here, then, prince rupert was left, a guest of monsieur d'ogeron, the governor of tortuga, a man whom he found distasteful when sober and disgusting when drunk, a man with appetites only for gold-getting and carousals, frankly devoid of honour, and caring nothing for philosophy, engravings, or any of the more humane arts and sciences.
his highness had with him his secretary, whom he knew as stephen laughan (but who was a maid disguised in man's attire), and his only other attendant was a negro, a creature of monsieur d'ogeron's. and here it seemed he was destined to endure six months, till his ships should be again out of pawn, and he was free once more to harry the spanish seas at the head of a stout command.
if monsieur d'ogeron's castle of the cliff was unappetising, the squalid settlement at the head of the harbour was more so. twice within the first three weeks, ships of the buccaneers sailed in laden with plunder from the main, and there were some very horrid scenes of debauchery. these men knew no such thing as moderation; lavishness was their sole ideal; and he who could riot away the gains of a year in the carouse of a night was deemed to have the prettiest manners imaginable. the squalid town and its people was a mere nest of harpies, and no one knew this better than the buccaneers themselves. monsieur d'ogeron they openly addressed as skin-the-pike; the tavern-keepers they treated as though they had been guinea blacks; but the hussies who met them with their painted smiles on the beach, and who openly flouted them the moment their pockets were drained, were a lure the rude fellows could never resist. they kissed these women, and dandled them on their knees; they lavished their wealth upon them, and sometimes beat them, and ofttimes fought for them; but never did they seem to tire of their vulgar charms.
prince rupert shone out like a very paladin
prince rupert shone out like a very paladin
to the onlooker, the imbecility of the buccaneers in this matter was as marvellous as it was unpleasant; and it was plain to see that the machinations of the hussies (though it cannot be denied that some had beauty) were as distasteful to prince rupert as they were to his humble secretary and companion. they accosted them both on their walks abroad, gibing at the secretary's prim set face. but though his highness gave them badinage for badinage, as was always his wont with women of whatever condition, they got nothing from him but pretty words gently spiced with mockery.
it was however an orgie in the governor's castle that put a final term to their stay in tortuga. a captured ship came in, laden deep with gold and merchandise. a week before it had been manned by seventy spaniards, and of these twenty-three remained alive. it had been captured by a mere handful of buccaneers who had sailed after it in an open canoe, and these strutted about the decks arrayed in all manner of uncouth finery, whilst their prisoners, half-stripped, attended to the working of the vessel. they brought to an anchor, drove their prisoners into an empty hold, and clapped hatches over them; and then stepped into their boat and rowed to the muddy beach. according to their custom they had made division of the coin on board, and each man came ashore with a canvas bucket full of pieces-of-eight for his day's expenses.
they rowed to the rim of the harbour, singing, and the harpies came down on to the littered beach to meet them. from the castle above we saw them form procession, each with a couple of the hussies on his arms, and fiddlers scraping lustily in the van. there was value enough in the clothes of them to have graced a king's court; gold lace was the only braid; and very uncouthly it sat upon the men, and very vilely upon the hussies. the fiddles squeaked, a fife shrilled, and a couple of side-drums rattled bravely, and away they went with a fine preparatory uproar to the wine shops.
from his chamber in the castle monsieur d'ogeron heard the landing, and commenced a bustle of preparation. a feast was to be made ready, of the best, and the buccaneers and all those of the townspeople they chose to bring with them were bidden to it; and after the more solid part of the feast had been despatched, dice boxes were to be brought forward, so that the governor, who was well skilled in play, might make his guests pay for their entertainment.
monsieur d'ogeron gave the orders to his negro cooks and stewards, posted armed guards in convenient niches so that his guests could be handily shot down if they resented any part of the carousal, and then, with his two armed body-servants, alphonse and jean paul, betook himself to the squalid town below, where he was received with shouts, which were not entirely those of compliment.
