks lit all the scene and showed her in +her might; it was followed by a frightful explosion, and the great ship, +torn from her anchorage, wrecked forever, a flaming hulk, a torch, a +pyre, a potent of irremediable ruin, bore down the swift current and +struck the _Phoenix_.... Once more the _Mere Honour's_ cannon thundered +loud appeal and warning. In the red light cast by her destroyer the +galleon began to sink, and that so rapidly that her seamen threw +themselves overboard. Yet burning, the _Cygnet_ kept on her way. Borne +by the tide she passed from the narrow to the wider waters; to-night a +waning star, the morn might find her a blackened derelict, if indeed +there was sign of her at all upon the surface of the sea. + +Around the base of the hill swept the Admiral and his force. Vain had +been the attack upon the fortress, heavy the loss of the English, but it +was not the Spanish guns which had caused that retreat. Where were +Robert Baldry and his men? What strange failure, unlooked-for disaster, +portended that heavy firing at the rear of the fortress?... The signal +gun! The ships! + +John Nevil and his company left attacking forever the fortress of Nueva +Cordoba, and rushed down the hillside towards plain and river. Forth +from the town burst Ambrose Wynch with the guard which had been left in +the square--but where were Robert Baldry and his men? Were these +they--this dwindled band staggering, leaping down from the heights, led +by Henry Sedley, gray, exhausted, speaking in whispers or in strained, +high voices? No time was there for explanation, bewildered conjecture, +tragic apprehension. Scarcely had the three parties joined, when hard +upon their heels came De Guardiola and all his men-at-arms. Nevil +wheeled, fought them back, set face again to the river, but his +adversaries chose not to have it so. + +They achieved their purpose, for he gave them battle on the plain, at +his back the red light from the river, before him that bitter, +triumphant fortress. Hard and long did they fight in a death struggle, +fierce and implacable, where quarter was neither asked nor given. Nevil +himself bore a charmed life, but many a gentleman adventurer, many a +simple soldier or mariner gasped his last upon Spanish pike or sword. +Not fifty paces from the river bank Henry Sedley received his quietus. +He had fought as one inspired, all his being tempered to a fine agong of +endeavor too high for suffering or for thought. So now when Arden +caught him, falling, it was with an unruffled brow and a smile remote +and sweet that he looked up at the other's haggard, twisted features. + +"My knighthood's yet to seek," he said. "It matters not. Tell my Captain +that as I fought for him here, so I wait for him in Christ His court. +Tell my sister Damaris--" He was gone, and Arden, rising, slew the +swordsman to whom his death was due. + +Still fighting, the English reached the brim of the river and the boats +that were hidden there. The _Mere Honour_ and the _Marigold_ were now +their cities of refuge. Lost was the town, lost any hope of the fortress +and what it contained, lost the _Cygnet_ and the _Phoenix_, lost Henry +Sedley and Robert Baldry and many a gallant man besides, lost Sir +Mortimer Ferne. Gall and vinegar and Dead Sea fruit and frustrated +promise this night held for them who had been conquerors and confident. + +They saw the _Cygnet_, yet burning, upon her way to the open sea; from +the galleon _San José_ it was gone to join the caravels. Wreckage +strewed the river's bosom, and for those who had manned the two ships, +destroyer and destroyed, where were they? Down with the _allegartos_ and +the river slime--yet voyaging with the _Cygnet_--rushing, a pale +accusing troop towards God's justice bar?... The night was waxing old, +the dawn was coming. Upon the _Mere Honour_ Baptist Manwood, a brave and +honest soul who did his duty, steered his ship, encouraged his men, +fought the Spaniard and made no more ado, trained his guns upon the +landing, and with their menace kept back the enemy while, boatload after +boatload, the English left the bank and reached in safety the two ships +that were left them. + +The day was breaking in red intolerable splendor, a terrible glory +illuminating the _Mere Honour_ and the _Marigold_, the river and the +sandy shore where gathered the flamingoes and the herons and the egrets, +as the Admiral, standing on the poop of the _Mere Honour_, pressed the +hands of those his officers that were spared to him, and spoke simply +and manfully, as had spoken Francis Drake, to the gentlemen adventurers +who had risked life and goods in this enterprise, and to the soldiers +and mariners gathered in the waist; then listened in silence to the +story of disaster. Nor Robert Baldry nor Henry Sedley was there to make +report, but a grizzled man-at-arms told of the trap beyond the tunal +into which Baldry had been betrayed. "How did the Dons come to know, Sir +John? We'll take our oath that the trench was newly dug, and sure no +such devil's battery as opened on us was planted there before this +night! 'Twas a traitor or a spy that wrought us deadly harm!" He ended +with a fearful imprecation, and an echo of his oath came from his +fellows in defeat. + +Michael Thynne, Master of the _Cygnet_, a dazed and bleeding figure, +snatched from the water by one of the _Marigold's_ boats, spoke for his +ship. "Came to us that were nearest the shore a boat out of the +shadow--and we saw but four or maybe five rowers. 'Who goes there?' +calls I, standing by the big culverin. 'The word or we fire!' One in the +boat stands up. '_Dione_,' says he, and on comes the boat under our +stern." He put up an uncertain hand to a ghastly wound in his +forehead.... "Well, your Honor, as I was saying, they were Spaniards, +after all, and a many of them, for they were hidden in the bottom of +the boat. '_Dione_,' says they, and I lean over the rail to see if +'twere black Humphrey clambering up and to know what was wanted.... +After that I don't remember--but one had a pistolet, I think.... There +was another boat that came after them--and we were but twenty men in +all. They swarmed over the side and they cut us down. They must ha' +found the magazine, for they fired the ship--they fired the _Cygnet_, +Sir John, and it bore down with the tide and struck the _Phoenix_." His +voice falling, one caught and drew him aside to the chirurgeon's care. + +The Admiral turned to Ambrose Wynch, who burst forth with: "Sir John +Nevil, as I have hope of heaven, I swear I did guard that man as you +bade me do! The room was safe, the window high and barred, the +door locked--" + +"I doubt not that you did your duty, Ambrose Wynch," spoke the Admiral. +"But the man escaped--" + +"At the nooning he was safe enough," pursued the other, with agitation. +"I, going the rounds, looked in and saw him sitting on his bed, smiling +at me like a woman--Satan take his soul! I left Ralph Walter in the hall +without, and you know him for a stanch man.... When we heard the _Mere +Honour's_ guns, and the town rose against us who were left within it, +and I and my handful were cutting our way out to join you, Walter got to +my side for a moment. 'He's gone!' says he. 'When I heard the alarum I +went to fetch him forth to the square with me--and he was not there! +When he went and how, except the devil aided him, I know no more +than you!'" + +"Where is Ralph Walter?" said the Admiral. + +"Dead on the plain yonder!" groaned his lieutenant, and sitting down, +covered his face with his hands. + +From the main-deck arose a long, shrill cry. Arden drew a shuddering +breath. + +"It's that boy Robin! Had they not bound him he would have thrown +himself overboard. I doubt you'll have to flog his senses back to him." + +Robin-a-dale's voice again, this time from the break of the +poop;--Robin-a-dale himself upon them, his bonds broken, his eyeballs +starting, a wild blue-jerkined Ariel filled with tidings. In this moment +a scant respecter of persons, he threw himself upon Nevil, pointing and +stammering, inarticulate with the wealth of his discovery. The eyes of +the two men followed his lean, brown finger.... Above the quay where +boats made landing a sand-spit ran out from the tamarind-shadowed bank, +and now in the red dawning the mist that clung to it lifted. A man who +for an hour had lain heavily in the heavy shadow where he had been left +by De Guardiola's picked men had arisen, and with feeble and uncertain +steps was treading the sand-spit in the direction of the ships. Even as +Nevil and Arden looked where Robin's shaking forefinger bade them look, +he raised and waved his hand. It was the shadow of an old +familiar gesture. + +Before the cockboat reached the point he had fallen, first to his knee, +then prone upon the sand. It was in that deep swoon that he was brought +aboard the _Mere Honour_ and laid in the Admiral's cabin, whence Arden, +leaving the chirurgeon and Robin-a-dale with the yet unconscious man, +presently came forth to the Admiral and to Ambrose Wynch and asked for +aqua vitae, then drew his hand across his brow and wiped away the cold +sweat; finally found voice with which to load with curses Luiz de +Guardiola and his ministers. The Admiral listening, kept his still look +upon the fortress. When Arden had ended his imprecations he spoke with a +quiet voice: + +"I love a knightly foe," he said. "For that churl and satyr yonder, may +God keep him in safety until we come again!" + +"Till we come again!" Arden cried, in the fierceness of his unwonted +passion. "Are we not here? Why is the boatswain calling? Why do we make +sail, and that so hastily?" + +"Look!" said Ambrose Wynch, gruffly, and pointed to the west. "The +plate-fleet!" + +Those many white flecks upon the horizon grew larger, came swiftly on. +Forth from the river's mouth, out to sea, put the _Mere Honour_ and the +_Marigold_, for they might not tarry to meet that squadron. None that +looked upon Nevil's face doubted that though now he went, he would come +again. But he must gather other ships, replace his dead, renew his +strength by the touch of his mother earth. Home therefore to England, to +the friends and foes of a man's own house! To the eastward turned the +prows of the English ships; the sails filled, the shores slipped past. +In the town the bells were ringing, on the plain were figures moving; +from the fortress boomed a gun, and the sound was like a taunt, was like +a blow upon the cheek. Swift answer made the cannon of both ships, and +the sullen, defiant roar awoke the echoes. Taunt might they give for +taunt. Three ships had the English taken, three towns had they sacked; +in sea-fights and in land-fights they had been victors! Where were the +caravels, where the ruined battery at the river's mouth, where the great +magazine of Nueva Cordoba? Where was Antonio de Castro?--and the galleon +_San José_ was lost to friend as well as foe--and Spaniard no more than +Englishman might gather again the sunken treasure. Thus spake the guns, +but the hearts of the men behind were wrung for the living and the dead. +The shores slipped by, the fortress hill of Nueva Cordoba lessened to a +silver speck against the mountains; swift-sailing ships they feared no +chase by those galleons of Spain. Islands were passed, behind them fell +bold coasts, before them spread the waste of waters. Beyond the waste +there was home, where friend and foe awaited tidings of the expedition +which had gone forth big with promise. + +In the _Mere Honour's_ state-cabin upon the evening of that decisive day +were gathered a number of the adventurers who had staked life and goods +in this enterprise. Not all were there who had sailed from England to +the Spanish seas. Then as now England paid tithes of her younger sons to +violent death. Many men were missing whose voices the air seemed yet to +hold. They had outstripped their comrades, they had gone before: what +bustling highways or what lonely paths they were treading, what fare +they were tasting, for what mark they were making, and upon what long, +long adventure bound--these were hidden things to the travellers left +behind in this murky segment of life. But to the strained senses of the +men upon whom, as yet, had hardly fallen the upas languor of accepted +defeat, before whose eyes, whether shut or open, yet passed insistent +visions of last night's events, like an echo, like a shade, old +presences made themselves felt. Swinging lanterns dimly lit the cabin of +the _Mere Honour_, and in ranks the shadows rose and fell along its +swaying walls. From without, the sound of the sea came like an +inarticulate murmur of far-away voices. There were vacant places at the +table, and upon the long benches that ran beneath the windows; yet, +indefinably, there seemed no less a company than in the days before the +taking of the galleon _San José_ and the town of Nueva Cordoba. One +arose restlessly and looked out upon the star-rimmed sea, then in haste +turned back to the lit cabin and passed his hand before his eyes. "I +thought I saw the _Phoenix_," he said, "huge and tall, with Robert +Baldry leaning over the side." Another groaned, "I had rather see the +_Cygnet_ that was the best-loved ship!" At the mention of the _Cygnet_ +they looked towards a door. "How long his stupor holds!" quoth Ambrose +Wynch. "Well, God knows 'tis better dreaming than awaking!" The door +opened and Sir Mortimer Ferne stood before them. + +From the Admiral to the last ne'er-do-weel of a noble house all sprang +to their feet. "God!" said one, under his breath, and another's tankard +fell clattering from his shaking hand. Nevil, the calm accustomed state, +the iron quiet of his nature quite broken, advanced with agitation. +"Mortimer, Mortimer!" he cried, and would have put his arms about his +friend, but Ferne stayed him with a gesture and a look that none might +understand. Behind him came Robin-a-dale, slipped beneath his +outstretched arm, then with head thrown back and wild defiant eyes faced +the little throng of adventurers. "He's mad!" he shrilled. "My master's +mad! He says strange things--but don't you mind them, gentles.... Oh! +Sir John Nevil, don't you mind them--" + +"Robin!" said Ferne, and the boy was silent. + +Arden pushed forward the huge and heavy chair from the head of the +board. "Stand not there before us like the shade of him who was Mortimer +Ferne," he cried, his dark face working. "Sit here among us who dearly +love you, truest friend and noblest gentleman!--Pour wine for him, +one of you!" + +Ferne made no motion of acquiescence. He stood against the door which +had shut behind him and looked from man to man. "Humphrey Carewe--and +you, Gilbert--and you, Giles Arden--why are you here upon the _Mere +Honour_? The _Cygnet_ is your ship." None answering him, his eyes +travelled to others of the company. "You, Darrell, and you, Black Will +Cotesworth, were of the _Phoenix_. What do you here?... The water rushes +by and the timbers creak and strain. Whither do we go under press +of sail?" + +Before the intensity of his regard the men shrank back appalled. A +moment passed then. "My friend, my friend!" cried Nevil, hoarsely, "you +have suffered.... Rest until to-morrow." + +The other looked steadfastly upon him. "Why, 'tis so that I have been +through the fires of hell. Certain things were told me there--but I have +thought that perhaps they were not true. Tell me the truth." + +The silence seemed long before with recovered calmness the Admiral +spoke. "Take the truth, then, from my lips, and bear it highly. As we +had plotted so we did, but that vile toad, that engrained traitor, +learning, we know not how, each jot and tittle of our plan and escaping +by some secret way, sold us to disaster such as has not been since Fayal +in the Azores! For on land we fought to no avail, and by treachery the +Spaniards seized the _Cygnet_, slew the men upon her, and fired her +powder-room. Dressed in flame she bore down upon, struck, and sunk the +_Phoenix_.... Now we are the _Mere Honour_ and the _Marigold_, and we go +under press of sail because behind us, whitening the waters that we have +left, is the plate-fleet from Cartagena." + +"Where is Robert Baldry?" asked Ferne. + +"In the hands of Don Luiz de Guardiola--dead or living we know not. He +and a hundred men came not forth from the tunal--stayed behind in the +snare the Spaniard had set for them." + +"Where is Henry Sedley?" + +"He died in my arms, Mortimer, thrust through by a pike in that bitter +fight upon the plain!" Arden made reply. "I was to tell you that he +waited for you in Christ His court." + +"Then will he wait for aye," said the man who leaned so heavily against +the door. "Or till Christ beckons in Iscariot." + +They looked at him, thinking his mind distraught, not wondering that it +should be so. He read their thought and smiled, but his eyes that smiled +not met Arden's. "Great God!" cried the latter, shrank back against the +table and put out a shaking hand. + +Slowly Ferne left the support of the wood and straightened his racked +frame until he stood erect, a figure yet graceful, yet stately, but +pathetic and terrible, bearing as it did deep marks of Spanish hatred. +The face was ghastly in its gleaming pallor, in its effect of a +beautiful mask fitted to tragedy too utter for aught but stillness. He +wore no doublet, and his shirt was torn and stained with blood, but in +last and subtlest mockery De Guardiola had restored to him his sword. He +drew it now, held the blade across his knee, and with one effort of all +his strength broke the steel in twain, then threw the pieces from him, +and turned his sunken eyes upon the Admiral. "I beg the shortest shrift +that you may give," he said. "It was I who, when they tormented me, told +them all. Hang me now, John Nevil, in the starlight." + +The Admiral's lips moved, but there came from them no sound, nor was +there sound in the cabin of the _Mere Honour_. Not the _Cygnet_ or the +_Phoenix_ were more quiet far away, far below, on the gray levels of the +sea. At last a voice--Ambrose Wynch's--broke the silence that had grown +too great to bear. "It was Francis Sark," he said, and again +monotonously, "It was Francis Sark--it was Francis Sark." Another swore +with a great oath, "'Tis as the boy says--they've crazed him with their +torments!" Humphrey Carewe, a silent and a dogged man, who wore not his +heart upon his sleeve, broke into a passionate cry: "Sir Mortimer Ferne! +Sir Mortimer Ferne!" + +To them all it seemed that the name broke the spell that was upon them. +The name stood for very much. Carewe's outcry called up a cloud of +witnesses--the deeds of a man's lifetime--and marshalled them against +this monstrous accusation of a sick and whirling hour. "You know not +what you say!" spoke Nevil, harshly. "Good and evil are blent in you as +in all men, but God used no traitorous or craven stuff in your making! +Rest now,--speak to us to-morrow!" + +[Illustration: "'I BEG THE SHORTEST SHRIFT THAT YOU MAY GIVE'"] + +Again he would have advanced, but the man at the door waved him back, +smiled once more with his lips alone. "Ah, you all are dear to me! But +do you know I prefer your hatred to your love! Give me your hatred and +let me go. I am not mad nor do I lie to you.... Before the sunset, +when I had borne torment through the day, I bore it no longer. They +loosed me and dashed water in my face, and Luiz de Guardiola said over +to me the words that I had spoken. Then he went forth and laid his +snares.... And so Robert Baldry is lost, he and a hundred men besides? +And Spaniards coming down the river took the _Cygnet_ because they knew +the word of the night?" A spasm distorted the masklike features, but in +a moment it was gone. "I should be a madman," he said, "for once I +walked before you with a high head and a proud heart. It seems that I +knew not myself.... Now, John Nevil, enact Drake and send me to join +Thomas Doughty!" + +The Admiral answered not where he stood, covering his eyes with his +hand. "But Francis Sark--" began Wynch, in a shaking voice. + +"I know naught of Francis Sark," Ferne replied. "As I have said so I +did. I ask no other court than this, no further mercy than my present +death.... John Nevil, for the sake of all that's dead and gone forever, +I pray you to keep me here no longer!" + +He staggered as he spoke and put his hand to his head. "Mortimer, +Mortimer. Mortimer!" cried the Admiral. "Oh, my God, let this +dream pass!" + +"Why, the matter needs not God," said Ferne, and laughed. "I am a +traitor, am I not? Then do to me what was done to Thomas Doughty. Only +hasten, for dead men wait to clutch me, and your looks do sear my +very brain." + +Again he reeled. With a cry Robin-a-dale sprang towards him. Arden, too, +was there in time to support the sinking figure and guide it to the seat +he had pushed forward. Some one held wine to the lips.... Slow moments +passed, then Sir Mortimer's eyes unclosed. The boy hung over him, and he +smiled upon him, smiled with eye and lip. "Ay, ay, ay, Robin," he said, +"we'll to the court! And sweep away these rhymes, for the queen of all +my songs dwells there, and I shall look into her eyes--and that's better +than singing, lad! Ay, I'll wear the violet, and we'll ride beneath the +blossoms of the spring.... But there's a will-o'-the-wisp on the marsh +out yonder, and here they call it a lost soul--the soul of the +traitor Aguirre!" + +"Master, master!" cried the boy. + +Ferne laughed, touching the young cheek with long, supple fingers. +"Fame is a bubble, lad--let me tell thee that! But then it is +rainbow-hued and mirrors the sky,--so we'll ride for the bubble, lad! +and we'll stoop from the saddle and gather up Love! And when the bubble +has vanished and Love is dead there's Honor left!" He leaned forward, +seeing and hearing where was neither sound nor sight. There was gayety +in his face. To the men who stared upon him it was a fearful thing that +he who had lost his battle should wear once more the look which they had +seen a thousand times. He raised his hand. + +"Do you not hear the drums beat and the trumpets blow--far away, far +away? Let me whisper--there's one that comes home in triumph.... Ay, +your Grace, 'twas I that took Santo Domingo in Hispaniola, and on the +mainland the very rich cities of Puerto Cabello, Santa Marta, La Guayra, +Cartagena, Nombre de Dios and San Juan de Ulloa. Manoa I reserve,--'tis +a secret city, and all who know a secret must keep it, else.... Robin! +Robin, rid me of these babblers. She's coming!--all in white--like blown +spray--but she bears no roses. Lilies, lilies!--white samite like her +robe--but her eyes are turned away. Let her pass, ye fools! She's the +word of the night!" He staggered to his feet, swaying forward, clutching +at the empty air as at a man's throat, and again his laugh rang through +the cabin. "So you twisted it from me, Spanish dog!--so I raved out my +heart as to a woman? Then, Don Sathanas, we'll go home together and all +the soldiery of hell shall not unlock our embrace!" He grappled with an +invisible foe--bent him backward farther and farther over the brink of +the world--went down with him into unplumbed darkness.... + +They judged not the Captain of the _Cygnet_ for a craven and a traitor, +for, day after day and day after day, he lay in the Admiral's cabin, so +ill a man that the coasts of Death seemed nearer than those of England, +and man's condemnation an idle thing, seeing that so soon he must face +another Justiciar. So near at times to that ultimate shore did he drift +that those who watched him saw the shadow on his face. When the shadow +was deep they waited with held breath; when it somewhat lifted they +sorrowed that the tide had brought him back. He was of those +changelings from a fortunate land to whom Love clings when Faith has +covered her head and turned away. They that in heaviness of heart loved +him still grieved that he might not touch the dark shore. Better, far +better, to lay hold of it so, to go quietly in the not unhappy +fever-dream, wandering of old days, recking naught of the new. So the +matter might be adjudged elsewhere, but in this world glozed +and softened. + +The days went on and still Fate played with him, drew him forward, +plucked him back. What fancies he had; what wild excursions he made into +dizzy, black, and horror-haunted regions; what æons he lived beneath the +seas that stifled; by what winds he was whirled, through space, past +burning orbs that neither warmed nor lighted the all-surrounding night; +in what Titanic maze he was lost, lost forever, he and Pain that was his +brother from whom he might not part;--the sick brain made a hell and +languished in the world it had created! At other times, when the dark +coasts were near and the current very swift, pale paradises opened to +him where he lay for centuries, nor hot nor cold, neither waking nor +sleeping, not in joy and not in sorrow. Then the stopped pendulum swung +again, and the dreams came fast and faster. At times his brain turned +from its mad clash with gigantic, formless, elemental things to rest in +the beaten ways. They that listened heard the adventurer speak, heard +the courtier and the poet and the lover, but never once the traitor. Of +the fortress of Nueva Cordoba and of what had happened therein, of a +Spaniard, noble but in name, of an English knight and leader who had not +endured, who, where many a simple soul had stood fast to the end, had +redeemed his body with his honor, the man who raved of all things else +made no mention. Now with the sugared and fantastic protestation +demanded by court fashion and the deep, chivalric loyalty of his type he +spoke to the Queen of England, and now he was with Sidney at Penshurst, +Platonist, poet, Arcadian. Now he lived over old adventures, old +voyages, past battles, wrongs done and wrongs received, unremembered +loves and hatreds, and now he walked with Damaris Sedley in the garden +of his ancient house of Ferne. + +Then at last he came to a land where he lay and watched always a small +round of azure wave and sky, lay idly with no need of thought or +memory, until after a lifetime of the sapphire round it occurred to him +to put forth a wasted hand, touch a sun-embrowned one, and whisper, +"Robin!" It was a day later, the ships nearing the Grand Canary, and +land birds flying past his circlet of sky and ocean, when, after lying +in silence for an hour with a faint frown upon his brow, he at last +remembered, and turned his face to the wall. + + + +VIII + +In a small withdrawing-room at Whitehall an agreeable young gentleman +pensioner, in love with his own voice, which was in truth mellifluous, +read aloud to a knot of the Queen's ladies. The room looked upon the +park, and the pale autumn sunshine flooding it made the most of rich +court raiment, purple hangings, green rushes on the floor, lengths of +crimson velvet designed for a notable piece of arras, and kindled into +flame the jewels upon white and flying fingers embroidering upon the +velvet the history of King David and the wife of Uriah. + +"'It is not the color that commendeth a good painter,'" read the +gentleman pensioner, "'but the good countenance; nor the cutting that +valueth the diamond, but the virtue; nor the gloze of the tongue that +tryeth a friend, but the faith,'" + +Mistress Damaris Sedley put the needle somewhat slowly through the +velvet, her fancy busy with other embroidery, not so much listening to +the spoken words as pursuing in her mind a sweet and passionate rhetoric +of her own. + +"'Of a stranger I can bear much,'" went on the Lydian tones, "'for I +know not his manners; of an enemy more, for that all proceedeth of +malice; all things of a friend if it be but to try me, nothing if it be +to betray me. I am of Scipio's mind, who had rather that Hannibal should +eat his heart with salt than that Laelius should grieve it with +unkindness; and of the like with Laelius, who chose rather to be slain +with the Spaniards than suspected of Scipio.'" + +Damaris quite left her work upon Bathsheba's long gold tresses and sat +with idle hands, her level gaze upon nothing short of the great highway +of the sea and certain ships thereon. Where now was the ship?