CHAPTER XI
HOW EUSTACE LEIGH MET THE POPE'S LEGATE
"Misguided, rash, intruding fool, farewell! Thou see'st to be too busy is some danger."
Hamlet.
It is the spring of 1582-3. The gray March skies are curdling hard andhigh above black mountain peaks. The keen March wind is sweeping harshand dry across a dreary sheet of bog, still red and yellow with thestains of winter frost. One brown knoll alone breaks the waste, and onit a few leafless wind-clipt oaks stretch their moss-grown arms, likegiant hairy spiders, above a desolate pool which crisps and shivers inthe biting breeze, while from beside its brink rises a mournful cry, andsweeps down, faint and fitful, amid the howling of the wind.
Along the brink of the bog, picking their road among crumbling rocks andgreen spongy springs, a company of English soldiers are pushing fast,clad cap-a-pie in helmet and quilted jerkin, with arquebus on shoulder,and pikes trailing behind them; stern steadfast men, who, two yearssince, were working the guns at Smerwick fort, and have since then seenmany a bloody fray, and shall see more before they die. Two captainsride before them on shaggy ponies, the taller in armor, stained andrusted with many a storm and fray, the other in brilliant inlaid cuirassand helmet, gaudy sash and plume, and sword hilt glittering with gold,a quaint contrast enough to the meager garron which carries him and hisfinery. Beside them, secured by a cord which a pikeman has fastened tohis own wrist, trots a bare-legged Irish kerne, whose only clothing ishis ragged yellow mantle, and the unkempt "glib" of hair, through whichhis eyes peer out, right and left, in mingled fear and sullenness. He isthe guide of the company, in their hunt after the rebel Baltinglas; andwoe to him if he play them false.
"A pleasant country, truly, Captain Raleigh," says the dingy officer tothe gay one. "I wonder how, having once escaped from it to Whitehall,you have the courage to come back and spoil that gay suit with bog-waterand mud."
"A very pleasant country, my friend Amyas; what you say in jest, I sayin earnest."
"Hillo! Our tastes have changed places. I am sick of it already, as youforetold. Would Heaven that I could hear of some adventure Westward-ho!and find these big bones swinging in a hammock once more. Pray what hasmade you so suddenly in love with bog and rock, that you come back totramp them with us? I thought you had spied out the nakedness of theland long ago."
"Bog and rock? Nakedness of the land? What is needed here but prudenceand skill, justice and law? This soil, see, is fat enough, if men werehere to till it. These rocks--who knows what minerals they may hold? Ihear of gold and jewels found already in divers parts; and Daniel, mybrother Humphrey's German assayer, assures me that these rocks are ofthe very same kind as those which yield the silver in Peru. Tut, man!if her gracious majesty would but bestow on me some few square miles ofthis same wilderness, in seven years' time I would make it blossom likethe rose, by God's good help."
"Humph! I should be more inclined to stay here, then."
"So you shall, and be my agent, if you will, to get in my mine-rents andmy corn-rents, and my fishery-rents, eh? Could you keep accounts, oldknight of the bear's-paw?"
"Well enough for such short reckonings as yours would be, on the profitside at least. No, no--I'd sooner carry lime all my days from Cauldy toBideford, than pass another twelve-month in the land of Ire, amongthe children of wrath. There is a curse upon the face of the earth, Ibelieve."
"There is no curse upon it, save the old one of man's sin--'Thorns andthistles it shall bring forth to thee.' But if you root up the thornsand thistles, Amyas, I know no fiend who can prevent your growing wheatinstead; and if you till the ground like a man, you plough and barrowaway nature's curse, and other fables of the schoolmen beside," addedhe, in that daring fashion which afterwards obtained for him (and neverdid good Christian less deserve it) the imputation of atheism.
"It is sword and bullet, I think, that are needed here, before ploughand harrow, to clear away some of the curse. Until a few more of theseIrish lords are gone where the Desmonds are, there is no peace forIreland."
"Humph! not so far wrong, I fear. And yet--Irish lords? These verytraitors are better English blood than we who hunt them down. When Yeohere slew the Desmond the other day, he no more let out a drop of Irishblood, than if he had slain the lord deputy himself."