for three hours he was swallowed up out of vision polite, and then once more reappeared on the road which led to the castle, arm in arm with the chief of the buccaneers, with a procession fifty strong bellowing choruses at their heels. they lurched up the winding pathways, stamped through the grim gateway with its decoration of shrivelled heads, came up the ladders which gave the only entrance from the courtyard, and clattered into the long low hall of the castle, where was set ready for them a feast made up of coarse profusion. on the blackened wood of the table were hogs roasted whole, and great smoking joints of fresh meat, and joints of bucaned meat, and roasted birds, with pimento and other sauces; and before each cover was a great black-jack of liquor set in a little pool of sloppings. to a european eye the feast was rather disgusting than generous; but to the buccaneers, new from the lean fare of shipboard, it was princely; and they pledged the governor with choking draughts every time they hacked themselves a fresh platterful.
prince rupert, seeing no way to avoid the scene without giving offence, was seated at monsieur d'ogeron's right hand; and noticing a hussy about to plant herself at the prince's right, stephen laughan clapped down in that place himself, to the amusement of all, and his own confusion. his highness's secretary (being in truth a maid) had but small appetite for orgies, and had been minded to slip away privily to a quiet chamber. but the sight of that forward hussy was too much; and sooner than let the prince be pestered by her horrid blandishments, stephen sat at his side throughout the meal, and attempted to discourse on those genteel matters which were more fitting to a gentleman of rupert's station.
each buccaneer had brought with him his bucket of pieces-of-eight, which he nursed between his knees as he sat, with a loaded pistol on top as a makeweight and a menace to pilferers; and after that all had glutted themselves with meat, they swept the joints and platters to the floor, not waiting for the slaves to remove them, and called for more drink and the dice boxes, both of which were promptly set before them. and then began the silliest exhibition imaginable; for the buccaneers, with abstinence at sea, were unused to deep potations, whilst monsieur d'ogeron, though he had been drinking level with the best of them, was a seasoned cask which wine could never addle; and moreover, 'tis my belief the dice were cogged. the old rogue approached them craftily too, saying at first that he had but small mind for play, being in a vein of indifferent luck; whereupon they taunted him so impolitely, that at last he seemed to give way, and in a passion offered to play the whole gang of them at once.
they accepted the challenge with shouts, and jean paul fetched a sack of coin and dumped it against his master's chair; and so the play began, with small stakes at first, the governor steadily losing. the guests, in the meantime, quarrelled lustily amongst themselves, and twice a pair of them must needs step away from the tables and have a bout with their hangers, and so earn a little blood-letting to cool their tempers. but for the most part they sat in their places in the sweltering, stifling heat of the chamber, and drank and shouted, and watched the rattling dice eagerly enough, and scrabbled up the coins from amongst the slop of liquor on the tables. and as they won and the governor lost, so much the more did they shout for the stakes to be raised, till at last the governor yielded, and hazarded fifty pieces on every throw.
then came a change to the fortune. monsieur d'ogeron, it seemed, could not be beaten. he won back his own money that he had lost; he won great store of other moneys, in fat shining handfuls; and he vaunted loudly of his skill and success. "you dared me," he cried, "to raise the stakes; and i did it, and have conquered you. and now i dare you to raise 'em again." upon which they accepted his challenge with oaths and shouts, and the play went on. a hundred pieces were staked on every throw of the dice box, and almost every time did the governor gather in, till stephen laughan, who accounted it the greatest of foolishness to lose at gaming, could have wept at the silliness of the buccaneers in not leaving off the contest. but the play progressed till each man was three-parts ruined, and it did not stop till some were asleep under the tables, and the hussies and the traders from the settlement rose in a body and dragged the rest of the seamen away.
throughout the play prince rupert had sat quietly at the governor's right hand, puffing at a long pipe of tobacco, observing with his keen eyes all that happened, and answering courteously enough when spoken to. the men around him were the rudest this world contained; esteeming themselves the equals of any, and the superiors of most. but there was a natural dignity which hedged his highness in, over which even they did not dare to trespass; and so, by way perhaps of a sly revenge, they contented themselves by gibing now and again at his easily-blushing secretary. it was not till the play had ended, and the governor sat back with a sigh of contentment in his great carved chair of spanish mahogany, that the prince saw fit to make the proposal by which he regained his liberty.
