now, after the dividing up of the spanish pearls amongst them, prince rupert could no longer retain command over his buccaneers. the cruise was over, and by their laws they were free to go where they liked and do what they listed. all their hearts were set upon one thing—a carousal in tortuga.

this scheme in no wise suited the prince. to begin with, he had acquired a vast dislike for that no-gentleman and very vile person, monsieur d'ogeron, the governor of tortuga; in the second place (as master laughan, his secretary, pointed out), he had no taste for impolite debauches and the company of those painted hussies who lived on the island and sponged on all laden buccaneers; and over all was his intense wish to earn money for the banished king at the hague, which would in part excuse his unauthorised pawning of the king's fleet. so he took for himself the small brigantine, which otherwise would have been burned as useless, and remained at anchor in the little bay of hispaniola, which was their rendezvous, whilst the pink with the buccaneers got under way for tortuga, where these rude fellows had determined to fritter all their hard-got gains in one wild carouse.

the pink sailed away with whole rainbows of bunting displayed, drums beating, guns firing, horns braying, and every expression of good-will. the buccaneers who were not occupied in the making of these noises lined the bulwarks and shouted, and drank the prince's toast, so long as voice or standing power remained to them. in deed, so ample was their good humour, that one even drank the toast of master stephen laughan, who, being in truth a maid, was but slenderly popular amongst them, on account of displaying a reserve which, though natural, was beyond their comprehension. and so the slope of ocean swallowed them out of sight, still firing their cannon, and drinking, and flying their flags, as befitted men who feared none that sailed the seas, and were feared by all. whereupon prince rupert and his secretary turned into the standing bed-places in the brigantine's small hutch of a cabin, and enjoyed the first sound sleep that had fallen to their lot during three long weeks.

there remained only with prince rupert and master laughan his faithful secretary, four black negro slaves, which last, having served as pearl divers to the spaniards, and being very vilely entreated of them, were easily willing to give true service to the prince during a short season, for the payment of their liberty when that service should be finished. but his highness was a gentleman of large ideas, and having still some considerable time to occupy before his fleet should be restored to him, he proposed to improve the interval by sailing across to the spanish main, and putting to ransom there the great strong city of caraccas, which lies amongst the mountains, and la guayra, its roadstead port upon the coast.

at first sight it seems hard to conceive a more harebrained project. la guayra was defended by forts and batteries; caraccas, embowered in the coast mountains beyond, was a place of incredible strength. a navy and an army might well be defeated before either of them; and here was this paladin of a prince proposing to advance against them in one small bark of fourteen tons' burden, with only one attendant of his own colour, and four black savages who were unreliable even as menial servants. but his highness had method in his scheme: he was not going to make his attack as prince rupert palatine, but as prince rupert's envoy, and his weapons were to be the talkings of the herald rather than the rude arms of a man-of-war. moreover, he had heard much of the beauty and wit of donna clotilde, the governor of caraccas' niece, and was minded to inspect her charms with his own proper eyes. he said it was a weary long time since he had seen any woman with the faintest claim to gentility.

the prince's secretary, that was a maid who loved him very dearly (though he, indeed, never discovered her sex), endeavoured hard to dissuade him from the adventure, pointing out the value of his highness's noble life, and the grief that would overwhelm europe if it were lost in these obscure seas of the new world; but the prince merrily enough retorted that he had a-many times shown his ability to keep his life within its own proper carcass, and that it was a necessity for him to be up and doing.

"we cannot set king charles back on his london throne, stephen lad, by sitting here on our hunkers admiring the sea views," said he. "the restoration is the purpose of my life at present, and should be the purpose of all those that wish to carry my esteem, which i know you do.

"now we must get this brigantine victualled for the voyage, and that i leave to you and the blacks. there are no savannahs in this quarter of hispaniola, and no wild cattle. but there are sea-cows in the water, and these you must cause the blacks to harpoon after their barbarous fashion, and then make shift to bucan the meat ashore as you have seen simpson, and watkin, and the other professed hunters do elsewhere.