--off what +green island, what strange, rich shore? + +On went the gentleman pensioner. "'I can better take a blister of a +nettle than a prick of a rose; more willing that a raven should peck out +my eyes than a dove. To die of the meat one liketh not is better than +to surfeit of that he loveth; and I had rather an enemy should bury me +quick than a friend belie me when I am dead.'" + +The reader made pause and received his due of soft plaudits. But Damaris +dreamed on, the gold thread loose between her fingers. She was the +fairest there, and the gentleman was piqued because she looked not at +him, but at some fine Arachne web of her own weaving. + +"Sweet Mistress Damaris--" he began; and again, "Fair Mistress +Damaris--" but Damaris was counting days and heard him not. A lesser +beauty left her work upon King David's crown to laugh aloud, with some +malice and some envy in her mirth. "Prithee, let her alone! She will +dream thus even in the presence. But I have a spell will make her +awaken." She leaned forward and called "_Dione_!" then with renewed +laughter sank back into her seat. "Lo! you now--" + +The maid of honor, who at her own name stirred not, at the name of a +poet's giving had started from her dream with widened eyes and an +exquisite blush. The startled face which for one moment she showed her +laughing mates was of a beauty so intelligent and divine that, was it so +she looked, a many King Davids had found excuse for loving one +Bathsheba. Then the inner light which had so informed every feature +sought again its shrine, and Mistress Damaris Sedley, who was of a +nature admirably poised and a wit most ready, lifted with the latest +French shrug the jest from her own shoulders to those of another: "Oh, +madam! was it you who spoke? Surely I thought it was your dead starling +that you taught to call you by that name--but whose neck you wrung when +it called it once too often!" + +Having shot her forked shaft and come off victor, she smiled so sweetly +upon the gentleman pensioner that for such ample thanks he had been +reading still had she not risen, laid her work aside, and with a deep +and graceful courtesy to the merry group left the room. When she was +gone one sighed, and another laughed, and a third breathed, "O the +heavens! to love and be loved like that!" + +Damaris threaded the palace ways until she reached the chamber which she +shared with a laughter-loving girl from her own countryside. Closed and +darkened was the little room, but the maid of honor, moving to the +window, drew the hangings and let the sunshine in. From a cabinet she +took a book in manuscript, then with it in her hands knelt upon the +window-seat and looked out upon the Thames. She did not read what was +written upon the leaves; those canzones and sonnets that were her +love-letters were known to her by heart, but she liked to feel them in +her hands while her gaze went down the river that had borne his ship out +to sea. Where was now the ship? Like a white sea-bird her fancy followed +it by day and by night, now here, now there, through storm and sunshine. +It was of the dignity of her nature that she could look steadfastly upon +the vision of it in storm or in battle. There were times when she was +sure that it was in danger, when her every breath was a prayer, and +there were times, as on this soft autumnal day, when her spirit drowsed +in a languor of content, a sweet assurance of all love, all life to +come. His words lay beneath her hand and in her heart; she pressed her +brow against the glass, and as from a watch-tower looked out upon the +earth, a fenced garden, and the sea a sure path and Time a strong ally +speeding her lover's approach. For a long time she knelt thus, lapped in +happy dreams; then the door opened and in came her chamber-fellow. +"Damaris!" she said, and again, "Oh, Damaris, Damaris!" + +Damaris arose from the window-seat and laid her love-letters away. "In +trouble again, Cecily?" she asked, and her voice was like a caress, for +the girl was younger than herself. "I know thy 'Oh, Damaris, Damaris!'" +She closed the cabinet, then turning, put her arm around her fellow +maid. "What is't, sweeting?" + +Cecily slipped to her knees, hiding her face in the other's shimmering +skirts. "Thou'rt so dear, so good, and so proud.... As soon as I might I +ran hither, for every moment I feared to see thee enter! Thou wouldst +have died hadst thou heard it there in the great antechamber, where they +crowd and whisper and talk aloud--and some, I know, are glad.... The +ships, Damaris--yesternight two of the ships came home." + +She spoke incoherently, with sobbing breath, but gradually the form to +which she clung had grown rigid in her embrace. "Two of the ships have +come home," repeated Damaris. "Which came not home?" + +"The _Cygnet_ and the _Star_." + +The maid of honor, unclasping the girl's hands, glided from her reach. +"Let me go, good Cis! Why, how stifling is the day!" She put her hand to +her ruff, as though to loosen it, but the hand dropped again to her +side. The silken coverlet upon the bed was awry; she went to it and laid +it smooth with unhurried touch. From a bowl of late flowers crimson +petals had fallen upon the table; she gathered them up, and going to the +casement, gave them, one by one, to the winds outside. + +"Damaris, Damaris, Damaris!" cried the frightened girl. + +"Ay, I have heard him call me that," answered the other. "Sometimes +Damaris, sometimes Dione. When did he die?" + +"Oh, I bring no news of his death!" exclaimed Cecily. "Sir Mortimer +Ferne is here--in London." + +Damaris, swaying forward, caught at a heavy settle, sank to her knee, +and laid her brow against the wood. Cecily, gazing down upon her, saw +her cheek glow pure carnation, saw the quivering of the long eyelashes +and the happy trembling of the lip. Presently the wave of color fled; +she unclosed her eyes, raised her head. "But there was something, was +there not, to be borne?... God forgive me, I had forgot that I have +a brother!" + +Cecily, whose courage was ebbing, began to deal in evasions. "Indeed I +know not as to thy brother. I am not sure ... mayhap I did not hear him +named.... They said so many things--all might not be true." + +Damaris arose from the settle. "I will have thy meaning, Cis. 'They said +so many things.'--Who are they'?" + +Cecily bit her lip, and dashed away fast-starting tears. "Oh, Damaris, +all who have heard--all the court--his friends and thine and his foes. +The matter's all abroad. The Queen hath letters from Sir John Nevil--he +hath been sent for to the Privy Council--" + +"Sir John Nevil hath been sent for?--Why not Sir Mortimer Ferne?... Is +he ill? Is he wounded?" + +Cecily wrung her hands. "Now I must tell thee.... It is his honor that +doth suffer. There is a thing that he did.--He hath confessed, or surely +there were no believing ... Damans, they call him traitor.... Ah!" + +"Ay, and I'll strike thee again an thou say that again!" cried Damaris. + +The younger woman shrank before the angry eyes, the disdain of the +smiling lips. Abruptly Damaris moved from the frightened girl. Upon the +wall, above a dressing-table, hung a Venetian mirror. The maid of honor +looked at her image in the glass, then with flying fingers undid and +laid aside her ruff, substituting for it a structure of cobweb lace, +between whose filmy walls were displayed her white throat and bosom. +Around her throat she clasped three rows of pearls, and also wound with +pearls her dark-brown hair. Her eyes were very bright, but there was no +color in her face. Delicately, skilfully, she remedied this, until with +shining eyes and that false bloom upon her oval cheeks one would have +sworn she was as joyous as she was fair. + +[Illustration: "'DAMARIS, THEY CALL HIM TRAITOR'"] + +Cecily, watching her with a beating heart, at last broke silence: +"Oh, Damaris, whither are you going?" + +Damaris looked over her shoulder. "After a while I will be sorry that I +struck thee, Cis.... I am going to talk with men." She clasped a gold +chain about her slender waist, dashed scented water upon her hands, +glanced at her full and sweeping skirts of green silk shot with silver. +"I have broken my fan," she said; "wilt lend me thy great plumed one?" +Cecily brought the splendid toy. The maid of honor took it from her; +then, with a last glance at the mirror, swept towards the door, but on +the threshold turned and came back for one moment to her chamber-fellow. +"Forgive me, Cis," she said, and kissed the girl's wet cheek. + +The great anteroom had its usual throng of courtiers, those of a day and +those whose ghosts might come to haunt the floors that their mortal feet +so oft had trodden. Men of note and worth were there, and men of no +other significance than that wrought by rich apparel. Here men brought +their dearest hopes and fears, and here they came to flaunt a feather or +to tell a traveller's tale. It was the place of deferred hopes and the +place of poisoned tongues, and the place in which to suck the last +sweet drop in an enemy's cup of trembling. It was the haunt of laughter +and of fevered wit and of rivalry in all things, and here the heaviest +of heart was not unlike to be the lightest of wit. The spirit of party +never left its walls, and Ambition was its chamberlain. The envied and +the envious walked there, and there hung the sword of Damocles and the +invisible balances. Here, in one corner, might lord it one on whom +Fortune broadly smiled, while around him buzzed the gilded parasites, +and here, ten feet away, his rival felt the knife turn in his heart. +To-morrow--to-morrow's old trick of legerdemain! there the knife, here +the smiling face, and for the cloud of sycophants mere change of venue. +It was a land of air-castles and rainbow gold, a fool's paradise and the +garden where grew most thickly the apples of Sodom. In it were caged all +greed, all extravagance, all jealousies; hopes, fears, passions that may +be born of and destroy the soul of man; and within it also flamed +splendid folly and fealty to some fixed star, and courage past +disputing, and clear love of God and country. Yonder glass of fashion +and mould of form had stood knee-deep in an Irish bog keeping through a +winter's night a pack of savages at bay; this jester at a noble's elbow +knew when to speak in earnest; and this, a suitor with no present in his +hand, so lightly esteemed as scarce to seem an actor in the pageant, +might to-night take his pen and give to after-time a priceless gift. +Soldiers, idle gallants, gentlemen and officers of the court; men of law +and men of affairs; churchmen, poets, foreigners, spendthrifts, gulls, +satellites, and kinsmen of great lords; the wise, the foolish, the noble +and the base--up and down moved the restless, brilliant throng. Some +excitement was toward, for the great room buzzed with talk. The +courtiers drew together in groups, and it seemed that a man's name was +being bandied to and fro, dark shuttlecock to this painted throng. +Damans Sedley, entering the antechamber by a small side door, swam into +the ken of a number of eager players gathered around a gentleman of +flushed countenance, who, with much swiftness and dexterity, was +wreaking old grudges upon the shuttlecock. One of the audience trod upon +the player's toe; each courtier bowed until his sword stood out a +straight line of steel; the maid of honor curtsied, waved her fan, let +her handkerchief fall to the floor. To seize the piece of lawn all +entered the lists, for the lady was very beautiful, and of a seductive, +fine, and subtle charm; a favorite also of the Queen, who, +Narcissus-like, saw only her own beauty, and believed that Sir Mortimer +Ferne's veiled divinity was rather to be found on Olympus than upon the +plains beneath. In sheer loveliness, with lips like a pomegranate +flower, mobile face of clear pallor, and beneath level brows eyes whose +color it was hard to guess at and whose depths were past all sounding, +Mistress Damaris Sedley held her small head high and went her graceful +way, moving as one enchanted over the thorny floor of the court. She had +great charm. Once it had been said beneath a royal commissioner's breath +that here in this portionless girl was a twin sorceress to the Queen who +dwelt at Tutbury. + +Sorceress enough, at least, was she to draw to herself speech and +thought of this particular group; to make those who were ignorant of her +relation to the shuttlecock think less of the treasure of Spain than of +the treasure which their eyes beheld, and those who had been his +friends, who guessed at whom had been levelled those fair arrows of +song, to start full cry (when they had noted that she was merry) upon +other matters than lost ships and men. It was not long that she would +have it so. "As I entered, sir, I heard you name the _Star_. That was +one of Sir John Nevil's ships. Is there news of his adventure?" + +The man to whom she spoke, some mere Hedon of the court, fluttered in +the frank sunshine of her look. "Fair gentlewoman," he began, +pomander-ball in hand, "had you a venture in that ship? Then the less +beauteous Amphitrite hath played highwayman to your wealth. Now if I +might, drawing from the storehouse of your smiles inveterate Courage, +dub myself your Valor, and so to the rescue--" + +"Oh, sir, at once I dismiss you to Amphitrite's court!" cried the lady. +"Master Darrell,"--to a dark-browed, saturnine personage,--"tell me less +of Amphitrite and more of the truth. The _Star_--" + +He whom she addressed loved not the shuttlecock, thought one woman but +falser than another, and made parade of blunt speech. Now a shrug of the +shoulder accompanied his answer. "The _Star_ went down months ago, off +the Grand Canary, in a storm by night." + +"Alack the day!" cried Damaris. "But God, not man, sendeth the storm! +Was none saved?" + +"All were saved," went on her grim informant; "but well for them had +they died with their ship, in the salt sea--Captain Robert Baldry and +his men--" + +A murmur ran through the group, which now numbered more than one who +could have shrewdly guessed to whom this lady had given her love. Some +would have stayed Black Darrell, but not the Queen herself could have +bidden him on with more imperious gesture than did Damaris. "Saved from +the sea--but better they had drowned! You speak in riddles, Master +Darrell. Where are Captain Robert Baldry and his men?" + +A young man hurriedly approached her from another quarter of the room. +Men bowed low as he passed, and the circle about the maid of honor +received him with a deference it scarce had shown to Beauty's self. + +"Ha, Mistress Damaris!" he cried, with somewhat of a forced gayety, "my +sister sends messages to you from Wilton! The day is fair--wilt walk +with me in the garden and hear her letter?" + +The maid of honor gave him no answer; stood smiling, the plumed fan +waving, her eyes fixed upon Black Darrell, who scorned to budge an inch +for any court favorite and friend of the shuttlecock's. Damaris repeated +her question, and he answered it with relish. + +"Betrayed to the Spaniard, madam,--they and many a goodly gentleman and +tall fellow beside! If they died, they died with curses on their lips, +and if they live, they bide with the Holy Office or in the galleys +of Spain." + +He who had joined the group interrupted him sternly. "This, sir, is no +speech for gentle ears. Madam, beseech you, come with me into the +long walk." + +The courage of a fighting race looked from the maid of honor's darkening +eyes. The small head and slender, aching throat were held with pride, +and the hand scarce trembled with which she waved Cecily's plumed fan. +"I have a venture in this voyage," she said. "Certes, the value of a +pearl necklace, and I will know if I am beggared of it! Moreover, dear +Sir Philip, English courage and English tragedy do move me more than all +the tangled woes of Arcadia.... Master Darrell, I have hopes of thy +being no courtier, thou dost speak so to the point. Again, again,--there +were three ships, the _Mere Honour_, the _Marigold_, and the _Cygnet_--" + +"They took a great galleon of Spain," said Black Darrell, "very +rich,--enough so to have paid your venture a hundred times over, lady, +and they stormed a town, and might have taken a great castle, for they +landed all their forces, of which Sir John Nevil made admirable +disposition. But there was an Achan in the camp, a betrayer high in +place, who laid his body and his life in the balance against his honor. +The Spanish guns mowed down the English; they fell into pits upon +pointed stakes; Spanish horsemen rode them under. Meanwhile the +_Cygnet_, traitorous as its Captain--" + +"Traitorous as its Captain?" flamed the maid of honor. "But on, sir, on! +Afterwards there will be accounting for so vile a falsehood!" + +Another movement and murmur ran through the group, checked by Damaris's +raised hand and burning eyes. "On, sir, on!" + +Darrell shrugged. "Oh, madam, the _loyal Cygnet_ would have it that that +fair cockatrice the galleon was her own! So in flame and thunder they +kissed, but now, quiet enough, they lie upon the sea-floor, they and the +spilled treasure." + +Damaris moistened her lips. "Where are the brave and gallant gentlemen +who led this venture? Where is Sir John Nevil? Where is Sir +Mortimer Ferne?" + +Darrell would have answered blithe enough, but the man who had +interfered now pushed the other aside, came close to the maid of honor, +and spoke with decision. "Gentlemen, this lady had a brother of much +promise who sailed upon the _Cygnet_.... Ah! you perceive that such +converse in her presence is not gentle nor seemly." He took Damaris's +hand; it was quite cold. "Sweet lady," he said, in a low voice, "come +with me from out this gallimaufry." He bent nearer, so that none but she +could hear. "I will tell you all. It fits not with the dignity of your +sorrow that you should remain here." + +Damaris's bosom rose and fell in a long shuddering sigh. The room that +was so large and bright swam before her, appeared to grow narrow, dark, +and stifling. A hateful and terrible presence overshadowed her; it was +as though she had but to put forth her hand to touch a coffin-lid. She +no longer saw the forms about her, scarce felt the pressure of Sidney's +hand, knew not, so brave a lady was she, so fixed her habit of the +court, that she smiled upon the group she was leaving and swept them a +formal curtsy. She found herself in the deserted outer gallery with +Sidney,--they were in the recess of a window, and he was speaking. She +put her hand to her brow. "Is Henry Sedley dead?" she asked. + +He answered her as simply: "Yes, lady, bravely dead--a good knight who +rode steadfastly to that noblest Court of which all earthly courts are +but flawed copies." + +As he spoke he regarded her anxiously, fearing a swoon or a cry, but +instead she smiled, looking at him with dazed eyes, and her white hand +yet at her forehead. "I am his only sister," she said, "and we have no +father nor mother nor brother. We have been much together--all our +lives--and we are tender of each other.... Death! I never thought that +death could touch him; no, not upon this voyage.--There was one who +swore to guard him." + +Her companion made no answer, and she stood for a few moments without +further word or motion, slowly remembering Darrell's words. Then a +slight lifting of her head, a gradual stiffening of her frame; her hand +fell, and the expression of her face changed--no speech, but parted +lips, and eyes that at once appealed and commanded. She might have been +some dark queen of a statelier world awaiting tidings that would make or +mar. He was the most chivalric, the best-loved, spirit of his time, and +his heart ached that, like his own Amphialus, he must deal so sweet a +soul so deadly a blow. Seeing that it must be so, he told quietly and +with proper circumstance, not the wild exaggeration and tales of +aforethought treason which rumor had caught up and flung into the court, +but the story as Sir John Nevil had delivered it to the Privy Council. +Even so, it was, inevitably, to this man and this woman, the story of +one who had spoken where he should have bitten out his tongue; who, all +unwillingly it might be, had yet betrayed his comrades, who had set a +slur and a stain upon his order. + +"He himself accuseth himself," ended the speaker, with a groan. "Avoweth +that, wrung by their hellish torments, he made his honor of no account; +prayeth for death." + +Damaris stood upright against the mullioned window. + +"Where is he?" she asked, and there was that in her voice which a man +might not understand. He paused a moment as for consideration, then drew +from his doublet a folded paper, gave it to her, and turned aside. The +maid of honor, opening it, read: + +_To Sir Philip Sidney, Greeting_: + +_Doubtless thou hast heard by now of how all mischance and disaster +befell the adventure. For myself, who was thy friend, I will show thee +in lines of thy own making what men hereafter (and justly) will say of +me who am thy friend no longer_: + + "_His death-bed peacock's folly. + His winding-sheet is shame. + His will, false-seeming wholly. + His sole executor blame_." + +_Lo! I have given space enough to a coward's epitaph. Of our friendship +of old I will speak no farther than to cry to its fleeing shadow for one +last favor_--_then all's past_. + +_I wish to have speech, alone, with Mistress Damaris Sedley. It must be +quickly, for I know not what the Queen's disposition of me may be. For +God's sake, Philip Sidney, get me this! I am not yet under arrest_--_I +am hard by the Palace, at the Bell Inn_.