"monsieur," he said, "i have some small skill at the dice myself. now that your other opponents have ceased to contend, will you humour me by throwing just three mains?"
the governor turned on him with a vinous eye. "your highness has seen the way we play here in tortuga? it must be for ready money jangled down on the board."
"money, as you know, monsieur, i have none, else had i not been here, but away with mine own ships as their admiral, earning money for the king. but i have a gaud or two left. here is a thumb ring set with a comely hindu diamond-stone, which already you have done me the honour to covet. i will wager you that, against a small canoe and permission for myself and master laughan here to use it."
"you want to leave me!" said the governor, frowning.
"i wish to go across to hispaniola to see for myself these buccaneers of meat at their work, and afterwards to take up such adventures as befall."
"your highness will find but vile entertainment amongst those savage fellows."
the prince glanced over the littered banquet chamber. "i was sitting here ten hours ago: i am sitting here now. let that suffice to show i am not always fastidious."
"the fellows did feed like swine, and that is a fact," said the governor; "but if your highness had drunk cup for cup with them, instead of keeping a dry throat, you'd have felt it less. as for master laughan, i do not believe he has wet his lips once since we have sat here. he snapped at the ladies and he shuddered at the men. 'tis my belief that if master laughan were stripped he'd prove to be a wench."
"monsieur," said the prince wrathfully, "any insult thrown at master laughan will be answered by myself. for his manhood i can vouch. in action he has twice saved my poor life. if it please you to take your sword, i will stand up before you now in this room."
"pah!" said the governor. "i do not take offence at that. i will not fight."
"you will not fight, you will not game! you own but indifferent manhood!"
"game!" cried the governor. "i will throw you for that thumb ring if you wish to lose it."
"be it so," said rupert, and quickly stretching out his hand gathered up the governor's dice and their box.
monsieur d'ogeron reached out his fingers angrily. "your highness," he said, "give back those tools. they are mine, and i am used to them, and i play with no other."
"they content me very well," said rupert. "as a guest i claim the privilege of using them. look!" he said, and cast them thrice before him on to the table. "they throw sixes every time. they are most tractable dice."
the governor of tortuga thrust back his chair, and for a minute looked like an animal about to make a spring. but he knew when he was beaten, and being a man who regarded honour as imbecility, he sought only to make the best bargain suitable to his own convenience.
"your highness," he said, "the dice you hold are useful to me."
"i make no doubt of it," said the prince. "i have watched you throw them with profit during these past many hours."
"it would please me to buy them back. i will pay for them a suitable canoe and victual, such as you ask for."
"with leave for master laughan to voyage with me as personal attendant?"
"i will throw him in as a makeweight if your highness will condescend to forget any small feats which it seemed to you the dice were kindly enough to perform in my favour."
the prince surrendered the box with a courtly bow. he could be courtly even with such vulgar knaves as the governor of tortuga. "you may continue to use these ingenious dice as you please, monsieur," said he. "i am not sufficiently enamoured of your good subjects here in tortuga to wish to set up as their champion. and," he added, "i make no doubt you will be as glad to be shut of me as i am to be rid of your society. we do not fall in with one another's ways, monsieur. we seem to have been differently brought up."
in this manner, then, prince rupert and his humble secretary got their quittance from tortuga, and put across the strait to the vast island of hispaniola, where men of the french and english races hunt the wild cattle, and the spaniards war against them with an undying hostility. it was in a lonely bay of this island that the blacks set them ashore, and at once the discomforts of the place gave them the utmost torment. for the night, to ward off the dews and the blighting rays of the moon, the blacks built them a shelter of leaves and branches, but there was little enough of sleep to be snatched. the air drummed with insects. in the governor's castle at tortuga the beds were warded by a tent-like net of muslin, called in these countries a pavilion; but these they lacked, and the expedient of the buccaneers, who fill their residences with wood-smoke, they considered even worse than the insect pest itself. in the morning they rose in very sorry case. they were sour-mouthed for want of sleep, their bodies were swollen and their complexions blotched with the bites, and the negroes (doubtless by order from monsieur d'ogeron) had sailed off with the canoe during the night. of food they had but a very scanty store, of weapons only their swords, and the country beyond them was savage and deadly in the extreme.
