. 
 
 ' ''
 
 /
 
 .Oi CALIF. LIBRARY, LOS ANGELE? 
 
 Across the Salt Seas.
 
 ACROSS 
 
 THE SALT SEAS 
 
 A ROMANCE OF THE 
 WAR OF SUCCESSION 
 
 BY 
 
 JOHN BLOUNDELLE-BURTON 
 &fc 
 
 AUTHOR OF "IN THE WAY OF ADVERSITY, 
 "THE HISPANIOLA PLATE," *A GEN- 
 TLEMAN ADVENTURER," ETC. 
 
 HERBERT S. STONE & CO. 
 CHICAGO fcf NEW YORK 
 
 MDCCCXCVII
 
 COPYRIGHT, 1897, BY 
 HERBERT S. STONE & CO.
 
 Across the Salt Seas. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Dreams he of cutting foreign throats, of 
 breaches, ambuscadoes, Spanish blades; of healths 
 five fathoms deep. Shakespeare. 
 
 "Phew!" said the captain of La Mouche 
 Noire, as he came up to me where I paced 
 the deck by the after bittacle. " Phew! It 
 is a devil in its death agonies. What has 
 the man seen and known ? Fore Gad ! he 
 makes me shudder ! " 
 
 Then he spat to leeward because he 
 was a sailor; also, because he was a sailor, 
 he squinted into the compass box, then took 
 off his leather cap and wiped the warm 
 drops from his forehead with the back of 
 his hand. 
 
 "Death agonies!" I said. "So! it is 
 coming to that. From what? Drinking, 
 old age, or " 
 
 " Both, and more. Yet, when I shipped 
 him at Rotterdam, who would have thought 
 
 2125832
 
 4 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 it ! Old and reverend-looking-, eh, Mr. Cres- 
 pin ? White haired silvery. I deemed 
 him some kind of a minister yet, now, 
 hearken to him!" 
 
 And as he spoke he went to the hatch- 
 way, bent his head and shoulders over it, 
 and beckoned me to come and do likewise; 
 which gesture I obeyed. 
 
 Then I heard the old man's voice com- 
 ing- forth from the cabin where they had 
 got him, the door of it being- open for sake 
 of air, because, in this tossing sea, the ports 
 and scuttles were shut fast heard him 
 screaming, muttering, chuckling and laugh- 
 ing; calling of healths and toasts; dying 
 hard! 
 
 " The balustrades 1 " he screamed. 
 " Look to them. See I Three men, their 
 hands stretched out, peering down into the 
 hall; fingers touching. God!" he whis- 
 pered this, yet still we heard "how can 
 dead men stand thus together, gazing over, 
 glancing into dark corners, eyes rolling? 
 See how yellow the mustee's eyes are I But 
 still, all dead ! Dead ! Dead ! Dead 1 Yet 
 there they stand, waiting for us to come in 
 from the garden. Ha ! quick the passado 
 one two in out good I through 
 his midriff . Ha ! Ha ! Ha ! " and he laughed 
 hideously, then went on: "The worms
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 5 
 
 will have a full meal. Or " after a pause, 
 and hissing this: "Was he dead before? 
 Hast run a dead man through ? " 
 
 "Like this all day long-," the captain 
 muttered in my ear, " from the dawn. And 
 now the sun is setting 1 ; see how its gleams 
 light up the hills inland. God's mercy! I 
 hope he dies ere long. I want not his howl- 
 ings through my ship all night. Mr. Cres- 
 pin,"and he laid his hand on my arm, "will 
 you go down to him, to service me ? You 
 are a gentleman. Maybe can soothe him. 
 He is one, too. Will you ? " 
 
 I shrugged my shoulders and hitched 
 my sea cloak tighter round me; then I said: 
 
 " To do you a service yes. Yet I like 
 not the job. Still, I will go," and I put 
 my hand on the brass rail to descend. 
 Then, as I did so, we heard him again 
 a-singing of a song this time. But what a 
 song! And to come from the dying lips 
 of that old, white-haired, reverend-looking 
 man 1 A song about drinkings and carous- 
 ings, of girls' eyes and lips and other 
 charms, which he should have thought no 
 more of for the past two score years 1 and 
 killing of men, and thievings and plunder. 
 Then another change, orders bellowed 
 loudly, as though he trod on deck com-
 
 6 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 mands given to run out guns cutlasses to 
 be ready. Shrieks, whooping and huzzas! 
 
 " He has followed the sea some time in 
 his life," the captain whispered as I de- 
 scended the companion steps. "One can 
 tell that. And I thought him a minister ! " 
 
 I nodded, looking up at him as I went 
 below, then reached the open door of the 
 cabin where the man lay. 
 
 He was stretched out upon his berth, 
 the bedding all dishevelled and tossed 
 beneath him, with, over it, his long white 
 hair, like spun flax, streaming. His coat 
 alone of all his garments was off, so that one 
 saw the massive gold buttons to his satin 
 waistcoat; could observe, too, the richness 
 of his cravat, the fineness of his shirt. His 
 breeches, also, were of satin, black like his 
 waistcoat the stuff of the very best; his 
 buckles to them gold ; his shoes fastened 
 with silver latchets. That he was old other 
 things than his hair showed the white 
 face was drawn and pinched with age, the 
 body lean and attenuated, the fingers almost 
 fleshless, the backs of his hands naught but 
 sinews and shrivelled skin. And they were 
 strange hands, too, for one to gaze upon; 
 white as the driven snow, yet with a thick- 
 ness at the tips of the fingers, and with ill- 
 shapen, coarse-looking nails, all seeming to
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 7 
 
 say that, once, in some far off time, those 
 hands had done hard, rough work. 
 
 By the side of the berth, upon one of the 
 drawers beneath it, pulled out to make a 
 seat, there squatted a mulatto his ser- 
 vant whom he had brought on board with 
 him when we took him into the ship in the 
 Maas. A mulatto, whose brown, muddy 
 looking eyeballs rolled about in terror, as I 
 thought, of his master's coming death, and 
 made me wonder if they had given his dis- 
 tempered brain that idea of the "mustee's 
 yellow eyes," about which he had been 
 lately shrieking. Yet, somehow, I guessed 
 that 'twas not so. 
 
 " How is 't with him now? " I asked the 
 blackamoor, seeing that his master lay quiet 
 for the time being; "is this like to be the 
 end?" 
 
 "Maybe, maybe not," the creature said 
 in reply. "I have seen him as far gone be- 
 fore yet he is alive." 
 
 "How old is he?" 
 
 "I know not. He says he has seventy 
 years." 
 
 "I should say more," I answered. Then 
 Tasked: "Who is he?" 
 
 "The captain has his name." 
 
 " That tells nothing. When he is dead 
 he will be committed to the sea unless we
 
 8 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 reach Cadiz first. And he has goods," cast- 
 ing- my eye on two chests, one above the 
 other, standing- by the cabin bulkhead. 
 "They will have to be consigned some- 
 where. Where is he going?" 
 
 "To Cadiz." 
 
 " Ha ! Well, so am I. He is English ? " 
 
 "Yes he is English." 
 
 'T was evident to me that this black crea- 
 ture meant to tell nothing of his master's 
 affairs for which there was no need to 
 blame him and I desisted from my en- 
 quiries. For, in truth, this old man's affairs 
 were not my concern. If he died he would 
 be tossed into the sea, and that would be 
 the end of him. And if he did not die 
 why still 't was no affair of mine. I was but 
 a passenger, as he was. 
 
 Therefore, I turned me on my heel to 
 quit the cabin, when, to my astonishment, 
 nay, almost my awestruck wonderment, I 
 heard the old man speaking behind me as 
 calmly as though there were no delirium in 
 his brain nor any fever whatever. Perhaps, 
 after all, I thought, 't was but the French 
 brandy and the Geneva he had been drink- 
 ing freely of since we took him on board, 
 and which he brought with him in case 
 bottles, that had given him his delirium,
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 9 
 
 and that the effect was gone now with his 
 last shriekings and ravings. 
 
 But that which caused most my wonder- 
 ment was that he was speaking in the 
 French which I had very well myself. 
 
 "What brings you here, Grandmont?" 
 he asked, his eyes, of a cold grey, fixed on 
 me. 
 
 " So," thinks I, " you are not out of your 
 fever yet, to call me by a name I never heard 
 of." But aloud, I answered: 
 
 "I have taken passage the same as you 
 yourself. And we travel the same road 
 toward Cadiz." 
 
 Meanwhile the negro was a-hushing of 
 him or trying to saying: " Master, mas- 
 ter, you wander. Grandmont is not here. 
 This gentleman is not he"; and angered 
 me, too, even as he said it, by a scornful 
 kind of laugh he gave, as though to signify: 
 " Not anything like him, indeed." 
 
 But the old man took no heed of him 
 pushing him aside with a strength in the 
 white coarse hand which you would not have 
 looked to see in one so spent and leaned a 
 little over the side of the berth, and went on: 
 
 "Have you heard of it, yet, Grandmont?" 
 
 Not knowing what to do, nor what an- 
 swer to make, I shook my head whereon 
 he continued: " Nineteen years of age now,
 
 10 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 if a day. Four years old then two hun- 
 dred crowns' worth of good wood burnt, 
 all burnt a mort o' money I But we 
 have enough left and to serve, ' t is true. A 
 plenty o' money though 'tis soaked in 
 blood. Nineteen years old, and like to be a 
 devil like yourself, Grandmontl" 
 
 "Grandmont is dead," the negro mut- 
 tered. "Drownded dead, master. You 
 know." 
 
 This set the old man off on another tack, 
 doubtless the words "drownded dead " re- 
 calling something to him; and once more 
 he began his chantings going back to the 
 English which were awful to hear, and 
 brought to my mind the idea of a corpse a- 
 singing: 
 
 "Fishes' teeth have eat his eyes; 
 His limbs by fishes torn." 
 
 Then broke off and said: "Where ami? 
 Give me to drink." 
 