"His blood be on his own head," said Yeo, "He looked as wild a savage asthe worst of them, more shame to him; and the ancient here had nigh cutoff his arm before he told us who he was: and then, your worship, havinga price upon his head, and like to bleed to death too--"
"Enough, enough, good fellow," said Raleigh. "Thou hast done what wasgiven thee to do. Strange, Amyas, is it not? Noble Normans sunk intosavages--Hibernis ipsis hiberniores! Is there some uncivilizing venom inthe air?"
"Some venom, at least, which makes English men traitors. But the Irishthemselves are well enough, if their tyrants would let them be. See now,what more faithful liegeman has her majesty than the Inchiquin, who,they say, is Prince of Themond, and should be king of all Ireland, ifevery man had his right?"
"Don't talk of rights in the land of wrongs, man. But the Inchiquinknows well that the true Irish Esau has no worse enemy than hissupplanter, the Norman Jacob. And yet, Amyas are even these men worsethan we might be, if we had been bred up masters over the bodies andsouls of men, in some remote land where law and order had never come?Look at this Desmond, brought up a savage among savages, a Papist amongPapists, a despot among slaves; a thousand easy maidens deeming it honorto serve his pleasure, a thousand wild ruffians deeming it piety tofulfil his revenge: and let him that is without sin among us cast thefirst stone."
"Ay," went on Raleigh to himself, as the conversation dropped. "Whathadst thou been, Raleigh, hadst thou been that Desmond whose lands thounow desirest? What wilt thou be when thou hast them? Will thy childrensink downwards, as these noble barons sank? Will the genius of tyrannyand falsehood find soil within thy heart to grow and ripen fruit? Whatguarantee hast thou for doing better here than those who went beforethee? And yet, cannot I do justice and love mercy? Can I not establishplantations, build and sow, and make the desert valleys laugh with corn?Shall I not have my Spenser with me, to fill me with all noble thoughts,and raise my soul to his heroic pitch? Is not this true knight-errantry,to redeem to peace and use, and to the glory of that glorious queen whomGod has given to me, a generous soil and a more generous race? Trustfuland tenderhearted they are--none more; and if they be fickle andpassionate, will not that very softness of temper, which makes them soeasily led to evil, make them as easy to be led towards good? Yes--here,away from courts, among a people who should bless me as their benefactorand deliverer--what golden days might be mine! And yet--is this butanother angel's mask from that same cunning fiend ambition's stage? Andwill my house be indeed the house of God, the foundations of which areloyalty, and its bulwarks righteousness, and not the house of fame,whose walls are of the soap-bubble, and its floor a sea of glass mingledwith fire? I would be good and great--When will the day come when Ishall be content to be good, and yet not great, like this same simpleLeigh, toiling on by my side to do his duty, with no more thought forthe morrow than the birds of God? Greatness? I have tasted that cupwithin the last twelve months; do I not know that it is sweet in themouth, but bitter in the belly? Greatness? And was not Essex great, andJohn of Austria great, and Desmond great, whose race, but threeshort years ago, had stood for ages higher than I shall ever hope toclimb--castles, and lands, and slaves by thousands, and five hundredgentlemen of his name, who had vowed to forswear God before theyforswore him and well have they kept their vow! And now, dead in aturf-hovel, like a coney in a burrow! Leigh, what noise was that?"
"An Irish howl, I fancied: but it came from off the bog; it may be onlya plover's cry."
"Something not quite right, sir captain, to my mind," said the ancient."They have ugly stories here of pucks and banshees, and what not ofghosts. There it was again, wailing just like a woman. They say thebanshe
e cried all night before Desmond was slain."
"Perhaps, then, this one may be crying for Baltinglas; for his turn islikely to come next--not that I believe in such old wives' tales."
"Shamus, my man," said Amyas to the guide, "do you hear that cry in thebog?"
The guide put on the most stolid of faces, and answered in brokenEnglish--
"Shamus hear naught. Perhaps--what you call him?--fishing in ta pool."
"An otter, he means, and I believe he is right. Stay, no! Did you nothear it then, Shamus? It was a woman's voice."
"Shamus is shick in his ears ever since Christmas."
"Shamus will go after Desmond if he lies," said Amyas. "Ancient, we hadbetter send a few men to see what it is; there may be a poor soul takenby robbers, or perhaps starving to death, as I have seen many a one."