--_You may effect it if you +will. God knows you have a silver tongue and she a heart of gold! I +trust her to give me speech with her as I trust you to find the way_. + +_Time was, thy friend; time is, thy suppliant only_. + +_MORTIMER FERNE_. + +_O Sidney, Sidney! I am not altogether base_! + +The maid of honor folded the letter, keeping it, however, in her hand. +Her companion, turning towards her, chanced to see her face of sombre +horror, of wide, tearless eyes, and would look no more. To themselves +the two were modern of the moderns, ranked in the forefront of the +present; courtier, statesman, and poet of the day, exquisite maid of +honor whose every hour convention governed,--yet the face upon which in +one revealing moment he had gazed seemed not less old than the face of +Helen--of Medea--of Ariadne; not less old and not less imperishably +beautiful. Neither spoke of her idyll turned to a crowder's song. +Knowing that there were no words which she could bear, he waited, his +mind filled with deep pity, hers with God knows what complexity, what +singleness of feeling, until at last a low sound--no intelligible +word--came from her throat. The plumed fan dropped the length of its +silken cord, and her hands went out for help that should yet be +voiceless, assuming everything, expressing nothing. He met her call, as +three years later he met, at Zutphen, the agony of envy, the appeal +against intolerable thirst, in the eyes of a common soldier. + +"No command concerning him has yet been given," he said, gently. "I sent +him mask and cloak--he came by yonder way,--met me here.... There were +few words.... His humor is that of glancing steel." + +"That is as it should be," answered the maid of honor. + +Her companion parted the hangings which separated the two from the +gallery. "He awaits behind yonder door where stands the boy." +Ceremoniously he took her hand and led her to an entrance beside which +leaned a slender lad in a ragged blue jerkin and hose. "Robin, you will +watch yonder at the great doors. Sweet lady, I stand here, and none +shall enter. But remember that the time is short--at any moment the +gallery may fill." + +"There is no long time needed," said Damans. In her voice there was no +anger nor shame nor poignant grief, but she spoke as in a dream, and her +face when she turned it towards him was strange once more, like the face +of Fatal Love rising clear from the crash of its universe. She had drunk +the half of a bitter cup, and the remainder she must drink; but when all +was said, she was going, after weary months, to see the face of the man +she loved. Philip Sidney lifted the latch of the door, saw her enter, +and let it fall behind her. + +The room in which she found herself was ruddy with firelight, the flames +coloring the marble chimney-piece and causing faint shadows to chase one +another across an arras embroidered with a hunting scene. Upon a heavy +table were thrown a cloak and mask. + +The man who had worn them turned from the window, came forward a few +paces, and stood still. Damans put forth her hand, and leaned for +strength against the chimney-piece--a beautiful woman in the heart of +the glow from the fire. At first she said no word, for she was thinking +dully. "If he comes no nearer, it must be true. If he crosses not the +shadow on the floor between us, it must be true." At last she asked, in +a low voice, + +"Is it true?" + +In the profound silence that followed she made a step forward out of the +red glow towards the bar of shadow. Ferne stayed her with a gesture +of his hand. + +"Yes, it is true," he said. "It is true, unless, indeed, there be no +answer to Pilate's 'What is truth?' For myself, I walk in a whirling +world and a darkness shot with fire. Did I do this thing? Yea, verily, I +did! Then, seeing that I dwell not in Edmund Spenser's faerie-land nor +believe that an enchanter's wand may make white seem black and black +seem white, I now see myself nakedly as I am,--a man who knew not +himself; a sword, jewel--hilted, with a blade of lath; a gay masker +whom, his vizard torn away, the servants thrust forth into the cold! I +am my own assassin, forger, abhorred fool!" + +He paused, and the embers fell, growing gray in the silence. At last he +spoke again, in a changed voice. "Thy brother, lady.... There will not +lack those to tell thee that I tripped him with my foot, that I slew him +with my dagger. It is not true, and yet I count myself his murderer.... +See the shadow at thy feet, the heavy shadow that lies between you and +me!... How may I say that I would have given my life for him who was thy +brother and my charge, whom for his own sake I loved, when I gave not my +life, when I bought my life with his and many another's?... Thou dost +well to say no word, but I would that thou didst not press thy hands +against thy heart, nor look at me with those eyes. A little longer and I +will let thee go, and Sidney's sister will comfort thee and be kind +to thee." + +"What else?" said Damaris, beneath her breath. "What else? O God! no +more!" + +Ferne drew from his doublet a knot of soiled ribbon. Again he was +speaking, but not with the voice he had used before. "Thy favor.... I +have brought it back to thee--but not stainless, not worn in triumph.... +There is a fortress and a town that I see sometimes in a dream, and the +governor of them both is a nobleman of Spain--Don Luiz de Guardiola, +Governor of Nueva Cordoba. He filched from me my honor, but left me life +that I might taste death in life. He set me on the river sands that I +might call to the ships I had not sunken and to the comrades I had not +slain. He gave me back my sword that in the cabin of the _Mere Honour_, +in my leader's presence, I might break the blade in twain. He restored +me _this_ when he had ground it beneath his heel!--No, no, I will not +have you speak! But was he not a subtle gentleman?... Now, by your +leave, I shall burn the ribbon." + +He crossed to the great fireplace and threw the length of velvet ribbon +into a glowing hollow. It caught and blazed and illuminated his face. +Damaris moved also, groping with her hands for the chair beside the +table. Finding it, she sank down, outstretched her arms upon the board, +and bowed her head upon them. Through the faintness and the leaden +horror that weighed her down she heard Ferne's voice, at first yet +monotonous and low, at the last an irrepressible cry of passion: + +"Now there is no longer troth between us, and all thy days, by summer +and by winter, thou mayst listen unabashed to tales of such as I. If I +am named to thee, thou needst not blush, for now I have seared away that +eve above the river, that morn at Penshurst. And there will be no more +singing, and men will soon forget, as thou too--as thou too must forget! +I loved; I love; but to thy lips and thy dark, dark eyes, and thy whole +sweet self I say farewell.... Farewell!" + +She was aware of his step beside her; knew that he had lifted the cloak +and mask from the table; thought that but for this all-enfolding +heaviness she would speak.... The door opened, and Sidney's voice +reached her in a low, peremptory "At once!" A pause that seemed filled +with laboring breath, then footsteps passed her; the door closed. Alone, +she rose to her feet, stood for a moment with her hands at her temples, +then moved with an uncertain step to the fire, where she sank down upon +the rushes and tried to warm herself. Something among the ashes drew +her attention. In went her hand, and out came a charred end of +velvet ribbon. + +She sat before the fire for some time, dully conscious of sound and +movement in the gallery without, but caring nothing. When at last she +arose and left the room all was quiet enough, and she reached her own +chamber unmolested. Towards evening Cecily, fluttering in after long +hours of attendance, found her in her night-rail, half kneeling beside +the bed, half fallen upon the floor.... The Countess of Pembroke was not +at court, and there was none besides whom Cecily cared or dared to call; +so, terrified, she watched out the night beside a Damaris she had +never known. + +Philip Sidney's low voice had been urgent, and the man who owed to him a +perilous assignation made no tarrying. With his cloak drawn about his +face, and his hand busy with the small black mask, he passed swiftly +along the gallery towards the door through which he had obtained +entrance and where Sidney now waited with an anxious brow. It was too +late. Suddenly before him, at the head of a short flight of stairs, the +massive leaves of the great doors swung open and halberdiers +appeared--beyond them a confused yet stately approach of sound and color +and indistinguishable forms. The halberdiers advanced, a double line +forming an aisle for the passage of some brilliant throng, and cutting +off the door of escape. Ferne looked over his shoulder. From doors now +opened at the farther end of the gallery people were entering, were +ranging themselves along the walls. There was a glimpse of a crowd +without; beyond them, the palace stairs and the silver Thames. A trumpet +blew, and the crowd shouted, _God save the Queen!_ + +The tide of color rolled through the great inner doors, down to the +level of the gallery, and so on towards the river and the waiting +barges. It caught upon its crest Philip Sidney, who, striving in vain to +make his way back to where Ferne was standing, had received from the +latter a most passionate and vehement gesture of dissuasion. On came the +bright wave, with menace of discomfiture and shame, towards the man who, +surrounded though he was by petty courtiers, citizens, and country +knights, could hardly fail of recognition. Impossible now was his +disguise, where every hat was off, where a velvet cloak swung from a +shoulder was one thing, and a mantle of frieze quite another. He dropped +the latter at his feet, crushed the light mask in his hand, and waited. + +It was not for long. Down upon him swept the cortege--the heart of the +court of a virgin Queen. At once keenly and as in a dream he viewed it. +Not less withdrawn was it now than a fairy pageant clear cut against +rosy skies and watched by him from the stony bases of inaccessible +cliffs--and yet it was familiar, goodly, his old accustomed company. +This face--and that--and that! how he startled from it laughter or +indifference or vagrant thought. There were low exclamations, a woman's +slight scream, pause, confusion, and from the rear an authoritative +voice demanding reason for the delay. Past him, staring and murmuring, +swept the peacock-tinted vanguard; then, Burleigh on one hand, Leicester +on the other, encompassed and followed by the greatest names and the +fairest faces of England, herself erect, ablaze with jewels, conscious +of her power and at all times ready to wield it, came the daughter of +Henry the Eighth. + +A noble presence moving in the full lustre of sovereignty, a princess +who, despite all womanish faults, was a wise king unto her people, a +maiden ruler to whom in that aftermath of chivalry men gave a personal +regard, rose-colored and fanciful; the woman not above coquetry, vanity, +and double-dealing, the monarch whose hand was heavy upon the council +board, whose will perverted law, whose prime wish was the welfare of her +people--she drew near to the man to whom she had shown fair promise of +settled favor, but to whose story, told by his Admiral and commented +upon by those about her, she had that day listened between bursts of her +great oaths and with an ominous flashing of jewels upon her hands. + +Now her quick glance singled him out from the lesser folk with whom he +stood. She colored sharply, took two or three impetuous steps, then, +indignant, stayed with her lifted hand the progress of her train. Ferne +knelt. In the sudden silence Elizabeth's voice, shaken with anger, made +itself heard through half the length of the gallery. + +"What make you here? Who has dared to do this--to place this man here?" + +"Myself alone, madam," answered quickly the man at her feet. With a +motion of his hand he indicated the long cloak beside him. "I had but +made entrance into the gallery--I was taken unawares--" + +"Hast a knife beneath your cloak?" burst forth the Queen. "I hear that +right royally you gave my subjects' lives to the Spaniard. There's a +death that would more greatly please those that mastered you!... +Answer me!" + +"I have no words," said Ferne, in a low voice. As he spoke he raised his +head and looked Majesty in the face. + +Again Elizabeth colored, and her jewels shook and sparkled. "If not +that, what then?" she cried. "God's death! Is't the Spanish fashion to +wear disgrace as a favor? Again, sir, what do you here?" + +"I came as a ghost might come," answered Ferne. "Thinks not your Grace +that the spirits of disgraced and banished men, or men whose fault, +mayhap, brought forfeiture of their lives, may strain to make return to +that spot where they felt no guilt, where they were greatly happy? As +such an one might come and no man see him, hurt or to be hurt of him, so +came I, restless, a thing of naught, a shade drawn to look once more +upon old ways, old walls, the place where once I freely walked. None +brought me; none stayed me, for am I not a ghost? I only grieve that +your Grace's clear eyes should have marked this shade of what I was, for +most unwittingly I, uncommanded, find myself in your Grace's presence." +He bent lower, touched the hem of her magnificent robe, and his voice, +which had been quite even and passionless, changed in tone. "For the +rest--whether I am yet to hold myself at your Grace's pleasure, or +whether you give me sentence now--God save your Majesty and prevent your +enemies at home and abroad--God bring downfall and confusion upon the +Spaniard and all traitors who abet him--God save Queen Elizabeth!" + +There followed a pause, during which could be heard the murmur of the +waiting throng and the autumnal rustle of the trees without the +gallery. At last: + +"Yours was ever an eloquent tongue, Sir Mortimer Ferne," said the Queen, +slowly. "Hadst thou known when to hold it, much might have been +different.... Thy father served us well, and once we slept at his +ancient house of Ferne, rich only in the valor and loyal deeds of its +masters, from old times until our own.... What is lost is lost, and +other and greater matters clamor for our attention. Go! hold thyself a +prisoner, at our pleasure, in thy house of Ferne! If thou art but a +shade with other shadows, then seek the company of thy dead father and +of other loyal and gallant gentlemen of thy name. Perchance, one and +all, they would have blenched had the pinch but been severe enough. I +have heard of common men--ay, of thieves and murderers--whose lips the +rack could not unlock! It seems that our English knights grow less +resolved.... My lords, the sun is declining. If we would take the water +to-day, we must make no farther tarrying. Your hand, my Lord of +Leicester." + +Once more her train put itself into motion. Lords and ladies, lips that +smiled and hearts all busy with the next link in Ambition's golden +chain, on they swept into the pleasant outer air. The one man of the +motley throng of suitors to whom Elizabeth had spoken rose from his +knee, picked up his frieze coat, and turned a face that might have gone +unrecognized of friend or foe towards the door by which he had entered +the gallery. + + + +IX + +Giles Arden, having ridden far as required the tale of miles from the +tavern of the Triple Tun, came, upon a sunshiny afternoon of early +spring, to an oak knoll where one might halt to admire a fair picture of +an old house set in old gardens. Old were the trees that shadowed it, +and ivy darkened all its walls; without sound a listless beauty breathed +beneath the pale blue skies; for all the sunshine and the bourgeoning of +the spring, the picture seemed but sombrely rich, but sadly sweet. To +the lips of a light-of-heart there was that in its quality had brought a +sigh: as for Arden, when he had checked his horse he looked upon the +scene with a groan, then presently for very mirthlessness, laughed. + +"That day," he said to himself with a grimace--"that day when we forsook +our hawking, and dismounting on this knoll, planned for him his new +house! There should be the front, there the tower, there the great room +where the Queen should lie when she made progress through these ways! +All to be built when, like a tiercel-gentle to his wrist, came more +fame, more gold!" + +The speaker turned in his saddle and looked about him with a rueful +smile. + +"I on yonder mossy stone, and Sidney, chin in hand, full length beneath +that oak, and he standing there, his arm about the neck of his gray! And +what says monsieur the traitor? 'I like it well as it stands, nor will I +tear down what my forefathers built. Plain honor and plain truth are the +walls thereof, and encompassed by them, the Queen's Grace may lie down +with pride.' Brave words, traitor! Gulls, gulls (saith the world), +friend Sidney! For a modicum of thy judgment, Solomon, King of Jewry, I +would give (an he would bestow it upon me) my cousin the Earl's +great ruby!" + +He laughed again, then sighed, and gathering up his reins, left the +little eminence and trotted on through sun and shade to a vacant, +ruinous lodge and a twilit avenue, silent and sad beneath the heavy +interlacing of leafy boughs. Closing the vista rose a squat doorway, +ivy-hung; and tumbled upon the grass beside it, attacking now a great +book and now a russet pippin, lay a lad in a blue jerkin. + +At the sound of the horse's hoofs the reader marked his page with his +apple, and with a single movement of his lithe body was on his feet, +a-stare to see a visitor where for many days visitors had been none. +Declining autumn and snowy winter and greening spring, he could count +upon the fingers of one hand the number of those who had come that way +where once there had been gay travelling beneath the locked elms. +Another moment and he was at Arden's side, clinging to that gentleman's +jack-boot, raising to his hard-favored but not unkindly countenance a +face aflame with relief and eagerness. Presently came the big tears to +his eyes, he swallowed hard, and ended by burying his head in the folds +of the visitor's riding-cloak. + +"Where is your master, Robin-a-dale?" Arden demanded. + +The boy, now red and shamefaced because of his wet lashes, stood up, and +squaring himself, looked before him with winking eyes, nor would answer +until he could speak without a quaver. Then: "He sits in the north +chamber, Master Arden. This side o' the house the sun shines." Despite +his boyish will the tears again filled his eyes. "'Tis May-time now, and +there's been none but him above the salt since Lammas-tide. Sir John +came and Sir Philip came, but he would not let them stay. 'Tis lonesome +now at Ferne House, and old Humphrey and I be all that serve him. Of +nights a man is a'most afeard.... I'll fasten your horse, sir, and +mayhap you'll have other luck." + +Arden dismounted, and presently the two, boy and adventurer, passed into +a hall where the latter's spur rang upon the stone flooring, and thence +into a long room, cold and shadowy, with the light stealing in through +deep windows past screens of fir and yew. Touched by this wan +effulgence, beside an oaken table on which was not wine nor dice nor +books, a man sat and looked with strained eyes at the irrevocable past. + +"Master, master!" cried Robin-a-dale. "Here be company at last. Master!" + +Sir Mortimer passed his hand across brow and eyes as though to brush +away thick cobwebs. "Is it you, Giles Arden?" he asked. "It was told +me, or I dreamed it, that you were in Ireland." + +"I was, may God and St. George forgive me!" Arden answered, with +determined lightness. "Little to be got and hard in the getting! Even +the Muses were not bountiful, for my men and I wellnigh ate Edmund +Spenser out of Kilcolman. He sends you greeting, Mortimer; swears he is +no jealous poet, and begs you to take up that old scheme which he +forsook of King Arthur and his Knights--" + +"He is kind," said Ferne, slowly. "I am well fitted to write of old, +heroic deeds. Nor is there any doubt that the man-at-arms who hath lost +his uses in the struggle of this world should take delight in quiet +exile, sating his soul with the pomp of dead centuries." + +"Nor he nor I meant offence," began Arden, hastily. + +"I know you did not," the other answered. "I have grown churlish of +late. Robin! a stirrup-cup for Master Arden!" + +A silence followed, then said Arden: "And if I want it not, Mortimer? +And if, old memories stirring, I have ridden from London to Ferne House +that I might see how thou wert faring?" + +"Thou seest," said Ferne. + +"I see how bitterly thou art changed." + +"Ay, I am changed," answered Sir Mortimer. "Your thought was kindly, and +I thank you for it. Once these doors opened wide to all who knocked, but +it is not so now. Ride on to the town below the hill, and take your rest +in the inn! Your bedfellow may be Iscariot, but if you know him not, and +as yet he knows himself but slenderly, you may sleep without +dreaming. Ride on!" + +"The inn is full," answered Arden, bluntly. "This week the Queen rests +in her progress with your neighbor, the Earl, and the town will be +crowded with mummers and players, grooms, cutpurses, quacksalvers, and +cockatrices, travellers and courtiers whom the north wind hath nipped! +'Sblood, Mortimer, I had rather sleep in this grave old place!" + +"With Judas who knows himself at last?" asked Ferne, coldly, without +moving from his place. The door opened, and old Humphrey, shuffling +across the floor to the table, placed thereon a dish of cakes and a +great tankard of sack, then as he turned away cast a backward glance +upon his master's face. Arden noted the look, that there was in it fear, +overmastering ancient kindness, and withal a curiosity as ignoble as it +was keen. Suddenly, as though the fire of that knowledge had leaped to +his own heart from that of his host, he knew in every fibre how +intolerable was the case of the master of the house, sitting alone in +this gloomy chamber, served by this frightened boy, by that old man +whose gaze was ever greedy for the quiver of an eyelid, the pressing +together of white lips, whose coarse and prying hand ever strayed +towards the unhealed sore. He strode to the table and laid hands upon +the tankard. "The dust of the road is in my throat," he explained, and +drank deep of the wine, then put the tankard down and turned to the +figure yet standing in the cold light as in an atmosphere all its own. + +"Mortimer Ferne," he said, "I came here as thy aforetime friend. I will +not believe that it is my stirrup-cup that I have drunk." + +"Ay, your stirrup-cup," answered the other, steadily. "Nowadays I see no +company--my aforetime friend." + +"That word was ill chosen," began Arden, hastily. "I meant not--" + +"I care not what you meant," said Sir Mortimer, and sitting down at the +table, shaded his eyes with his hand. "Of all my needs the least is now +a friend. Go your ways to the town and be merry there, forgetting this +limbo and me, who wander to and fro in its shadows." Suddenly he struck +his hand with force against the table and started to his feet, pushing +from him with a grating sound the heavy oaken settle. "Go!" he cried. +"The players and mummers are there. Go sit upon the stage, and in the +middle of the play cry to your neighbors: 'These be no actors! Why, once +I knew a man who could so mask it that he deceived himself!' There are +quacksalvers who will sell you anything. Go buy some ointment for your +eyes will show you the coiled serpent at the bottom of a man's heart! +Travellers!--ask them if Prester John can see the canker where the fruit +seems fairest. Nipped courtiers! laugh with them at one against whom +blow all the winds of hell, blast after blast, driving his soul before +them! Ballad-mongers--" + +He paused, laughed, then beckoned to him Robin-a-dale. "Sirrah," he +said, "Master Arden ever loved a good song. Now sing him the ballad we +heard when the devil drove us to town last Wednesday." + +"I--I have forgotten it, master," answered the boy, and cowered against +the wall. + +"You lie!" cried Ferne, and the table shook again beneath his hand. "Did +I not exercise you in it until you were perfect? Sing!" + +The boy opened his mouth and there came forth a heart-broken sound. His +master stamped upon the floor. "Shall I not also torture where I can? +Sing, Robin, my man! Fling back your head and sing like the lark in the +sky! What! am I fallen so low that my very page flouts me, kicks +obedience out-of-doors?" + +Robin-a-dale straightened himself and began to sing, with bravado, a +fierce red in his cheeks, and his young voice high and clear: + + "Now list to me, ladies, and list to me, gentles; + I've a story for your ears of a false, false knight, + Whom England held in honor, but he treasured Spain so dearly + That he sold into her hands his comrades in fight. + + "'Twas before a walled city with the palm-trees hanging over; + He was Captain of the _Cygnet_, and it sank before his eyes; + The Englishmen ashore, they're taken in the pitfall, + Good lack! they toil in galleys or their souls to God arise. + + "He sees them in his sleep, the craven and the traitor. + The sea it keeps their bones, their bloody ghosts they pass--" + +"For God's sake!" cried Arden; and the boy, snatching with despairing +haste at the interruption, ceased his singing, and in the heavy silence +that followed crept nearer and nearer to his master until he touched a +listless hand. + +"Ay, Robin," said Ferne, absently, and laid the hand upon his head. "And +the bloody ghosts they pass." + +Arden spoke with emotion: "All men when their final account is made up +may have sights to see that now they dream not of. Thou art both too +much and too little what thou wast of old, and thou seest not fairly in +these shadows. I know that Philip Sidney and John Nevil have come to +Ferne House, and here am I, thy oldest comrade of them all. A sheet of +paper close written with record of noble deeds becomes not worthless +because of one deep blot." + +Ferne, his burst of passion past, arose and moved from table to window, +from window to great chimney-piece. There was that in the quiet, almost +stealthy regularity of his motions that gave subtle suggestion of days +and nights spent in pacing to and fro, to and fro, this +deep-windowed room. + +At last he spoke, pausing by the fireless hearth: "I say not that it is +so, nor that there is not One who may read the writing beneath the blot. +But from the time of Cain to the present hour if the blotted sheet be +bound with the spotless the book is little esteemed." + +"Cain slew his brother wilfully," said Arden. + +"That also is told us," answered the other. "Jealousy constrained him, +while constancy of soul was lacking unto me. I know not if it was but +taken from me for a time, or if, despite all seeming, I never did +possess it. I know that the dead are dead, and I know not to what +ambuscade I, their leader, sent them.... I fell, not wilfully, but +through lack of will. Now, an the Godhead within me be not flown, I will +recover myself,--but never what is past and gone, never the dead +flowers, never the souls I set loose, never one hour's eternal scar!... +Enough of this. Ride on to the inn, for Ferne House keepeth guests no +longer. To-morrow, an you choose, come again, and we will say farewell. +Why, old school-fellow! thou seest I am sane--no hermit or madman, as +the clowns of this region would have me. But will you go?