 This the negro did, taking from out the 
 drawer he sat upon a bottle of Hungary 
 water, and pouring a draught into a glass, 
 which, when the old man had tasted, set 
 him off shrieking curses. 
 
 "Brandy!" he cried, "Brandy! French 
 brandy, not this filth. Brandy, dog! " and 
 as he spoke he raised his hand and clutched 
 at the other's wool, "If I had you in Mar-
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 11 
 
 tinique " then, exhausted, fell back on 
 
 his pillows and said no more, forgetting- all 
 about the desired drink. 
 
 Now, that night, when I sat with the cap- 
 tain after supper, he being a man who had 
 roamed the world far and wide, and had not 
 always been, as he was now, a carrier of 
 goods only, with sometimes a passenger or 
 two, from London to the ports of France, 
 Spain and Portugal, we talked upon that 
 hoary-headed old sinner lying below in the 
 after-starboard cabin; I telling him all that 
 had passed in my hearing. 
 
 And he, smoking his great pipe, listened 
 attentively, nodding his head every now and 
 again, and muttering much to himself; then 
 said: 
 
 "Spoke about two hundred crowns 'worth 
 of good wood being burnt, eh? That would 
 be at Campeachy. Humph ! So I So ! We 
 have heard about that. Told the black, too, 
 that he wished he had him in Martinique, 
 did he? Also knew Grandmont. Hal 'tis 
 very plain." Then he rose and went to his 
 desk, lifted up the sloping lid and took out a 
 book and read from it I observing very 
 well that it was his log. 
 
 "See," he said, pushing it over to me, 
 " that 's what he calls himself now. Yet 't is 
 no more his name than 'tis mine or yours,"
 
 12 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 Glancing my eye down the column, I came 
 to my own name after a list of things by 
 way of cargo which he had on board, such 
 as a hundred and seventy barrels of potash, 
 sixty bales of hemp, a hundred bales of 
 Russia leather, twenty barrels of salted 
 meat, twenty-eight barrels of whale oil and 
 many other things. Came to my own name, 
 Mervyn Crespin, officer, passenger to Cadiz. 
 Then to the old man's: 
 
 ** John Carstairs, gentleman, with serv- 
 ant, passenger to Cadiz." 
 
 " No more his name than 'tis mine or 
 yours," the captain repeated. 
 
 "What then? "I asked. 
 
 "It might be anything," and again he 
 mused. " Martinique," he went on, " Cam- 
 peachy. A friend of Grandmont's. Let me 
 reflect. It might be John Cuddiford. He 
 was a friend of Grandmont's. It might be 
 Alderly. But no, he was killed, I think, by 
 Captain Nicholas Craf ez of Brentford. Dam- 
 pier, now nay, this one is too old; also 
 William Dampier sailed from the Downs 
 three years ago. I do believe 'tis Cuddi- 
 ford." 
 
 "And who then is Grandmont, Captain? 
 And this Cuddiford or Carstairs?" 
 
 " Ho 1 " said he, " 't is all a history, and 
 had you been sailor, or worn that sword by
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 13 
 
 your side for King- William as you wear it 
 now for Queen Anne, you w r ould have known 
 Grandmont's name. Of a surety you would 
 have done so, had you been sailor." 
 
 "Who are they, then?" 
 
 " Well now, see. Grandmont was for 
 he is dead, drowned coming- back from the 
 Indies in '96 that 's six years agone with 
 a hundred and eighty men, all devils like 
 himself." 
 
 As he said this I started, for his words 
 were much the same as those which the old 
 man had used an hour or so before when he 
 had spoken of something a child, as I 
 guessed that had been four years old, and 
 was now nineteen and "like to be a devil " 
 like himself Grandmont. It seemed cer- 
 tain, therefore, that this man, Grandmont, 
 was a friend in life, and that now there was 
 roaming about somewhere a son who had all 
 the instincts of its father, and who was 
 known to Carstairs, or Cuddiford. 
 
 This made the story of interest to me, 
 and caused me to listen earnestly to the 
 captain's words. 
 
 "Coming- back from the Indies, and not 
 so very long, either, after the French king- 
 had made him a lieutenant of his navy 
 perhaps because he was a villain. He does 
 that now and again. 'T is his way. Look
 
 14 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 at Bart, to wit. There 's a sweet vagabond 
 for you. Has plagued us honest merchants 
 and carriers more than all Tourville's navy. 
 Yet, now, he is an officer, too." 
 
 "But Grandmont, Captain! Grand- 
 mont." 
 
 "Ah! Grandmont. Well, he was a 
 filibuster privateer buccaneer pirate 
 what you will! Burnt up all their woods 
 at Campeachy the old man spake true 
 because the commandant wouldn't pay the 
 ransom he and his crew demanded; also 
 because the commandant said that when he 
 had slaughtered them all, if he did so, he 
 would never find out where their buried 
 wealth was. Then he took a Pink one day 
 with four hundred thousand francs' worth 
 of goods and money on board, and slew 
 every soul in the ship. Tied dead and liv- 
 ing together, back to back, and flung them 
 into the sea. Oh! He was a devil," he 
 concluded. "A wicked villain ! My word! 
 If only some of our ships of war could have 
 caught him." 
 
 "Yet he is dead?" 
 
 "Dead enough, the Lord be praised." 
 
 "And if this is a friend of his this Cud- 
 diford, or Carstairs he must needs be a 
 villain, too." 
 
 "Needs be! Nay, is, for a surety.
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 15 
 
 And, Mr. Crespin," he said, speaking 
 slowly, "you have heard his shrieks and 
 sing-ing-s could you doubt what he has 
 been?" 
 
 "Doubt? No," I answered. "Who 
 could? Yet, I wonder who were the dead 
 men looking- down the stairs, as they came 
 in from the garden." 
 
 " Who? Only a few of their victims. If 
 he and Grandmont worked together they 
 could not count 'em. Well, one is dead; 
 good luck when the other goes too. And, 
 when he does, what a meeting they will 
 have there!" and he pointed downward.
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 SECRET SERVICE. 
 
 It seemed not, however, as though this 
 meeting- were very likely to take place yet, 
 since by the time we were off Cape St. 
 Vincent which was at early dawn of the 
 second morning following the old man's 
 delirium that person seemed to have be- 
 come very much restored. 'Tis true he 
 was still very weak, and kept his berth ; 
 but otherwise seemed well enough. Also 
 all his fever and wanderings were gone, 
 and as he now lay in his bunk reading of 
 many papers which the negro handed to him 
 from the open uppermost chest, he might, 
 indeed, have passed for that same reverend 
 minister which the captain had, at the be- 
 ginning, imagined him to be. 
 
 Both of us the captain because he was 
 the captain, and I because I was the only 
 other passenger had been in and out to see 
 him nowand again and to ask him how he did. 
 Yet, I fear, 't was not charity nor pity that 
 induced eitherof us to these Christian tasks. 
 For the skipper was prompted by, I think, 
 
 16
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 17 
 
 but one desire, namely, to get the man ashore 
 alive out of his ship, and, thereby, to have 
 done with him. He liked not pirates, he 
 said, "neither when met on the high seas, 
 nor when retired from business"; while 
 as for myself, well ! the man fascinated me. 
 He seemed to be, indeed, so scheming- an 
 old villain, and to have such a strange past 
 behind him, that I could not help but be at- 
 tracted. 
 
 Now in these visits which I had paid him 
 at intervals, he had told me that he was on 
 his way to Cadiz, where he had much busi- 
 ness to attend to ; sometimes, he said, in 
 purchasing goods that the galleons brought 
 in from the Indies, sometimes in sending 
 out other goods, and so forth. Also he said 
 which was true enough, as I knew very 
 well the galleons were now due; it was 
 for this reason he was on his way to the 
 south of Spain. 
 
 " So," said the captain, when I repeated 
 this, " the devil can speak truth sure enough 
 when he needs. To wit, it is the truth that 
 the galleons are on their way home. What 
 else has he said to you, Mr. Crespin?" 
 
 "He has asked me what my business 
 may be. " 
 
 "And you have told him?" 
 
 " Nay. I tell no one that, " I replied, * ' It
 
 18 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 is of some consequence, and I talk not of it." 
 Yet here, and with a view to making 1 
 clear this narrative which I am setting 
 down, 'tis necessary that I should state 
 who and what I am, and also the reason why 
 I, Mervyn Crespin, am on my road to Cadiz 
 on board a coasting- vessel, La Motiche 
 Noire once a French ship of merchan- 
 dise, now an English one. She was taken 
 from that nation by some of our own ves- 
 sels of war, sold by public auction, and 
 bought by her present captain, who now is 
 using her in his trade between England 
 and Holland, and Holland and Spain a 
 risky trade, too, seeing that war has broken 
 out again, that England and Austria are 
 fighting the French and Spanish, and that 
 the sea swarms with privateers ; yet, be- 
 cause of the risk, a profitable trade, too, 
 for those who can make their journeys un- 
 caught by the enemy. 
 However, to myself. 
 I am, let me say, therefore, an officer of 
 the Cuirassiers, or Fourth Horse, which, a 
 short time before the late King William's 
 death, has been serving in the Netherlands 
 under the partial command of Ginkell, 
 Earl of Athlone. The rank I hold is that 
 of lieutenant aspiring naturally to far 
 greater things and already I have had
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 19 
 
 the honor of taking- part in several sieges, 
 amongst others Kaiserswerth, with which 
 the war commenced, as well as in many 
 skirmishes. Now, 'twas at this place, where 
 my Lord the Earl of Athlone commanded, 
 that I had the extreme good fortune, as I 
 shall ever deem it, of being wounded, and 
 thereby brought under his Lordship's no- 
 tice. As for the wound, 't was nothing, one 
 of M. Bouffler's lancers having- run me 
 through the fleshy part of my arm, and it 
 was soon healed ; but the earl happened to 
 see the occurrence, as also the manner in 
 which I cut the man down a second later, 
 and from that moment he took notice of 
 me sent for me to his quarters when the 
 siege was over, spoke with commendation 
 of my riding- and my sword play, and asked 
 me of my family, he being one who, al- 
 though a Dutchman who came only into 
 England with his late master, knew much 
 of our gentry and noble homes. 
 
