by Dudley Pope
“Tightfisted ones, obviously!” Ned said. “You put such a high ransom on those husbands that when you let them go to get the money and kept the wives as hostages, they decided their wives weren’t worth that much!”
Thomas stared at him incredulously and, after a minute’s thought nodded. “Either that or they think we’ll get impatient and go, leaving them behind. Well, we’ll soon see if they’re bluffing!”
“You can’t call on them,” Ned teased.
“No, but I can bring those women out to the ships! They – the husbands – will think we are taking them with us. Yes, we’ll distribute the women in the Griffin, Peleus and Phoenix, send the children home and prepare to sail. I’ll bet we’ll get results!”
“How will the reluctant husbands pay? Shall I stay in the plaza with a couple of dozen men?”
“No – let Saxby; he looks fiercer than you. A dozen weeping husbands swearing they don’t have a doubloon to their names will break your heart!”
With that Thomas was climbing down to his boat to collect the women, calling to Ned to give the orders to the four privateers, making sure that they spent half an hour or so making obvious preparations to sail.
When he went down to the cabin to explain Thomas’ plan to Aurelia and warn her that eight or ten tearful Spanish ladies would be coming on board soon, he had expected her to be angry because of Thomas’ apparent ruthlessness. He was not prepared for her to storm round the cabin in a fury, cursing the delinquent Spanish husbands and using many French words that Ned had never heard before. As he prided himself on his ability to curse fluently in French, he made a mental note to insist on translations later. The sight of this wildcat striding round the cabin naked – she had been sleeping in the hammaco – was in one sense alarming (in case one day he should be the cause of a similar outburst) and in another very rousing.
Husbands! Her tirade was against husbands, and suddenly Ned realized that these Spaniards were attracting all the anger and hatred she had been bottling up in the years of her marriage to Wilson: he had bullied, scorned, belittled and ignored her, and she had borne it as she imagined a dutiful wife should. Then she had escaped and now saw more than a score of wives – wives, it was irrelevant that they were Spanish – abandoned by their husbands. She could see Wilson doing precisely the same thing. Pay a ransom of ten thousand doubloons for her? Oh no!
She turned on Ned: “What do we do with these women if the husbands don’t pay us? Are we supposed to take them to Jamaica? Then what – put them in brothels? Are you and Thomas mad? What does Diana say? She knows nothing of this, I am sure. Perhaps Thomas has his eye on one of them. You men!”
“Listen,” Ned said firmly, “if you scrabble around the deck in bare feet like that you’ll get splinters…”
“Never mind that, we sometimes make love on the deck! You don’t worry about me getting splinters then!”
Ned sat in his chair, his head between his hands, and waited.
Finally, in a calmer voice she asked: “Well, what are you going to do with the women when we get to Jamaica?”
“We are not taking them to Jamaica. You were so excited you did not listen properly.” Once again he explained the bluff, and she shook her finger at him.
“You see, you deliberately upset me by not explaining things clearly. You think I am a man –” she broke off when she watched Ned’s eyes surveying her body. “Well, you think I think like a man, but…”
“Darling,” he said, “Thomas won’t be back for an hour.”
“Yes,” she said, “I missed you last night.”
Two hours after the last of the four privateers had sailed down the channel and out of Santiago, and while seamen were climbing the shrouds of the three remaining ships and generally obeying the order to “Look busy”, Saxby sent a message by boat from the Catalina battery with a list of eighteen names. Burton explained that the names were of the wives whose husbands had come rushing to the Catalina battery as soon as the four privateers had begun to weigh, and paid their ransom in full. A second boat left the Griffin and went with Burton to collect the women from the three ships and restore them to their husbands.
Aurelia, still angry with the dilatory husbands, explained in detail to the wives who had been detained in the Griffin exactly why they had been held, adding that if their husbands had paid the previous day like the others, the women would not have been forced to spend such a distressing time on board a ship. To her surprise she found that the eleven wives kept on board the Griffin had, after the initial tears, enjoyed the experience. The six youngest undoubtedly basked in the lecherous gazes of the Griffin’s crew, who were feeling the full effect of the hot nights and several days away from the release offered by the Cagway brothels.