"And I too, poor wretches; and by no fault of their own or ours either:but if their lords will fall to quarrelling, and then drive each other'scattle, and waste each other's lands, sir, you know--"
"I know," said Amyas, impatiently; "why dost not take the men, and go?"
"Cry you mercy, noble captain, but--I fear nothing born of woman."
"Well, what of that?" said Amyas, with a smile.
"But these pucks, sir. The wild Irish do say that they haunt the pools;and they do no manner of harm, sir, when you are coming up to them; butwhen you are past, sir, they jump on your back like to apes, sir,--andwho can tackle that manner of fiend?"
"Why, then, by thine own showing, ancient," said Raleigh, "thou may'stgo and see all safely enough, and then if the puck jumps on thee as thoucomest back, just run in with him here, and I'll buy him of thee for anoble; or thou may'st keep him in a cage, and make money in London byshowing him for a monster."
"Good heavens forefend, Captain Raleigh! but you talk rashly! But if Imust, Captain Leigh--
'Where duty calls To brazen walls, How base the slave who flinches'
Lads, who'll follow me?"
"Thou askest for volunteers, as if thou wert to lead a forlorn hope.Pull away at the usquebaugh, man, and swallow Dutch courage, since thineEnglish is oozed away. Stay, I'll go myself."
"And I with you," said Raleigh. "As the queen's true knight-errant, Iam bound to be behindhand in no adventure. Who knows but we may find awicked magician, just going to cut off the head of some saffron-mantledprincess?" and he dismounted.
"Oh, sirs, sirs, to endanger your precious--"
"Pooh," said Raleigh. "I wear an amulet, and have a spell of art-magicat my tongue's end, whereby, sir ancient, neither can a ghost see me,nor I see them. Come with us, Yeo, the Desmond-slayer, and we will shamethe devil, or be shamed by him."
"He may shame me, sir, but he will never frighten me," quoth Yeo; "butthe bog, captains?"
"Tut! Devonshire men, and heath-trotters born, and not know our way overa peat moor!"
And the three strode away.
They splashed and scrambled for some quarter of a mile to the knoll,while the cry became louder and louder as they neared.
"That's neither ghost nor otter, sirs, but a true Irish howl, as CaptainLeigh said; and I'll warrant Master Shamus knew as much long ago," saidYeo.
And in fact, they could now hear plainly the "Ochone, Ochonorie," ofsome wild woman; and scrambling over the boulders of the knoll, inanother minute came full upon her.
She was a young girl, sluttish and unkempt, of course, but fair enough:her only covering, as usual, was the ample yellow mantle. There she satupon a stone, tearing her black dishevelled hair, and every now and thenthrowing up her head, and bursting into a long mournful cry, "for allthe world," as Yeo said, "like a dumb four-footed hound, and not aChristian soul."
On her knees lay the head of a man of middle age, in the long soutane ofa Romish priest. One look at the attitude of his limbs told them that hewas dead.
The two paused in awe; and Raleigh's spirit, susceptible of all poeticalimages, felt keenly that strange scene,--the bleak and bitter sky, theshapeless bog, the stunted trees, the savage girl alone with the corpsein that utter desolation. And as she bent her head over the still face,and called wildly to him who heard her not, and then, utterly unmindfulof the intruders, sent up again that dreary wail into the dreary air,they felt a sacred horror, which almost made them turn away, and leaveher unquestioned: but Yeo, whose nerves were of tougher fibre, askedquietly--
"Shall I go and search the fellow, captain?"
"Better, I think," said Amyas.
Raleigh went gently to the girl, and spoke to her in English. She lookedup at him, his armor and his plume, with wide and wondering eyes, andthen shook her head, and returned to her lamentation.
Raleigh gently laid his hand on her arm, and lifted her up, while Yeoand Amyas bent over the corpse.
It was the body of a large and coarse-featured man, but wasted andshrunk as if by famine to a very skeleton. The hands and legs werecramped up, and the trunk bowed together, as if the man had died of coldor famine. Yeo drew back the clothes from the thin bosom, while the girlscreamed and wept, but made no effort to stop him.
"Ask her who it is? Yeo, you know a little Irish," said Amyas.
He asked, but the girl made no answer. "The stubborn jade won't tell, ofcourse, sir. If she were but a man, I'd make her soon enough."
"Ask her who killed him?"