 "Of the Crespins of Kent, eh?" he 
 said. " The Crespins a fair, good family. 
 I knew Sir Nicholas, who fell at the Boyne. 
 What was he to you ? " 
 
 "My uncle, sir. The late king- g-ave 
 me my guidon in the Cuirassiers because 
 of his service." 
 
 "Good! He could do no less. Your
 
 20 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 uncle was a solid man trustworthy. If 
 he said he would do a thing-, he did it or 
 died. 'Twas thus in Ireland. You re- 
 member?" 
 
 "I remember, sir. He said he would 
 take prisoner Tyrconnel with his own 
 hands, and would have done it had not a 
 bullet found his brain." 
 
 "I do believe he would. Are you as 
 trustworthy as he ? " 
 
 "Try me," and I looked him straight 
 in the face. 
 
 "Maybe I will. A little later," and even 
 as he spoke fell a-musing, while he drank 
 some schnapps, which was his native drink, 
 and on which, they say, these Hollanders 
 are weaned from a little glass. Then soon 
 spake again: 
 
 "What languages have you? Any be- 
 sides your own?" 
 
 "I have the French. Also some Span- 
 ish. My grandmother was of Spanish 
 descent, and dwelt with us in Kent. She 
 taught me." 
 
 "Humph ! " And again he mused, then 
 again went on, though now doubtless to 
 see if my French was any good, and to try 
 me he spoke in that tongue. 
 
 "Could you pass for a Frenchman,
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 21 
 
 think you, amongst those who are not 
 French, say in Spain itself?" 
 
 " Yes, amongst those who are not 
 French, I am sure I could. Even amongst 
 those who are French, if I gave out that I 
 was, say, a Dutchman speaking with an 
 accent," and I laughed, for I could not help 
 it. The earl had a bottle nose and eyes 
 like a lobster's, and made a queer grimace 
 when I said this boldly. Then he, too, 
 laughed. 
 
 "So I 've an accent, eh, when I speak 
 French ? You mean that ? " 
 
 " I mean, sir, that however well one 
 speaks a language not their own, there is 
 some accent that betrays them to those 
 whose native tongue they are speaking. A 
 Dutchman, a Swiss, most Englishmen and 
 many Germans can all speak French, and 
 'twould pass outside France for French. 
 But a native of Touraine, or a Parisian, or 
 any subject of King L/ouis could not be 
 deceived." 
 
 "True. Yet you or I could pass, say in 
 Spain, for Frenchmen." 
 
 "I am sure." 
 
 "Humph! Well, we will see. And, 
 perhaps, I will, as you say, try you. Only 
 if I do, 't will be a risky service for you. A 
 lieutenant-colonelcy or a gibbet. A regi-
 
 22 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 ment or a bullet. How would you like 
 that?" 
 
 "I risk the bullet every moment that the 
 Cuirassiers are in action, and there is no 
 lieutenant-colonelcy in the other scale if I 
 escape. I prefer the 'risky service,' when 
 there is one. As for the gibbet; well, one 
 death is the same as another, pretty much, 
 and the gibbet will do as well as an)' other, 
 so long- as 't is not at Tyburn which would 
 be discreditable." 
 
 ** You are a man of metal ! " the Dutch- 
 man exclaimed, "and I like you, although 
 you don't approve of my accent. You will 
 do. I want a man of action, not a cour- 
 tier " 
 
 "I meant no rudeness," I interposed. 
 
 "Nor offered any. Tush! man, we 
 Dutch are not courtiers, either. But we 
 are staunch. And I will give you a chance 
 of being 1 so. Come here again to-morrow 
 night. You shall have a throw for that 
 colonelcy or that gibbet." 
 
 " My Lord, I am most grateful to you." 
 
 "Good day. Come to-morrow nig-ht. 
 Now I must sleep." And he began to divest 
 himself of his wig 1 and clothes, upon which I 
 bowed and withdrew. 
 
 Be sure I was there the next nig-ht at the 
 same time, exchanging- my guard with Ber-
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 23 
 
 tram Saxby, who, alas ! was killed shortly 
 afterward at Ruremonde. The day I had 
 passed in sleeping 1 much, for I had a sus- 
 picion that it was like enough Ginkell would 
 send me on the service he had spoken of 
 that very night; might, indeed, order me to 
 take horse within the next hour, and I was 
 desirous of starting fresh of beginning 
 well. He was a rough creature, this Dutch 
 general or English, rather, now ! and 
 would be as apt as not to give me my in- 
 structions as I entered the room, and bid 
 me be miles away ere midnight struck. 
 Therefore I went prepared. Also my 
 horse was ready in its stall. 
 
 He was not alone when I did enter his 
 quarters. Instead, he was seated at a table 
 covered with papers and charts, on the 
 other side of which there sat another gen- 
 tleman, a man of about fifty, of strikingly 
 handsome features; a man who, in his day, 
 I guessed, must have played havoc with 
 women's hearts might, indeed, I should 
 think, have done so now had he been in- 
 clined that way. Those soft, rounded feat- 
 ures, and those eyes, themselves soft and 
 liquid I saw them clearly when he lifted 
 them to scan my face! would, I guessed, 
 make him irresistible to the fair sex. 
 
 He spoke first after I had saluted the
 
 24 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 Earl of Athlone and I observed that, intui- 
 tively, he also returned my salute by abend 
 of his head, so that I felt sure he was used 
 to receive such courtesies wherever he 
 might be and in whatever company then 
 he said to the Dutchman, in a voice that, 
 though somewhat high, was as musical as a 
 chime of bells. 
 
 "This is the gentleman, Ginkell?" 
 "This is the gentleman. A lieutenant 
 of the Fourth Horse." 
 
 "Sir," said the other, "be seated," and 
 he pointed with a beautifully white hand to 
 a chair by the table. " I desire some little 
 conversation with you. I am the Earl of 
 Marlborough. " And as he mentioned his 
 name he put out that white hand again and 
 offered it to me, I taking it with all imagin- 
 able respect. He was at this time the most 
 conspicuous subject of any sovereign in the 
 world ; his name was known from one end 
 of Europe to the other. Also it was the 
 most feared, although he had not yet put 
 the crowning point to his glory nor risen to 
 the highest rank for which he was destined. 
 But he was very near his zenith now his 
 greatness almost at its height and, I have 
 often thought since, there was something 
 within him at this time which told him it 
 was close at hand. For he had an imper-
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 25 
 
 turbable calmness, an unfailing- quiet gra- 
 sciousness, as I witnessed afterward on many 
 occasions, which alone could be possessed 
 by one who felt sure of himself. In every 
 word he spoke, in his every action, he pro- 
 claimed that he was certain of, and master 
 of, his destiny ! 
 
 "My Lord Athlone tells me," he con- 
 tinued, when I was seated, the soft voice 
 flowing- musically, "that you have the fit- 
 ting- aspirations of a soldier desire a reg- 
 iment, and are willing- to earn one." 
 
 I bowed and muttered that to succeed 
 in my career was my one desire, and that if 
 I could win success I would spare no effort. 
 Then he went on: 
 
 "You speak French. That is g-ood. 
 Also Spanish. That, too, is g-ood. Like- 
 wise, I hear, can disg-uise your identity as 
 an Englishman if necessary. That is well, 
 also. Mr. -" and he took up a piece of 
 paper lying before him, on which I supposed 
 my name was written, "Mr. Crespin, I 
 we are going to employ you on secret 
 service. Are you willing to undertake it?" 
 
 "I am willing, my Lord, to do anything 
 that may advance my career. Anything 
 that may become a soldier." 
 
 "That is as it should be. The light in 
 which to regard matters anything that
 
 26 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 may become a soldier. That before all. 
 Well, to be short, we are going- to send you 
 to Cadiz." 
 
 "To Cadiz, my Lord!" I said, unable to 
 repress some slight feeling- of astonish- 
 ment. 
 
 "Yes. To Cadiz, where you will not find 
 another English soldier. Still that will, 
 perhaps, not matter very much, since we 
 do not desire you when there to appear as a 
 soldier yourself. You are granted leave 
 from your regiment indefinitely while on 
 this mission, and, at the first at least, you 
 will be a private gentleman. Also, when 
 at Cadiz, you will please to be anything but 
 an English gentleman." 
 
 "Or a Dutch one," put in the other earl 
 with a guttural laugh. " Therefore, as- 
 sume not the Dutch accent." 
 
 Evidently my Lord Marlborough did not 
 know of the joke underlying this remark, 
 since he went on: 
 
 "As a Frenchman you will have the best 
 chance. Or, perhaps, as a Swiss merchant. 
 But that we leave to you. What you have 
 to do is to get to Cadiz, and, when there, to 
 pass as some one, neither English nor 
 Dutch, who is engaged in ordinary mer- 
 cantile pursuits. Then when the fleet 
 comes in "
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 27 
 
 "The fleet, my Lord!" 
 
 "Yes. The English fleet. I should 
 tell you I must make myself clear. A 
 large fleet under Admirals Rooke and Hop- 
 son, as well as some Dutch admirals, are 
 about to besiege Cadiz. They will shortly 
 sail from Portsmouth, as we have advices, 
 and it is almost a certainty that they will 
 succeed in gaining 1 possession of the island, 
 which is Cadiz. That will be of immense 
 service to us, since, while we are fighting 
 King Louis in the north, the Duke of Or- 
 mond, who goes out in that fleet in com- 
 mand of between thirteen and fourteen 
 thousand men, will be able to attack the 
 Duke of Anjou, or, as he now calls himself, 
 King Philip V of Spain, in the south. But 
 that is not all. We are not sending you 
 there to add one more strong right arm to 
 His Grace's forces we could utilize that 
 here, Mr. Crespin,"and he bowed court- 
 eously, "but because we wish you to con- 
 vey a message to him and the admirals." 
 