--will you go?" + +"It seems that you yourself journey to the town upon occasion," said +Arden. "Ride with me now, Mortimer. No country lass more sweet than the +air to-day!" + +The other shook his head. "Business has taken me there. But now that I +have sold this house I at present go no more." + +"Sold this house!" echoed Arden, and with a more and more perturbed +countenance began to pace the floor. "I did never think to hear of Ferne +House fallen to strange hands! Your father--" He paused before a picture +set in the panelled wall. "Your father loved it well." + +"My father was of pure gold," said Sir Mortimer, "but I, his son, am of +iron, or what baser metal there may be. Now I go forth to my kind." + +"Oh! in God's name, leave Plato alone!" cried the other. "'Tis not by +that pagan's advice that you divest yourself of house and land!" + +"I wanted money," said Ferne, dully. + +The man whom ancient friendship had brought that way stopped short in +his pacing to gaze upon the figure standing in the light of the high +window. For what could such an one want money? Courtier, no more +forever; patron of letters, friend of wise men, no more forever; soldier +and sea-king, comrade and leader of brave men never, never again,--what +wanted he so much, what other was his imperative need than this old, +quiet house sunk in the shadows of its age-old trees, grave with a +certain solemnity, touched upon with tragedy, attuned to a sorrowful +patience? For a moment the room and the man who made its core were +blurred to Arden's vision. He walked to the window and stood there, +twirling his mustachios, finally humming to himself the lines of a song. + +"That is Sidney's," said Ferne, quietly. "I hear that he does the Queen +noble service.... Well, even in the old times he was ever a length +before me!" + +"Why do you need money?" demanded the visitor. "What more retired--what +better house than this?" + +The man who leaned against the chimney-piece turned to gaze at his +visitor with that which had not before showed in mien or words. It was +wonder, slight and mournful, yet wonder. "Of course you also would think +that," he said at last. "Even Robin thinks that the stained blade should +rust in its scabbard,--that here I should await my time, training the +rose-bushes in my garden, listening to the sere leaves fall, singing of +other men's harvests." + +The boy cried out: "I don't, I don't! You've promised to take me with +you!" and flung himself down upon the pavement, with his head beside his +master's knee. + +"I have bought me a ship," said Ferne, "together with a crew of beggared +mariners and cast soldiers. I think they be all villains and desperate +folk, or they would not sail with me. Some that seemed honest have +fallen away since they knew the name of their Captain.... We must +begone, Robin! If we would not sail the ship ourselves we must +begone--we must begone." + +"Begone where?" demanded Arden, and wheeled from the window. + +"To fight the Spaniard," said Ferne. "The Queen hath been my very good +mistress. John Nevil and Sidney have procured me leave to go--if it so +be that I go quietly. I think that I will not return--and England will +forget me, but Spain may remember.... For the rest, I go to search for +Robert Baldry; to seek if not to find my enemy, the foe that I held in +contempt, whom in my heart I despised because he was not poet and +courtier, as I was, nor knight and gentleman, as I was, nor very wise, +as I was, and because all his vision was clouded and gross, while I--I +might see the very flower o' the sun.... Well, he was a brave man." + +"He is dead," whispered Arden. "Surely he is dead." + +"Maybe," answered the other. "But I nor no man else saw him die. And we +know that these Spanish tombs do sometimes open and give up the dead. +I'll throw for size-ace." + +"If he lived they would have sent him to Cartagena,--to the Holy +Office!" cried the other. "One ship--a scoundrel crew.... Mortimer, +Mortimer, some other ordeal than that!" + +Ferne raised his eyes. "I call it by no such fine name," he said. "I but +know that if he yet lives, then he and what other Englishmen are left +alive do cry out for deliverance, looking towards the sea, thinking, +'Where is now a friend?'" He left the table and came near to Arden. +"'Twas a kindly impulse sent you here, old comrade of mine; but now will +you go? The dead and I hold Ferne House of nights. To-morrow come again +and say good-by." + +"I will sail with you to the Indies, Mortimer," said the visitor. + +There was silence in the room; then, "No, no," answered Ferne, in a +strange voice. "No, no." + +Arden persisted, speaking rapidly, carrying it off with sufficient +lightness. "He was just home from Ireland and stood in need of the sun. +His cousin wanted him not; John Nevil was in the north and had helpers +enough. The slaying of Spaniards was at once good service and good +sport. Best take him along for old time's sake. Indeed, he asked no +better than to go--" On and on he talked, until, looking up, his speech +was cut short by the aspect of the man before him. + +If in every generation the house of Ferne, father and son, could wear a +dark face when occasion warranted, certainly in this moment that of the +latest of his race was dark indeed. "And at the first pinch be betrayed. +Awake, or here, or there, in the torments of Spain or in another world! +Awake and curse me by all your gods! Speak not to me--I am not hungry +for a friend! I have no faith to pledge against your trust! The rabble +which await me upon my ship, I have bought them with my gold, and they +know me, who I am. For Robin--God help the boy! He had a fever, and he +would not cease his cries until I sware not to part from him. Robin, +Robin! Master Arden will take horse! Go, Arden, go! or as God lives I +will strike you where you stand. No,--no hand-touching! Can you not see +that you heat the iron past all bearing? A moment since and I could have +sworn I saw behind you Henry Sedley! Go, go!" + +He sank upon the settle beneath the window, and buried his head in his +arms. For a long minute Arden stood with a drawn face, then turning, +left the house and left the place, for the knowledge was borne in upon +him that here and now friendship could give no aid. When, half an hour +later, he arrived at the Blue Swan in the neighboring town and called +for _aqua-vitæ_, mine host, jolly and round and given over to +facetiousness, swore that to look so white and bewitched-like the +gentleman must have gathered mandrakes from Ferne church-yard, or have +dined with the traitor knight himself. + +That same afternoon, when the rays of the sun were lower, Ferne went +into his garden and lifted his bared brow, that perchance the air might +cool it. It was the quiet hour when the goal of the sun is in view, and +the shadows of the fruit trees lay long upon the grass. There were +breaches in the garden walls where they had crumbled into ruin, and +through these openings, beyond dark masses of all-covering ivy, sight +might be had of old trees set in alleys, of primrose-yellowed downs, and +of a distant cliff-head where sheep grazed, while far below gleamed a +sapphire line of sea. Tender quiet, fair stillness, marked the spot. Day +mused as she was going: Evening, drawing near, held her finger to her +lips. A tall flower, keeping fairy guard beside three ruinous steps, +moved not her slightest bell, but there came one note of a +hidden thrush. + +Full in the midst of a grass-plot was set a semi-circular bench of +stone. To this Ferne moved, threw himself down, and with a moaning sigh +closed his eyes. There had been long days and sleepless nights; there +had been, once his brain had ceased to whirl, the growth of a purpose +slowly formed, then held like iron; there had been the humble pleading +for freedom, the long delay, the hope deferred; then, his petition +granted, the going forth to mart and highway, the bargaining, amidst +curious traffickers, for that rotting ship, for those lives, as +worthless as his own, which yet must have their price. This going forth +was very bad; like hot lead within the gaping wound, like searing +sunshine upon the naked eye. And now, to-day, not an hour since, Arden! +to mock, to goad, to torture-- + +Slowly, slowly, the sun went down the west, and the peace of the garden +deepened. Very stealthily the quiet stole upon him; softly, silently, +with spirit touch, it brought him healing simples. Utterly weary as he +was, the balm of the hour at last flowed over him, faintly soothing, +faintly caressing. He opened his eyes, and breathing deeply, looked +about him with a saner vision than he had used of late. + +The lily by the broken stair slept on, but the thrush sang once again. +The bell-like note died into the charmed stillness, and all things were +as they had been. Thirty paces away, stark against the evening sky, rose +the western wall of Ferne House, and it was shaggy with ivy that was +rooted like a tree, wide-branched, populous with birds' nests, and high, +high against the blue a thing of tenderest sprays and palest leaves. The +long ridge of them kept the late sunshine, and so far was it lifted +above the earth, so still in that dreamy hour, so touched with pale +gold, so distant and so delicate against high heaven, that it caught and +held eye and soul of the man for whom Fate had borrowed Ixion's wheel. +He gazed until the poet in him sighed with pure pleasure; then came +forgetfulness; then, presently, he looked into his heart and began to +make a little song, amorous, quaint, and honey-sweet, just such a song +as in that full dawn of poesy Englishmen struck from the lyre and +thought naught of it. His lips did not move; had he spoken, at the sound +of his own voice the charm had cracked, the little lyric had shrunk away +before tragedy that was yet as fierce as it was profound, that had as +yet few other notes than those of primal pain. + +With the final cadence, the last sugared word, the ivy sprays somewhat +darkened against the eastern sky. His fancy being yet aloft, he turned +that he might behold the light upon the downs, and then he saw Damaris +Sedley where she stood upon the lowest of the ruined steps, stiller than +the flower beside her, and with something rich and strange in her +bearing and her dress. Cloth of silver sheathed her body, while the +flowing sleeves that half revealed, half hid her white and rounded arms +were of silver tissue over watchet blue, and of watchet was the mantle +which she had let fall upon the step beside her. A net of wire of gold +crossing her hair that was but half confined, held high above her +forehead a golden star. In one hand she bore a silvered spear well +tipped with gold, the other she pressed above her heart. Her face was +pale and grave, her scarlet lip between her teeth, her dark eyes intent +upon the man before her. + +Ferne sprang to his feet and started forward, very white, his arm +outstretched and trembling, crying to her if she were spirit merely. She +shook her head, regarding him gravely, her hand yet upon her heart. "I +attend the Queen upon her progress," she said. "This day at the Earl's +there is a great masque of Dian and her huntresses, satyrs, fauns, all +manner of sylvan folk. At last I might steal aside unmissed.... By the +favor of a friend I rode here through the quiet lanes, for I wished to +see you face to face, to speak to you--to you who gave me no answer when +I wrote, and wrote again!... I am weary with the joys of this day. May I +rest upon yonder seat?" + +He moved backward before her, slowly, across the grass-plot to the bench +of stone, and she followed him. Their gaze met the while. There was no +wonder in his look, no consciousness of self in hers. In the spaces +beyond life their souls might meet thus; each drawing by the veil, each +recognizing the other for what it was. They took their seat upon the +wide stone bench, with the primroses at their feet, and above them the +empurpling arch of the sky. Throughout the past months, when he dreamed +of her, when he thought of her, he bowed himself before her, he raised +not his eyes to hers. But now their looks met, and his countenance of a +haggard and ravaged beauty did not change before her still regard. The +floating silver gauze of her open sleeve lying upon the stone between +them he lightly, with no pressure that she might notice, let rest his +hand upon it. In the act of doing this he wondered at himself, but then +he thought, "I am on my way to death...." + +She was the first to speak. + +"Seven months have gone since that day at Whitehall." + +"Ay," he answered, "seven months." + +She went on: "I have learned not to reckon life that way. Since that day +at Whitehall life has lasted a very long time." + +Again he echoed--"A very long time." Then, after a pause: "I have made +for you a long, long life. If to have done so is to your irreparable +loss, then this, also, is to be forgiven.... Long life! now in the +watches of one night I live to be an old man! For you may forgetfulness +come at last!" + +She turned slightly, looking at him from beneath the gold star. "Wish me +no such happy wishes! Let me not think that such wishes dwell in your +heart. Since that day at Whitehall I have written to you--written twice. +Why did you never answer?" + +He looked down upon his clasped hands. "What was there to be said? I +thought, 'I have sorely wounded her whom I love, and with my own words I +have seared that wound as with white heat of iron. Now God keep me man +enough to say no farther word!'" + +"I was benumbed that day," she said; "I was frozen. My brother's face +came between us.... Oh, my brother!... Since that day I have seen Sir +John Nevil--" + +"Then a just man told you my story justly," he began, but she +interrupted him, her breath coming faster. + +"I have also made other inquiry; on my knees, on my face, in the dead of +the night when I knew that thou, too, waked, I have asked of God, and of +our Lord the Christ who suffered.... I know not if they heard me, there +be so many that clamor in their ears...." With a quick movement she +arose from the stone seat and began to pace the grass-plot, her hands +clasped behind her head, the gold star yet bright in the late, late +sunshine. "I would they had answered me distinctly. Perhaps they did.... +But be that as it may be I will follow my own heart, I will go my +own way--" + +He arose and began to walk with her. "And thy heart led thee this way?" +he asked in a whisper. + +She flashed upon him a look so bright that it was as if high noon had +returned to the garden. "Pluck me yonder lily," she said. "It is the +first I have smelled this year." + +He brought it to her, trembling. "Presently it will close," he said, +"never to open again." + +"That also is among the things we know not," she answered. "Think you +not there is one who revives the souls of men?" + +"Ay, I believe it," he answered. They paced again the green to its +flowery margin. + +"Give me yon spray of love-lies-bleeding," she said; then as it rested +against the lily in her hand, "Wounds may be cured," she said. "I have +heard talk here, there, at the court even, else, beshrew me, if I had +come this way to-day! I know that thou goest forth--" Her voice broke +and the gold star shook with the trembling of her frame. "I know that +thou mayst never, never, never return. I will pray for thy soul's +welfare.... See! there is a heartsease at my feet." + +He knelt, but touched not the floweret, instead caught at the long folds +of her silver gown and held her where she stood. "For my soul's welfare, +thou balm from heaven!" he cried. "For only my soul's welfare?" + +"No, no," she answered. "For the welfare of all of thee, soul and +body--soul and body!" She bent over him, and there fell from her eyes a +bright rain of tears, quickly come, quickly checked. "Ah, a contrary +world of queens and guardians!" she cried. "Oh, my God! if thou mightst +only make me thy wife before thou goest!" + +He arose and drew her into his arms. "The story is true," he whispered, +to which she answered: + +"I care not! Sayest thou, 'A thing was done.' Say I, '_Thou_ didst it!' +and high above the deed I love thee!" + +Suddenly she fell into a storm of weeping, then broke from him, and +somewhat blindly sought the garden seat, sank down upon it, and buried +her face in her arms. He kneeled beside her, and presently she was +crouching against his breast, that rose and fell with his answering +emotion. She put up her hand and touched the deep lines of past +suffering in the face above her. + +"I know that thou must go," she said. "I would not have thee stay. But, +Mortimer, if it were possible ... He forgave you long, long ago, for he +loved you above all men. I, his sister, answer for him. Ah, God wot! +brother and sister we have loved you well.... If I could keep tryst, +after all, if thou couldst make me thy wife before thou goest--or if +kindred and the Queen be too powerful, I could escape, could follow thee +as thy page, trusting thy honor ... Ah, look not so upon me! Ah, to be a +woman and do one's own wooing! Ah, think what thou wilt of me, only know +that I love thee to the uttermost!" + +[Illustration: "'AH, LOOK NOT SO UPON ME!'"] + +Ferne left her side, and moving to the garden wall, looked out over the +far-away downs to the far-away sea--the sea that, for weary months +had called and-thundered in his ears. Now he saw it all halcyon, +stretching fair and mute to the boundless west, the sinking sun, the +lovers' star. They two--could they two, lying with closed eyes, but +drift out over bar, floating away through golds and purples towards the +kiss of heaven and sea--flotsam of this earth, jetsam of age-distant +shores, each to the other paradise and all in all! How profound the +stillness--how deep the fragrance of the lily--what indifference, what +quiet as of scorn did the Maker of man, having placed his creature in +the lists, turn aside to other spectacles!... Should man be more careful +than his God? Right! Wrong!--to die at last and find them indeed words +of a length and the prize of sore striving a fool's bauble:--to die and +miss the rose and wine cup!--to die and find not the struggle and the +star!--to loose the glorious bird in the hand and beyond the portals to +feel no fanning of a vaster wing! What use--what use--to be at once the +fleeing Adam and the dark archangel at Eden's gates? + +He turned to behold the woman whom now, with no trace of the +fancifulness, the idealism of his time, he loved with all depth, +passion, actuality; he set wrist to teeth and bit the flesh until blood +started; he moved towards her where she sat with her hands clasped above +her knee, her head thrown back, watching his coming with those deep eyes +of hers. He reached her side; she rose to meet him, and the two stood +embraced in the flattering sunshine, the odor of the lilies, the pale +glory of the failing day. + +"My dear love, it is not possible," he said. "Flower of women! didst +dream that I would leave thee here blasted by my name, or that I would +carry thee where I must go? Star of my earth, to-day we say a clean +farewell!" + +"Then God be with thee," she said, brokenly. + +"And with thee!" he answered. Hand in hand they moved to the broken +wall, and leaning upon it, looked out to that far line of sea. Her +under-sleeve of silver gauze fell away from her arm. + +"How white is thy arm!" he breathed. "How branched with tender blue!" + +"Wilt kiss it?" she answered, "so I shall grow to love myself." + +"Thou art the fairest thing the sun shines on," he said. "Thy lips are +like flowers I have never seen in the West." + +"Gather the flowers," she said, and raised her face to his. "The garden +is kept for thee." + +The sun began to decline, the earth to darken, swallows circled past. +"It grows late," she said, "late, late! When goest thou?" + +"Within the week." + +"By then her Grace will have whirled me leagues away.... I would I were +a queen. If thou goest to death--oh God! we'll not speak of that!--Give +me that chain of thine." + +He unclasped it, laid it in her hands. Raising her arms, she drew it +over her neck. + +"Seest thou thy prisoner?" she asked. "Forever thy prisoner!" From its +fellow of watchet blue she detached her floating silver sleeve. "It is +my favor," she whispered. "Wear it when thou wilt." + +He folded the gauze and thrust it within his doublet. "When I may, my +lady," he said, with his eyes upon the sunset that held the colors of +the dawning. "When I may." + +A sickle moon swung in the gold harvest-fields of the west, then a +great star came out to watch that reaping. The thrush was silent now, +but from a covert rushed suddenly the full tide of a nightingale's song. +With a cry the maid of honor put hands to her ears. "Ay me, my heart it +will break! Tell me that thou goest but to come again!" + +He took her hands, pressing them to his heart, to his lips. "No, no, my +dearest dear, since God no longer worketh miracles! I go more surely +than ever went John Oxenham; I would not have thee cheat thyself, spend +thy days in watching, listening. I kiss thee a lifetime good-by.... Oh +child, seest thou how broken I am? I that myself loosed all the winds--I +that kneel, a penitent, before the just and the unjust, before my lover +and my foe! But when all's said, all's done, all's quiet:--the arrow +sped, the stone fallen, the curfew rung, the dust returned to dust! then +shall stand my soul.... A ruined man, a man in just disgrace, who hath +played the coward, who hath sinned against thee and against others, that +am I--yet our souls endure, and thou art my mate; queenly as thou +standest here, thou art my mate! I love thee, and in life, in death, I +claim thee still: Forget me not when I am gone!" + +"When thou art gone!" she cried. "When thou art gone with all my mind +I'll hold myself thy bride! In those strange countries beneath the sun +if bitterness comes over thee"--she put her hand to her heart--"think of +thy fireside here. Think, 'Even in this wavering life I have an abiding +home, a heart that's true, true, true to me!' When thou diest--if thou +diest first--linger for me; where a thousand years are as a day travel +not so far that I may not overtake thee. Mortimer, Mortimer, Mortimer! +I'll not believe in a God who at the last says not to me, 'That path he +took.' When He says it, listen for my flying feet. Oh, my dear, listen +for my flying feet!" + +"Star and rose!" he said. "If we dream, we dream. Better so, even though +we pass to sleep too deep for dreaming. For we plan a temple though we +build it not.... That falconer's whistle! is it thy signal? Then thou +must make no tarrying here. I will put thy cloak about thee." + +He brought from the ruinous steps her watchet mantle, and she let him +clasp it about her throat. In the raised air of that isolate peak where +true lovers take farewell there are few words used at the last. Sighs, +kisses, broken utterance,--"Forever," ... "Forever," ... "I love +thee," ... "I love thee"; the eternal "I will come"; the eternal "I will +wait"! Possessors of an instant of time, of an atom of space, they sent +their linked hopes, their mailed certainties forth to the unseen, +untrenched fields of the future, and held their love coeval with +existence. Then, slowly, she withdrew herself from his clasp, and as +slowly moved backward to the broken stair. He waited by the stone seat, +for she must go secretly and in silence, and he might not, as in old +times, lead her with stateliness through the ways of Ferne House. Upon +the uppermost step she paused a moment, and he, lifting his eyes, saw +above him her mantled figure, her outstretched arms with the lily of +her body in between, the gold star swimming above her forehead. One +breathless moment thus, then she turned, and folding her mantle about +her, passed from her lover's sight towards the darkening orchard. + +He stayed an hour in the garden, then went back to his great, old, +dimly lighted hall. Here, half the night, chin in one hand, the other +hanging below his booted knee, he brooded over the now glowing, now +ashen chimney logs; yet Robin-a-dale, who believed in Master Arden, and +very mightily in visions as beautiful as that which had been vouchsafed +to him going through the orchard that eventide, felt as light a heart as +if no shadowy ship awaited in the little port down by the little town, +whose people either cursed or looked askance. Waking in the middle of +the night, he thought he saw a knight at prayer--one of the old stone +Templars from Ferne church, where they lay with palm to palm, awaiting +with frozen patience the last trumpet-call that ever they should hear. +This knight, however, was kneeling with bowed head and hidden face, a +thing against all rule with those other stark and sternly waiting forms. +So Robin, being too drowsy to reason, let the matter alone and went to +sleep again. + + + +X + +The _Sea Wraith_, an ancient ship, gray and patched of sail, battered +and worn with a name for all disaster, sailed the Spanish seas as though +she bore a charmed life--and her crew that was the refuse of land and +sea, used to license, to whom mutiny was no uglier a word than another, +kept the terms of an iron discipline--and her Captain waked and slept as +one aware of when to wake and when to sleep. + +There was fever between the decks; there was fever in black hearts; of +dark nights a corposant burned now at this masthead, now at that. +Mariner and soldier knew the story of the shadowy figure keeping company +with the stars there above them on the poop-royal. Did he keep company +only with the stars and with the boy, his familiar? The sick, tossing +from side to side, raved out curses, and the well saw many omens. +Dissatisfaction, never far from their unstayed minds, crept at times +very near, and superstition sat always amongst them. But they reckoned +with a Captain stronger for this voyage than had been Francis Drake or +John Hawkins, and stranger than any under whom they had ever sailed. He +was so still a man that they knew not how to take him, but beneath his +eyes vain imaginings and half-formed conspiracies withered like burnt +paper. He called upon neither God nor devil, but his voice blew like an +icy wind upon the heat of disloyal intents, and like the white fire that +touched now stem, now stern, so his will held the ship, driving it like +a leaf towards the mainland and the fortress of Nueva Cordoba. + +The ship that seemed so aged and disgraced yet had a strength of sinew +which made her formidable. All things had been patiently cared for by +the man who, selling his patrimony, had labored against wind and tide to +the end that he might carry forth with him such an armament as scarce +had been the _Cygnet's_ own. Tier on tier rose the _Sea Wraith's_ +ordnance; she carried warlike stores of all sorts that might serve for +battle by sea or land. If his money could not buy such men as stood +ready to ship with Drake and Hawkins, yet in his wild, sin-stained crew +he had purchased experience, the maddest bravery, and a lust of Spanish +gold that might not be easily sated. The qualities of a captain over men +he himself supplied. + +In his confidence neither before nor after their sailing, yet the two +hundred men of the _Sea Wraith_ guessed well his destination, but for +themselves preferred the island towns--Santiago and Santo Domingo in +Hispaniola. There were wealth and wine and women, there the fringing +islets where booty might be hidden, and there the deep caves where +foregathered many small craft misnamed piratical. "Lord! the _Sea +Wraith_ would soon make herself Admiral of that brood, leading them +forth from those hidden places to pounce upon Santo Domingo, that was +the seat of government and as wealthy a place as any in the Indies!