the prince, however, was in no wise cast down. through the thick grasses on the bay side he discerned some semblance of a track, and saying that it was as likely to lead them to the buccaneers as any other route, shouldered his share of the provisions, and stepped out along it at a lusty pace. his secretary followed him, as in duty bound, though with great weariness; and together they toiled up steep slopes of mountain under a sun that burned like molten metal. the shrubs and the grasses closed them in on either side, so that no fanning of breeze could get nigh to refresh them; and though fruits dangled often by the side of the path, they did not dare to pluck and quench their thirst, being ignorant as to which were poison. twice they heard noises in the grass, and fearing ambuscade, drew, and stood on guard. but one of these alarms was made by a sounder of pigs which presently dashed before them across the path; and what the other was they did not discover, but it drew away finally into the distance. and once they came upon the bones of a man lying in the track, with a piece of rusted iron lodged in the skull. but no sign of those they sought discovered itself, and meanwhile the path had branched a-many times, and was growing in indistinctness. it was not till they were well-nigh exhausted that they came upon the crest of the mountain (which in truth was of no great height, though tedious to ascend by reason of the heat and the growths), and from there they saw stretched before them a savannah of enormous width, like some great field, planted here and there with tree clumps, sliced with silver rivulets, and overgrown with generous grasses. for full an hour they lay down panting to observe this, and to spy for any signs of buccaneers at their hunting; and at last, in the far distance, saw a faint blue feather of smoke begin to crawl up from amongst a small copse of timber.
on the instant his highness was for marching on; and although his secretary brought forward many and excellent reasons for a more lengthened halt, his highness laughed them merrily enough to scorn, and away once more they went, striding through the shoulder-high grasses, and panting under the torrent of heat. more and more obscure did the track become as they progressed, and more and more branched. often it seemed as though it were a mere cattle path, bruised out by passing herds. and, so uncertain were they of the directions, being without compass and not always seeing the sun, that they were fain to ascend every knoll which lay in their path to justify their course.
the march, then, it may be gathered, was infinitely wearisome and tedious, and when at last they did gain the tree clump which yielded up the thin feather of smoke, the prince was owning to a sentiment of fatigue, and his secretary was ready to drop with weariness. they were fitter for bed than for fighting, and yet fighting was nearer to them than they at all expected.
as all the world now most thoroughly knows, the spaniards of the new world were growing alarmed at the increasing numbers of french and english adventurers who were coming out to wrest a living from the main and the islands of the carib sea, and were resolved to make great effort to oust these intruders and to continue possessing the countries to themselves alone. and seeing that all sooner or later must pass their traffic through ships, the spaniards thought to strike at the root of the evil by exterminating the cow killers of hispaniola, who alone could supply these ships with the necessary bucaned meat. but these men, "buccaneers" as they are currently named, indignantly resented any attempt at extermination, and rather relishing war than otherwise, fought the spaniards who were sent to hunt them with such indescribable ferocity, that for one buccaneer killed twenty spaniards were often left dead upon the field. for which reason the spaniards had grown wary, scoured the country in bands which had acquired the byename of fifties, and avoided the hunters most timidly, unless they could come upon them singly or in bands of two or three.
the smoke which the prince and his companion had seen, rose from the cooking fire of a buccaneers' camp; and, as it chanced, other eyes besides theirs had spied it also—to wit, those set under the helmets of a prowling spanish fifty. but this troop and their horses were masked by an undulation of the ground, which they had cleverly made use of to secure an unobserved advance, and the buccaneers went on with their cookery with little expectation of surprise. still by custom they always kept arms handy to their fingers, and when the prince and master laughan stepped out into sight from amongst the tree stems, two steady muskets covered them, and they were roundly bidden to stop and recite their business. even after this had been said, the buccaneers received them none too civilly, and it was not till prince rupert had begun to charm them with his talk—as he could charm even the most uncouth of men when he chose—that they relaxed their churlishness and invited the travellers to share their meal.
there were three of these buccaneers, two only being sound men. the third, an engagé, had been sadly gored by a wounded bull, his ribs being bared some ten inches on one side, and his thigh ripped down all its length on the other. at first sight the two visitors looked upon this engagé as a dying man; but neither he nor his companions seemed to think much of the wound, and it appeared that from the active, open-air, well-fed life that these men lead, their flesh heals after a gash with almost miraculous quickness.