 I, too, bowed again, and expressed by 
 my manner that I was listening most at- 
 tentively, while the earl continued : 
 
 "The message is this: We have re- 
 ceived information from a sure source that 
 the galleons now on their way back to Spain 
 from the Indies have altered their plan of
 
 28 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 arrival because they, in their turn, have 
 been informed in some way, by some spy 
 or traitor, that this expedition will sail from 
 England. Therefore they will not go near 
 Cadiz. But the spot to which they will pro- 
 ceed is Vigo, in the north. Now, "and he 
 rose as he spoke, and stood in front of the 
 empty fireplace, " your business will be to 
 convey this intelligence to Sir George Rooke 
 and those under him, and I need not tell 
 you that you are like enough to encounter 
 dangers in so conveying it. Are you pre- 
 pared to undertake them?"
 
 CHAPTER HI. 
 
 I FIND A SHIP. 
 
 "You see," the Earl of Marlborough 
 continued, while Ginkell and I stood on 
 either side of him, " that neither your risks 
 nor your difficulties will be light. To be- 
 g-in with, you must pass as a Frenchman, 
 or, at least, not an Englishman, for Cadiz, 
 like all Spanish ports and towns, will not 
 permit of any being- there. Therefore, 
 your only way to get into it is to be no Eng- 
 lishman. Now, how, Mr. Crespin, would 
 you suggest reaching the place and obtain- 
 ing entry ? It is far away." 
 
 I thought a moment on this ; then I said : 
 
 "But Portugal, my lord, is not closed to 
 us. That country has not yet thrown in 
 its lot with either France or Austria." 
 
 " That is true. And the southern front- 
 ier of Portugal is very near to Spain to 
 Cadiz. You mean that?" 
 
 "Yes. I could proceed to the frontier 
 of Portugal, could perhaps get by sea to 
 Tavira then, as a Frenchman, cross into 
 Spain, and so to Cadiz."
 
 30 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 He pondered a little on this, then said : 
 "Yes, the idea is feasible. Only, how to 
 go to Tavira? " and he bent over a chart ly- 
 ing- on the table, and regarded it fixedly as 
 he spoke. " How to do that?" running- his 
 finger down the coast line of Portugal as he 
 spoke, and then up again as far north as 
 the Netherlands, stopping- at Rotterdam. 
 
 "All traffic is closed," he muttered, "be- 
 tween Spain and Holland now, otherwise 
 there would be countless vessels passing 
 between Rotterdam and Cadiz which would 
 doubtless put you ashore on the Portuguese 
 coast. But now now there will scarce 
 be any." 
 
 Ginkell had been called away by one of 
 his aides-de-camp as his lordship bent over 
 the chart and mused upon it, or, doubtless, 
 his astute Dutch mind mig-ht have suggest- 
 ed some way out of the difficulty that stared 
 us in the face ; but even as we pondered 
 over the sheet an idea occurred to me. 
 
 " My Lord, " I said, " may I suggest this : 
 That I should make my way to Rotterdam 
 to begin with by some chance there may 
 be a ship going- south through some part 
 of the bay at least. But even if it is not so 
 if all traffic is stopped why then I could 
 at least get to England, might arrive there 
 before the fleet sails for Cadiz."
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 31 
 
 "Nay," his Lordship interrupted; 
 "you would be too late. They may have 
 sailed by now." 
 
 "I know not what further to propose, 
 my Lord." 
 
 "We must risk it," he said, promptly. 
 "Chance your finding- some vessel by 
 which you can proceed, even if only part of 
 the way. The hope is a poor one, yet 'tis 
 worth catching- at. King- Louis wants the 
 money those g-alleons are bringing- ; his 
 coffers are empty ; he hardly knows where 
 to turn for the wherewithal to pay his and 
 his grandson's men ; we want it, too, if 
 we can g-et it. Above all, we want to pre- 
 vent the wealth falling- into the hands of 
 Spain, which now means France. Mr. 
 Crespin, on an almost forlorn chance you 
 must start for Rotterdam." 
 
 " When shall I g-o, my Lord ? To-nig-ht ? 
 At once?" 
 
 " You are ready ? " 
 
 "lam ready." 
 
 "Good! You have the successful sol- 
 dier's qualities. Yes, you must g-o at once 
 at once." 
 
 ********* 
 
 " That nig-ht I was on the road for Rot- 
 terdam, which is fifty leag-ues and more to 
 the northeast of Kaiserswerth, so that I
 
 32 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 had a fair good ride before me ere I 
 reached what might prove to be the true 
 outset of my journey. 
 
 I did not go alone, however, since at 
 this time I rode in the company of my Lord 
 Marlborough, who was returning to the 
 Hague, to which he had come in March as 
 Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipo- 
 tentiary to the States General, as well as 
 Captain General of all Her Majesty's forces, 
 both at home and abroad. Also, his Lord- 
 ship had been chosen to command the 
 whole of the allied forces combined against 
 the King of France and his grandson, the 
 King of Spain, whom we regarded only 
 as the Duke of Anjou ; and he was now 
 making all preparations for that great cam- 
 paign, which was already opened, and was 
 soon to be pushed on with extreme vigour 
 and with such success that at last the 
 power and might of Louis were quite 
 crushed and broken. This concerns not 
 me, however, at present. 
 
 Nor did my long ride in company with 
 his Lordship and a brilliant staff offer any 
 great incident. Suffice it, therefore, if I 
 say that on the evening of the second day 
 from my setting out, and fifty hours after I 
 had quitted Kaiserswerth, I rode into Rot- 
 terdam, and, finding a bed for the night at
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 33 
 
 the "Indian Coffee House, "put up there. 
 
 This I did not do, however, without some 
 difficulty, since, at this time, Rotterdam was 
 full of all kinds of people from almost every 
 part of Europe, excepting- always France 
 and Spain, against the natives of which 
 countries very strict laws for their expul- 
 sion had been passed since the declaration 
 of war which was made conjointly by the 
 Queen, the Emperor and the States General, 
 against those two countries on the 4th of 
 May of this year, 1702. 
 
 But of other peoples the town was, as I 
 say, full. In the river there lay coasting- 
 vessels, deep sea vessels, merchant ships, 
 indeed every kind of craft almost that goes 
 out to sea, and belonging to England, to Hol- 
 land, to Denmark and other lands. Also 
 there were to be seen innumerable French 
 vessels; but these were prizes which had 
 been dragged in after being taken prisoners 
 at sea, and would be disposed of shortly, as 
 well as their goods and merchandise, by 
 the Dyke-Grauf, or high bailiff. And of 
 several of these ships, the captains and the 
 seamen, as well as in many cases the pas- 
 sengers who were belated on their journeys, 
 were all ashore helping to fill up the inns 
 and taverns. Also troops were quartered 
 about everywhere, these being not only the
 
 34 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 Dutch, or natives, who were preparing- to 
 go forward to the Hague and thence to 
 wheresoever my Lord Marlborough should 
 direct, but also many of our own, brought 
 over by our great ships of war to Helvets- 
 luys, and, themselves, on their way to serve 
 under his command. 
 
 The room, therefore, which I got at the 
 Indian Coffee House, was none of the best, 
 yet, since I was a soldier, I made shift with 
 it very well, and in other ways the place was 
 convenient enough for my purpose. It may 
 be, indeed, that I could scarce have selected 
 a better house at which to stop, seeing that 
 the "ordinary" below was the one most 
 patronized by the merchant captains who 
 flocked in daily for their dinner, and for the 
 conversation and smoking and drinking 
 which succeeded that meal. 
 
 And now, so that I shall arrive as soon 
 as may be at the description of all that be- 
 fell me, and was the outcome of the mission 
 which the Earl of Marlborough confided to 
 me, let me set down at once that it was not 
 long before I, by great good chance, stum- 
 bled on that very opportunity which I de- 
 sired, and which was so necessary to the ac- 
 complishment of what his Lordship wanted. 
 
 This is how it happened: 
 
 After the ordinary, at which I myself
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 35 
 
 took a seat every day at one o'clock, the 
 drinking- and the smoking- and the conver- 
 sation began, as I have said, and none, how- 
 ever strang-e they might be at first to the 
 customers of the place, could be there long- 
 without the making- of acquaintances; for 
 all the talk ran on the one subject in which 
 all were interested and absorbed, namely, 
 the now declared war and the fighting 
 which had been done, and was also to do; 
 on the stoppage to trade and ruin to busi- 
 ness that must occur, and such like. And 
 I can tell you that many an honest sea cap- 
 tain and many a burly Rotterdam burgher 
 drank down his schnapps or his potato 
 brandy or seidel of brown beer, as his 
 taste might be, while heaving also of 
 sighs, or muttering pious exclamations or 
 terrible curses also as his taste might 
 direct at the threatened ruin, and also at 
 the fear which gripped his heart, that 
 soon he would not have the wherewithal 
 left for even these gratifications, humble as 
 they were. 
 
 "Curse the war!" said one, to whom I 
 had spoken more than once. He was, in- 
 deed, my captain of La Mouche IVbire, 
 in whose ship you have already found me ; 
 "it means desolation for me and mine if it 
 lasts, hunger and shoelessness for my wife
 
 36 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 and little ones at home in Shadwell. Above 
 all I curse the ambition of the French king-, 
 who has plunged all Europe into it; placed 
 all honest men 'twixt hawk and buzzard, as 
 to fortune. Curse him, I say." 
 
 "Ay, gurse him ! " chimed in a fat Friess- 
 lander captain, who sat at his elbow. 
 "Gurse him, I say, too. I was now choost 
 maging for Chava; should have peen out of 
 the riffer mit meine vreight if his vleet had 
 not gome along- mit that von g-ursed Chean 
 Part in it, ven I had to put pack. And here 
 I am mit all mein goots " 
 
 "And here am I, mit all mein! " broke 
 in my captain, a-laughing- in spite of himself, 
 "yet yet I know not if I will not make a 
 push for it. I think ever of the home at Shad- 
 well and the little ones. I could not abide to 
 think also of their calling- for bread, and of 
 their mother having- none to give them. 
 Yet 't will come to that ere long. And the 
 war may last for years." 
 