--the +_Sea Wraith_ and her Captain, that was a good Captain and a tall!--ay, +ay, that would they maintain despite all land talk--a good Captain and a +tall, 'spite of Dick Carpenter's dream--" + +"What was Dick Carpenter's dream?" asked the Captain, seated, sword in +hand and hat on head, before a deputation from the forecastle. + +The speaker fidgeted, then out came the clumsy taunt, the carpenter's +dream. "Why, sir, he dreamed he saw the women of the islands, sitting by +the shores, a-sifting gold-dust and a-weighing of pearls;--and then he +dreamed that he looked along the sea-floor, leagues and leagues to the +south'ard, until he saw the very roots of the mainland, and the great +fish swimming in and out. And a many and a many dead men were there, +drawn into ranks, very strange to see, for their swollen flesh yet hung +to their bones, and they beckoned and laughed; and Captain Robert +Baldry, that was once, on a Guinea voyage, Dick Carpenter's Captain, he +laughed the loudest and beckoned the fastest. And, Sir Mortimer Ferne, +an it please you, we've no longing to follow that beckoning." + +"Thou dog!" said the Captain, with no change of mien. "Presently Dick +Carpenter and thou shall have food for dreams--bad dreams, bad dreams, +man! Thou fool, have I set thee quaking who, forsooth, would mutiny! +Begone, the whole of ye, and sail the whole of ye wheresoever I list +to go!" + +Seeing that the _Sea Wraith_ obeyed him still, her crew believed yet +more devoutly that a secret voice spoke in his ear and a dark hand gave +him aid. It was later, when he began to feed them gold, that they who +owned caps threw them up for him, and they whose brains had only +nature's thatching shouted for him as for a demigod. A Spanish squadron +bound for The Havannah was met by a hurricane, several of its ships +lost, and the remainder widely separated. The hurricane past, forth from +an island harbor stole the _Sea Wraith_ that so many storms had +beleaguered. Gray as with eld, lonely as the ark, a haggard ship manned +by outcasts, she spread her vampire wings and flitted from her +enshadowed anchorage. An hour later, like a vampire still, she hooked +herself to a gay galleon and sucked from it life that was cheap and gold +that was dear; then descrying other sails, she left that ruined hulk for +a long and fierce struggle with a Portuguese carrack. The battle waxed +so fell that the carrack also might have been worked by men who had all +to win and naught to lose, and captained by one who bared his brow to +the thunder-stone. + +Like harpies they fought, but when night came there was only the _Sea +Wraith_ scudding to the south, and that pied crew of hers knocking at +the stars with the knowledge that ever and always their judgment (even +though he asked it not) jumped with the Captain's, and that before them +lay the gilded cities and the chances of Pizarro. It was of his subtlety +that the Captain never used to them fair promises, spake not once a +sennight of gold, never bragged to them of what must be. Oh! a subtle +captain, whose very strangeness was his best lieutenant upon that +eldritch, nine-lived ship, through days and days of monstrous luck. +"Baldry's luck," quoth the mariner who had sailed with the _Star_, then +held his breath and looked askance at his present Captain, who, however, +could never have heard him up there on the poop-deck! Natheless that +night the man was ordered forward, and finding Sir Mortimer Ferne +sitting alone, save for the boy, in the great cabin, was bidden to talk +of Robert Baldry. "Speak freely, Carpenter,--freely! Why, thou art one +of his friends, and I another, and we go, somewhat at our peril, to +hale him from perdition! Why, thou thyself saw him beckoning to us to +hasten and do our friendly part! So praise thy old Captain to me with +all thy might. We'll fill an empty hour with stories of his valor!" He +put forth his hand and turned the hour-glass, and the carpenter began to +stammer and make excuses, which no whit availed him. + +At last, one afternoon, they came to Margarita, and, the ship needing +water, they entered a placid bight, where a strip of dazzling sand lay +between the rippling surf and a heavy wood, but found beforehand with +them a small bark from the mainland, her crew ashore filling barrels +from a limpid spring, and her master and a Franciscan friar eating fruit +upon her tiny poop. The dozen on land showed their heels; the worthless +bark was taken, a party with calivers landed to complete the filling of +the abandoned casks, and the master and the friar brought before the +Captain of the _Sea Wraith_ where he sat beneath a great tree, tasting +the air of the land. An insatiable gatherer of Spanish news, it was his +custom to search for what crumbs of knowledge his captives might +possess, but hitherto the yield, pressed together, had not made even a +small cake of enlightenment. He was prepared to have shortly done with +the two who now stood before him. The seaman cringed, expecting torture, +furtively watching for some indication of what the Englishman wished him +to say. A fellow new to these parts and ignorant, he would have sworn a +highway to El Dorado itself if that was the point towards which his +inquisitor's quiet, unemphatic questions tended; but he knew not, and +his lies fell dead before the grave eyes of the man beneath the tree. At +last he was tossed aside like a squeezed sponge and the Franciscan +beckoned forward, who, being of sturdier make, twisted his thumbs in his +rope girdle and prepared to present a blank countenance to those queries +of armaments and treasure which an enemy to Spain would naturally make. +But the Englishman asked strange questions; so general that they seemed +to encompass the mainland from Tres Puntas to Nombre de Dios, and so +particular that it was even as if he were interested in the friar +himself, his order, and his wanderings from town to town, the sights +that he had seen and the people whom he had known. The questions seemed +harmless as mother's milk, but the friar was shrewd; moreover, in his +youth had been driven to New Spain by flaming zeal for the conversion of +countless souls. That fire had burned low, but by its dying light he +knew that this man, who was young and yet so still, whose lowered voice +was but as sheathed steel, whose eyes it was not comfortable to meet, +had set his hand to a plough that should drive a straight furrow, was +sending his will like an arrow to no uncertain mark. But what was the +mark the Franciscan could not discover, therefore he gave the truth or a +lie where seemed him best, increasingly the truth, as it increasingly +appeared that lies would not serve. He also, seeing that with gathering +years he had begun to set value upon flesh and bone, wished to please +his captor. He glanced stealthily at the scarred and ancient craft in +the windless harborage, idly flapping her mended sails, before he said +aught of the great English ships that in pomp and the fulness of pride +had entered these waters now months agone. The Englishman had heard of +this adventure--so much was evident--but details would seem to have +escaped him. He knew, however, that there had been first victory and +then defeat, and he too looked at his ship and at the guns she carried. + +[Illustration: "THE FRIAR PRESENTED A BLANK COUNTENANCE TO SIR +MORTIMER'S QUERIES"] + +"The town was sacked, but the castle not taken," he said. "What, good +brother, if I should break a lance in these same lists?" + +"It would be broken indeed," said the friar, grimly. "An it please you, +I will bear your challenge to Don Juan de Mendez." + +"To Don Luiz de Guardiola," said the man beneath the tree. + +"Pardon, señor, but Juan de Mendez is at present Governor of Nueva +Cordoba. Don Luiz de Guardiola has been transferred to Panama." + +The Englishman arose and looked out to sea, his hand above his eyes +because of the flash and sparkle of the sun upon the water. The +Franciscan, having told the truth, wondered forthwith if falsehood had +better served his turn. Face and form of his interlocutor were turned +from him, but he saw upon the hot, white sand the shadow of a twitching +hand. Moments passed before the shadow was still; then said the +Englishman, in a changed voice: + +"Since you know of its governors, old and new, I judge you to be of +Nueva Cordoba. So you may inform me of certain matters." + +"You mistake, señor, you mistake," began the Franciscan, somewhat +hastily. "The master of the bark will bear witness that I came to +Margarita upon the _Santa Maria_, sailing directly from Cartagena, but +that, being ill, I chose to recover myself at Pampatar before proceeding +(as you now behold me, valorous señor) to Hispaniola, and thence by the +first vessel home to Spain, to the convent of my order at Segovia, which +is my native town. I know naught of Nueva Cordoba beyond that which I +have told you." + +"Why, I believe thee," answered the Englishman, his back still turned. +"You go from Cartagena, where, Franciscan and Dominican, you play so +large a part in this world's affairs, to your order at Segovia, which is +an inland town, and doubtless hath no great knowledge of these +outlandish parts. Your tongue will tire with telling of wonders." + +"Why, that is true," answered the other. "One lives not fifteen years in +these parts to carry away but a handful of marvels." Relieved by the +easiness of his examination and the courtesy of his captor, he even +smiled and ventured upon a small pleasantry. "You cannot take from me, +redoubtable señor, that which my eyes have seen and my ears have heard." + +Ferne wheeled. "Give me the letter which you bear from your superior at +Cartagena to the head of your order at Segovia." + +As he recoiled, the Franciscan's hand went involuntarily to the breast +of his gown, and then fell again to his side. The Captain of the _Sea +Wraith_ whistled, and several of the mariners, who were now rolling the +water-casks down the little beach to the waiting boats, came at his +call. "Seize him," ordered the Captain. "Robin, take from him the packet +he carries." + +When he had from the boy's hand a small, silk-enwrapped packet, and had +given orders for the guarding of the two prisoners, he turned and strode +alone into the woods, which stretched almost to the water's edge. It was +as though he had plunged into a green cavern far below the sea. In slow +waves, to and fro, swayed the firmament of palms; lower, flowering +lianas, jewel-colored, idle as weeds of the sea, ran in tangles and +gaudy mazes from tree to tree. He sat himself down in the green gloom, +broke seal, unwrapped the silk, and read the letter, which he had +acutely guessed could not fail of being sent by so responsible a hand as +the friar's from one dignitary of the order to another. Much stateliness +of Latin greeting, commendation of the returning missionary, mention of +a slight present of a golden dish wrought in alacrity and joy by Indian +converts; lastly, and with some minuteness, the gossip, political and +ecclesiastical, of the past twelfth month. The sinking of the Spanish +ships and the sacking of the town of Nueva Cordoba by English pirates, +together with their final defeat, were touched upon; but more was made +of the yield to the Church of heretic souls, in all of whom Satan stood +fast. The Holy Office had delivered them to the secular arm, and the +letter closed with a circumstantial account of a great _auto-de-fé_ in +the square of Cartagena. Without the wood, upon the edge of white sand, +the men of the _Sea Wraith_ waited for their Captain. At last he came, +so quiet of mien and voice that only Robin-a-dale stared, caught his +breath, and gazed hard upon an ashen face. + +Ferne's orders were of the curtest: Begone, every man of them, to the +_Sea Wraith_, and lie at anchor waiting for the morning. For himself, he +should spend the night ashore; they might leave for him the cockboat, +and with the first light he would come aboard. The two prisoners,--place +them in the ransacked bark and let them go whither they would or could. +He glanced in their direction, then turning sharply, crossed the sand to +stand for a moment beside the Franciscan. + +"Prithee, thou brown-robed fellow, how looked he in a _sanbenito_--that +tall, fierce, black-bearded Captain that your Provincial mentions here?" +The parchment rustled in his hand. + +The friar quailed before the narrowed eyes; then, the old flame in him +leaping up, he answered, boldly enough, "It became him well, +señor,--well as it becomes every enemy to Spain and the Church!" + +The other slightly laughed. "Why, go thy ways for a man of courage! but +go quickly, while as yet in all this steadfast world I find no fault +save with myself." + +He stood to watch the embarkment of the mariners, who, if they wondered +at this latest command, had learned at least to wonder in silence. But +Robin-a-dale hung back, made protest. "Go!" said his master, whereupon +Robin went indeed--not to the awaiting boat, but with a defiant cry end +a rush across the sloping sand into the thick wood. The green depths +which received him were so labyrinthine, so filled with secret places +wherein to hide, that an hour's search might not dislodge him. The +sometime Captain of the _Cygnet_ let pass his wilfulness, signed to the +boats to push off, awaited in silence the fulfilment of all his +commands; then turning, rounded the eastern point of the tiny bay, and +was lost to sight in the shadows of the now late afternoon. + +The sun went down behind the lofty trees; the brief dusk passed, and the +little beach showed faintly beneath the stars, great and small, of a +moonless night. Above the western horizon clouds arose and the lightning +constantly flashed, but there was no thunder, and only the sound of the +low surf upon the shore. Robin, creeping from the wood, saw the _Sea +Wraith_ at anchor, and by the distant lightning the bark from Pampatar +drifting far away without sail or rudder. Rounding the crescent of +gleaming sand, he lost the _Sea Wraith_ and the bark, but found whom he +sought. Finding him, he made no sign, but sat himself down in the lee of +a sand-dune, and with a memory swept clear of later prayers, presently +began in a frightened whisper to say his + + "Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John--" + +Half-way down the pallid beach stood Ferne, visible enough even by the +starlight, now and then completely shown by one strong lightning flash. +His doublet was thrown aside, his right arm advanced, his hand grasping +the hilt of his drawn sword. But the sword point was lowered, his breast +bared; he stood like one who awaits, who invites, the last thrust, in +mortal surrender to an invisible foe. The lines of the figure expressed +a certain weariness and suspense, as of one who would that all was over, +and who finds the victor strangely tardy. The face, seen by the +occasional lightning flash, was a little raised, a little expectant. + +Robin-a-dale, seeing and comprehending, buried his head in his arms and +with his fingers dug into the sand. Now and then he looked up, but +always there was the pallid slope of the beach, the intermittent break +of the surf that was like the inflection of a voice low and far away, +the stars and the groups of stars, strange, strange after those of home, +the lightning from the western heavens, the duellist awaiting with +lowered point the coming of that antagonist who had so fiercely lived, +so fiercely died, so fiercely hated that to the reeling brain of his +challenger it well might seem that Death, now holding the door between +betrayed and betrayer might not prevail. + +The boy's heart was a stone within him, and he saw not why God allowed +much that went on beneath His throne. A long time he endured, half prone +upon the sand, hating the sound of the surf, hating the flash of the +lightning; but at last, when a great part of the night had passed, he +arose and went towards his master. The shadow of the dune disguised the +slightness of his form, and his foot struck with some violence against a +shell. The lightning flashed, and he saw Ferne's waiting face. + +"Master, master!" he cried. "'Tis only Robin,--not him! not him! +Master--" + +Stumbling over the sand, he fell beside the man whose soul cried in +vain unto Robert Baldry to return and claim his vengeance, and wrenched +at the hand that seemed to have grown to the sword-hilt. "You are not +kind!" he wailed. "Oh, let me have it!" + +"Kind!" echoed Ferne, slowly. "In this sick universe there is no +kindness--no, nor never was! There is the space between rack and torch." +In the flashing of the lightning he loosed his rigid clasp, and the +sword, clanking against the scabbard, fell upon the sand. The lightning +widened into a sheet of pale violet and the surf broke with a deeper +voice. "Canst thou not find me, O mine enemy?" cried Ferne, aloud. + +Presently, the boy yet clinging to him, he sank down beside him on the +sand. "Sleep, boy; sleep," he said. "Now I know that the gulf is fixed +indeed, and that they lie who say the ghost returns." + +"It is near the dawning," said the boy. "Do you rest, master, and I will +watch." + +"Nay," answered the other. "I have pictures to look upon.... Well, well, +lay thy head upon the sand and dream of a merry world, and I myself +will close my eyes. An he will, he may take me sleeping." + +Robin slept and dreamed of Ferne House and the horns of the hunters. At +last the horns came so loudly over the hills that he awakened, to find +himself lying alone on the sand in a great and solemn flush of dawn. He +started up with a beating heart; but there, coming towards him from a +bath in the misty sea, was his master, dressed, and with his sword again +in its sheath. As he made closer approach, the strengthening dawn showed +the distinction of form and countenance. To the latter had returned the +stillness and the worn beauty of yesterday, before the bark from +Pampatar had brought news. The head was bared, and the light fell +curiously upon the short and waving hair, imparting to it, as it seemed, +some quality of its own. Robin, beholding, stumbled to his feet, staring +and trembling. + +"Why dost thou shake so?" asked the Captain of the _Sea Wraith_. "And +thou art as white as is the sand! God forfend that the fever be +on thee!" + +More nearly the old voice of before these evil days of low, stern +utterance! More nearly the old, kindly touch! Robin-a-dale, suddenly +emboldened, caught at hand and arm and burst into a passionate outcry, a +frenzy of entreaty. "Home! home! may we not go home now? They're all +dead--Captain Robert Baldry and Ralph Walter and all! And you meant no +harm by them--O Jesu! you meant no harm! There's gold in the hold of the +_Sea Wraith_ for to buy back Ferne House, and now that you've won, and +won again from the Spaniard, the Queen will not be angry any more! And +Sir John and Sir Philip and Master Arden will bid us welcome, and men +will come to stare at the _Sea Wraith_ that has fought so many battles! +Master, master, let us home to Ferne House, where, at sunset, in the +garden, you and the lady walked! Master--" + +His voice failed. Sir Mortimer loosed the fingers that yet clung to his +arm. "When I am king of these parts, thou shalt be my jester," he said. +"Come! for it's up sail and far away this morning,--far away as Panama. +I am thirsty. We'll drink of the spring and then begone." + +When they had rounded once more the wooded point they saw the _Sea +Wraith_, and drawn up upon the sand its cockboat. The sun had risen, so +that now when they entered the forest there was ample light by which to +find out the slowly welling spring, so limpid in its basin as to serve +for mirror to the forest creatures who drank therefrom. All the tenants +of the forest were awake. They hooted and chattered, screamed and sang. +Orange and green and red, the cockatoos flashed through the air, or +perched upon great boughs beside parasitic blooms as gaudy as +themselves. Giant palms rustled; monkeys slid down the swinging lianas, +to climb again with haste, chattering wildly at human intrusion; +butterflies fluttered aside; the spotted snake glided to its deeper +haunts. Suddenly, in the distance, a wild beast roared, and when the +thunder ceased there was a mad increase of the lesser voices. Sound was +everywhere, but no sweetness; only the mockery, gibing, and laughter of +an unseen multitude. From the topmost palm frond to the overcolored +fungi patching the black earth arrogant Beauty ruled, but to the weary +eyes that looked upon her she was become an evil queen. Better one blade +of English grass, better one song of the lark, than the gardens of +Persephone! + +Ferne, kneeling beside the spring, stooped to drink. Clear as that +fountain above which Narcissus leaned, the water gave him back each +lineament of the man who, accepting his own earthly defeat, had yet +gathered all the powers of his being to the task of overmastering that +bitter Fate into whose hands he had delivered, bound, both friend and +foe; the man for whom, now that he knew what he knew, now that the +fierce victrix had borne away her prey, was left but that remaining +purpose, that darker thread which since yesterday's snapping of its +fellow strands had grown strong with the strength of all. Before the +water could touch his lips he also saw the mark one night had set upon +him, and drew back with a slight start from his image in the pool; then, +after a moment, bent again and drank his fill. + +When Robin-a-dale had also quenched his thirst the two left the forest, +and together dragged the cockboat down the sand and launched it over the +gentle surf. Ferne rowed slowly, with a mind that was not for Robin, nor +the glory of the tropic morning, nor the shock of yesterday, nor the +night's despair. He looked ahead, devising means to an end, and his +brows were yet bent in thought when the boat touched the _Sea +Wraith's_ side. + +As much a statesman of the sea as Drake himself, he knew how to gild +authority and hold it high, so that they beneath might take indeed the +golden bubble for the sun that warmed them. He kept state upon the _Sea +Wraith_ as upon the _Cygnet_, though of necessity it was worn with a +difference. For him now, as then, music played while he sat at table in +the great cabin, alone, or with his rude lieutenants, in a silence +seldom broken. Now, as he stepped upon deck, there was a flourish of +trumpets, together with the usual salute from mariners and soldiers +drawn up to receive him. But their eyes stared and their lips seemed +dry, and when he called to him the master who had fought with Barbary +pirates for half a lifetime, the master trembled somewhat as he came. + +It was the hour for morning prayer, and the _Sea Wraith_ lacked not her +chaplain, a man honeycombed with disease and secret sin. The singing to +a hidden God swelled so loud that it rang in the ears of the sick below, +tossing, tossing, muttering and murmuring, though it pierced not the +senses of them who lay still, who lay very, very still. The hymn ended, +the chaplain began to read, but the gray-haired Captain stopped him with +a gesture. "Not that," he commanded. "Read me a psalm of vengeance, Sir +Demas,--a psalm of righteous vengeance!" + + + +XI + +In England, since the stealing forth of one lonely ship, heard of no +more, three spring-times had kissed finger-tips to winter and bourgeoned +into summer, and three summers had held court in pride, then shrivelled +into autumn. In King Philip of Spain his Indies, blazing sunshine, +cataracts of rain, had marked off a like number of years, when Sir +Francis Drake with an armada of five-and-twenty ships, fresh from the +spoiling of Santiago and Santo Domingo, held the strong town of +Cartagena, and awaited the tardy forthcoming of the Spanish ransom. Week +piled itself upon week, and the full amount was yet lacking. When +negotiations prospered and the air was full of promise, Sir Francis and +all his captains and volunteers were most courteous, exchanging with +their enemies compliment and entertainment; when the Spanish +commissioners drew back, or when the morning report of the English dead +from fever or old injuries was long, half the day might be spent in the +deliberate sacking of some portion of the town. With the afternoon the +commissioners gave ground again, and like enough the evening ended with +some splendid love-feast between Spaniard and Englishman. On the morrow +came the usual hitch, the usual assurances that the gold of the town had +been buried (one knew not where) by its fleeing people, the usual proud +wheedling for the naming by the victors of a far lower ransom. Drake +having reaped more glory than gain from Santiago and Santo Domingo, was +now obstinate in his demand, but Carlisle, the Lieutenant-General, +counselled less rigorous terms, and John Nevil, who with two ships of +his own had joined Drake at the Terceiras, spoke of the fever. + +"It is no common sickness. Each day sees a battle lost by us, won by the +Spaniard. You have held his strongest city for now five weeks. There are +other cities, other adventures upon which thou wilt fight again, and +again and again until thou diest, Frank Drake." + +"There were a many dead this morning," put in Powell, the +sergeant-major. "There had been a many more were't not for the +friar's remedy." + +Drake moved impatiently. "I would your miracle of St. Francis his return +had wrought itself somewhat sooner. Now it is late in the day,--though +God knows I am glad for the least of my poor fellows if he be raised +from his sickness through this or any other cure.... Captain Carlisle, +you will see to it that before night I have the opinion of all the land +captains touching our contentment with a moiety of the ransom and our +leave-taking of this place. Captain Cecil, you will speak for the +officers of the ships. Three nights from now the Governor feasts us yet +again, and on that night this matter shall be determined. Gentlemen, the +council is over." + +As the group dissolved and the men began to move and speak with freedom, +Giles Arden touched Captain Powell upon the sleeve. + +"What monk's tale is this of a Spanish friar who wastes the elixir of +life upon Lutheran dogs? I' faith, I had bodeful dreams last night, and +waked this morning now hot, now cold. I'll end my days with no foul +fever--an I can help it! What's the man and his remedy?" + +"Why," answered Powell, doubtfully, "his words are Spanish, but at times +I do think the man is no such thing. He came to the camp a week agone, +waving a piece of white cloth and supporting a youth, who, it seems, was +like to have pined away amongst the Indian villages, all for lack of +Christian sights and sounds. The friar having brought him to the +hospital, wished to leave him with the chirurgeons and himself return to +the Indians, whom, we understand, he has gathered into a mission. But +the youth cried out, and clutching at the other's robe (i' was a pity to +see, for he was very weak), dragged himself to his feet and set his face +also to the forest. Whereupon the elder gave way, and since then has +nursed his companion--ay, and many another poor soul who longs no more +for gold and the strange things of earth. As for the remedy--he goes to +the forest and returns, and with him two or maybe three stout Indians +bearing bark and branch of a certain tree, from which he makes an +infusion.... I only know that for wellnigh all the stricken he hath +lightened the fever, and that he hath recalled to life many an one whom +the chirurgeon had given over to the chaplain." + +"What like is the youth?" queried Arden. + +"Why, scarce a boy, nor yet a man in years; and, for all his illness, +watcheth the other like any faithful dog. English, moreover--" + +"English!" + +"At times he grows light-headed, and then his speech is English, but the +gowned fellow stills him with his hand, or gives him some potion, +whereupon he sleeps." + +"What like is this Spanish friar?" broke in suddenly and with harshness +Sir John Nevil's voice. + +"Why, sir," Powell answered, "his cowl overshadows his face, but going +suddenly on yesterday into the hut where he bides with the youth, I saw +that as he bent over his patient the cowl had fallen back. My gran'ther +(rest his soul!), who died at ninety, had not whiter hair." + +"An old man!" exclaimed Sir John, and, sighing, turned himself in his +chair. Arden, rising, left the company for the window, where he looked +down upon the city of Cartagena and outward to the investing fleet. The +streets of the town were closed by barricades, admirably constructed by +the Spaniards, but now in English possession. Beyond the barricades and +near the sea, where the low and narrow buildings were, lay the wounded +and the fever-stricken;--rude hospital enough! to some therein but a +baiting-place where pain and panic and the miseries of the brain were +become, for the time, their bed-fellows; to others the very house of +dissolution, a fast-crumbling shelter built upon the brim of the world, +with Death, the impartial beleaguer, already at the door. Arden turned +aside and joined the group about Drake, the great sea-captain in whose +company nor fear nor doubting melancholy could long hold place. + +That night, shortly after the setting of the watch, Sir John Nevil, with +a man or two behind him, found himself challenged at the barricade of a +certain street, gave the word, and passed on, to behold immediately +before him and travelling the same road a dark, unattended figure. To +his sharp "Who goes there?" a familiar voice made answer, and Arden +paused until his friend and leader came up with him. + +"A common road and a common goal," spoke Nevil. + +"Ay!