there was great store of meat in the camp—the spoils, in fact, of four great bulls; but the buccaneers had grown dainty in their feeding, and nothing but the udders of cows would satisfy them, and so they had shot three other poor beasts to provide them with a single meal. for sauce there was lemon and pimento squeezed together in a calabash, and for further seasoning a knob of stone salt; plaintains served them for bread; and for drink they had the choice between water and nothing. once the buccaneers had offered hospitality, they were gracious enough with it, pointing out the tit-bits, and insisting that their guests should do well by the meal. and in truth his highness played a rare good trencher-hand, for he was keen set with the walk, and the cookery was surprisingly delicate. but through over-fatigue his secretary lacked appetite, and these rude hunters said they held in but scurvy account one who was so small an eater.
the meal, however, was not uninterrupted. when it was half way through its course, the prince held up his hand for silence, and then—
"gentlemen," said he, "were we in europe, i should say a troop of horse were reconnoitring us, possibly with a view to making an onfall."
the buccaneers cocked their ears to listen, and one of them, a tall, pock-marked man named simpson, whispered that the prince was right.
"and by gum, maister," said he, "tha'd better ate up t' rest o' thee jock, or happen tha'lt find theesel' de-ad wi' an empty belly. tha' sees this buccaneering-piece of mine? four an' a half foot long, square stocked, an' carries a ball sixteen to t' pund. she's a real frenchy, pupped by gelu o' nantes, an' she's t' finest piece i' hispaniola. i'll drop one o' th' beggars when they top yon rise, an' i'll get three more as they come up. my mate here 's good for other three wi' 'is piece, an' when they comes to hand-grips, we'll give 'em wild-cats wi' t' skinnin' knives. if thee an' thy young man do yer shares, maister, we should bring a round score o' t' beggars to grass afore we're down on t' floor wi' 'em."
"i'm thinking," said the other buccaneer, "we'd better knock tom's brains out before we start. i'd not like an engagé o' mine to be taken by the dons alive."
simpson considered. "there's sense i' that," said he.
"nay, master simpson," urged the gored man on the ground, "say a word for me. i can pull off a gun as i lie, and at least i can hough their horses when they come near. it's sheer waste of an extra arm not to let me earn my own killing."
simpson cut another mouthful of meat, and ate it relishingly.
"there's sense i' ye both," quoth he, "but i think tom's right. there's fight i' tom still, an' them dons may as well ha' t' benefit o' what tom can do. happen we can claw down our twenty-five if we've luck. but mark tha', tom, there's to be no surrendering."
"i'm not anxious," said the gored man, "to make sport for those brutes while i roast to death on a greenwood gridiron."
"gentlemen," said the prince, "may i ask you if you regard our position as quite hopeless?"
"quite," said simpson. "if tha' don't believe me, maister, ax zebedee."
"we'll be five dead men in an hour's time," said the other buccaneer. "all i want is a good pile of dead spaniards around us; but we'll not get twenty-five."
"i'd like to bet tha' on it," said simpson thoughtfully.
"gentlemen," said the prince, "i presume you are not anxious to die just now?"
"that wants no answering from quick men," said zebedee.
"precisely," said the prince; "and as you appear to be desperate, and to have no plan, perhaps you will listen to mine. i grant it may fail, but i have seen it succeed before in affairs of this sort."
"who are you?" asked simpson.
"i am prince rupert palatine. perhaps you may have heard of me?"
"nay, lad, nivver. but let that be. what's thee plan?"
"that instead of waiting here to be assaulted, we should attack these horse ourselves; that we should go across to the rise yonder to seek them, and should charge furiously towards them, shouting over our shoulders as though we had a body of comrades running close upon our heels."
the yorkshireman simpson started to his feet, buccaneering-piece in hand.
"by gum," he cried, "young feller, that's telled us t' right thing. happen we may scrape through yet, and bring in mony a good package o' hides an' taller, an' sup mony another jack o' old skin-the-pikes liquor i' tortuga. or happen we won't. onyway, if t' beggars runs they runs, an' if they dunnot they dunnot, an' we gets our fight all t' same. only thing as bothers me's tom. i'm thinking we should give tom a kindly shot before we start."