"No one, she says; and I believe she says true, for I can find no wound.The man has been starved, sirs, as I am a sinful man. God help him,though he is a priest; and yet he seems full enough down below. What'shere? A big pouch, sirs, stuffed full of somewhat."
"Hand it hither."
The two opened the pouch; papers, papers, but no scrap of food. Then aparchment. They unrolled it.
"Latin," said Amyas; "you must construe, Don Scholar."
"Is it possible?" said Raleigh, after reading a moment. "This is indeeda prize! This is Saunders himself!"
Yeo sprang up from the body as if he had touched an adder. "NickSaunders, the Legacy, sir?"
"Nicholas Saunders, the legate."
"The villain! why did not he wait for me to have the comfort of killinghim? Dog!" and he kicked the corpse with his foot.
"Quiet! quiet! Remember the poor girl," said Amyas, as she shrieked atthe profanation, while Raleigh went on, half to himself:
"Yes, this is Saunders. Misguided fool, and this is the end! To thisthou hast come with thy plotting and thy conspiring, thy lying and thyboasting, consecrated banners and Pope's bulls, Agnus Deis and holywaters, the blessing of all saints and angels, and thy Lady of theImmaculate Conception! Thou hast called on the heavens to judge betweenthee and us, and here is their answer! What is that in his hand, Amyas?Give it me. A pastoral epistle to the Earl of Ormond, and all nobles ofthe realm of Ireland; 'To all who groan beneath the loathsome tyrannyof an illegitimate adulteress, etc., Nicholas Saunders, by the graceof God, Legate, etc.' Bah! and this forsooth was thy last meditation!Incorrigible pedant! Victrix causa Diis placuit, sed victa Catoni!"
He ran his eye through various other documents, written in the usualstrain: full of huge promises from the Pope and the king of Spain;frantic and filthy slanders against Elizabeth, Burghley, Leicester,Essex (the elder), Sidney, and every great and good man (never mindof which party) who then upheld the commonweal; bombastic attempts toterrify weak consciences, by denouncing endless fire against those whoopposed the true faith; fulsome ascriptions of martyrdom and sanctity toevery rebel and traitor who had been hanged for the last twentyyears; wearisome arguments about the bull In Caena Domini, Elizabeth'sexcommunication, the nullity of English law, the sacred duty ofrebellion, the right to kill a prince impenitently heretical, and thelike insanities and villainies, which may be read at large in Camden,the Phoenix Britannicus, Fox's Martyrs, or, surest of all, in thewritings of the worthies themselves.
With a gesture of disgust, Raleigh crammed the foul stuff back againinto the pouch. Taking it with them, they walked back to the company,and then remounting, marched aw
ay once more towards the lands of theDesmonds; and the girl was left alone with the dead.
An hour had passed, when another Englishman was standing by the wailinggirl, and round him a dozen shockheaded kernes, skene on thigh andjavelin in hand, were tossing about their tawny rags, and adding theirlamentations to those of the lonely watcher.
The Englishman was Eustace Leigh; a layman still, but still at his oldwork. By two years of intrigue and labor from one end of Ireland to theother, he had been trying to satisfy his conscience for rejecting "thehigher calling" of the celibate; for mad hopes still lurked within thatfiery heart. His brow was wrinkled now; his features harshened; thescar upon his face, and the slight distortion which accompanied it, washidden by a bushy beard from all but himself; and he never forgot it fora day, nor forgot who had given it to him.
He had been with Desmond, wandering in moor and moss for many a monthin danger of his life; and now he was on his way to James Fitz-Eustace,Lord Baltinglas, to bring him the news of Desmond's death; and withhim a remnant of the clan, who were either too stout-hearted, or toodesperately stained with crime, to seek peace from the English, and, astheir fellows did, find it at once and freely.
There Eustace stood, looking down on all that was left of the mostsacred personage of Ireland; the man who, as he once had hoped, was toregenerate his native land, and bring the proud island of the West oncemore beneath that gentle yoke, in which united Christendom labored forthe commonweal of the universal Church. There he was, and with him allEustace's dreams, in the very heart of that country which he had vowed,and believed as he vowed, was ready to rise in arms as one man, even tothe baby at the breast (so he had said), in vengeance against the Saxonheretic, and sweep the hated name of Englishman into the deepest abyssesof the surge which walled her coasts; with Spain and the Pope to backhim, and the wealth of the Jesuits at his command; in the midstof faithful Catholics, valiant soldiers, noblemen who had pledgedthemselves to die for the cause, serfs who worshipped him as ademigod--starved to death in a bog! It was a pretty plain verdict on thereasonableness of his expectations; but not to Eustace Leigh.