"for myself, i go now up into the country to make a cache, buccaneer fashion, for the pearls we have already taken. if we return all sound from caraccas, well and good; they will be here waiting for us. if not, i have sent a letter by the pink to await the fleet on its return, and so if aught happens to us or to the brigantine, the cavaliers can come and dig the treasure up, and carry it away for its appointed use."

"can your highness's secretary be of help in this matter?"

"no, stephen lad. i will not have you with me as a companion now, because if the worst happened, and the spaniards took you, they might by chance compel you to show the hiding-place of these much-costing pearls if you knew it."

"your highness underrates my poor devotion."

"not i, lad. i know the spirit is willing, but the flesh may chance to be weak, and if put to the question by these spaniards, the stoutest might well give way. they are said to be very ingenious with their tormentings. the thing has grown to be an art with them."

"but still your highness seems to rely upon the buccaneers in the pink as being honest messengers," said master laughan, who was somewhat nettled.

"that letter," retorted prince rupert drily, "was writ in a cypher, master stephen, which none but my dear brother prince maurice can read. so does that content you?" and with this he burdened himself with the leather bags of pearls, and a sword to dig with, and was put to the shore in a small canoe, paddled by two of the blacks.

now, it is no place here to recount anything so impolite as the fishing of manitee, or sea-cows (which the vulgar still confuse with mermaidens), nor any matter so indelicate as the manufacturing of their white flesh into food which will remain sweet for a voyage. and it would be equally disgusting to speak of the turning of turtle on the beaches, and the salting down of their quivering flesh into other provision, or to recount the filling of water-casks in a river's mouth, and the rafting of them off at a canoe's tail, and the parbuckling of them on board at expense of vast throes of weariness and perspiration. yet, disgusting as they may appear to the genteel at home, these things have to be gone through by all adventurers sailing the seas of the new world. it is the custom of this barbarous tropic, where gentility is a forgotten word, for everyone to bear a hand indifferently; and on this account, master laughan, in spite of a most tender nurturing, was fain to work equally with the unsavoury pagan blacks. even prince rupert, after his return from hiding the treasure, applied himself to these horrid trades of butcher and buccaneer, till at length the brigantine was victualled.

a history of the voyage, too, across from hispaniola to the spanish main would form unpleasant reading. the brigantine was a small frail thing of fourteen tons, and none too seaworthy. howling greedy tempests seemed her daily portion, and she clawed her desperate way across an ocean that was all great noisy hills of yeast and green, and roaring fearsome valleys. her water-casks leaked and fouled, and her ill-cured food grew tainted. nothing but constant labour at the pumps kept her on the sea-top, and everything was wet on deck, and sodden in the hutch of a cabin. salt-water boils were the common ailment, and poor master laughan acquired an ugly red spot on the chin that was quite destructive to all comeliness.

it may be owned also that the prince's sailoring was none of the best; for though he had some acquaintance with the utensils of navigation, he was not skilled in setting off a sea-direction like those wrinkled mariners that have spent a lifetime in the trade. and as a consequence he made but an indifferent landfall, sighting a coast which was wholly savage and desolate, and having no notion whatever whether la guayra lay to the eastward or to the west. there was nothing for it but experiment; and taking guidance from the tossing of a coin, the brigantine's head was put to the west, till a fishing canoe appeared which gave him further directions; upon which she was driven back to the east again, and ran into the road of la guayra, and brought up to an anchor there after a further voyage of forty leagues.

here, then, prince rupert found himself in touch with the commencement of his enterprise, and proudly flaunted the st. george's ensign of england at the foremast head of the brigantine, and his own banner from the main. the white flag of truce flew from the mast at the bolt-sprit end.

there were four armed carracks of the spaniards at anchor in the roads, and he saluted these and the shore batteries with a discharge of his two puny guns; and presently the captain of the port came off from shore in an armed galley to ask his business.

the spaniard was arrogant enough. he drove his galley aboard the brigantine, little recking what damage he did with the rude contact, and demanded with sundry oaths how any englishman dared to invade those seas, which were given by god and the pope to his master the king of spain.