 "Where were you for?" I asked him, 
 using indeed what had become a set phrase 
 in my mouth since I had consorted with all 
 these sailors. For by enquiring of each one 
 with whom I conversed what his destina- 
 tion had been, or would be if he had cour- 
 age to risk the high seas outside, I thought 
 that at last I might strike upon one whose
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 37 
 
 way was mine. For all were not afraid to 
 go forth; indeed there was scarcely a dark 
 night in which one or two did not get down 
 the river and sneak out into the open, think- 
 ing- that, when there, there was a chance of 
 escaping the French ships of war and pri- 
 vateers and of reaching their destination, 
 while by remaining here there was no 
 chance of earning a brass farthing. And I 
 had known of several ships going out since 
 I had been in Rotterdam, only they were of 
 no use to me. One was bound for Arch- 
 angel, another one for the Indies, a third 
 for our colony of Massachusetts. 
 
 "I," said my captain, whose name I 
 knew afterward to be Tandy. "I? Oh, I was 
 freighted for Cadiz. But of course, that 
 can never be now. Yet if I could but get 
 away I might do much with my goods. At 
 Lisbon they would sell well, or even farther 
 south. Though, 't is true, there 's not 
 much money below that till one comes to 
 Spain." 
 
 Though I had thought the time must 
 come when I should hear one of these sail- 
 ors say that Cadiz was, or had been, his 
 road (I knew that if it did not come soon 
 'twould be no good for me, and I might as 
 well make my way back to my regiment), 
 yet now, when I did so hear it, I almost
 
 38 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 started with joyful surprise. Yet even in 
 so hearing-, what had I gained? The cap- 
 tain had but said that at one time, before 
 the declaration of hostilities, he had been 
 ready to sail for Cadiz. He did not say 
 that at this moment almost three months 
 later he was still likely to go. Instead, 
 had said it could never be now. 
 
 But for it meant much to me! my 
 heart beat a little faster as I asked, leaning 
 across the beer and spirit-slopped table to 
 him: 
 
 "Do you ever on your cruises carry 
 passengers ? " 
 
 He g-ave me a quick glance. I read it to 
 mean that he would be glad to know what 
 my object could be in such a question, put 
 seriously and in a somewhat low tone, as 
 though not intended for other people's 
 ears. Then he said: 
 
 "Oh ! ay ! I carry 'em, when I can get 
 'em, if they will pay fairly. But who do 
 you think would trust themselves aboard a 
 coaster now, in such times as these, unless 
 she was under convoy of one of the queen's 
 ships in company with others? " 
 
 "I would," I replied, leaning even a 
 little more forward than before, and speak- 
 ing in a still lower tone. "I would, to get
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 39 
 
 as near to Cadiz as might be. And pay 
 well, too." 
 
 He did not speak for a moment ; instead, 
 he glanced his eye over me as though scan- 
 ning my outward gear for proof of what I 
 had said as to paying handsomely. Yet I 
 did not fear this scrutiny, for I was well 
 enough appareled at all points, having when 
 I left Venloo put off my uniform and donned 
 a very fair riding suit of blue cloth, well 
 faced and passemented ; also my plain sword 
 and wig were of the best, such as befitted a 
 gentleman. 
 
 "Pay well," he said, when he had con- 
 cluded this inspection, " pay well. Humph ! 
 That might induce me, since I am like 
 enough to lose my goods ere I sight Cape 
 Finisterre. Pay well. You mean it? Well, 
 now see! What would you pay? Come. A 
 fancy price ? To be put as near Cadiz as 
 can be compassed. And no questions 
 asked," and he winked at me so that I won- 
 dered what he took me for. Later on I 
 found that he supposed me to be one of the 
 many spies in the pay of France, who, be- 
 cause they had both the English and French 
 tongue, were continually passing from one 
 part of the continent of Europe to another. 
 
 "As to the questions," I replied, "you 
 might ask as many as you desired. They
 
 40 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 would not be answered. As to the pay, 
 what will you take ? " 
 
 He thoiig-ht a moment, and again his eye 
 ranged over my habiliments; then he said, 
 sharply : 
 
 "A hundred guineas. Fifty down, on 
 the nail, the rest at the end of the journey. 
 You to take all risks. That is, I mean, even 
 though we get no further than the mouth of 
 the Scheldt which is like enough. Say, 
 will you give it ? " 
 
 " 'T is, indeed, a fancy price, yet, on con- 
 ditions, yes," I answered promptly. 
 
 " Those conditions being " 
 
 " That you weigh within twenty-four 
 hours ; that if we are chased you run, or 
 even fight, till there is no further hope, and 
 that if we escape capture you approach to 
 the nearest point to Cadiz possible. Tavira 
 to be that point." 
 
 He got up and went out of the door into 
 the street, and I saw him looking up into the 
 heavens at the clouds passing beneath the 
 sun. Then he came back and resumed his 
 seat, after which he said : 
 
 "If the wind keeps as 'tis now I will 
 weigh ere twenty-four hours are past. The 
 conditions to be as you say. And the fifty 
 guineas to be in my hands ere we up anchor. 
 They," he added, half to himself, "will be
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 41 
 
 something- for the home even though I lose 
 my ship." 
 
 And this being- settled and all arrange- 
 ments concluded, we went off in his boat, 
 which was lying at the steps of the Boom- 
 jes, to see the ship. Then, I having select- 
 ed my cabin out of two which he had unoccu- 
 pied, returned to the coffee house to write 
 my Lord Marlborough word of what I had 
 done, to dispose of my horse which I was 
 sorry enough to do, since it was a good, 
 faithful beast that had carried me well ; yet 
 there was no use in keeping it, I not know- 
 ing if I should ever see Rotterdam again 
 to make one or two other preparations, and 
 to write to my mother at home. 
 
 As to the hundred guineas great as the 
 demand was, I felt justified in paying it, 
 since, if I succeeded in my task, the result 
 might be splendid for England. Also I had 
 a sufficiency of money with me, the earl 
 having ordered two hundred guineas to be 
 given me out of the regimental chest (which 
 was pretty full, seeing that at Venloo eight 
 great chests of French gold were taken 
 possession of by us on gaining the town), 
 and had also given me bills for three hun- 
 dred more guineas, signed by his own hand, 
 which the money changers would be only 
 too glad to pay anywhere. And, besides
 
 42 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 this, I had some money of my own, and 
 should have more from the sale of the horse. 
 
 There remains one thing 1 , however, to 
 mention, which I have almost forgot to set 
 down, namely, that at the Indian Coffee 
 House I had given my name accurately, his 
 Lordship, who was perfectly acquainted 
 with France indeed, he had once served 
 her under Turenne, in his capacity of colo- 
 nel of the "English Regiment" sent out by 
 King Charles the Second having said that 
 Crespin was as much a French as an Eng- 
 lish name. And although no questions had 
 as yet been asked as to what my business 
 was, there being, indeed, none who had any 
 right or title to so ask, I had resolved that, if 
 necessary, I would do this: namely, here 
 in Holland I would be English, since, at the 
 time, and we being 1 allies, it was almost one 
 and the same thing- ; and that in Spain I 
 would be French, which was also at the 
 period one and the same thing-. And if we 
 were to be captured by any of Louis' priva- 
 teers or ships of war also I should be French, 
 in that case possibly a Canadian, to account 
 for any strangeness in my accent. 
 
 And with this all fixed in my mind 
 I made my preparations for g-oing to sea in 
 La Mouche Noire.
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 AN ESCAPE. 
 
 The wind shifted never a point, so that, 
 ere sunset the next day, we were well down 
 the river and nearing the mouth, while al- 
 ready ahead of us we could see the waves 
 of the North Sea tumbling- about. Also, we 
 could see something- else, that we could 
 have done very well without, namely, the 
 topmasts of a great frigate lying- about 
 three miles off the coast, or rather cruising 
 about and keeping- off and on, the vessel 
 being- doubtless one of Louis' warships, bent 
 on intercepting- anything- that came out of 
 the river. 
 
 "Yet," said Captain Tandy, as he stood 
 on the poop and reg-arded her throug-h his 
 perspective glass, "she will not catch us. 
 Let but the night fall, and out we go, while, 
 thanks to the Frenchman who built our 
 little barky, we can keep so well in that she 
 can never come anear us." 
 
 "She can come near enough, though, to 
 send a round shot or two into our side," I 
 hazarded, "if she sees our lights." 
 
 43
 
 44 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 "She won't see our lights," the captain 
 made answer, and again he indulged in that 
 habit which seemed a common one with 
 him he winked at me; a steady, solemn 
 kind of a wink, that, properly understood, 
 conveyed a good deal. And, having fa- 
 voured me with it, he gave orders that the 
 light sail under which we had come down the 
 river should be taken in, and, this done, we 
 lay off the little isle of Rosenberg, which 
 here breaks the Maas in two, until night- 
 fall. 
 
 And now it was that Tandy gave me a 
 piece of information which, at first, I re- 
 ceived with anything but satisfaction ; the 
 information, to wit, that at the last moment 
 almost at eleven o'clock in the morning, 
 and before I had come on board he had 
 been fortunate enough to get another pas- 
 senger, this passenger being the man Car- 
 stairs or Cuddiford, as he came to con- 
 sider .him whom, at the opening of this 
 narrative, you have seen in a delirium. 
 
 "I could not refuse the chance, Mr. 
 Crespin," he said, for he knew my name by 
 now. "Things are too ill with me, owing 
 to this accursed fresh war, for me to throw 
 guineas away. So when his blackamoor 
 accosted me at the 'Indian' and said that he 
 heard I was going a voyage south God,
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 45 
 
 He knows how these things leak out, since 
 I had never spoke a word of my intention, 
 though some of the men, or the ship's chan- 
 dler, of whom I bought last night, may have 
 done so and would I take his master and 
 him? I was impelled to do it! There are 
 the wife and the children at home." 
 