"nay, master simpson," said tom; "if needs must i can earn my killing with the best of you. and till that time comes i can be of use. i can shout after you from the timber, and every voice helps."
"assuredly," said the prince. "tom's voice will further the plan."
"it's all very well for you to talk, stranger," said zebedee, "but it's me that's tom's master, and has to think for his good. it's my opinion——"
"here they come!" cried rupert. "now, gentlemen, for god and the king: at the gallop, charge!"
the helmets of the spanish horse had appeared, glistering under the sun, from behind the grasses of the rise. three shots rang out, and three spaniards toppled backwards out of sight, and the two sound buccaneers, reloading their pieces as they ran, sprang off after prince rupert and his secretary, who led, waving their swords as though to bring up other companions.
"come on, mates!" shouted the buccaneers over their shoulders: "we have them on the hip. quick, mates, and we'll kill the whole fifty! quick, mates, or the cowards will be gone!" and from behind them in the timber the gored man sent shouts of encouragement in various keys, an shots as fast as he could reload his piece, whereof each one found a billet.
the spanish horse wavered in their charge, slowed to a canter, to a trot, to a walk; and then halted. and meanwhile the prince and stephen laughan faced towards them unfalteringly, and the two buccaneers followed, roaring with glee, as though the whole fifty were already prisoners in their hands.
then someone amongst the spaniards cried that they were betrayed, and that they were on the edge of an ambush of the buccaneers; and pulling his horse out of the line, galloped away by the line he had come. upon which all the others, saving the seven whom tom and the two buccaneers had shot, got their horses' heads turned, clapped in spurs, and rode as though an army were pounding along at their heels.
zebedee came and took the prince by the hand. "i thank you," he said, "for saving our lives."
but simpson was not so openly grateful. "there's been no fight," said he. "ye cannot call yon a fight. by gum, i thought we was in for summat big." and he walked back to the camp moodily, like a man who has suffered disappointment.
still, even simpson had sense behind his recklessness, and was the first to suggest leaving their temporary camp before the fifty rallied and came to seek them again, and advised departing forthwith to a safer headquarters. the meat and the skins were to be left behind; the two buccaneers picked up the wounded engagé arms and heels, and carried him between them; and, with prince rupert and master laughan following, off set all five at a round pace through the grasses.
the toughness of these hunters was extraordinary. for hours they had been engaged in the chase, in skinning and dressing their quarry, in transporting great loads of meat and hides, with barely an hour's rest out of the last twenty-four.
and yet here they were, carrying their arms and a wounded man as though the weight was thistledown, and walking their good five miles to the hour. a linen tunic and short drawers reaching only to mid-thigh was all their wear, and these were dyed purple with constant bloodyings. their powder they carried in waxed calabashes, their skinning knives in a case of cayman skin, with bullet pouch attached. their one article of luxury and gentility was a toothpick of polished spider's leg.
to the prince, hardened as he was by a lifelong education in camps, following in the tracks of these buccaneers was a heavy exertion. to poor stephen laughan (that was but a delicately nurtured maid) it was a horrid torment. her feet seemed like lead, her legs mere whisps of stockings. her eyes swam and her body swayed, and nothing but the dreadful thought that if she fell the prince might slacken her dress and so discover her sex, kept her from fainting each step of the way. yet even at that terrible situation can she look back now, and say that never once did she regret the step that she took to follow across the seas and guard this gallant gentleman she so truly and reverently loved.
the details, then, of this march are omitted, as the historian made the journey in a state bordering on the insensible; and for the same reason nothing can be said of the first coming into the main camp of the buccaneers. even prince rupert, as he was afterwards gallant enough to own, was almost sinking with weariness when these strange headquarters were reached.
but sleep is a great refresher, and next morning saw his highness quite restored, and master laughan remembering what was due to borrowed manhood, and making shift to disown all inconvenience from fatigue.