Thomas was soon over to discuss plans with Ned. “Five wives left, according to my list. What unfeeling brutes their husbands must be,” he complained, unconscious of the irony.
“Perhaps those five husbands are not happily married…”
“That could be so,” Thomas admitted.
“So if you want to punish them, free their wives. Once those women know their husbands would not pay for their release, they’ll realize their husbands are villains!”
“You have a pleasantly devious mind,” Thomas said, “but let’s see how much ransom we are asking those five husbands to pay.” He looked at his slate, where all but five names had been crossed out. Against each name was a figure, indicating the amount of ransom owing.
“Would you believe it!” Thomas was disgusted. “These fellows were priced about the lowest, too. Well, considering the purchase we already have, we’ll wait another half hour and if the husbands haven’t called on Saxby to pay, we’ll turn the wives loose. That’ll mean five unhappy husbands. If I did a thing like that, Diana would kill me!”
“If it was Diana and up to you to pay, you’d pay like the rest of the husbands. But you are probably doing these five a good turn. We have only one of those wives on board the Griffin and she’s as broad as she is long.”
“I have three in the Peleus. Dull but not shrewish, I should say. By the way, did I tell you the bishop was the most helpful of all the citizens?”
“No. In what way?”
“When we found him in his house we made him show us where his own money and plate was kept, and then we took him to the cathedral. I had an idea he had a good deal of church plate hidden away – and I don’t know why; it was just a feeling. Well, he denied it and shouted and yelled and prayed so loudly that when we cleared the cathedral, I decided to search the crypt – and that was when I found the rack.”
Ned shivered at the thought of that gaunt metal contraption with its sweat-stained leather straps, looking like an altar made of iron by a mad blacksmith. Having it in the crypt of the cathedral meant that the screams of the heretics being racked would not be heard outside, would not disturb the peaceful days and nights of Santiago’s true believers. “Did you find any more treasure hidden down there?”
“I didn’t, but the bishop did.”
“You mean he fetched it for you, eh?” Ned was only teasing but Thomas nodded, unsmiling.
“Yes. We strapped him down on the rack and gave it a few turns to take up the slack. Then I asked him. I found we had to let off a turn or two so that he could speak. The sight of this rack made me so angry I put the turns back on again, so that he’d have some idea what it’s like when his men torture someone. When I finally let him go he was very helpful. He produced half a dozen solid gold candlesticks, for instance, each four feet high and as much as one man could carry. They were used for funerals; special candles to put round the coffin as it lies in state.”
Aurelia joined them, greeting Thomas, who looked at her knowingly. “You were glad to have Ned back, I’ll be bound.”
She nodded without blushing and once again Ned was impressed at the ch
ange taking place in her. “Was Diana glad to see you?”
Thomas shrugged his shoulders. “She is still angry with me for not taking her over the hills.”
“You’ve only yourself to blame then,” Aurelia said unsympathetically. “I enjoyed bringing the ship round with Lobb. If Ned ever makes me angry I shall simply put him on one of the cays and sail away.”
“I believe you would,” Thomas said and turned to Ned. “We’ll have to keep an eye open for each other. If you don’t wave to me before sunset I’ll board, and you do the same for me!”
“What are you going to do for these poor women?” Aurelia asked. “How many are left?”
“Five,” said Thomas mournfully, “and their future will be dreadful, I must admit.”
“Why? What are you going to do with them?” an alarmed Aurelia demanded.
Thomas shook his head. “Men…there’ll be violence…”
“Oh no! Why, they’re not young. That…sort of thing…it could kill them!”
Ned turned away, doubting that he could keep a straight face, but Aurelia thought he was avoiding her anger.