"i am an envoy," quoth the prince, "to your other master, the governor of caraccas, sent by my master, prince rupert palatine."

"i tell you, se?or," said the spaniard angrily, "that we can have no dealings with any except my countrymen in these seas. officially we do not admit the existence of intruders."

"se?or," said the prince, "it seems to me that i see in you a very discourteous fellow. i must make my existence apparent to you," said he, and smote the captain of the port lightly across the face with the back of his hand.

the spaniard whipped out his sword, but the prince waved off his attack.

"not now, se?or," he said. "i will afford you personal satisfaction after i have carried out my other errand. but since you seem to have had the fact of my existence impressed upon you, perhaps now you will guide me to his excellency the governor, so that i may deliver his highness's message."

the spaniard glowered in a black fury.

"if you do not," the prince went on, "i shall sail away; and when i come back with rupert's fleet, the captain of the port of la guayra shall be whipped and hanged, if it costs a hundred men to take him."

"you seem sure of being given leave to depart," the fellow sneered.

prince rupert shrugged his shoulders, and glanced towards the mast which stood up from the bolt-sprit's end.

"se?or," he said, "i have heard many hard things said against your countrymen, but i never yet heard a spanish official called an ignorant savage. you do not appear to have seen that piece of white bunting yonder, or i am sure even you would not have hinted at detaining a messenger who came under a flag of truce."

the captain of the port gritted his teeth.

"well," he said, "i shall shift the responsibility from my own shoulders. news of your arrival shall be sent up to his excellency at caraccas, and until his reply comes down, you will stay in your vessel here, and not shift anchor from the roads. have you any name you wish his excellency to hear?"

"you may say that the prince's message is carried by master thomas benson, who rode by his side throughout all the english wars, and who was honoured also by the friendship of his martyred majesty, the late king. master benson's attendant is master stephen laughan, prince rupert's own secretary."

"and to what purport is this message?"

"you may inform his excellency that it concerns grave matters which are first to be delivered to his ear alone, and which are not such as an envoy would gabble into the lugs of underlings."

"master benson," said the spaniard, "when you have finished your embassage, and are free to stand up before my sword, i shall kill you.

"assuredly you shall have the chance," said the prince; "and you will not be the first jack-in-office who has bought a lesson in manners dearer than he expected."

with that, the captain of the port went back to his galley, not trusting himself to speak further; the whips of her boatswains cracked; the chained slaves strained at their oars; and the galley foamed away to the land. she was run upon the beach, and discharged her people on to the shore. the buildings swallowed them out of sight, and the first move of the prince's scheme was played.

for two days the little brigantine swung to her cable within gunshot of the forts, a thing of notice only to the sun and the seafowl; and tediously enough the work of waiting fell upon her people. the stress of labour was over; there was naught to do but eat the rotten victual and watch the tiny vessel swing over the sullen swells of the roadstead—all to a fine spicing of anxiety. but prince rupert showed a vast philosophy of patience, and master laughan (the boil on whose chin was subsiding) made shift to follow his example. then came a summons from the shore: his excellency, don jaime de soto, the governor of caraccas, would grant an audience to prince rupert's envoy.

never, perhaps, has an embassy on so weighty a matter set forth upon its business in less bravery of apparel. neither the prince nor his secretary had procured a change of clothing since they left tortuga two long months before, and in that time much had befallen. the sun, the seas, the tearing brambles of the forests, and the greedy weapons of enemies, had all warred against their attire, and had reduced it to mere masses of stained rags, which were barely decent. when the pair of them landed upon la guayra beach, the onlookers raised a jeer of derision. but this soon died away. unlike the rude french and english buccaneers, the spanish of the new world know how to appreciate birth and natural dignity, and the majesty of rupert's port could not be disguised either by squalid rags, or the plebeian name of "master thomas benson." litters borne of four awaited them, and in these they journeyed up the six miles of steep which separate caraccas city from la guayra, its port.