It was a failure, of course; but it was an accident; indeed, to havebeen expected, in a wicked world whose prince and master, as allknew, was the devil himself; indeed, proof of the righteousness ofthe cause--for when had the true faith been other than persecuted andtrampled under foot? If one came to think of it with eyes purified fromthe tears of carnal impatience, what was it but a glorious martyrdom?
"Blest Saunders!" murmured Eustace Leigh; "let me die the death of therighteous, and let my last end he like this! Ora pro me, most excellentmartyr, while I dig thy grave upon this lonely moor, to wait there forthy translation to one of those stately shrines, which, cemented by theblood of such as thee, shall hereafter rise restored toward heaven, tomake this land once more 'The Isle of Saints.'"
The corpse was buried; a few prayers said hastily; and Eustace Leigh wasaway again, not now to find Baltinglas; for it was more than his lifewas worth. The girl had told him of the English soldiers who had passed,and he knew that they would reach the earl probably before he did. Thegame was up; all was lost. So he retraced his steps, as a desperateresource, to the last place where he would be looked for, and after amonth of disguising, hiding, and other expedients, found himself againin his native county of Devon, while Fitz-Eustace Viscount Baltinglashad taken ship for Spain, having got little by his famous argumentto Ormond in behalf of his joining the Church of Rome, "Had not thineancestor, blessed Thomas of Canterbury, died for the Church of Rome,thou hadst never been Earl of Ormond." The premises were certainlysounder than those of his party were wont to be; for it was to expiatethe murder of that turbulent hero that the Ormond lands had been grantedby Henry II.: but as for the conclusion therefrom, it was much on a parwith the rest.
And now let us return to Raleigh and Amyas, as they jog along theirweary road. They have many things to talk of; for it is but three dayssince they met.
Amyas, as you see, is coming fast into Raleigh's old opinion of Ireland.Raleigh, under the inspiration of a possible grant of Desmond's lands,looks on bogs and rocks transfigured by his own hopes and fancy, as ifby the glory of a rainbow. He looked at all things so, noble fellow,even thirty years after, when old, worn out, and ruined; well for himhad it been otherwise, and his heart had grown old with his head! Amyas,who knows nothing about Desmond's lands, is puzzled at the change.
"Why, what is this, Raleigh? You are like children sitting in themarket-place, and nothing pleases you. You wanted to get to Court, andyou have got there; and are lord and master, I hear, or something verylike it, already--and as soon as fortune stuffs your mouth full ofsweet-meats, do you turn informer on her?"
Raleigh laughed insignificantly, but was silent.
"And how is your friend Mr. Secretary Spenser, who was with us atSmerwick?"
"Spenser? He has thriven even as I have; and he has found, as I have,that in making one friend at Court you make ten foes; but 'Oderint dummetuant' is no more my motto than his, Leigh. I want to be great--greatI am already, they say, if princes' favor can swell the frog into an ox;but I want to be liked, loved--I want to see people smile when I enter."
"So they do, I'll warrant," said Amyas.
"So do hyenas," said Raleigh; "grin because they are hungry, and I maythrow them a bone; I'll throw you one now, old lad, or rather a goodsirloin of beef, for the sake of your smile. That's honest, at least,I'll warrant, whosoever's else is not. Have you heard of my brotherHumphrey's new project?"
"How should I hear anything in this waste howling wilderness?"
"Kiss hands to the wilderness, then, and come with me to Newfoundland!"
"You to Newfoundland?"
"Yes. I to Newfoundland, unless my little matter here is settled atonce. Gloriana don't know it, and sha'n't till I'm off. She'd send me tothe Tower, I think, if she caught me playing truant. I could hardly getleave to come hither; but I must out, and try my fortune. I am over earsin debt already, and sick of courts and courtiers. Humphrey must go nextspring and take possession of his kingdom beyond seas, or his patentexpires; and with him I go, and you too, my circumnavigating giant."
And then Raleigh expounded to Amyas the details of the greatNewfoundland scheme, which whoso will may read in the pages of Hakluyt.