--common fools!" answered the other. "Who hearing of gray geese, +must think, forsooth, of a swan whose plumage turned from white to +black! And yet, God knows! to one, at least, the selfsame splendid swan; +if lost, then lost magnificently.... This is an idle errand." + +"The youth is English," replied Nevil. + +"Did you speak to Powell?" + +"Ay; I told him that I should visit the hospital this night. We are +close at hand. Hark! that was the scream of a dying man. Christ rest +whatever soul hath taken flight!" + +"There is a pale light surrounds this place," said Arden. "It comes from +the fires which they burn as though the black death were upon us. Do you +hear that groaning?--and there they carry out a weighted body. War!..." + +A group of men moved towards them--Powell, a chirurgeon, a soldier or +two. Another minute and all were gathered before the hut of which Powell +had made mention. That worthy officer waved back their following, and +the three alone entered the dimly lighted place. + +"The friar is not here," said Powell, in a tone of vexation. "Passing +this way, I did but look within to cheer the youth by some mention of +the honor that was intended him to-night. Now they tell me that the man +went to the forest ere sunset and hath not returned. Also that he gave +the youth a sleeping potion--" + +"Which hath not brought sleep," answered Arden, who was keen of sight. + +"I took it not!" cried out the half-risen form from its pallet in the +corner of the hut. "He thought I drank it, but when his head was turned +I threw it away. Master Arden! Master Arden! come over to me!" + +Arden raised, embraced, supported the figure that, quivering with +weakness and excitement, might also feel the heaving breast, the +quickened heart-beats, of the man who held him. Nevil, in whom deep +emotion was not apt to show itself, knelt beside the pallet, and taking +the thin hands, caressed them like a very woman. + +"Lad, lad," he whispered, "where is thy master? Is he dead? Or did he +leave thee here but now to search for simples?" + +Robin-a-dale looked from one to the other, great eyes shining in a +thin, brown face. "Three years," he said,--"three years since we crept +away from Ferne House in a ship that was called--that was called--that +was called the _Sea Wraith._ But no trumpets sounded, and there was no +throng to shout farewell. Why was that? But I remember it was three +years ago." He laughed weakly. "I'm a man grown, Master Arden, but +here's still the rose noble which you gave me once.... No; I must have +lost it in the woods." He nodded sagely. "I remember; I lost it where +the river came over the great rock with a noise that made me think of a +little, sliding stream at home. It was Yuletide, but the flowers smelled +too sweet, and the great apes and the little monkeys sat in the red +trees and mocked me." + +"He wanders again," said Powell, with vexation. "The friar can bring him +back with voice or touch, but not I!" + +"Where is the _Sea Wraith_, Robin-a-dale? Answer me!" Nevil's voice +rose, cold and commanding, questioning this as any other derelict haled +before him. + +[Illustration: "'LAD, LAD,' HE WHISPERED, 'WHERE IS THY MASTER?'"] + +Instinctively Robin brought his wits somewhat together. "The _Sea +Wraith_," he echoed. "Why, that was long ago ... Sixscore men, we left +her hidden between the islet and the land until we should return.... Her +mariners were willing to be left--ay, and when I'm a knight I'll +maintain it!--their blood is not upon his hands.... But when six men +from that sixscore came again to the coast there was no ship,--so I +think that she sank some night, or maybe the Spaniards took her, or +maybe she grew tired and sailed away,--we were so long in winning back +from Panama." + +There was a deep exclamation from his listeners. "From Panama!" + +Robin regarded them anxiously, for to Nevil at least he had always +spoken truth, and now he dimly wondered within himself if he were lying. +"The nest at Nueva Cordoba was empty," he explained. "The hawk had +killed the sparrows and flown far away to Panama." + +"And the eagle followed the hawk," muttered Arden. "Was there not one +sparrow left alive, Robin?" + +Robin mournfully shook his head. "The commoner sort went to the galleys; +others were burned.... Is this city named Cartagena? Then 'twas in this +city Captain Robert Baldry and Ralph Walter and more than they, dressed +in _sanbenitos_, burning in the market-place.... We learned this at +Margarita, so my master would go to Panama to wring the hawk's neck.... +But the _Sea Wraith_ was heavy with gold and silver, and all the +scoundrels upon her wished to turn homewards. But he bore them down, and +there was a compact made and signed. For them all the treasure that we +had gotten or should get, and for him their help to Panama that he might +take his private vengeance.... And so we put on all sail and we coasted +a many days, sometimes fighting and sometimes not, until we drew in +towards the land and found a little harbor masked by an islet and near +to a river. And a third of our men we left with the _Sea Wraith_. But +Sir Mortimer Ferne and I--my name is Robin-a-dale--we took all the boats +to go as far as we might by way of the river. And my master rowed +strongly in the first boat, and I rowed strongly in the second, for we +rowed for hate and love; but the other boats came on feebly, for they +were rowed by ghosts--" + +Arden moved beneath the emaciated form he held, and Powell uttered an +ejaculation. But John Nevil used command. + +"Back, sirrah! to the truth," and the crowding fancies gave ground +again. + +"It was the Indians who shot at us poisoned arrows. They made ghosts of +many rowers. Ha! in all my nineteen years I have not seen an uglier +death! That was why we must leave the river, hiding the boats against +the time that we returned that way ... returned that way." + +"You went on through the woods towards Panama. And then--" Nevil's voice +rose again. + +"The wrath of God!" answered the boy, and turning within Arden's clasp, +began to babble of London streets and the Triple Tun. The claw-like +hands had dragged themselves from Nevil's hold, and the spirit could be +no longer caught by the voice of authority, but wandered where it would. + +The men about him waited long and vainly for some turn of the tide. It +drew towards midnight, and Robin yet babbled of all things under the sun +saving only of a man that had left England now three years agone. At +last Nevil arose, spoke a few words to Arden, who nodded assent; then, +with Powell, moved to the door. + +"When will this friar return?" he asked, as they crossed the threshold. + +"I do not know," Powell answered. "With the dawn, perhaps. He will not +be long gone." + +"Perhaps he will not come at all," said the other. "You say that the boy +is out of danger. Perhaps he hath returned to the Indians whom you say +he teacheth." + +Powell shook his head. "Here are too many sick and dying," he said, +simply. "He will come back. I swear to you, Sir John Nevil, that in this +pestilent camp between the city and the sea we do think of this man not +as a Spaniard--if he be Spaniard--nor as monk--if he be monk! He hath +power over this fever, and those whom he cannot cure yet cry out for him +to help them die!" + +There was a silence, followed by Sir John's slow speech. "When he +returns send him at once under guard to my quarters--I will make good +the matter with Sir Francis. Speak the man fair, good Powell, give him +gentle treatment, but see to it that he escape you not.... Here are my +men. Good-night." + +Three hours later to Nevil, yet dressed, yet sitting deep in thought +within his starlit chamber, came a messenger from the captain of the +watch. "The man whom Sir John Nevil wot of was below. What disposition +until the morning--" + +"Bring him to me here," was the answer. "Stay!--there are candles upon +the table. Light one." + +The soldier, drawing from his pouch flint, steel, and tinder-box, +obeyed, then saluted and withdrew. There was a short silence, followed +by the sound of feet upon the stone stairs and a knock at the door, and +upon Nevil's "Enter!" by the appearance of a sergeant and several +soldiers--in the midst of them a figure erect, composed, gowned, +and cowled. + +The one candle dimly lit the room. "Will you stand aside, sir?" said +Nevil to his captive. "Now, sergeant--" + +The sergeant made a brief report. + +"Await, you and your men, in the hall below," ordered Nevil. "You have +not bound your prisoner? That is well. Now go, leaving him here alone." + +The heavy door closed to. Upon the table stood two great gilt +candelabra bearing many candles, a fragment of the spoil of Cartagena. +Nevil, taking from its socket the one lighted taper, began to apply the +flame to its waxen fellows. As the chamber grew more and more brilliant, +the friar, standing with folded arms, made no motion to break the +profound stillness, but with the lighting of the last candle he thrust +far back the cowl that partly hid his countenance, then moved with an +even step to the table, and raising with both hands the great +candelabrum, held it aloft. The radiance that flooded him, showing every +line and lineament, was not more silvery white than the hair upon his +head; but brows and lashes were as deeply brown as the somewhat sunken +eyes, nor was the face an old man's face. It was lined, quiet, +beautiful, with lips somewhat too sternly patient and eyes too sad, for +all their kindly wisdom. The friar's gown could not disguise the form +beneath; the friar's sleeve, backfallen from the arm which held on high +the branching lights, disclosed deep scars.... Down-streaming light, the +hour, the stillness--a soul unsteadfast would have shrunk as from an +apparition. Nevil stood his ground, the table between him and his guest +of three years' burial from English ken. Both men were pale, but their +gaze did not waver. So earnestly did they regard each other, eyes +looking into eyes, that without words much knowledge of inner things +passed between them. At last, "Greet you well, Mortimer Ferne," came +from one, and from the other, "Greet you well, John Nevil." + +The speaker lowered the candelabrum and set it upon the table. "You +might have spared the sergeant his pains. To-day I should have +sought you out." + +"Why not before to-day?" + +"I have been busy," said the other, simply. "Long ago the Indians taught +me a sure remedy for this fever. There was need down yonder for the +cure.... Moreover, pride and I have battled once again. To-night, in the +darkness, by God's grace, I won.... It is good to see thy face, to hear +thy voice, John Nevil." + +The tall tapers gave so great and clear a light that there was no shadow +for either countenance. In Nevil's agitation had begun to gather, but +his opposite showed as yet only a certain worn majesty of peace. +Neither man had moved; each stood erect, with the heavy wood like a +judgment bar between them. Perhaps some noise among the soldiers below, +some memory that the other had entered the room as a prisoner, brought +such a fancy to Nevil's mind, for now he hastily left his position and +crossed to the bench beneath the wide window. The man from the grave of +the South-American forest followed. Sir John stretched out his hand and +touched the heavy woollen robe that swept from bared throat to rudely +sandalled feet. + +"This?" he questioned. + +The other faintly smiled. "I found it many months agone in a village of +the Chaymas. I was nigh to nakedness, and it has served me well. It is +only a gown. This"--he touched the knotted girdle--"but a piece +of rope." + +"I have seen the boy, Robin-a-dale," said Nevil. + +The other inclined his head. "Captain Powell told me as much an hour +ago, and also that by some slip my poor knave slept not, as I had meant +he should, but babbled of old things which have wellnigh turned his +wits. He must not stay in this land, but back to England to feel the +snow in his face, to hear the cuckoo and the lark, to serve you or Arden +or Philip Sidney. What ancient news hath he given you?" + +"You went overland to Panama." + +"Ay,--a dreadful journey--a most dreadful return ... Don Luiz de +Guardiola was not at Panama. With a strong escort he had gone three days +before to San Juan de Ulloa, whence he sailed for Spain." + +A long silence; then said Nevil: "There is no passion in your face, and +your voice is grave and sweet. I thank God that he was gone, and that +your soul has turned from vengeance." + +"Ay, my soul hath turned from vengeance," echoed the other. "It is now a +long time that, save for Robin, I have dwelt alone with God His beauty +and God His terror. I have taught a savage people, and in teaching I +have learned." He moved, and with his knee upon the window-seat, looked +out upon the fading stars. "But the blood," he said,--"the blood upon my +hands! I know not if one man who sailed with me upon the _Sea Wraith_ be +alive. Certes, all are dead who went with me a fearful way to find that +Spaniard who is safe in Spain. Six men we reached again the seashore, +but the ship was gone. One by one, as we wandered, the four men died.... +Then Robin and I went upward and onward to the mountains." + +"When you left England your cause was just," said Nevil, with emotion. + +"Ay, I think it was so," Sir Mortimer replied. "At home I was forever +naught; on these seas I might yet serve my Queen, though with a shrunken +arm. And Robert Baldry with many another whom I had betrayed might yet +languish in miserable life. God knows! perhaps I thought that God might +work a miracle.... But at Margarita--" + +"I know--I know," interrupted Nevil. "Robin told us." + +"Then at Margarita," continued the other, "I forgot all else but my +revenge upon the man who had wrought disaster to my soul, who had dashed +from my hand even that poor salve which might and might not have +somewhat eased my mortal wound. Was he at Panama? Then to Panama would I +go. In Ultima Thule? Then in Ultima Thule he should not escape me.... I +bent the mariners and soldiers of the _Sea Wraith_ to my will. I +promised them gold; I promised them joyous life and an easy task--I know +not what I promised them, for my heart was a hot coal within my breast, +and there seemed no desirable thing under the sun other than a shortened +sword and my hand upon the throat of Don Luiz de Guardiola. They went +with me upon my private quarrel, and they died. Ah, well! It has been +long ago!" His breath came in a heavy sigh. "I am not now so keen a +hunter for my own. In God's hands is justice as well as mercy, and when +death throws down the warder I shall understand. In the mean while I +await--I that speak to you now and I that betrayed you four +years agone." + +He turned from the window, and the two again stood face to face. + +"I am a child at school," said Ferne. "There was a time when I thought +to keep for bed-fellow pride as well as shame; when I said, 'I am +coward, I am traitor,' and put to my lips the cup of gall, but yet I +drank it not with humility and a bowed heart.... I do not think, John, +that I ever asked you to forgive me.... Forgive me!" + +On the part of each man there was an involuntary movement, ending in a +long and mute embrace. Each touched with his lips the other's cheek, +then they sat with clasped hands in eloquent silence, while the candles +paled in the approaching dawn. At last Sir Mortimer spoke: + +"You will let me go now, John? There are many sick men down by the sea, +and Robin will grow restless--perhaps will call my name aloud." + +Arising from the window-seat, Nevil paced the room, then returned to the +sometime Captain of the _Cygnet_. "Two things and I will let you go +where you do the Queen and Francis Drake yeoman service. You will not +slip a silken leash, but will abide with us in this town?" + +"Ay," was the answer, "until your sick are recovered and your mariners +are making sail I will stay." + +Nevil hesitated. "For the present I accept your 'until.' And now I ask +you to throw off this disguise. We are men of a like height and make. +Yonder within the chamber are suits from which you may choose. Pray you +dress at once." + +A faint red swept into the other's countenance. "If I do as you bid, I +may not go unrecognized. I say not, 'Spare me this, John Nevil!' I only +ask, 'Is it wise?'... Sir Francis Drake is commander here. Four years +ago he swore that you were too merciful, that in your place he would +have played hangsman to me more blithely than he played headsman to +Thomas Doughty." + +"I sail not under Francis Drake," Nevil answered. "Meeting me with two +goodly ships at the Terceiras, he was fain enough to have me join my +force to his. Over my own I hold command, and I shall claim you as my +own. But you have no fear of Francis Drake! Is it your thought that your +shield is forever reversed, and that you are only welcome, only +unashamed, yonder where sickness stretches forth its hands, and Death +gives back before you? If it is so, yet be that which you are!--No +Spanish friar, but English knight and gentleman. If it be known to high +and low that once you fell, then face that knowledge with humility of +heart, with simplicity, but with the outward ease and bearing of that +estate in which God placed you. This garb becomes you not, who are yet +a soldier of England. Away with it!--then in singleness of mind press +onward along thy rocky road until God calls thee at last to His green +meadows, to His high city. Ah, my friend! I give but poor and meagre +words to that I read within thy eyes. There is no need for me to speak +at all when thy lit soul looks out upon me!" + +The dawn began to show faint splendors, and the winds of morning drove +aslant the candle flames. Ferne shook his head and his countenance +darkened somewhat with vain regrets and sharp memories of old agonies. +"Not that, my friend! I am changed, but God knows--not I--what other +change would come did He lift His rod. Once I thought I knew all right +from all wrong, all darkness from all light--yea, and I strove to +practise that knowledge.... I think now that to every man may come an +hour when pride and assurance go down--when for evermore he hath that +wisdom that he no longer knows himself." He smiled. "But I will do what +you ask, John. It were strange, were it not, if I refused you this?" As +he passed Nevil, the two touched hands again. Another moment and the +door of the inner room closed upon him. Sir John, awaiting his return, +began to quench the candles one by one, for there was no need of other +light than the flooding dawn. + +Some minutes had passed, when a knock at the outward door interrupted +his employment. Crossing the floor, he opened to Sir Francis Drake, who +stood alone upon the threshold, his escort trampling down the stone +stairs to the hall beneath. Nevil uttered an exclamation, which the +other met with his bluff, short laugh. + +"So you as well as I have let the jade Sleep slip by this night!" He +brushed past Nevil into the room. "I gave it up an hour agone, and am +come to take counsel before breakfast. At the nooning Carlisle and Cecil +will bring me the opinions of the captains, land and sea. I know already +their conclusion and my answer. But I deny not that 'twill be a bitter +draught." He did not take the great chair which Nevil indicated, but +kept on to the window, where with a sound, half sigh, half oath, he +flung himself down upon the broad seat. + +"I' faith, John Nevil, I know not why I am here, seeing that your +counsel has been given us, unless it be that you have more wisdom than +most, and may somewhat sweeten this course which, mark you! I stand +ready to take, or sweet or bitter, if thereby the Queen is best +served.... The officer whom this Governor sent out days ago in search of +these wealthy fugitives from the town--these rich people who starve on +gold and silver dishes--hath returned with some report or other as to +the treasure. What think you if at this coming feast--" + +Said Nevil abruptly: "Let us not speak of such matters here, Frank! I am +fully dressed; let us go into the air!" + +Drake stared. "And be observed of all that we hold counsel together! +What's wrong with the room?" Glancing narrowly from wall to wall, he +came suddenly to a realization of the presence of a third person--a +stranger, dressed in some dark, rich stuff, who stood with folded arms +against the door which he had closed behind him. Distinction of form, +distinction of the quiet face, distinction of white hair, so incongruous +and yet, strangely enough, the last and stateliest touch of all--after a +moment of startled scrutiny Drake leaned forward, keen eyes beneath +shaggy brows, one hand tugging at his beard. "Who are you, sir?" +he asked. + +Nevil interposed. "He is under my command--a volunteer for whom I alone +am responsible." + +The figure against the door advanced a pace or two. "I am Mortimer +Ferne, Sir Francis Drake." + +There was a pause, while Drake, staring as at one just risen from the +dead, got slowly to his feet. + +"Long ago," continued the apparition, "we had some slight +acquaintance--but now 'tis natural that you know me not.... I pray you +to believe me that until you drew near the window I thought Sir John +Nevil alone in the room; moreover, that I have heard no word of counsel, +saving only the word itself." + +"I hear you, sir," answered Drake, icily. "Fair words and smooth--oh, +very courtier-like words! Oh, your very good assurance!--but I choose my +own assurance, which dwells in the fact that naught has been said to +which the Spaniard is not welcome!" + +Nevil drew in his breath with a grieved, impatient sigh, but Sir +Mortimer stood motionless, nor seemed to care to find answering words. +The blood had mounted to his brow, but the eyes which gazed past the +speaker into the magnificent heart of the dawn were very clear, very +patient. Moments passed while Drake, the great sea-captain, sat, +striking his booted foot upon the floor, looking from Nevil, who had +regained his usual calm, to the man with whom oblivion had no more to +do. Suddenly he spoke: + +"You are he who in the guise of a Spanish friar hath nursed our sick? +Give you thanks!... Which of your ships, John Nevil, do you make over to +this--this gentleman?" + +Nevil, drawing himself up, would have answered with haughtiness, but +with a quick gesture of entreaty Ferne himself took the word. + +"Sir Francis Drake--Sir John Nevil," he said, "I pray that, because of +me, you come not to cold words and looks which sort not with your noble +friendship! I shall never again, Sir Francis Drake, command any ship +whatsoever, hold any office, be other than I am,--a man so broken, so +holpen by Almighty God, that he needs not earthly praise or blame.... I +have a servant ill within the camp who will fret at my absence. Wilt let +me begone, John?