there was no blindfolding, no attempt to hide anything. the way lay through a narrow gorge of the mountains, and it was cut by no less than twenty-three forts, each with drawbridge, bastions, cannon and soldiers. it was an entrance incredibly strong, and the city beyond was well worth the expenditure in defence. its sacred edifices were gorgeous; its profane buildings were palaces; and it lay there under the sun, the choicest jewel in all the spanish new world. a more appetising spot to plunder never met a would-be raider's eye.

most gorgeous of all was the palace of don jaime, the governor, and the state he kept was in full accordance with his dignity. the patio swarmed with glittering soldiers; the piazzas were brilliant with finely dressed courtiers; rich tapestries bedecked the walls of the chambers, richer flowers adorned the galleries. don jaime himself was a little old white-haired man, as punctilious in his dress as in his speech and mannerisms.

through all this splendour, "master thomas benson" in his mean equipment marched, not one whit abashed, and showed his excellency a grand manner, equal to his own. he presented his credentials and besought a private interview.

"it is my habit, sir," said the governor, "to discuss all matters of state in my board of council."

"i have his highness's strict injunctions to deliver my message to your excellency's ear alone. but after the news are yours, it will be in your excellency's power to hand them on if you so see fit."

"sir," said the governor, "i have a curiosity to know what so gallant a gentleman as prince rupert can have to say to me." he gave instructions, and those of his attendants who were in the chamber left, closing the doors behind them. "and now, master benson?"

"my message, your excellency, is short. his majesty, king charles the second, has been thrust out of his lawful kingdom by the present odious rebellion, and keeps his court at the hague. his revenues are slim, and he has sent prince rupert abroad with the fleet to recruit them. i am here as his highness's messenger to hope that you will see your way to assist the good cause by a substantial loan."

"the treasury of caraccas is very empty just now, master benson. the honoured needs of my own master, the king of spain, have of late been large."

"ten thousand pieces-of-eight was the sum i was instructed to mention."

"you come to the wrong place for it, sir. even if i was to apply to the holy church for a loan, i could not grasp so much together."

"then one of your excellency's captains—don sancho, i think his name was, of the galleas sanctissimo josé—must have lied most stoutly when we overhauled him a while back. his holds contained nothing but some rubbishing merchandise, and for excuse he said that all the plate was kept back in the treasury here for another year, waiting a stronger convoy."

"master benson," said the governor, "you are right. he did lie. they are very unreliable persons, these mariner folk."

"your excellency's eloquence makes the matter clear to me; but if i carried such an answer back to the prince, my poor bald words might not make him believe."

"and then, sir?"

"why, then, your excellency, i fancy prince rupert would come with his fleet and pay a civil call, and so be assured in person."

the governor's face flushed, and he started forward in his chair. "master benson," he said, "take care. you are using very dangerous words. neither england, nor england's king, is at war with spain."

"england?" said the envoy thoughtfully. "spain?" said he. "i seem to have heard the names once. oh yes, i remember them distinctly now. but, your excellency, those countries are a very vast distance away from here."

"if you choose to look at it that way, master benson, you may. you may even go so far as to bring forward the barbarous doctrine that in these seas might is right. the defences of this place were built especially to accommodate any person who might hold that view."

"these were shown me as i came up here," said the envoy. "they are brave defences—so were the defences of your excellency's pearling fleet."

"what! has your prince attacked my pearl fishery with his ships?"