 "And have you got another hundred 
 guineas from him?" I asked. 
 
 "Ay, for him and the black. But they 
 will not trouble you. The old gentleman 
 who seems to be something like a minis- 
 ter tells me he is not well, and will not 
 quit his cabin. The negro will berth near 
 him ; they will not interfere with you." 
 
 "Do they know there is another pas- 
 senger aboard?" 
 
 "I have not spoken to the old man; 
 maybe, however, some of the sailors may 
 have told the servant. Yet none know 
 your name ; but I it can be kept secret 
 an you wish." And again he winked at 
 me, thinking, of course, as he had done be- 
 fore, that my business was of a ticklish 
 nature, as indeed it was, though not quite 
 that which he supposed. Nay, he felt very 
 sure it must be so, since otherwise he 
 would have got no hundred guineas out of 
 me for such a passage. 
 
 "I do not wish it known, " I said. "It
 
 46 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 must be kept secret. Also my country. 
 There must be no talking-." 
 
 "Never fear," he replied. "I know 
 nothing-. And I do not converse with the 
 men, most of whom are Hollanders, since I 
 had to pick them up in a hurry. As for the 
 old man, you need not see him ; and, if you 
 do, you can keep your own counsel, I 
 take it." 
 
 I answered that I could very well do 
 that ; after which the captain left me 
 for now the nig-ht had come upon us, dark 
 and dense, except for the stars, and we 
 were about to run out into the open. But 
 even as I watched the men making- sail, 
 and felt the little ship running- through the 
 water beneath me I could soon hear her 
 fore foot gliding- through it with a sharp 
 ripple that resembled the slitting of silk 
 I wished that those other passengers had 
 not come aboard, that I could have made 
 the cruise alone. 
 
 Yet we were aboard, he and I, and there 
 was no help for it ; it must be endured. 
 But still I could not help wondering what 
 any old minister should want to be making 
 such a journey as this for ; especially won- 
 dered, also, why he should be attended by 
 a black servant ; and why, again, it should
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 47 
 
 be worth his while to pay a hundred 
 guineas for the passage. 
 
 But you know now as well as I do that 
 this man was no minister, but rather, if 
 Tandy's surmises were right, some villain- 
 ous old filibuster who had lived through 
 evil days and known evil spirits ; my medi- 
 tations are, therefore, of no great import. 
 Rather let me get on to what was the out- 
 come of my journey. 
 
 When we were at sea we showed no light 
 at all ; no ! not at foremast, main or mizzen; 
 so that I very well understood now why the 
 captain had winked as he said that the 
 Frenchman, if she was that, would not see 
 us ; and especially I understood it when, on 
 going below, I found that the cabin windows 
 were fastened with dead lights so that no 
 ray could steal out from them. Also, the 
 hatches were over the companions so that 
 neither could any light ascend from below. 
 In truth, as we slapped along under the stiff 
 northeast breeze that blew off the Holland 
 coast, we seemed more like some dark fly- 
 ing spectre of the night than a ship, and I 
 could not but wonder to myself what we 
 should be taken for if seen by any passer-by. 
 Yet, had I only known, there were at that 
 time hundreds of ships passing about in all 
 these waters in the same manner French
 
 48 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 ships avoiding 1 the English war vessels, and 
 English and Dutch avoiding- the French 
 war vessels ; and which, perhaps, it was 
 full as well I did not know sometimes two 
 of them came into contact with each other, 
 after which neither was ever more heard 
 of. Only, in different ports there were 
 weeping women and children left, who 
 sometimes for years! prayed for the day 
 to come when the wanderers might return, 
 they never knowing that, instead of those 
 poor toilers of the sea having been made 
 prisoners (as they hoped) who would at last 
 be exchanged, they were lying at the bot- 
 tom of the sea. 
 
 " ' T is a gay minister, at any rate, " I said 
 to Captain Tandy when I returned to the 
 deck for all was so stuffy down below, 
 owing- to the closing- up of every ingress for 
 the fresh air, that I could not remain there 
 "and he at least seems not to mind the 
 heat." 
 
 "What is he doing-, then?" the captain 
 asked. 
 
 "He is singing- a little," I replied, "and 
 through the half open door of his cabin one 
 may hear the clinking- of bottle against glass. 
 A merry heart." 
 
 " The fiend seize his mirth ! I hope he 
 will not make too much turmoil, nor set the
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 49 
 
 ship afire. If he does we shall be seen easy 
 enough." 
 
 I hoped so, too, and as each night the old 
 man waxed more noisy and the clink of the 
 bottle was heard continuously until at last 
 his drinking culminated as I have written 
 the fear which the captain had expressed 
 took great hold of me, so that I could scarce 
 sleep at all. Yet those fears were not real- 
 ized, the Lord be praised! or I should scarce- 
 ly be penning this narrative now. 
 
 The first night passed and, as 't was sum- 
 mer, the dawn soon came, by which time we 
 were running a little more out to sea, though 
 since to our regret we saw that the frigate 
 was on our beam instead of being left far 
 behind, as we had hoped would be the case 
 we now sailed under false colours. There- 
 fore at our peak there flew at this time the 
 lilies of France, and not our own English 
 flag. Yet 't was necessary imperative, in- 
 deed that such should be the case if we 
 would escape capture. And even those de- 
 spised lilies might not save us from that. If 
 the frigate, which we knew by this time to 
 be a ship of war, since her sides were 
 pierced three tiers deep for cannon, and on 
 her deck we could observe soldiers, sus- 
 pected for a moment those colours to be false 
 she would slap a shot at us ; the first, per-
 
 50 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 haps, across our bows only, but the second 
 into our waist, or, if that missed, then the 
 third, which would doubtless do our office 
 for us. 
 
 At present, however, she did nothing-, 
 only held on steadily on her course, which 
 nevertheless was ominous enough, for this 
 action told plainly that she had seen us leave 
 the river, or she would have remained luffing 
 about there still. And, also, she must have 
 known we were not French, for what 
 French ship would have been allowed to 
 come out of the Maas as we had come ? 
 
 She did nothing-, I have said ; yet was not 
 that sleuth-like following 1 of hers some- 
 thing"? Did it not expound the thoughts of 
 her captain as plainly as though he had ut- 
 tered them in so many words? Did it not 
 tell that he was in doubt as to who and what 
 we were; that he set off against the sus- 
 picious fact of our having quitted the river, 
 which bristled with the enemies of France, 
 the other facts, namely, that our ship was 
 built French fashion, that maybe he could 
 read her French name on her stern, and 
 that she flew the French flag- ? 
 
 Yet what puzzled us more than aught 
 else was, how had the frigate known that 
 we had so got out? The night had been 
 dark and black, and we showed no lights.
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 51 
 
 Still she knew it. 
 
 The day drew on and, with it, the sea 
 abated a little, so that the tumbling 1 waves, 
 which had often obscured the frig-ate from 
 us for some time, and, doubtless, us from it, 
 became smoother, and Tandy, who had 
 never taken his eye off the great ship, turned 
 round and gave now an order to the men to 
 hoist more sail. Also another to the man at 
 the wheel to run in a point. 
 
 Then he came to where I was standing, 
 and said : 
 
 "She draws a little nearer; I fear they 
 will bring us to. Hal as I thought." And 
 even as he spoke there came a puff from the 
 frigate's side ; a moment later the report of 
 a gun ; another minute, and, hopping- along- 
 the waves went a big- round shot, some fifty 
 yards ahead of us. 
 
 "What will you do?" I asked the captain. 
 " The next will not be so far ahead." 
 
 " Run for it, " he said. " They may not 
 hit us short of a broadside and if I can 
 get in another mile or so they cannot follow. 
 Starboard, you below," he called out again 
 to the man at the wheel, and once more bel- 
 lowed his orders to the men aloft. 
 
 This brought the ship's head straight 
 for where the land was we could see it 
 plain enough with the naked eye, lying- flat
 
 52 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 and low, ten miles away also it brought 
 our stern to the frig-ate, so that we presented 
 nothing- but that to them a breadth of no 
 more than between twenty and twenty-five 
 feet. 
 
 " 'T will take good shooting to hit us this 
 way, " said Tandy very coolly. " Yet, see, 
 they mean to attempt it." 
 
 That this was so, one could perceive in 
 a moment; then came three puffs, one after 
 the other, from their upper tier; then the 
 three reports; then the balls hurtling along 
 on either side of us, one just grazing our 
 lar board yard-arm we saw the splinters 
 fly like feathers! the others close enough, 
 but doing no harm. 
 
 "Shoot, and be damned to you," mut- 
 tered Tandy; " another ten minutes more, 
 and you can come no further. Look," and 
 he pointed ahead of us to where I saw, a 
 mile off, the water crisping and foaming 
 over a shoal bank, " 't is eight miles out- 
 side Blankenberg, and is called 'The Devil's 
 Bolster.' And we can get inside it, and 
 they cannot." Then again he bellowed 
 fresh orders, which even I, a landsman, 
 understood well enough, or, at least, their 
 purport. They were to enable us to get 
 round and inside the reef, and so place it 
 between us and the frig-ate.
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 53 
 
 They saw our move as soon as it was 
 made, however, whereupon the firing from 
 their gun-ports grew hotter, the balls rat- 
 tling- about us now in a manner that made 
 me fear the ship must be struck ere long-; 
 nay, she was struck once, a round shot 
 catching her on her starboard quarter and 
 tearing off her sheathing in a long strip. 
 Yet, at present, that was all the harm she 
 had got, excepting that her mizzen shroud 
 was cut in half. 
 