--but you must first explain to the sergeant this my +transformation. Sir Francis Drake, so long as you tarry in Cartagena I +submit myself to what restriction, what surveillance, upon which you and +my former Admiral may determine." + +"I will let you go but for a time," Nevil answered, firmly. "Later, I +shall send for you and Robin to some fitter lodging." He turned to +Drake. "Frank--Frank Drake, I but give again to all our sick the man to +whom, under God, is owed this abatement of the fever. I pray you to +await me here while I myself deliver him to the sergeant below. It is +necessary, for he entered this room in disguise, who goes forth clad +again as an English gentleman. Then will I tell you a story which I +think that, four years agone, may have been given you rather by a man's +foes than by his friends--and another story of deep repentance and of +God's path, which is not our path;--and Francis Drake hath indeed +changed overnight if he make of this a quarrel between him and John +Nevil, or if he be not generously moved towards this gentleman whom I +count as my friend and follower!" + +"I will wait," said Drake, after a pause. "Give you good-day, sir. Your +service to our sick is known, and for it our thanks are due. At the +present I can say no more." + +Ferne bowed in silence, then, with Nevil, left the room for the hall +below, where the startled sergeant and his men saluted indeed Sir John +Nevil, but kept their eyes upon the figure at his side. + +Nevil, beckoning to the sergeant, drew off a few paces and gave in a +lowered voice instructions to be borne to Captain Powell. Then the one +knight mounted to the room where Drake awaited him, and the other went, +guarded, through the tropic morn to the fevered and the restless, who +yearned for him as the sick may yearn, and to the hut where Arden strove +to restrain Robin-a-dale's cries for his master. + + + +XII + +During the afternoon came an order to Captain Powell that the sick youth +should be taken to Sir Mortimer Ferne's apartment in the house where +lodged Master Arden. Thus it was that in the cooler air before sunset a +litter was borne through the streets of Cartagena. In addition to the +bearers and some other slight attendance there walked with it Sir John +Nevil and Captain Powell, Giles Arden and Sir Mortimer Ferne. Sometimes +the latter laid his hand upon the youth's burning forehead, sometimes +upon the lips which would have babbled overmuch. Bearers and escort +stared and stared. One who had been about the spital, and had seen a +brother brought from under the shadow of death, repeatedly stumbled +because he could not take his eyes from the friar become English +gentleman--become friend of so great a gentleman as Sir John Nevil. + +The little procession turned one corner, then another. Sir Mortimer +touched Nevil's arm. "There's a shorter way--down this narrow street we +are passing." + +"Ay," Nevil answered; "but let us go by the way of the market-place." + +His thought was that none too soon could occur general recognition that +Sir Mortimer Ferne dwelt in the English camp and walked with English +leaders. The square, as it proved, was no desert. The hour was one of +some relaxation, relief from the sun, and from the iron discipline of +Drake, who, for the most part of the day, created posts and kept men at +them. Carlisle was there seated in the shade of a giant palm, watching +the drilling of a yet weak and staggering company whose very memory that +burning calenture had enfeebled. At one side of the place, which was not +large, others were examining a great heap of booty, the grosser spoils +of rich men's houses, furniture of precious woods, gilt and inlaid +cabinets, chests of costly apparel, armor, weapons, trappings of +horses,--all awaiting under guard assortment and division. In the centre +of the square a score or more of adventurers were gathered about the +wide steps of a great stone market-cross, while from a point opposite to +the street by which the party from the hospital must make entry advanced +with some clanking of steel, talking, and sturdy laughter no lesser men +than Francis Drake and some of his chiefest captains. Carlisle left +watching the drilling and walked over to them. The adventurers lounging +below the cross sprang up to greet their Admiral. A sudden puff of +evening wind lifted Drake's red cap, and bearing it across to a small +battery where a gunner and his mates examined a line of Spanish +ordnance, placed it neatly over the muzzle of the smallest gun. Frank +laughter arose; the gunner, with the red cap pressed against his hairy +breast, and grinning with pleasure at his service, came at a run to +restore to the great Sir Francis his property. Drake, whom the mere +soldier and mariner idolized, found for the gunner both a peso of silver +and jesting thanks; then, when he had donned the cap, turned and loudly +called to the passing company. "Come over to us, John Nevil," cried the +sea-king. "No, no, let us have your companions also, and that sick youth +we have heard of" + +"You do not understand," muttered Ferne, hastily, to Nevil. "This place +likes me not. Go you and Arden--" + +Sir John shook his head. Alone with Drake that morning, he had told in +its completeness the story that in many details was strange to him who +was seldom in England, seldomer at court, and who had heard the story in +a form which left scant room for pity or any dream of absolution. Once +and again the great sea-captain had softly sworn to himself, and at the +end Nevil had gone forth satisfied. Now he saw that Drake must have +timed this meeting in the square, and with a smile he ignored the +entreaty in the eyes of the man who, if his friend, was also his +captive. He motioned to the bearers, and presently the company about the +market-cross was enlarged. + +Drake, after his hearty fashion, clapped his arm about Sir John's +shoulder, calling him "dear Nevil." Arden, with whom he had slighter +acquaintance, he also greeted, while Powell was his "good Powell, his +trusty Anthony." There was a slight shifting in the smaller group, Nevil +by a backward step or two bringing into line the man who stood beside +the litter. Drake turned. "Give you godden, Sir Mortimer Ferne! Our +hearty thanks, moreover, for the good service you have done us." + +He spoke loudly, that all might hear. If beneath the bluff +good-fellowship of word and voice there was any undercurrent of coldness +or misliking, only one or two, besides the man who bowed to him in +silence, might guess it. By now every man about the market-cross was at +attention. Rumors had been rife that day. Neither at home in England nor +here in Spanish dominions was there English soldier or sailor who knew +not name and record of Sir Mortimer Ferne. Among the adventurers about +the market-cross were not lacking men who in old days had viewed, +admired, envied, and, for final tribute, contemned him. These broke +ranks, pressing as closely as was mannerly towards the group about the +litter. All gaped at Drake's words of amity, at Sir John Nevil's grave +smile, and Carlisle's friendly face, but most of all at that one who had +been the peer of great captains, but who now stood amongst them +undetached, ghost-like, a visitant from the drear world of the +dishonored dead. The palm-trees edging the square began to wave and +rustle in the wind; the youth upon the litter moved restlessly, uttering +moaning and incomprehensible words. Drake was speaking to Arden and +others of the gentlemen adventurers. + +"What ails you?" murmured Nevil, at Ferne's ear. "There is sweat upon +your forehead, and you hold yourself as rigid as the dead. Your touch is +icy cold." + +"I burn," answered the other, in as low a tone. "Let us go hence." + +Nevil motioned to the bearers, who raised the litter and began again +their progress across the square. Drake turned from those to whom he had +been speaking. "Will ye be going? You shall sup with us to-night, John +Nevil! Master Arden, I do desire your better acquaintance. Captain +Powell, you will stay with me who have some words for your ear. Sir +Mortimer Ferne, I trust you will recover your servant, as you have +recovered so many of our poor fellows"--his voice dropped until it was +audible only to the three or four who made his immediate circle,--"as +you have wellnigh recovered yourself." + +Generous as he was, he had not meant to go so far. He had yet his +doubts, his reversions, in mind, to those sheer facts which none denied. +This was a recreant knight--but also a man who had suffered long and +greatly, who, if eye and intuition could be trusted, suffered now. He +hesitated a moment, then abruptly held out his hand. + +All saw the gesture, and a sudden hush fell upon the company. If these +two touched hands, then in that moment would be spanned the distance +between the star in the ascendant and the wavering marsh-light, between +the sea-colossus and his one-time rival, now so long overwhelmed and +chained to sterile earth. + +In the short silence the wind seemed to take with a rushing sound the +palm tops overhead. Then Ferne spoke. "With all my heart I thank you," +he said. "I may not take your hand until you know"--he raised his voice +so that all who chose might hear--"until you know that here where I +stand, here before this cross, died in the torment of fire that Captain +Robert Baldry who was my private foe, who lay beneath my challenge, +whom I betrayed to his agony and to his martyr's death.... Ah! I will +hold you excused, Sir Francis Drake!" + +With the deep exclamation, the involuntary recoil, that followed on the +heels of such an avowal, there appeared to descend upon the place a dark +shadow, a veritable pall, a faint murk of driven smoke, through which +men saw, to-day, the spectacle of nigh four years agone.... The silence +was broken, the spell dissolved, by Robin-a-dale's feeble cry from the +litter: "Master, master; come with me, master!" + +Drake, who, with a quick intake of his breath, had drawn sharply back, +was the first to recover. He sent his lightning glance from the +frowning, the deeply flushed and horror-stricken, countenances about him +to the man whose worn cheek showed no color, whose lips were locked, +whose eyes were steadfast, though a little lifted to the blue sky above +the cross. "Now death of my life!" swore the sea-king. "The knave did +well to call you 'Master.' Whatever there may have been, here is now no +coward!" He turned to the staring, whispering throng. "Gentlemen, we +will remove from this space, which was the death-bed of a brave man and +a true martyr. This done, each man of you will go soberly about his +business, remembering that God's dealings are not those of +men;--remembering also that this gentleman is under my protection." +Doffing his red cap, he stepped slowly backward out of the wide ring +about the market-cross. His example was followed by all; a few moments +and the last rays of the sinking sun lay only upon bare stone and earth. + +Some hours later, Robin-a-dale asleep in the bed, and his master keeping +motionless watch at the window, Arden entered the room which had been +assigned to Sir Mortimer Ferne, and crossing the floor, sat himself down +beside his friend. Presently Ferne put forth his hand, and the two sat +with interlacing fingers, looking out upon the great constellations. +Arden was the first to speak. + +"Dost remember how, when we were boys at school, and the curfew long +rung, we yet knelt at our window and saw the stars come up over the +moorland? Thou wert the poet and teller of tales--ah! thy paladins and +paynims and ladies enchanted!--while I listened, bewitched as they, but +with an ear for the master's tread. It was a fearful joy!" + +"I remember," said the other. "It was a trick of mine which too often +brought the cane across our shoulders." + +"Not mine," quoth Arden. "You always begged me off. I was the +smallest--you waked me--made me listen, forsooth!... Welladay! Old times +seem near to-night!" + +"Old times!" repeated the other. "Pictures that creep beneath the shut +eyelid!--frail sounds that outcry the storm!--Shame's most delicate, +most exquisite goad!... You cannot know how strange this day has been +to me." + +"You cannot know how glad this day has been to me," replied Arden, with +a break in his voice. "Do you remember, Mortimer, that I would have +sailed with you in the _Sea Wraith?_" + +"I forget nothing," said the other. "I think that I reviled you then.... +See how far hath swung my needle!" He lifted his school-fellow's hand to +his cheek in a long, mute caress, then laying it down. "There is one at +home of whose welfare I would learn. She is not dead, I know. Her +brother comes to me in my dreams with all the rest--with all the +rest,--but she comes not. Speak to me of Mistress Damaris Sedley." + +A short pause; then, "She is the fairest and the loveliest," said Arden. +"Her beauty is a fadeless flower, but her eyes hold a history it were +hard to read without a clue. One only knows the tale is tragical. She is +most gentle, sweet, and debonair. The thorns of Fortune's giving she has +twisted into a crown, and she wears it royally. I saw her at Wilton six +months ago." + +"At Wilton! With the Queen?" + +"No; she left the court long ago. You and the _Sea Wraith_ were scarce a +month gone when that grim old knight, her guardian, would have made for +her a marriage with some spendthrift sprig of more wealth than wit. But +Sidney, working through Walsingham and his uncle Leicester, and most of +all through his own golden speech, got from the Queen consent to the +lady's retirement from the court, and so greatly disliked a marriage. +With a very noble retinue he brought her to his sister at Wilton, where, +with that most noble countess, she abides in sanctuary. When you take +her hence--" + +Sir Mortimer laughed. "When I take the rainbow from the sky--when I leap +to meet the moon and find the silver damsel in my arms indeed--when +yonder sea hath washed away all the blood of the earth--when I find +Ponce de Leon's spring and speak to the nymph therein: 'Now free me from +this year, and this, and this, and this! Make me the man that once I +was!' Then I will go a pilgrimage to Wilton." + +He rose and paced the room once or twice, then came back to Arden at the +window. "Old school-fellow, we are not boys now. There be no enchanters; +and the giant hugs himself in his tower, nor will come forth at any +challenge; and the dragon hath so shrunken that he shows no larger than +a man's self;--all illusion's down!... I thank thee for thy news of a +lady whom I love. I am full glad to know that she is in health and +safety, among old friends, honored, beloved, fairer than the fairest--" +His voice shook, and for the moment he bowed his face within his hands, +but repression came immediately to his command. He raised his head and +began again with a quiet voice, "I will write to her a letter, and you +will be its bearer--will you not, old friend? riding with it by the +green fields and the English oaks to noble Wilton--" + +"And where, when the ships have brought us home, do you go, Mortimer?" + +"To the Low Countries. Seeing that I go as a private soldier, John Nevil +may easily gain me leave. And thou, Giles, I know, wilt give me money +with which I may arm me and may cross to the English camp. I am glad +that Philip Sidney becomes my general. Although I fight afoot, in the +long trenches or with the pike-men and the harquebusiers, yet may I joy +to look upon him, flashing past, all gilded like St. George, with the +great banner flying, leading the wild charge--the shouts of his horsemen +behind him--" + +Arden sprang to his feet, pushed the heavy settle aside, and with a +somewhat disordered step went to the bed where lay Robin-a-dale. "He +will recover?" he asked, in a low voice, as Ferne came to his side. + +"Ay, I think so," answered the other. "He will sleep throughout the +night, and the morn should find him stronger, more clear in mind.... I +am going now to the spital--no, no; I need no rest, and I have leave to +come and go." + +The two descended together to the door of the great hall, whence Ferne +went his solitary way, and Arden stood to watch him out of sight. As the +latter turned to re-enter the house, he was aware of a small band of +men, English and Spanish, proceeding from Drake's lodging towards the +citadel, which, robbed of all ordnance and partly demolished, yet +sheltered the Governor, his officers, and sundry Spanish gentlemen. +To-day the envoy from the wealthy fugitives and owners of buried gold +had returned, and, evidently, to-night Drake and the Spanish +commissioners had again discussed the matter of ransom. + +Arden, within the shadow, watched the little torchlit company of English +soldiery and Spanish officials cross his plane of vision. There was some +talking and laughter; an Englishman made a jest, and a Spaniard answered +with a proverb. The latter's voice struck some chord in Arden's memory, +but struck it faintly. "Now where have I heard that voice?" he asked, +but found no answer. The noise and the light passed onward to the +citadel, and with a brief good-night to a passing sentinel he himself +turned to take his rest. + +The next day at noon Ferne deliberately, though with white lips and +half-closed eyelids, crossed the market square, and sought out Sir John +Nevil's quarters. By the soldiers in the great hall he was told that Sir +John was with the Admiral--would he wait? He nodded, and sat himself +down upon a settle in the hall. The guard and those who came and went +eyed him curiously; sometimes whispered words reached his ears. Once, +when he had waited a long time, a soldier brought him a jack of ale. He +drank of it gratefully and thanked the donor. The soldier fidgeted, +lowered his voice. "I fought under you, Sir Mortimer Ferne, at Fayal in +the Azores. You brought us that day out of the jaws of death, and we +swore you were too much for Don or devil!--and we drank to you that +evening, full measure of ale!--and we took our oath that we had served +far and near under many a captain, but none like you--" + +Ferne smiled. "Was it so, soldier? Well, may I drink to you now who +drank to me then?" + +He drew the ale towards him but kept his eyes upon the other's +countenance. The man reddened from brow to bared throat, but his words +came at once, and there was moisture in his blue eyes. "If my old +captain will do me so much honor--" he began, unsteadily. Ferne with a +smile raised his jack to his lips and drank to him health and happy life +and duty faithfully done. + +When, after stammered thanks, the man was gone, the other waited hour +after hour the appearance of Sir John Nevil. At last he came striding +down the hall to the stair, but swerving suddenly when he caught sight +of Ferne, crossed to the settle, and gave him quiet greeting. "Sir +Francis kept me overlong," he said. "How has gone the day, Mortimer?" + +"The fever lessens," answered the other. "There are not many now will +die.... May I speak to you where there are fewer eyes?" + +A few moments later, in Sir John's room, he took from his doublet a slip +of paper. "This was brought to me some hours ago. Is it an order?" + +"Ay," said Nevil, without touching the out-held paper. "An order." + +Ferne walked to the window and stood there, looking out upon the +passers-by in the street below. One and all seemed callow souls who had +met neither angel nor devil, heard neither the thunderbolt nor the still +small voice. Desperately weary, set to a task which appalled him, he +felt again the sting of a lash to which he had thought himself inured. +There was a longing upon him that this insistent probing of his wound +should cease. Better the Indians and the fearful woods, and Death ever +a-tiptoe! better the stupendous strife of the lonely soul to maintain +its dominion, to say to overtoppling nature, to death, and to despair, +_I am_. There was no man who could help the soul.... This earthly +propping of a withered plant, this drawing of tattered arras over a +blood-stained wall, what was it to the matter? For the moment all his +being was for black, star-touching mountains, for the wild hurry of +league-long rapids, the calling and crying of the forest;--the next he +turned again to the room with some quiet remark as to the apparent +brewing of a storm in the western skies. Nevil bent upon him a +troubled look. + +"It was my wish, Mortimer, to which Drake gave ready assent. It is, as +you see, an order for your presence to-night, with other gentlemen +volunteers, at this great banquet with which the Spaniard takes leave of +us. Shall I countermand it?" + +"No," answered the other. "My duty is to you--I could not pay my debt if +I strove forever and a day. You are my captain,--when you order I obey." + +A silence followed, during which Sir Mortimer stood at the window and +Sir John paced the floor. At last the former spoke, lightly: "There will +be a storm to-night.... I must go comfort that knave of mine. At times +he doth naught but babble of things at home--at Ferne House. This morn +it was winter to him, and in this burning land he talked of snowflakes +falling beneath the Yule-tide stars; yea! and when he has spoken pertly +to the sexton he needs must go a-carolling: + + "'There comes a ship far sailing then,-- + St. Michael was the steersman; + St. John sate in the horn; + Our Lord harped; Our Lady sang, + And all the bells of heaven rang.'" + +He sang the verse lightly, as simply and sweetly as Robin had sung it, +then with a smile turned to go; and in passing Nevil laid a slight +caressing touch upon his shoulder. "Until to-night then, John!--and, +by'r Lady! seeing that you will be at the top of the board and I at the +bottom, I do think that I may hear nothing worth betraying!" + +Sir John uttered an ejaculation, and would have taken again the folded +paper, but the other withstood him, and quietly went his way to kneel +beside Robin-a-dale, give up his hand to tears and kisses (for Robin was +very weak, and thought his master cruel to leave him so long alone), to +the youth's unchecked babble of all things that in his short life +appertained to Ferne House and to its master. + +Sir Francis Drake and Alonzo Brava had come to a mind in regard to the +ransom for the town. If the English gained not so large a sum as they +had hoped for, yet theirs was the glory of the enterprise, and Drake's +eye was yet upon Nombre de Diòs. If the Spaniards had lost money and men +and had looked on day by day at the slow dilapidation of their city, yet +they had riches left, and the life of the Spanish soldier was cheap, and +that ruined portion of the town might be built again. Agreements had +been drawn as to the ransom of the city of Cartagena and signed by each +leader,--by Brava with the pious (but silent) wish that the fleet might +be miraculously destroyed before the drying of the ink; and by Drake +with one of his curious mental reservations, concerning in this case the +block-house and the great priory just without the city. Matters being +thus settled and the next morning named for the British evacuation of +Christendom, needs must pass the usual courtesies between the then +stateliest people of Cartagena and the bluntest. Alonzo Brava, in all +honesty, invited to supper with him in his dismantled citadel Sir +Francis Drake, Sir John Nevil, and all officers and gentlemen within the +English forces. Drake as frankly accepted the courtesy for himself and +all who might be spared from the final labors of the night. + +In the late evening, by a stormy light which, seen through the high, +wide, and open windows, seemed to pit itself against the approaching +darkness, Brava, motioning to right and left, seated himself with his +principal guests at the head of the table, while his chamberlains busied +themselves with serving the turn of lesser names. Captains and +officers, gentlemen and volunteers of wealth and birth, fell into place, +while the end of the table left was for needier adventurers, scapegrace +and out-at-elbow volunteers. Noiseless attendants went to and fro. Great +numbers of candles, large as torches, were lighted, but the prolonged +orange glare which entered the western windows seemed to have some +quality distinct from light, by virtue of which men's features were not +clearly seen. Distant thunder rolled, but when it passed one heard from +the gallery above the hall Spanish music. The feast marched on in +triumph, much as it might have done in any camp (where Famine was not +King) beneath any flag of truce. Here the viands were in quantity, and +there was wine to spill even after friend and foe had been loudly +pledged. Free men, sea-rovers, and soldiers of fortune, it was for them +no courtier's banquet. Only the presence at table of their leaders kept +the wassail down. Now and again the thunder shook the hall, making all +sounds beneath its own as the shrilling of a cicada; then, the long roll +past, the music took new heart, while below it went on the laughter and +the soldier wit, babble of sore wounds, of camp-fires, and high-decked +ships--tales wild and grim or broadly humorous. At the cross-table +opposite and a little below Sir John Nevil, who was seated at Brava's +left hand, was a vacant seat. It awaited (the Governor explained) the +envoy whom he had sent out to hardly gather the remainder of the ransom +of Cartagena. The length, the heat, and danger of the journey had +outwearied the envoy, who was a gentleman of as great a girth as spirit. +Later, despite his indisposition, he would join them. + +He came, and it was Pedro Mexia. From Nevil and Arden and several of Sir +John's old officers of the _Mere Honour_ burst more or less suppressed +exclamations. Nevil, from his vantage-point, sent a lightning glance far +down the table, where were gathered those whose rank or station barely +brought them within this hall, but what with the massed fruit, the +candles, this or that outstretched hand and shoulder, he could not see +to the lowest at the table, and he heard no sound to match his own or +Arden's ejaculation. Mexia, who had lingered with his own wine-cup and +associates, now, after the moment of general welcome, seated himself +heavily. His first gaze had been naturally for Francis Drake, the man +whose name was waxing ever louder in Spanish ears, but now in the act of +raising his tankard his eyes and those of the sometime conqueror of +Nueva Cordoba came together. For a second his hand shook, then he tossed +off the wine, and putting down his tankard with some noise, leaned +half-way across the table. + +"Ha! we meet again, Sir John Nevil--and after four years of mortal life +we be a-ransoming yet! You see I have not lost your tongue--although I +lost my teachers!" He laughed at the tag to his speech, being drunk +enough to make utter mischief, out of sheer good nature. + +"Doth Master Francis Sark still teach you English?" asked Nevil, coldly. + +"Francis Sark--who is Francis Sark?" maundered the fuddled envoy. "There +was the fool Desmond, who overreached himself trying to bargain with +Luiz de Guardiola. Those who do that have strange fates!" + +Arden from a place or two below put in lightly: "Well, our Sark equals +your Desmond. And so he bargained with Don Luiz de Guardiola?" + +Mexia's eyes wandered to the other's face. "Ha, señor! I remember your +face at Nueva Cordoba! Have we here more of our conquered?" His speech +began with the pomp of the frog in the fable, but at this point became +maudlin again and returned to the one-time Governor of Nueva Cordoba's +dealings with his creatures. "Why, Desmond was a fool to name such a +price. One hundred pesos, perhaps--but four thousand! But Don Luiz +smiled and paid down the silver, and the fool that was traitor to us and +traitor to you and traitor to himself told all things and was hanged for +his pains." Up went his tankard to his lips, and as it descended wine +was spilt upon his neighbor's sleeve. The victim drew away with a +smothered oath, and Brava eyed with displeasure his drunken associate. + +"Why, for what could the man ask such a price?" Arden asked, with light +surprise. + +In a moment the other's large and vacuous countenance became sober +enough. "For a trap to catch flies," he said, shortly, and turning his +shoulder to all but the men of highest rank, again wetted his throat, +then let his empty tankard touch the board with a clattering sound. + +From the first he had drawn attention, and now at the drumming of the +tankard most faces turned his way. Nevil spoke to Drake beneath his +breath; the latter bending towards Alonzo Brava, addressed him in a very +low tone. Brava, deeply annoyed, on the point of signalling his +servitors to "quietly persuade from the table his drunken guest, +listened, though still frowning. A final whisper from Drake: + +"In no way toucheth your honor, a private matter--favors--ransom--" + +The governor, leaning forward, playing with his wine, gave some sign of +acquiescence--perhaps, indeed, may have had his own indifferences to any +blackening of the character of Don Luiz de Guardiola, now nourishing at +Madrid like a green bay-tree. + +Mexia was displaying profound skill in the nice balancement of his +tankard as the servant behind him refilled the measure. "Ha, Don Pedro!" +cried Drake, with his bluff laugh, "art on that four-years-gone matter +of Nueva Cordoba? Methinks Sir John Nevil brought off a knightly +sufficiency of credit--" + +"Sir John Nevil--Oh! Ay!" said Mexia, and with both hands carefully +lowered the tankard to the level of the table. "Did Sir Mortimer Ferne +bring forth such a--what's the word?