it was a sabbath, and a day of great council. these strange men, the buccaneers, had come in from far and wide across the great savannahs, to recount losses, and to register vengeances against their natural enemies, the spaniards. all were by their custom equal that had served a due apprenticeship; there was no king, there were no chiefs, there were no inferiors; and if any by his natural wit or prowess held a kind of natural headship amongst the rest, he was careful not to show it. one would suppose that they would have welcomed amongst them a prince of birth and breeding, whom they could have looked up to and followed as a natural leader; but a truthful historian must confess that they did not seize upon this inestimable advantage as readily as might be supposed.
there was no order and method about the council, but it must be owned there was little enough of boisterousness. the buccaneers sat or lounged amongst the sweet-smelling grasses, some smoking tobacco, some polishing their arms. overhead a great delicately foliaged tree, decked with scarlet blossoms, sheltered them from the sun; and to windward fires had been built that the blue wood-reek might chase away the flies. one spoke at a time, and the others listened. all had something to tell: all were fierce against the tyrannous spaniard.
at last came prince rupert's turn, and what he spoke was on a different matter.
"gentlemen," said he, "you see in me an admiral out of employ, and i come to offer you my services for a while as leader. the spaniards harry you on land, and you wish for vengeance. believe me, sirs, you will not hurt them deeply by cutting off a few of their ragged horsemen. a spaniard's deepest feelings are in his pocket, and his pocket he sends back over seas for safe keeping in spain. find me a canoe, give me twenty stout men, and i will engage to cut a deeper wound in the spaniard on the seas in a month than you would here ashore in a dozen years."
zebedee from the other side of the shadow nodded. "he's a nice notion of stratagem, brethren."
"but i seed 'im let a fight slip by when it might 'a' bin 'ad for t' axin'," said simpson.
"you're wrong there," said another buccaneer. "i was a parliament soldier afore gloucester, and if you'd seen him and them damned swearing cavaliers ride through six regiments of saints, you'd ha' held your tongue upon that, friend simpson. no; he's a glutton for a fight."
"but i was going on to say, brethren," said zebedee, "that this sea adventuring is none to my taste. i say nothing about frying for days in an open boat, eating your boots and your belt, and going half mad for want of a drop of water; i say nothing about finding a don's ship at last, and boarding her in spite of their teeth, and then putting on fine clothes and making the beggars sail her for you into jamaica or tortuga with colours flying and every piece being fired off in salute. but what do we get out of it? a week's carouse, and then come back here to the hunting with a shaking hand and an eye that's clogged, and starve for half a year till the work's pulled you straight again. no, brethren; for a pleasant life, give me steady hunting, and steady pegging away at the spaniards between whiles by way of diversion. i've tried both, turn and turn about, these dozen years, and i know which is best."
"zebedee's growing old," cried a younger man. "i'm rusting for a turn on the seas myself. this hunting's well enough, but what's a package of greasy skins against the gutting of a fat galleon's paunch? they both take the same time to get, and think of the difference after. last time i was over in tortuga with three months' hard earnings, i'd empty pockets in a day."
"i'm for a venture on sea," said another. and twenty more voices said the same.
"there's sense in it," said simpson. "i'm thinkin' i could do with a turn mysen if so be we'd a captain that——"
a man came tearing into the camp, half burst with running. "there's a pink," he gasped—"a jack spaniard, sailing close in along the coast. she's becalmed, and the current's been settin' her in. her people are nigh frighted to death. i could see them with my eyes, standing to their guns."
rupert started to his feet. "now, sirs," he said, "a fisherman's boat with twenty volunteers, and she is ours."
the younger men amongst the buccaneers were getting ready their weapons, aglow with the thoughts of action.
"there's a canoe down by t' creek," said simpson, "but there's nobbut one, an' she's half rotten."
"then we must be the quicker about our business, so that she does not sink under us," said rupert lightly.