“Please, Thomas,” she pleaded, “let them go. We have an enormous amount of purchase. Show mercy!”
“I can’t do both. If I let them go, I’m not showing mercy.”
“Riddles, Thomas, you are talking in riddles!”
“You are thinking the women’s future will be dreadful. I’m concerned about the husbands. Imagine what it will be like when the wives storm into the house and demand to know why their husbands did not value them highly enough to pay ransom. Think how shamed they will feel in the company of wives whose husbands did pay!”
“Was that why Ned asked me to explain to the other wives?”
Thomas nodded cheerfully but then said seriously: “Aurelia, if you have any doubts about all this, come on shore with me and we’ll walk through to the cathedral. It has some fine stained glass windows. In the crypt is a rack. It is used regularly. The leather straps are stained too – black, from the blood and the sweat of victims.”
“Yes, Thomas, I understand,” she said softly. “I am a Huguenot, you remember. Barely twenty-five years ago Cardinal Richelieu was destroying us at La Rochelle. Our people exist only by the Edict of Nantes, and no one but a fool would trust the king not to revoke it soon and the church will start the massacre…”
“Well, don’t have too much sympathy for these Spanish wives,” Thomas said. “They’re all staunch Catholics and they’d all sit round in their best clothes, rosaries in hand, watching you being broken on the wheel or stretched on the rack.”
Aurelia nodded contritely. “You are right as usual, Thomas, and Ned too: I should not interfere.”
“You caught the habit from Diana,” Thomas said amiably. “It’s my fault; I don’t beat her enough. Well,” he said turning to Ned, “we might as well put these women on shore. The sooner we get back to Jamaica the sooner we can divide the purchase.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
The Griffin led the way past the Palizadas into the great anchorage and Ned was just going to give the order to Burton to fire off a few guns to make sure that General Heffer knew the buccaneers were back, when he saw a strange ship anchored at the far end of the anchorage. Her ensign was flying at half mast, and the flag hoisted on the general’s headquarters was also at half mast.
Who could be dead? Was it someone in Jamaica – the general, perhaps – or Europe, the news being brought by the newly-arrived ship? It would do no harm to cover the ship, Ned decided, and gave orders to Lobb to tack up the harbour and anchor ahead of the merchant ship. He could rely on Thomas and Saxby anchoring the Peleus and Phoenix on each side, and the other four privateers would be close.
The anchor was hardly down before Ned saw a canoe setting out from the jetty near the general’s house, and a careful inspection through the glass showed that Lieutenant Rowlands was sitting in it, a piece of canvas protecting him from the splashing of the paddles as the slaves sped the boat towards the Griffin.
Ned looked over at the Peleus and saw that she was hoisting out a boat, so that Thomas would be over in a few minutes. This fool Rowlands seemed to come to the Griffin because she was the largest…
The lieutenant came up the ladder, gave Ned a cautious but correct salute, and handed him a letter with a large seal on it.
“So the Spaniards did not come to attack from Santiago,” Ned said solicitously, waiting for Thomas to arrive.
“No, sir, but we have later information that they have a fleet of seven ships and three or four thousand soldiers preparing: a fisherman arrived yesterday who had actually seen the seven ships at anchor in a bay near Santiago. Aguadores, I think the place was called.”
Thomas came up the ladder and strode across the deck. “Ha, it’s the general’s potman! How are you, Oarsman?”
“Rowlands, sir. Very well. If you’ll excuse me, there’s no reply.”
Thomas waved him back to the canoe. “What news has the general’s potman brought us?” he asked Ned, who waved the sealed letter and led the way down to the cabin.
Ned broke the seal, read the four or five lines of writing, and handed it to Thomas, who read it twice, his face a mask. Aurelia watched both men anxiously; she had never seen such expressions before. She looked questioningly at Ned.
“Cromwell has died and his son Richard – Thomas’ first cousin – has succeeded him.”