--knightly sufficiency? Now I've +often wondered--'Tis true I had my grudge against him also, but in such +matters I go not so far as De Guardiola, who brands the soul.... I told +Don Luiz as much four years ago. 'Why, I kill my man,' quoth I, 'and go +on my way singing.'" + +"And what said he to that?" queried Arden, lightly and easily drawing on +Mexia, who, in his cups, became merely a garrulous old man. + +"Why," continued the envoy, "he said, 'Mayhap the dead do not remember. +So live, my foe! but live in hell, remembering the brand upon thy soul, +and that 'twas I who set it glowing there!'" + +A murmur ran the length of the table. Mexia suddenly found himself of a +steadier brain with somewhat stronger interest in rencontres new or old. +"Ha! Sir Mortimer Ferne and his knot of velvet! Don Luiz ground _that_ +beneath his heel.... Well, the man's dead, no doubt. I've wondered more +than once if he lived or died; if he beat out his brains as he strove to +do; if, thinking better o't, he merely held his tongue and nursed his +broken body; or if he cried aloud that which the old serpent De +Guardiola made him believe, and henceforth travelled life's highway a +lazar!... And that's a curious thought: leper to himself--leper to his +world--leper's cry--leper's mantle, with the cloth across his face--and +beneath it, all cleanliness, with not a soul but God to know it!" He +gave his small, chuckling laugh. "Oh, I, too, have thoughts; I, too, +watch the play,--Pedro Mexia, señors, is not so gross of wit as he is +thought to be!" + +Nevil leaned across the table. "Leper to himself, and to his world! But +to God all cleanly beneath that mantle which he drew over his forehead +and his eyes! What do you mean? Sir Mortimer Ferne declared himself a +coward and a traitor!" + +"So!" said Mexia. "Well! 'Twas falsely sworn. Desmond was the man." + +Sir John turned with rapid speech to his host. Alonzo Brava addressed +Mexia, who roused himself to a fair appearance of sobriety. "Worthy Don +Pedro, all here, on both sides, have heard somewhat of this story. I +understand that the English hidalgo concerned is dead. Don Luiz de +Guardiola is in Spain. We all know that a simple vengeance never +sufficed for him who was of those who by their cruelties have brought +such defamation upon our name in the Indies. I see not that you do +injury to Spanish honor by giving to our friends of one night as much as +you know of this history." + +"Your relation will make us so greatly your debtor, Don Pedro," said +Drake, "that to-morrow, ere we sail, we will think of some such token as +may justly show our appreciation of the trouble we now give you. Wilt +drink with me?" + +The tankards clinked, the wine went down, and the flattered Mexia turned +his round, empurpled countenance to Nevil. "Why, see you," he said, +"'twas easy for Desmond to find the secret door in the upper room in +the Friar's house, and, stealing down by the stair between the walls to +listen at the hidden grating until he had by heart your every plan--but +'twas not so easy to escape to us! It lacked half an hour of sunset when +be brought that news which since noon Don Luiz had sought with fury to +wring from the other." + +"From the other?" + +"From Sir Mortimer Ferne." + +An Englishman cried out, "Then were there two traitors?" but Mexia, who +by now was somewhat in love with his part of raconteur, had a grim +smile. "There was one Don Luiz de Guardiola.... Oh, I will tell you what +you wish to know, señors! Be not so impatient. It was without the room +where lay his prisoner that he gathered from Desmond news indeed; and it +was from that room that he sent Desmond away, and wrote very swiftly +order after order to his lieutenants. Then he went to the other door and +called out Miguel, who says, 'Now and then he raves, but nothing to the +point!' to which Don Luiz: 'I am going to stand beside him. You are +skilful. Make him babble like a child, scarce knowing what he says. +What I wanted from him matters no longer; but make him speak--words, +broken sentences, cries!--I care not what. Make him aware that he holds +his tongue no longer, make him struggle for silence there beneath +my eyes.' + +"'He calls on God at present,' answers Miguel. 'I thought these +Lutherans held with Satan.' + +"'When I sign to you--thus,' goes on De Guardiola, 'bring him with +suddenness into a short swoon. Then at once dash water upon his face and +breast. When he cometh to himself, which (look you) must be shortly, +busy yourself with putting away your engines, or be officious to loosen +his bonds, keeping a smiling mien as of one whose day's work is done; in +short, in what subtle fashion you may, do you and your helpers add to +that assurance that I myself shall give him. Do your part well and there +will be reward, for I have at heart a whim that I would gratify.' So we +went into the next room." + +"We!" said Nevil deeply, and "By God, this man was there!" breathed +Drake, and Arden ground his teeth. The silence which had spellbound the +company broke sharply here or there, then, breathless, men again bent +forward, waiting for the last word of the story whose ending they +already guessed. Alonzo Brava, a knightly soul enough, sat grim and red, +repentant that he had given loose rein to Mexia's tongue. Mexia, +undisturbed, genial with his wine, and of a retrospective turn of mind, +went smoothly, even dreamily on with his episode of a four-years-past +struggle. He had scarcely noticed the slip of the tongue by which he had +included himself with Luiz de Guardiola and his ministers. + +"Well.... He lay there indeed, and called upon God; and now and then he +cried to men and women we knew not of. But when he saw that De Guardiola +was in the room, he fell silent--like that! + +"'Tell me this--and this--and this,' says Don Luiz at his side. 'Then +shall you go free. You are your Admiral's dearest friend; you are high +in the English council. Even before you became my prisoner was there not +a general attack planned for to-night? Tell me its nature and the hour. +What force will be left upon the ships? What will be the word of the +night? Tell me if you know aught of a secret way by which the battery +may be flanked!' + +"Well, he was silent, and Don Luiz stamped upon the floor. 'You are too +slow of speech, señor. Miguel, make him speak. I have no time to +loiter here!'" + +Mexia moistened his lips with his wine. "What do you ask with your white +faces and great eyes, señors?... Oh, yes, he was made to speak--to cry +out to the Lutheran's God, to gasp his defiance to Don Luiz waiting with +folded arms--to wander, as they sometimes do, thinking friends about +him, making appeal to the living and the dead to pluck him out of hell! +at last, with froth upon his lips, to murmur like a child who knows not +War nor one of its usages; like a heretic who communes with God +direct.... I am no better than I am, but I know courage when I see it, +and I tell you, Don Alonzo, that in his torment and his weakness that +man was strong to sweep clear his mind of aught that was to De +Guardiola's purpose. If nature must give voice to her anguish, then, +with bound hands, he kept her far from the garden of his honor. This +until the very last, when he lost knowledge indeed of what the tongue +might say, and bit at his bound arms struggling to hold his peace. Then +De Guardiola signed for the turn of the screw." + +At the end of the table, a few moments before, a man had left his place +with no noise, and stooping was now slowly making his way behind the +forward bent row of guests, towards the table of honor. Mexia, making +full stop, drank his wine, and, leaning back in his chair, stared +thoughtfully before him. Amongst his auditors there was an instant of +breathless expectation, then Drake cried impatiently, "Make a +finish, man!" + +"There is no more," said Mexia. "He never told, never betrayed. When he +awoke from that momentary swoon there was surcease of torment, there +were Miguel and his fellows making ready to take leave of the day's +work; his bonds were loosed, wine held to his lips; Don Luiz stood over +him with a smile, and still smiling sent for the Commandant of the +battery. All that Desmond had brought to Don Luiz was told over, orders +were written and sent in haste, naught was left undone that De +Guardiola's guile might suggest. He believed--he could not choose but +to believe--that in his madness of words and half-conscious utterances, +from very failure of will and weakness of soul and lack of knightly +honor, he had refused to endure, and had betrayed the English to +surprise and death." + +The man who had moved from his seat was now so near to the notable +guests that when, drawing himself up, he placed his hand upon Arden's +shoulder, he came face to face with Pedro Mexia. The latter, uttering a +strangled cry, threw up his hands as though to ward off an apparition. +With a sudden spring, one booted foot upon Arden's heavy chair, the +figure leaped upon the table, disarranging all its glittering array, and +for a second facing the company which had arisen with excitement and +outcry. The next, like a dart, he crossed the intervening space and +threw himself upon Mexia, dragging the bulky form from the table and +hurling it to the floor. Weaponless, the assaulter had used his hands, +and now with a knee upon Mexia's breast he strove to throttle him. When, +Spanish and English, those that were nearest of Don Alonzo's guests were +upon him, the face that he turned over his shoulder showed an +intolerable white fury of wrath. "Thy sword, John Nevil!" he gasped. +"Thou seest I wear none! Arden, thou'rt no friend of mine if thou +flingst me not thy dagger!... Ah dog! that companied with the hell-hound +of the pack, loll _thy_ tongue out now! Let _thy_ eyeballs start from +the socket--" + +When the two men were separated, the one lay huddled and unconscious +against his chair, and the other stood with iron composure, glancing +from the unconscious envoy to his host Alonzo Brava. "I know not who you +are, señor," spoke the latter, with anger hardly controlled, "but you +have broken truce and done bodily injury to my guest, who not being able +at the moment to speak for himself--" + +"Your pardon, señor, for any discourtesy towards my host," answered +Ferne. "And I would give you satisfaction here and now if--if--" He +looked down upon his empty hands. The gesture was seen of all. Made by +him, it came as one of those slight acts which have a power to pierce +the heart and enlighten the understanding. Unconscious as it was, the +movement rent away the veil of four years, broke any remnant of the +spell that was upon the English, set him high and clear before +them--the peer of Francis Drake, of John Nevil, of Raleigh and of +Sidney. This was Sir Mortimer Ferne, and there was that which he lacked! +Up and down the room there ran a sudden sound of steel drawn swiftly +from metal, leather, or velvet sheaths. "My sword, Sir Mortimer Ferne!" +"Mine!" "And mine!" "Do mine honor, Sir Mortimer Ferne!" "Sir Mortimer +Ferne, take mine!" + +Ferne's hand closed upon the hilt which Nevil had silently offered, and +he turned to salute his antagonist, whose pallor now matched his own. +"Are you that English knight?" demanded Brava with dry lips. "Then in +courtesy alone will we cross blades--no more!" + +The steel clashed, the points fell, and Spaniard and Englishman bowed +gravely each to the other. "I thank you," said Ferne hoarsely. "With +your permission, señor, I will say good-night. You will understand, I +think, that I would be alone." + +"That we must all understand," said Alonzo Brava. "Our good wishes +travel with you, señor." + +Sir Mortimer turned, and from the younger, more heedless adventurers +broke a ringing shout, a repeated calling of his name until it echoed +from the lofty roof, but his friends spoke not to him, only made an +aisle through which he might pass. His arm was raised, Nevil's sword a +gleaming line along the dark velvet of his sleeve. The face seen below +the lifted arm was very strange, written over with a thousand meanings. +The poise of the figure and the light upon the sword increased the +effect of height, the effect of the one-night-whitened hair. There was, +moreover, the gleam and shadow of the countenance, evident forgetfulness +of time or place, the desire of the soul to be out with night and storm +and miracles. The English drew farther back, and he went by them like an +apparition. + +Later in the night Nevil and Arden, after fruitless search, came upon a +space where the wall of Cartagena rose sheer above the water. To-night +the sea roared in their ears, but the storm had gone by, leaving upon +the horizon a black and rugged bank of cloud rimmed by great beacon +stars. Down through a wide rift in the clouds streamed light from a +haloed moon. Beneath it, seated upon the stone, his hands clasped about +his knees and a gleaming sword laid across them was the man they sought. +His head was lifted and the moon gave light enough by which to read the +lineaments of a good knight and true, brave, of stainless honor, a lover +of things of good repute, pure gold to his friends, generous to his +foes, gentle to the weak, tender and pitiful of all who sinned or +suffered. He heard their footsteps on the stone, and, rising, went to +meet them. "It hath been a wonderful night," he said. "Look, how great +is the ring about the moon! and the air after the storm blows from far +countries.... They have come to me one after another--all the men of the +_Cygnet_, and the _Phoenix_, and the land force. Henry Sedley sat beside +me, with his arm about my shoulder; and Captain Robert Baldry and I have +clasped hands, foregoing our quarrel. And the crew of the _Sea Wraith_ +went by like shadows. I know not if I did wrongly by them, but if it be +so I will abide God's judgment between us when I, too, am dead. And I am +not yet for the Low Countries, Arden! I am for England--England, +England!" + +They leaned against the parapet and looked out upon the now gleaming +sea, the rack of the clouds and the broken cohorts of the stars. They +looked out to the glistening line where the water met the east. +"Homeward to-morrow!" said Arden, and Ferne asked, "What are thy ships, +John?" and Nevil answered, "The one is the _Mere Honour_, the other I +have very lately renamed the _Cygnet_. Wilt be her captain, Mortimer, +from here to Plymouth Port?" + + * * * * * + +The Countess of Pembroke, in mourning for her parents, was spending a +midsummer month in leafy Penshurst. It was a drowsy month, of roses +fully blown and heavy lilies, of bees booming amongst all honey flowers, +of shady copses and wide sunlit fields; and it was a quiet month because +of the Countess's mourning and because Philip Sidney was Governor of +Flushing. Therefore, save for now and then a messenger bringing news +from London or Wilton or from that loved brother in the Netherlands, the +Countess, her women, and a page or two made up the company at Penshurst. +The pages and the young gentlewomen (all under the eye of an aged +majordomo) moved sedately in the old house, pacing soberly the gardens +beneath the open casements; but when they reached the sweet rusticity of +the outward ways, fruit-dropping orchards and sunny spaces, they were +for lighter spirits, heels, and wits. With laughter young hand caught at +young hand, and fair forms circled swiftly an imaginary May-pole. Tall +flowers upon the Medway's brim next took their eye, and they gathered +pink and white and purple sheaves; then, limed by the mere joy of work, +caught up and plied the rakes of the haymakers. The meadows became +lists, their sudden employment a joust-at-arms, and some slender youth +crowned the swiftest workwoman with field flowers, withering in the +nearest swathe. All wove garlands, then made for the shade of the trees +and shared a low basket of golden apples. One had a lute and another +sang a love ditty with ethereal passion. They were in Arcadia,--silken +shepherdesses, slim princes in disguise,--and they breathed the +sweetness, the innocent yet lofty grace which was the country's +natal air. + +"Sidney's sister, Pembroke's mother," kept much, in her gentle, filial +sorrow, to her great chamber above the gardens, where she wrote and +studied, and to her closet, where before an eastern window was set the +low chair beside which she kneeled in prayer for her living and her +dead. She prayed much alone, but once a day, when the morn was young, +she sent for one who was named her gentlewoman indeed, but to whom all +her train gave deference, knowing of the love between this lady and +their mistress. The lady came, beautiful, patient, with lips that smiled +on life, and wonderful dark eyes in which the smile was drowned. The +Countess took her morning kiss and the fair coolness of her pressed +cheek, then praised the flowers in her hands, all jewelled with the +dew--a lovely posy to be set amongst the Countess's little library of +pious works. Then on this as on other days the two fair women read +together, their soft voices making tremulous music of the stately Latin. +The reading done, they kneeled side by side, dark hair against light, +praying silently, each her own prayers. It was a morning rite, +poignantly dear to them both; it began and helped upon its way the +livelong lingering day. They arose and kissed, and presently the +Countess spoke of letters which she must write. "Then," said the other, +"I will go sit by the fountain until you wish for me." + +"The fountain!" answered Mary Sidney. "Ah, Damaris! I would that thou +mightst forget the fountain. I would that other blooms than red roses +were planted there!" + +"That would not I!" the other answered. "I love the fountain. And once a +red rose meant to me--Paradise!" + +"Then go thy ways, and gather thy roses," said the Countess fondly. "I +would give thee Heaven an I could--so that thou stayed upon earth with +thy fairing!" + +The Countess sat herself down to write to Philip Sidney, not knowing +that he was so near the frontier whence no living messenger, no warm and +loving cry could ever draw him back. Damaris, a book in her hand, passed +through the silent, darkened house out to the sunlit lawns. Her skirt +swept the enamelled turf; she touched the tallest flowers as she passed, +and they bloomed no worse for that light caress. Poetry was in her every +motion, and she was too beautiful a thing to be so sad. She made no +parade of grief. Faint smiles came and went, and all things added to her +birthright of grace. She was the Countess's almoner: every day she did +good, lessening pain, whispering balm to the anguish-stricken, speaking +as with authority to troubled souls. Back from the hovel to stately +houses she went, and lo! the maid of honor, exquisite, perfect as a +flower. Men wooed, but might not win her. They came and went, but to her +it was no matter. In her eyes still burned the patient splendor with +which she waited for the tide to take her, bearing her out beyond the +shallows to one who also tarried. + +With a gentle sound the fountain rose and fell in a gray stone basin. +Around it were set the rose-trees, and beyond the roses tall box and yew +most fantastically clipped screened from observation the fairy spot. +Damaris, slowly entering, became at once the spirit of the place. She +paced the fountain's grassy rim to a rustic seat and took it for her +chair of state, from which for a while, with her white hands behind her +head, she watched the silver spray and the blue midsummer sky. A lark +sang, but so high in the blue that its joyous note jarred not the +languor of the place. Damaris opened her book--but what need of written +poesy? The red roses smelled so sweet that 'twas as though she lay +against the heart of one royal bloom. She left her throne and trod the +circle, and in both hands she took the heavy blossoms and pressed them +to her lips. The odor was like warm wine. "Now and for all my life," +said Damaris, "for me one faded rose! Afterwards, two in a garden like +this--like this!" + +The grass was so green and warm that presently she lay down upon it, her +head pillowed upon her arm, her eyes gazing through the fountain mist +and down the emerald slopes to where ran the elmwood avenue. She gazed +in idleness, through half-shut eyelids, wrapped in lullabies and drowsy +warmth. Hoof-beats between the elms troubled her not. When through the +mist of falling water and the veil of drooping leaves she saw riding +towards the house a youth clad in blue, the horse and rider seemed but +figures in a piece of tapestry. Her satin eyelids closed, and if other +riders presently showed in the tapestry she saw them not, for she was +sound asleep. She dreamed of a masque at Hampton Court, long ago, and of +the gown she had worn and how merry she had been, and she dreamed of the +Queen. Then her dream changed and she sat with Henry Sedley on the sands +of a lost sea-coast, stretching in pale levels beyond the ken of man. +The surf raced towards them like shadowy white horses, and a red moon +hung low in the sky. There was music in the air, and his voice was +speaking, but suddenly the sea and its champing horses and the red moon +passed away. She stirred, and now it was not her brother's voice that +spoke. Green grass was beneath her; splendid roses, red and gold, were +censers slowly swinging; the silver fountain leaped as if to meet the +skylark's song. Slowly Damaris raised herself from her grassy bed and +looked with widening eyes upon an intruder. "I--I went to sleep," she +said. "Is't Heaven or will this rose also fade?" She closed her eyes for +a moment, then, opening them, "O my dream!" she cried. "Go not away!" + +The sunlight fell upon his lifted head, and on his dress, that was as +rich as any bridegroom's, and on a sword-knot of silver gauze. "Look you +thus in Heaven, O my King?" she breathed. + +Sir Mortimer approached her very slowly, for he saw that her senses +strayed. As he came nearer she shrank against the wall of bloom. "Dear +heart," he said, "I am a living man, and before all the world I now may +wear thy silver sleave." But the rose you gave me once before hath +withered into dust. I could not hold it back. "Break for me another +rose--_Dione_!" + +She put out her hand and obeyed. Into her eyes had come a crescent +splendor, upon her lips the dawn of an ineffable smile; but yet +troubled, yet without full understanding, she, trembling, held out the +flower at arm's length. But when Ferne's hand closed upon hers, when she +felt herself drawn into his arms and his kiss upon her lips, his whisper +in her ears, she awoke, and thought not less of Heaven, but only that +Heaven had come to earth. + + +THE END + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Sir Mortimer, by Mary Johnston + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 13812 *** |