"no," said master benson negligently. "he had not his fleet with him at the time. he was accompanied only by this young gentleman here, his secretary, and enlisted temporarily the services of a few cow-killers from hispaniola, and took a coasting pink, and with her visited the pearl fishery. he did no very great feat of arms. he was obliged to leave one of your excellency's war-carracks ablaze, and the other on the rocks, and make a retreat with some precipitancy. but he took with him all the pearls which had been fished during the season, and those made a very pretty booty for his score and a half of men."

"no word of this has reached me. a score and a half of men against that armada? it seems, sir, that you are speaking of an impossibility."

"there were not many left to carry word," said the envoy. "but your excellency may recognise these seals which i have brought in my pocket? his highness cut them from the necks of the leathern pearl bags."

the governor started, and passed a tremulous hand before his eyes. "yes," he said after a pause, "they are my seals."

"it was a wasteful way of collecting revenue," suggested the envoy. "much was spilled for the little that was taken away. if his highness came here in person to levy a loan for the kingdom——"

"he would never get here," cried the governor violently. "carrajo! se?or, with your own eyes you must have seen the strength of the forts!"

"it was an open advertisement, your excellency. so was the strength of your pearl-fishing armada. but as this point of ours cannot be settled without a trial (though for myself i can unhesitatingly declare that the prince will take the city if he attempts it) let me bring to your notice another matter which we can agree upon. if rupert did come before this place with his fleet, you would be put to heavy expense resisting him, whether his arms were successful or no. you would lose largely in both men and munitions of war; your defences would be battered, and shot-torn; there would be burning of houses and wasting of magazines; and there would occur a paralysis of trade which only years could cure. and what would the trouble be all about? to avoid the loan of a paltry ten thousand pieces-of-eight to a needy king. why, your excellency, it would cost you ten times that amount if you could beat prince rupert off, once he made an attack; and should he get foothold in caraccas here, you would find it cheap to purchase his retirement for a thousand times ten thousand pieces."

"you put the matter very boldly, sir."

"i am a man of business, your excellency," said the envoy. "i prefer to put things plain."

the governor sat moodily, with his chin in the butt of his hand; and for a while he answered nothing. at last he said, "master benson, this is a matter on which i must confer with my council. i pray you give me a day or two for consideration, so that i can send a well-weighed reply to your prince's courtesy. and in the meanwhile, if you would use my poor house, and all that it contains as your own, i should be overwhelmed by your condescension."

"your excellency," said the envoy, "is vastly polite. both master laughan and myself are highly honoured to rest under so distinguished a roof. but you must permit us first to go round to some of the stores of the city to procure more suitable wearing apparel than these filthy rags."

"i will send one of my officers to be your guide. he," added the governor with a sour smile, "shall provide you with the wherewithal to buy."

"i could not trespass upon your excellency's kindness to that extent. i have no gold money to pay for my purchases, it is true. but we have in our privy purse some small store of pearls, which, at a push, will doubtless serve as currency."

don jaime grinned like a man in pain.

"master benson," said he, "you are a most provident gentleman. if you and master laughan will wait in this chamber for a short while longer, i will send to you a guide who shall be entirely devoted to your honoured service."

in this fashion, then, another stage of prince rupert's enterprise was successfully carried out, and the governor of caraccas, though fully alive to the unbounded impudence of the demands made upon him, was for the present, at any rate, civil and self-contained. what he might do in the future remained to be seen. he might within another day order the pair of his visitors to gaol, or death, or (still more horrid fate) hand them over to the gluttonous cruelties of the inquisition, which spares neither rank nor sex. or, again, he might act the prudent part, and despatch them whence they came with ten thousand pieces-of-eight, to save his splendid city from the prince's harrying.

but in the meantime the envoy and master laughan dressed themselves in all the niceness and bravery which they could procure on so brief a notice, and prepared to revisit for a short time genteel society, such as they had been divorced from for so many a tempestuous month.

now, in the household of don jaime de soto, it is a safe thing to say that if master laughan had held command, the enterprise would not have been damaged; whilst it is a matter of history that the prince, by his own action, completely wrecked it. master laughan, it is true (though being in reality a maid), would have had but small temptation, as she herself quite recognised; but the prince, being man, must needs get enslaved in a vulgar love affair with a lady whose charms master laughan was quite at a loss to discover.