Sir Humphrey Gilbert, Raleigh's half-brother, held a patent for"planting" the lands of Newfoundland and "Meta Incognita" (Labrador).He had attempted a voyage thither with Raleigh in 1578, whereof I nevercould find any news, save that he came back again, after a heavy brushwith some Spanish ships (in which his best captain, Mr. Morgan, waskilled), having done nothing, and much impaired his own estate: but nowhe had collected a large sum; Sir Gilbert Peckham of London, Mr. Hayesof South Devon, and various other gentlemen, of whom more hereafter, hadadventured their money; and a considerable colony was to be sent out thenext year, with miners, assayers, and, what was more, Parmenius Budaeus,Frank's old friend, who had come to England full of thirst to see thewonders of the New World; and over and above this, as Raleigh told Amyasin strictest secrecy, Adrian Gilbert, Humphrey's brother, was turningevery stone at Court for a patent of discovery in the North-West;and this Newfoundland colony, though it was to produce gold, silver,merchandise, and what not, was but a basis of operations, a halfwayhouse from whence to work out the North-West passage to the Indies--thatgolden dream, as fatal to English valor as the Guiana one toSpanish--and yet hardly, hardly to be regretted, when we remember theseamanship, the science, the chivalry, the heroism, unequalled in thehistory of the English nation, which it has called forth among thoseour later Arctic voyagers, who have combined the knight-errantry of themiddle age with the practical prudence of the modern, and dared for dutymore than Cortez or Pizarro dared for gold.
Amyas, simple fellow, took all in greedily; he knew enough of thedangers of the Magellan passage to appreciate the boundless value of aroad to the East Indies which would (as all supposed then) save half thedistance, and be as it were a
private possession of the English, safefrom Spanish interference; and he listened reverently to Sir Humphrey'squaint proofs, half true, half fantastic, of such a passage, whichRaleigh detailed to him--of the Primum Mobile, and its diurnal motionfrom east to west, in obedience to which the sea-current flowed westwardever round the Cape of Good Hope, and being unable to pass through thenarrow strait between South America and the Antarctic Continent, rushedup the American shore, as the Gulf Stream, and poured northwestwardbetween Greenland and Labrador towards Cathay and India; of that mostcrafty argument of Sir Humphrey's--how Aristotle in his book "De Mundo,"and Simon Gryneus in his annotations thereon, declare that the world(the Old World) is an island, compassed by that which Homer calls theriver Oceanus; ergo, the New World is an island also, and there isa North-West passage; of the three brothers (names unknown) who hadactually made the voyage, and named what was afterwards called Davis'sStrait after themselves; of the Indians who were cast ashore in Germanyin the reign of Frederic Barbarossa who, as Sir Humphrey had learnedlyproved per modum tollendi, could have come only by the North-West; andabove all, of Salvaterra, the Spaniard, who in 1568 had told Sir HenrySidney (Philip's father), there in Ireland, how he had spoken with aMexican friar named Urdaneta, who had himself come from Mar del Zur (thePacific) into Germany by that very North-West passage; at which lastAmyas shook his head, and said that friars were liars, and seeingbelieving; "but if you must needs have an adventure, you insatiable soulyou, why not try for the golden city of Manoa?"
"Manoa?" asked Raleigh, who had heard, as most had, dim rumors of theplace. "What do you know of it?"
Whereon Amyas told him all that he had gathered from the Spaniard; andRaleigh, in his turn, believed every word.
"Humph!" said he after a long silence. "To find that golden emperor;offer him help and friendship from the queen of England; defend himagainst the Spaniards; if we became strong enough, conquer back all Perufrom the Popish tyrants, and reinstate him on the throne of the Incas,with ourselves for his body-guard, as the Norman Varangians were tothe effeminate emperors of Byzant--Hey, Amyas? You would make a gallantchieftain of Varangs. We'll do it, lad!"
"We'll try," said Amyas; "but we must be quick, for there's one Berreosworn to carry out the quest to the death; and if the Spaniards once getthither, their plan of works will be much more like Pizarro's than likeyours; and by the time we come, there will be neither gold nor cityleft."
"Nor Indians either, I'll warrant the butchers; but, lad, I am promisedto Humphrey; I have a bark fitting out already, and all I have, andmore, adventured in her; so Manoa must wait."