 But now we were ahead of the reef and 
 about half a mile off it; ten minutes later 
 we were inside it, and, the frigate being able 
 to advance no nearer because of her great 
 draught, we were safe. They might shoot, 
 as the captain said, and be damned to them; 
 but shoot as much as they chose, they were 
 not very like to hit us, since we were out of 
 range. We were well in sight of each other, 
 however, the reef lying like a low barricade 
 betwixt us, and I could not but laugh at the 
 contempt which the sturdy Dutch sailors 
 we had on board testified for the discom- 
 fited Frenchmen. There were three of 
 them at work on the fo'castle head at the 
 time the frigate left off her firing, and no 
 sooner did she do so and begin to back her 
 sails to leave us in peace though doubtless 
 she meant lying off in wait for us when we
 
 54 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 should creep out than these great Holland- 
 ers formed themselves into a sort of dance 
 figure, and commenced capering and skip- 
 ping about, with derisive gestures made at 
 the great ship. And as we could see them 
 regarding us through their glasses, by 
 using our own, we knew very well that they 
 saw these gestures of contempt. Tandy, 
 however, soon put a stop to these, for, said 
 he, "They may lie out there a week 
 waiting for us, and if then they catch us, 
 they will not forget. And 't will go all the 
 harder with us for our scorn. Peace, fools, 
 desist." Whereon the men left off their 
 gibes. 
 
 " Lie out there a week," thinks I to my- 
 self. "Fore Gad! I trust that may not be 
 so. For if they do, and one delay follows 
 another, heaven knows when I shall see 
 Cadiz. Too late, anyway, to send the fleet 
 after the galleons, who will, I fear, be in and 
 unloaded long before the admiral can get 
 up to Vigo." 
 
 Yet, as luck would have it, the frigate 
 was not to lie there very long not even so 
 long as an hour. For, see, now, how Provi- 
 dence did intervene to help me on my way, 
 and to remove at least that one obstacle to 
 my going forward on my journey. 
 
 Scarce had those lusty Dutch sailors
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 55 
 
 been ordered off the head by Tandy than, 
 as I was turning- away from laughing- at 
 them, my attention was called back by a 
 shout from the same quarter, and on look- 
 ing- round, I saw two of them spring- up the 
 ladder again to the very spot they had left, 
 and begin pointing eagerly away beyond the 
 frigate. And following their glances and 
 pointing, this is what I saw: 
 
 Two other great ships looming large on 
 the seascape, rising rapidly above the 
 water, carrying all their canvas, coming on 
 at a mighty rate. Two great ships sailing 
 very free but near together, which in a few 
 moments spread apart, so that they put me 
 in mind of some huge bird opening of its 
 wings I know not why, yet so it was! 
 and then came on at some distance from 
 each other, their vast black hulls rising 
 every moment, and soon the foam becom- 
 ing visible beneath their bows as their fore 
 feet flung it asunder. 
 
 "Down with that rag," shouted Tandy, 
 squinting up at the lilies on our peak, and 
 hardly shifting his perspective glass to do 
 so. "Down with it, and up with our own. 
 My wordl The Frenchman will get a full 
 meal now. Look at their royal masts and 
 the flag of England flying on them." 
 
 I did look, and, after a hasty glance, at
 
 56 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 something 1 else the French frigate, our 
 late pursuer! 
 
 Be very sure that she had seen those 
 two avengers coming up in that fair breeze 
 also that she was making frantic efforts 
 to escape. But her sails were all laid aback 
 as I have said, also, she was off the wind. 
 The glasses showed the confusion that 
 prevailed on board her. And she had 
 drifted so near the shoal that her danger 
 was great. Unless she boldly ran out to 
 meet those two queen's ships she would be 
 on it ere long, and that was what she dared 
 not do. 
 
 For now from the others we saw the 
 puff of smoke, like white balls of wool, come 
 forth ; we saw the spits of flame ; saw the 
 Frenchman's mainmast go down five min- 
 utes later, and hang over the side nearest 
 us like some wounded creature all entan- 
 gled in a net. And still she neared the 
 shoal, and still the white balls puffed out 
 till they made a long fleecy line, through 
 which the red flames darted ; borne on the 
 air we heard shouts and curses ; amidst the 
 roaring of the English cannon firing on the 
 helpless, stricken thing, we heard another 
 sound, a grinding, crashing sound, and we 
 knew she was on the bank. Then saw 
 above, at her mizzen, the French flag pulled
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 57 
 
 down upon the cap, and heard through 
 their trumpets their loud calls for assist- 
 ance from the conquerors. 
 
 "Humph! Humph! "said Tandy. "Old 
 Lewis," for so he spoke of him, "has got 
 one ship the less that 's all. Loose the 
 foresheet, there, my lads; stand by the 
 mainsail halyards. Good. That 's it ; all to- 
 g-ether 1" 
 
 And away once more we went.
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE ENGLISH SHIPS OF WAR. 
 
 After that we met with no further 
 trouble or interference, not even, so far 
 as we knew, being passed by anything of 
 more importance than a few small carrying 
 craft similar to ourselves, who bore away 
 from us on sighting with as much rapidity 
 as we were prepared to bear away from 
 them, since in those days, and for long 
 after, no ship passing another at sea but 
 dreaded it as though it was the Evil One 
 himself ; dreaded that the cabin windows, 
 with their clean dimity cloths run across 
 them, might be, in truth, nothing but 
 masked gun ports with the nozzles of the 
 cannon close up against the other side of 
 those running curtains ; dreaded, also, 
 that, behind the bales of goods piled up 
 in the waist, might be lurking scores of 
 men, armed to the teeth, and ready for 
 boarding ! 
 
 Also, as though to favour us or me, 
 who needed to get to the end of my jour- 
 ney as soon as might be the wind blew 
 
 58
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 59 
 
 fresh and strong- abaft us from the north, 
 so that by the evening- of the fifth day 
 from leaving- Rotterdam we were drawing- 
 well to our journey's end, and were, in 
 fact, rounding- Cape St. Vincent, keeping 
 in so near the coast that we could not only 
 see the cruel rocks that jut out here like 
 the teeth of some sea monster, but also the 
 old monks sitting sunning themselves in 
 front of their monastery above the cliffs. 
 
 And now it was at that time, and when 
 we were getting- very near to Tavira 
 which must be our journey's end, unless 
 the English fleet, of which Lord Marlbor- 
 ough had spoken, was already into Cadiz, 
 and masters of the place that the old 
 man who called himself Carstairs was 
 taken with his delirium, of which I have 
 written already. 
 
 But, as also I have told, he was better 
 the next day, by noon of which we were 
 well into the Bay of Lagos, and running- for 
 Cape Santa Maria ; and 't was then that he 
 told me that story of his having- much 
 business to attend to at Cadiz, and that, 
 the galleons being now due there, he was 
 on his way to meet them. 
 
 That I laughed in my sleeve at the fool's 
 errand on which this old man had come 
 this old man, who had been a thieving buc-
 
 60 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 cancer, if his wandering-sand Tandy's sus- 
 picions were true you may well believe. 
 Also, I could not help but fall a-wondering 
 how he would feel if, on nearing 1 Tavira, 
 we learnt that our countrymen were mas- 
 ters of Cadiz. For then he would do no 
 business with his precious galleons, even 
 should my Lord Marlborough be wrong 
 which, however, from the sure way in 
 which he had spoken, I did not think was 
 very like to be the case and even if they 
 had made for Cadiz, since they would at 
 once be seized upon. 
 
 It was, however, of extreme misfortune 
 that just at this time when all was so well 
 for my chances, and when we were nearing 
 our destination, the weather should have 
 seen fit to undergo a sudden change, and 
 that not only did the wind shift, but all the 
 summer clearness of the back end of this 
 fair August month should have departed. 
 Indeed, so strange a change came over the 
 elements that we knew not what to make 
 of it. Up to now the heat had been great, 
 so great, indeed, that I who could neither 
 endure the stuffiness of my cabin below nor 
 the continual going and coming of the negro 
 in the gangway which separated his mas- 
 ter's cabin from mine, nor the stench of 
 some drugs the old man was continually
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 61 
 
 taking- had been sleeping- on the deck. 
 But now the tempest became so violent that 
 I was forced to retreat back to the cabin, to 
 bear the closeness as best I mig-ht, to hear 
 the flappings of the black creature's great 
 feet on the wooden floor at all hours of the 
 night, and, sometimes again, the yowlings 
 of the old man for drink. 
 
 For with the shifting of the wind to the 
 east, or rather east by south, a terrible 
 storm had come upon us ; across the sea it 
 howled and tore, buffetting our ship sorely 
 and causing such destruction that it seemed 
 like enough each moment that we should go 
 to the bottom, and this in spite of every 
 precaution being taken, even to striking our 
 topmasts. Also we lay over so much to our 
 starboard, and for so long, that again and 
 again it seemed as though we should never 
 right, while as we thus lay, the sea poured 
 into us from port and scuttle. But what 
 was worse for me or would be worse if 
 we lived through the tempest we were now 
 in the midst of we were being blown not 
 only off our course, but back again the very 
 way we had come, and out into the western 
 ocean, so that to all else there had to be 
 added the waste of most precious time. 
 Time that, in my case, was golden ! 
 
 Meanwhile Carstairs, who during the
 
 62 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 whole of our passage from Rotterdam had 
 carefully kept his cabin not even coming 
 on deck during the time we were chased by 
 the French frigate nor, later, when the two 
 ships of war had battered and driven her 
 on to the shoal bank now saw fit to appear 
 on deck and to take a keen interest in all 
 that was going on around. 
 
 "A brave storm," he said, shrieking the 
 words in my ear I having at last struggled 
 up again to get air amidst the howling of 
 the wind and the fall of the sea upon our 
 deck, each wave sounding as though a 
 mountain had fallen, " a brave storm ! Ha ! 
 I have seen a-many, yet I know not if ever 
 one worse than this." 
 
 "What think you of our chances?" I 
 bawled back at him, while I noticed that his 
 eye was brighter and clearer than I had seen 
 it before, and that in his face there was some 
 colour. 
 
 " We shall do very well," he answered, 
 "having borne up till now. That fellow 
 knows his work, "and he nodded toward 
 where Tandy was engaged in getting the 
 foreyard swayed up. " We shall do." 
 