to be precise, this lady of destruction was that very donna clotilde, the niece of the governor, of whom they had heard before; and for those that care for the spaniards' appearance, she certainly had some claim to comely looks. indeed, prince rupert never tired of extolling her beauty; and it may as well be owned here, at once, that the secretary, who in secret loved his highness madly herself, was torn with horrid jealousness. but the prince, of course, knew naught about this, scoffed at all warnings, and in his masquerade of "master thomas benson" pressed his suit with fire and diligence. the two days for the consideration of the governor's reply lengthened out to four, and four to a week; and when the poor secretary dared now and again to hint that duty required a settlement of the business, he was sharply bidden to hold his pedant's tongue. and so the affair progressed.

their entertainment was not lavish. the governor of caraccas was too wily a fellow to make a parade of his wealth before so dangerous an envoy. but the society was certainly urbane and pleasing after that of shipboard and the buccaneers; and the old spaniard, from behind his studied courtesies, saw plainly enough what was going on, and was content to leave donna clotilde to do battle with the invader on his behalf. the visitor was clearly infatuated.

still, what prince rupert, a man of the utmost daring, could have seen in such a little doll of a woman, it was hard to discover. and, astonishing to relate, donna clotilde made no attempt to set herself right in his eyes. she openly quaked when a door was slammed, and ingenuously confessed that the sight of drawn steel would make her faint; and yet the poor secretary, who watched from afar with heart afire, could have sworn the prince loved her, and was forced to hear his rhapsodies when they were alone, and (more cruel still) was made many times the porter of presents and the bearer of love messages.

but a fine revenge was in store, and the secretary can gloat over it to this day, though at the time it was like to have cost the pair of them their necks. the secretary in his misery had gone out into the gardens of the palace, and had lain down behind some shrubs to be alone with grief. it was night, and the place was dark but for the stars and the faint flashings of the fireflies; and presently who should come up but these two lovers, and seat themselves within earshot, and be talking before the listener could move!

"but they tell me," quoth the lady, "that your country is a place of fogs, don tomaso, and that the sun never shines there."

"it would be perpetual sunshine for me, querida, if you came to england," said the prince.

"and the people fight. the mere talk of war gives me the megrims."

"were you in england, the fighting would end. let them but see you once, and they never would do aught to cause you pain."

"the good people, it is said, too, wear mighty uncomely clothes."

"for this many a year they have been wearying for you to come and lead their taste."

"la! don tomaso," said the lady, "you do flatter me. i wonder if all buccaneers are as pretty of tongue?"

"donna clotilde would make a dumb man find phrases to express his adoration."

"fie, se?or! the truly dumb can never speak."

"querida, even had i been truly dumb, i should have forced out some few speeches for you."

the lady laughed. "then what a thousand pities, amigo, you were not dumb!"

"your wit is bright, and i am dull. i must ask your pardon. i do not take you here."

"why, se?or, had you been dumb, you would have said less. being vastly glib, you have said too much."

"still i do not see."

"it is the history of master thomas benson that i speak about. you have given it me a score of times, and it does not tally: you forget the details. at one telling, master benson is a rude sailor, and has been bred to the sea from his youth up. next, as a lad he fought in continental wars, and lingered in dungeons. now he rides at rupert's right hand in english fights, and anon he gets swept away by his own narration, and forgets, and leads the charges himself. now he pictures his wife settled down in a comfortable farmstead; and a minute hence he will be talking of courts as familiar as though he had never seen aught coarser. 'twas all prettily told, amigo, and," she added, sweeping a great courtesy, "i thank you for the telling. nay, i must crave your pardon too. i should not have slipped out the amigo; i should have done credit to my bringing up, and said 'your highness'!"

the prince made no attempt to snatch back his disguise. "se?orita," he said, "whatever may be my quality, i trust i have done nothing that you should withdraw from me the title of friend."