"It will wait well enough, if the Spaniards prosper no better on theAmazon than they have done; but must I come with you? To tell the truth,I am quite shore-sick, and to sea I must go. What will my mother say?"
"I'll manage thy mother," said Raleigh; and so he did; for, to cut along story short, he went back the month after, and he not only tookhome letters from Amyas to his mother, but so impressed on that goodlady the enormous profits and honors to be derived from Meta Incognita,and (which was most true) the advantage to any young man of sailingwith such a general as Humphrey Gilbert, most pious and most learned ofseamen and of cavaliers, beloved and honored above all his compeers byQueen Elizabeth, that she consented to Amyas's adventuring in thevoyage some two hundred pounds which had come to him as his share ofprize-money, after the ever memorable circumnavigation. For Mrs.Leigh, be it understood, was no longer at Burrough Court. By Frank'spersuasion, she had let the old place, moved up to London with hereldest son, and taken for herself a lodging somewhere by Palace Stairs,which looked out upon the silver Thames (for Thames was silver then),with its busy ferries and gliding boats, across to the pleasant fieldsof Lambeth, and the Archbishop's palace, and the wooded Surrey hills;and there she spent her peaceful days, close to her Frank and to theCourt. Elizabeth would have had her re-enter it, offering her a smallplace in the household: but she declined, saying that she was too oldand heart-weary for aught but prayer. So by prayer she lived, under thesheltering shadow of the tall minster where she went morn and even toworship, and to entreat for the two in whom her heart was bound up; andFrank slipped in every day if but for five minutes, and brought with himSpenser, or Raleigh, or Dyer, or Budaeus or sometimes Sidney's self: andthere was talk of high and holy things, of which none could speak betterthan could she; and each guest went from that hallowed room a humblerand yet a loftier man. So slipped on the peaceful months, and fewand far between came Irish letters, for Ireland was then farther fromWestminster than is the Black Sea now; but those were days in whichwives and mothers had learned (as they have learned once more, sweetsouls!) to walk by faith and not by sight for those they love: and Mrs.Leigh was content (though when was she not content?) to hear that Amyaswas winning a good report as a brave and prudent officer, sober, just,and faithful, beloved and obeyed alike by English soldiers and Irishkernes.
Those two years, and the one which followed, were the happiest which shehad known since her husband's death. But the cloud was fast coming upthe horizon, though she saw it not. A little longer, and the sun wouldbe hid for many a wintry day.
Amyas went to Plymouth (with Yeo, of course, at his heels), and therebeheld, for the first time, the majestic countenance of the philosopherof Compton castle. He lodged with Drake, and found him not over-sanguineas to the success of the voyage.
"For learning and manners, Amyas, there's not his equal; and the queenmay well love him, and Devon be proud of him: but book-learning is notbusiness: book-learning didn't get me round the world; book-learningdidn't make Captain Hawkins, nor his father neither, the bestship-builders from Hull to Cadiz; and book-learning, I very much fear,won't plant Newfoundland."
However, the die was cast, and the little fleet of five sail assembledin Cawsand Bay. Amyas was to go as a gentleman adventurer on board ofRaleigh's bark; Raleigh himself, however, at the eleventh hour, had beenforbidden by the queen to leave England. Ere they left, Sir HumphreyGilbert's picture was painted by some Plymouth artist, to be sent up toElizabeth in answer to a letter and a gift sent by Raleigh, which, as aspecimen of the men and of the time, I here transcribe*--
"BROTHER--I have sent you a token from her Majesty, an anchor guidedby a lady, as you see. And further, her Highness willed me to send youword, that she wisheth you as great good hap and safety to your ship asif she were there in person, desiring you to have care of yourself as ofthat which she tendereth and, therefore, for her sake, you must providefor it accordingly. Furthermore, she commandeth that you leave yourpicture with her. For the rest I leave till our meeting, or to thereport of the bearer, who would needs be the messenger of this goodnews. So I commit you to the will and protection of God, who send ussuch life and death as he shall please, or hath appointed.
"Richmond, this Friday morning,
"Your true Brother,
"W. RALEIGH."
* This letter was a few years since in the possession of Mr. Pomeroy Gilbert, fort-major at Dartmouth, a descendant of the admiral's.
"Who would not die, sir, for such a woman?" said Sir Humphrey (and hesaid truly), as he showed that letter to Amyas.