Thomas gave the letter back to Ned. “And the general wants us to go over to see him urgently. Well, he may have more news. He doesn’t say when Uncle Oliver died but it must be two or three months ago, and by now I expect the country is heartily sick of Richard. I can’t see the army putting up with him for long.”
“Yes, allowing for the time it took for that ship to get here, anything could have happened in England. Still, we’re more concerned with what’s happening here!”
“I’ll tell you one thing, Ned, the general and everyone else here is squatting nervously on a fence. The next ship to arrive may bring a new governor, orders to abandon the island, to capture Cuba, return to England, place the general under arrest…” Thomas’ eyes glinted as he tugged at his beard in his excitement. “Now these poltroons know what the Cavaliers have been going through: the dreadful uncertainty of going to bed at night and never knowing what misery the morning will bring. Come on, Ned, let’s go and discomfort the general; it’ll be better than bear-baiting at Vauxhall because we have a talking bear!”
“By the way,” Ned said, gesturing to make sure Aurelia was listening, “your Lieutenant Rowlands says they’ve just received more news from a fisherman: he reports seeing a Spanish invasion fleet of seven ships anchored at Aguadores.”
Thomas bellowed with laughter. “Certainly he saw a fleet of seven ships! If he’d looked closer –” he winked at Aurelia “–he’d have reported they were commanded by two women admirals!”
“Wait a moment, Thomas. Let’s think what we are going to say to the general, whatever he might have to tell us.”
“How do you mean?”
“Well, Cromwell may be dead, but there’s still a Council of State. Out here we must remember Jamaica is an isolated island surrounded by Spanish ports. It has no defences, but we’ve just brought enough guns and powder from Santiago to defend Cagway harbour.”
“You’re not proposing to give the guns to the Roundheads, are you, Ned? Make them pay for them!”
“But we know the general has no money, and we’ve already decided that Cagway and the Palizadas are a perfect base for all the buccaneers. Yet we need it to be defended. We want to be able to anchor here in safety and do repairs, for example. And we don’t want always to be worrying that a few Spanish privateers might sneak in round the Palizadas on a dark night. Don’t forget, they’ve only just been driven out, so they know every reef and every rock.
We want the defences; the devil take what the Roundheads want!”
Thomas nodded his agreement. “I still don’t like the idea of giving them all those guns, shot and powder. Certainly the guns will defend us, but they’ll defend the Roundheads, too.”
“We’ll bargain,” Ned said, suddenly getting an idea. “The guns have to be mounted in forts or on batteries, and I’m damned if we want to use our people as masons and labourers. If the general will agree to use his soldiers to do the building, we’ll supply the guns, powder and shot.”
“And we’ll make sure that every time we raid a place we’ll bring back more guns and shot.”
“Come on, Thomas, let’s go and bargain with the general. Let him report on the Spanish fleet at Santiago!”
The general was very agitated. The bottom had just dropped out of his world professionally because he owed his promotion entirely to service with the late Lord Protector. Politically he was exposed because he had many enemies in England and had never met Richard Cromwell. He had powerful enemies here, too, even among his own officers: many of them wanted to return to England before they were struck down by yellow fever or typhus, and the last ships to leave for England carried letters to influential friends, accusing their general of everything from corruption to inefficiency, and saying that Jamaica was a useless possession. And this morning the news had come from the fishermen about the Spanish fleet at Aguadores.
The only good news was that the buccaneers had come back, sailing in as silently and unexpectedly as they had left several days ago, and he only hoped that Rowlands had delivered his letter safely and not antagonized them. A good young officer, Rowlands, but one of his brother officers had called him a psalm-singing hypocrite and the general found it hard to quarrel with the verdict.
He heard footsteps and voices and then the bellowing laugh of Whetheread, the bearded buccaneer leader. Suddenly Heffer felt less lonely. The buccaneers were an independent crowd, but at least they were not cowards, like half his officers, who were so scared that they would lie, cheat and probably mutiny in their mad rush to get out of Jamaica, and who had shown their worth at Hispaniola.