"my prince," she answered, "i am a spaniard first and a woman next. you have come into my country as an enemy, and disguised as your own envoy."

"you can have a fine revenge," said rupert lightly, "and get it easy. one word to your honoured uncle, and all further trouble will be taken from your dainty hands. and i doubt not," he added, with a shrug, "that within the hour all further thought will be chopped from my shoulders."

from behind the shrubs, the secretary could hear the lady shudder.

"i would rather compound the matter with your highness, if it could be done."

"for myself," said the prince, "in losing your esteem i lose all that is worth caring about."

"you have not lost it," she cried—"you have not. but what you were asking is a thing impossible. princes must not marry maidens of rank as low as mine."

"must not!" quoth rupert blackly. "who shall prevent it? i am a strong man, and myself make laws for myself. who will prevent it?"

"i," she murmured; "because of—how did your highness word it?—esteem, yes, because of my great and burning esteem for you."

and at that (to the poor secretary's bitter mortification) he took her tightly into his arms, and rained kisses on her upturned face. again the war of words rose between them, but this timid little doll of a woman could be as firm as the prince. marry him she would not; go from caraccas she would not; betray the prince (as in his madness he besought) she would not; and yet she demanded one thing of him—a costly enough keepsake. he was to leave as he had come, a poor man in a single ship; he was to forego all pretences to the ransom; and he was to give his word, as a chivalrous gentleman, to jettison all ideas of harrying the place and helping himself to its treasures.

"i am a woman," she sobbed, "that loves your highness dearly. but i am a spaniard who loves her country more."

"and i," said he, "can continue to love such a true lady, where i should have lightly forgotten a traitor. querida," he said, "i know your will about this matter, and i know my own: neither will bend. i shall go away in an empty ship as i came, and never shall i come to seek you here again. but i shall pray to god to bring us together in some other place, and till that day comes i will never call any woman wife."

"and hear me," she said. "i swear also——"

but he closed her lips. "no," he whispered: "i will not have any promise of you, querida. woman are placed different from men, and policies may turn on giving their hands in marriage. i would not have you forced to wed, and then always be pestered by remembering an unfulfillable vow. i would rather have you free, and then, if god wills, we shall come together some day and marry; and if not, we shall stay forever apart."

"yet i will——"

"no," he pleaded, "do not give me your pledge in return, or else you will send me away still more unhappy."

and then, bareheaded, he knelt and kissed her fingers—he that had a moment before been kissing her so madly on the lips!—and then with stately courtesy he led her back into the palace. he and she were in turns closeted with the governor that night, and the next morning an escort with covered litters borne of four paraded in the palace patio.

the prince gave no sign of what had happened: he was debonair as a man could be; and he was "master thomas benson" still. he made his adieux as though he were a favoured ambassador taking leave of the court of a king, and he and master laughan entered the litters. a trumpet sounded, and the bearers and the escort stepped out across the pavement. a window-shutter opened, and a slender arm stretched out fluttering a dainty kerchief, and then the litters passed out to the glaring street beyond, and the episode was over.

down they went by the way they had come up, past the forts, and over the drawbridges of the gorge to la guayra, the port; and on the mole a galley with slaves was in waiting to take them out to the little brigantine. but the envoy asked for another half-hour of delay.

"i have a small outstanding account which it would please me to close," said he, "before leaving your very desirable town;" and asked that the captain of the port might be notified of his presence.

the fellow came up, nothing loath, and saw some very pretty swordsmanship before he was run through the shoulder; and then, distributing a handsome largess of pearls to the escort who had brought them down, the envoy and master laughan were rowed off to their little brigantine, and so once more to sea, and further adventuring.

the prince was thoughtful and full of sighs; but the humble secretary thought that the perilous sea had never before looked so friendly and pleasant.