"Who would not? But she bids you rather live for her."
"I shall do both, young man; and for God too, I trust. We are going inGod's cause; we go for the honor of God's Gospel, for the deliverance ofpoor infidels led captive by the devil; for the relief of my distressedcountrymen unemployed within this narrow isle; and to God we commit ourcause. We fight against the devil himself; and stronger is He that iswithin us than he that is against us."
Some say that Raleigh himself came down to Plymouth, accompanied thefleet a day's sail to sea, and would have given her majesty the slip,and gone with them Westward-ho, but for Sir Humphrey's advice. It islikely enough: but I cannot find evidence for it. At all events, on the11th June the fleet sailed out, having, says Mr. Hayes, "in number about260 men, among whom we had of every faculty good choice, as shipwrights,masons, carpenters, smiths,
and such like, requisite for such an action;also mineral men and refiners. Beside, for solace of our people andallurement of the savages, we were provided of musique in good variety;not omitting the least toys, as morris-dancers, hobby-horses, andMay-like conceits, to delight the savage people, whom we intended to winby all fair means possible." An armament complete enough, even to thattenderness towards the Indians, which is so striking a feature ofthe Elizabethan seamen (called out in them, perhaps, by horror at theSpanish cruelties, as well as by their more liberal creed), and to thedaily service of God on board of every ship, according to the simpleold instructions of Captain John Hawkins to one of his little squadrons,"Keep good company; beware of fire; serve God daily; and love oneanother"--an armament, in short, complete in all but men. The sailorshad been picked up hastily and anywhere, and soon proved themselves amutinous, and, in the case of the bark Swallow, a piratical set. Themechanics were little better. The gentlemen-adventurers, puffed up withvain hopes of finding a new Mexico, became soon disappointed and surlyat the hard practical reality; while over all was the head of a sage andan enthusiast, a man too noble to suspect others, and too pure tomake allowances for poor dirty human weaknesses. He had got his schemeperfect upon paper; well for him, and for his company, if he had askedFrancis Drake to translate it for him into fact! As early as the secondday, the seeds of failure began to sprout above ground. The men ofRaleigh's bark, the Vice-Admiral, suddenly found themselves seized, orsupposed themselves seized, with a contagious sickness, and at midnightforsook the fleet, and went back to Plymouth; whereto Mr. Hayes can onlysay, "The reason I never could understand. Sure I am that Mr. Raleighspared no cost in setting them forth. And so I leave it unto God!"
But Amyas said more. He told Butler the captain plainly that, if thebark went back, he would not; that he had seen enough of ships desertingtheir consorts; that it should never be said of him that he had followedWinter's example, and that, too, on a fair easterly wind; and finallythat he had seen Doughty hanged for trying to play such a trick; andthat he might see others hanged too before he died. Whereon CaptainButler offered to draw and fight, to which Amyas showed no repugnance;whereon the captain, having taken a second look at Amyas's thews andsinews, reconsidered the matter, and offered to put Amyas on board ofSir Humphrey's Delight, if he could find a crew to row him.
Amyas looked around.
"Are there any of Sir Francis Drake's men on board?"
"Three, sir," said Yeo. "Robert Drew, and two others."
"Pelicans!" roared Amyas, "you have been round the world, and will youturn back from Westward-ho?"
There was a moment's silence, and then Drew came forward.
"Lower us a boat, captain, and lend us a caliver to make signals with,while I get my kit on deck; I'll after Captain Leigh, if I row himaboard all alone to my own hands."
"If I ever command a ship, I will not forget you," said Amyas.
"Nor us either, sir, we hope; for we haven't forgotten you and yourhonest conditions," said both the other Pelicans; and so away over theside went all the five, and pulled away after the admiral's lantern,firing shots at intervals as signals. Luckily for the five desperadoes,the night was all but calm. They got on board before the morning, and soaway into the boundless West.*
* The Raleigh, the largest ship of the squadron, was of only 200 tons burden; The Golden Hind, Hayes' ship, which returned safe, of 40; and The Squirrel (whereof more hereafter), of 10 tons! In such cockboats did these old heroes brave the unknown seas.
Westward Ho! Or, The Voyages and Adventures of Sir Amyas Leigh, Knight, of Burrough, in the County of Devon, in the Reign of Her Most Glorious Majesty Queen Elizabeth Page 11