"by gum, young feller," said simpson, "i'm beginning to like tha'. i'll come an' all."
already the buccaneers in a body were beginning to hurry down to the creek, and runners who had got there first were baling out the canoe in readiness. she was indeed old and rotten, and moreover she was small. by no means could a score of men crowd into her, and there was competition as to which these should be. master laughan, whom these rude fellows thought by reason of his slimness to be of small account, would have been quickly elbowed out had he not at sword's point asserted his claim to a place. but he kept his lodgment in the after end of the canoe next the prince, and she slipped out into the stream of the river, and so to sea.
ten men paddled and the other six baled, and surely no adventurers have ever tempted the seas in so unworthy a vessel. the water gushed in by a thousand cracks, and nothing but the industry of the balers could keep her afloat. a single cannon-shot would have sent her to the sharks in half a trice, and master laughan noted these things with a dry mouth and a heart that bade fair to leap direct from its resting-place. but prince rupert's eye lit as he steered, and the buccaneers bawled a psalm as a fitting start to their enterprise.
so soon as ever the canoe left shore the pink started her cannonade, though for long enough the shot fell short. but when she drew in range the prince gave an order, and six of the paddles were taken in, and the deadly marksmen with their buccaneering-pieces shot at every head which showed. helmsman after helmsman was dropped, till at last the tiller was left deserted. port after port they searched with their bullets, till not a gun was manned; and then, as the leaks gained, and the canoe was sinking under their feet, they took to the paddles again and forced her madly alongside.
like tigers the spaniards defended their decks, and like tigers the buccaneers attacked. they had stamped their rotten vessel beneath the water when they boarded, and there was no retreat. if they could not beat the crew below, they must be beaten back themselves into the sea. they were fierce men all, fighting desperately, but even in that terrible mêlée prince rupert shone out like a very paladin. the spaniards were eight to one, and when they saw the smallness of the numbers against them they resisted stubbornly. time after time the prince led the buccaneers to the charge, always with a less number to support him, and when at last those spaniards who were left cried "quarter," he had but nine followers remaining to take away their arms.
simpson strode up across the littered decks, and smote the prince upon the shoulder. "young feller," he cried, "i take back what i said. tha'rt as fond of a fight as me, an' tha'st foughten this one rarely. the lads says that if tha' can find a matelot they'll elect thee captain, an' we'll go out upon the seas to see what else we can addle."
"i am honoured by your electing," said the prince; "but, a matelot? a sailor? i do not quite understand."
"a comerade, young feller, if tha' likes it better. we buccaneers allus has a matelot with whom we divides, come good fortune, come bad."
"if it is the custom of the brotherhood i will do as you wish. master stephen laughan shall be my matelot."
the yorkshireman burst into a great roar of laughter. "yon lad!" he said. "why, what sort of matelot would 'e make?"
"i would have you know," said the prince stiffly, "that master laughan is as good a swordsman as any on this ship."
"oh, like enough, like enough, young feller. but what good's a sword for killing cows? it's cow killing your matelot's got to make his business, he staying ashore whilst you are away at sea. it's the custom of the brotherhood, young feller, an' tha' cannot be elected captain till tha'st thy matelot, all complete."
"then, as master laughan is barred to me," said the prince, "i know of no one more capable than yourself."
"me!" said simpson.
"i have seen you fight, sir, and i have formed a great estimate of your capabilities. i will do my poor best to serve you well upon the seas.
"but," said simpson, with his pock-marked face all puckered, "t' lads has named me here as quartermaster under thee."
"of course," said the prince, "if you prefer their nomination to mine——"
"by gum, no," cried simpson. "i'll go ashore. tha'll be something to talk about. there's them as has this, an' them as has that; there's them as has pickpockets for their matelots, and very bad some o' them's turned out; but there's not another buccaneer i' all hispaniola that has a prince for his comerade at sea an' i'll risk t' new thing on t' chance."
"master simpson," said the prince gravely, "i am indebted for your condescension. if i live, you shall have no reason to complain of your patronage."
"well, young feller," said the buccaneer, "i hope not. but there's no denying it's a risk. i've not always heard princes very well spoken about. but onyways, off tha' goes an' addle some gold. tha'rt a member o' t' brotherhood o' t' coast now, an' tha'st earned thee place wi' a very short apprenticeship. tha'st gotten all t' seas afore thee."
the yorkshireman bustled away to help tend the wounded. prince rupert leaned his elbows on the bulwarks and looked far out over the glittering blue and silver of the caribbean.
"all the seas before me," he murmured thoughtfully. "how much can i make the seas give up for the service of the king?"