 His words were indeed prophetic, for 
 not an hour after he had uttered them the 
 wind shifted once more, coming now full 
 from the south, which was, however, of all
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 63 
 
 directions the very one we would not have 
 had it in ; and with the change the sea went 
 down rapidly, so that in still another hour 
 the waves, instead of breaking over our 
 decks, only slapped heavily against the 
 ship's sides, while the vessel itself wallowed 
 terribly amongst them. Yet so far we were 
 saved from worse. 
 
 But now to this there succeeded still 
 another change the sea began to smoke as 
 though it were afire ; from it there rose a 
 cold steaming vapour, and soon we could 
 not see twenty yards ahead of us, nor was 
 the man at the wheel able to see beyond the 
 forehatch. So that now we could not move 
 in any direction for fear of what might be 
 near, and were forced to burn lights and 
 fire guns at intervals to give notice of our 
 whereabouts in chance of passers by. 
 
 Again, however this time late at night 
 the elements changed, the mist and fog 
 thinned somewhat and rose some feet from 
 the surface of the now almost tranquil sea ; 
 it was at last possible to look ahead some- 
 what, though not possible to proceed, even 
 if the light wind which blew beneath the fog 
 would have taken us the way we desired 
 to go. 
 
 And still the mist cleared so that we could 
 see a mile or two miles around, and then
 
 64 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 we observed a sight that none of us could 
 comprehend, not even Cuddiford, who 
 whispered once to himself, though I heard 
 him plain enough, "What in the name of 
 the devil does it mean? What? What?" 
 
 Afar off, on our starboard quarter, we 
 saw in the darkness of the night there was 
 no moon innumerable lights dotting- the 
 sea; long- lines of light such as tiers of 
 ports will emit from ships, also lights 
 higher up, as though on mastheads and 
 yards numbers of them, some scores 
 each in their cluster. 
 
 Cuddiford 's voice sounded in my ear. 
 Cuddiford's finger was laid on my arm. 
 
 " You understand? " he asked. 
 
 "No." 
 
 " ' T is some great fleet." 
 
 I started hardly could I repress that 
 start or prevent myself from exclaiming: 
 "The English fleet for Cadiz!" 
 
 Yet even as I did so, the water rippled 
 on the bows where we were standing. It 
 sounded as if those ripples blended with 
 the man's voice and made a chuckling laugh. 
 
 "A large fleet," he said slowly, "leaving 
 Spain and making for the open." 
 
 Then a moment later he was gone from 
 my side. 
 
 Leaving Spain and making for the open!
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 65 
 
 What then did that mean? "Leaving- Spain 
 and making- for the open!" I repeated to 
 myself again. Was that true? And to as- 
 sure myself I leant further forward into 
 the nig-ht as thoug-h half a yard nearer to 
 those passing- lig-hts would assist my sight! 
 and peered at those countless clusters. 
 
 Was it the English fleet that was leaving 
 Spain? Whether that was or not whether 
 't was in truth the English fleet or not it 
 was leaving Spain; I could understand that. 
 We in our ship were almost stationary; that 
 body was rapidly passing out to sea. 
 
 What did it mean? Perhaps that the 
 English had done their work destroyed 
 Cadiz. I did not know if such were pos- 
 sible, but thought it might be so. Perhaps 
 that the galleons had been on their way in, 
 after all, and had been warned of those who 
 were there before them, and so had turned 
 tail and fled. 
 
 Yet I feared became maddened and 
 distraught almost at the very idea that, 
 having done their work, my countrymen 
 should have left the place, gone out to the 
 open on, perhaps, their way back to Eng- 
 land. Became maddened because, if such 
 were the case, there was no opportunity 
 left me of advising them about the galleons. 
 While, on the other hand, if that passing
 
 66 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 fleet was in truth the galleons, then were 
 they saved, since never would they come 
 near the coast of Spain again while British 
 ships remained there. Rather would they 
 keep the open for months, rather put back 
 again to the Indies than run themselves into 
 the lion's jaws. 
 
 Truly I was sore distressed in ponder- 
 ing- over all this; truly my chance of pro- 
 motion seemed very far off now. Yet I had 
 one consolation: I had done my best; it 
 was not my fault. 
 
 That night, to make things more un- 
 pleasant than they already were and to 
 me it seemed that nothing more was want- 
 ing to aid my melancholy! Cuddiford be- 
 gan his drinkings and carousals again, 
 shutting off himself with the negro in his 
 cabin, from whence shortly issued the 
 sounds of glasses clinking, of snatches of 
 songs in which the black joined of hal- 
 loaing and of toasts and other things. Ri- 
 bald bawlings, too, of a song of which I 
 could catch only a few words now and 
 again, but which seemed to be about a 
 mouse which had escaped from a trap and 
 also from a great fierce cat ready to pounce 
 on it. Then, once more, clappings and 
 clinkings of glasses together an intolera-
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 67 
 
 ble noise, be sure ! and presently, with an 
 oath, confusion drank to England. 
 
 "So," thinks I, " my gentleman, that is 
 how you feel, is it? Confusion to England ! 
 Who and what are you, then, in the devil's 
 name? Spy of France or Spain, besides 
 being- retired filibuster, or what? Confu- 
 sion to England, eh? " 
 
 And even as I thought this and heard 
 his evil toast, I determined to hear more. 
 Whereon I slipped quietly off my bunk, got 
 out into the gang-way and listened across it 
 to his cabin opposite, feeling very sure as I 
 did so that both he and his black imagined 
 I was up on deck. 
 
 Then I heard him say, going on, evi- 
 dently, with a phrase he had begun : 
 
 "Wherefore, I tell you, my lily, my 
 white -pearl, that those accursed seamen 
 and soldiers this Rooke, who chased me 
 once so that I lost all my goods in my flight 
 are tricked, hoodwinked, embustera ; flanqufe 
 comme une centaine d'escargots! Done for 
 and so is this white-livered Englishman 
 over there in t'other cabin who I do be- 
 lieve is an English spy. Ho! that we had 
 him in Maracaibo or Guayaquil. Hein! 
 Hey! my snowball?" 
 
 "Hoop! Hoop !" grunted the brute, his 
 companion. "Hoop! Maracaibo! Hoop!
 
 68 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 But, but, John ""John," thinks I, "and to 
 his master!" "don't speak so loud. Per- 
 haps they hear you." 
 
 "Let them hear and be damned to them. 
 What care I?" Yet still he lowered his 
 voice, though not so low but what I made 
 out his words: 
 
 "Fitted out a fleet, did they, to intercept 
 the galleons? Oh ! the beautiful galleons! 
 Oh ! the sweet and lovely galleons I Oh, 
 my beautiful Neustra Senora de Mer- 
 cedes. You remember how she sits on 
 the water like a swan, Caesar? And the 
 beautiful Santa Susanna ! What ships ! 
 what lading ! Oh ! I heard it all in London. 
 I know. Thought they would catch 'em in 
 Cadiz, did they ? Ha ! Very well. Now, 
 see, my lily white. They have been too 
 quick; got in too soon and and what 's 
 the end on 't? Those are the galleons going 
 out back again to the sea and the English 
 fleet can stop in Cadiz till the forts sink 
 'em or they rot. Give me some more drink. 
 'Of all the girls that there can be, the 
 Indy girl 's the girl for me,' " and he fell 
 a-singing. 
 
 " If he is right, my Lord Marlborough 
 has been deceived," I whispered to myself. 
 "Yet which knows the most? Still this 
 old ruffian must be right. Who else could
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 69 
 
 be putting- to sea but the galleons ? " and I 
 went back once more to my cabin to ponder 
 over matters. 
 
 But now all in a moment there 
 arose such an infernal hubbub from that 
 other cabin that one might have thought all 
 the fiends from below had been suddenly 
 let loose; howls from the negro, so that I 
 thought the other must be killing of him in 
 his drunken frenzy; peals of laughter from 
 the old man, hangings and kickings of bulk- 
 heads and the crash of a falling glass. And, 
 in the middle of it all, down ran Tandy 
 from the deck above, with, as I thought, a 
 more concerned look upon his face than 
 even such an uproar as this called for. 
 Then he made at once for the cabin where 
 those two were; yet, even as he advanced 
 swiftly, he paused to ask me if I had heard 
 him speak a passing picaroon a quarter of 
 an hour back. 
 
 "Not I," I replied. "Who could hear 
 aught above in such a din as this below? 
 What did they tell you ?" 
 
 "Bad! Bad news. But first to quell 
 these brutes," and he ran on as he spoke, 
 and kicked against the fast-closed cabin 
 door. 
 
 "Bad news!" I repeated to myself, even 
 as I followed him. "Bad news. My God !
 
 70 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 the old villain is right and the galleons 
 have escaped. Farewell, my hopes of pro- 
 motion; I may as well get back to the regi- 
 ment by the first chance that comes." 
 
 But now I had to listen to Tandy setting 
 his other passenger to his facings, which 
 he did without more ado, since, the cabin 
 door not being opened quick enough, he 
 applied his brawny shoulder to it and soon 
 forced it to slide back in its frame, the 
 lock being torn out by his exertion. Then 
 after a few oaths and curses, which need 
 not be set down here, he roared as follows: 
 
 "See here, you drunken, disreputable 
 old vagabond, out you go from this ship to- 
 morrow morning, either ashore in Lagos 
 bay or in the first Guarda Costa or sailing 
 smack that comes anigh us carrying the 
 Portygee colours. And as for you, you 
 black, shambling brute," turning to the 
 negro and seizing him by the wool, whereby 
 he dragged him into the gangway, after 
 which he administered to him a rousing 
 kick, " get you forward amongst the men, 
 and, by God! if you come back aft again 
 I '11 shoot you like a dog." 
 
 "My friend," said old Carstairs, speak- 
 ing now with as much sobriety and dignity 
 as though he had been drinking water all 
 these days; "my good friend, you forget.
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 71 
 
 I have paid my passage to Cadiz, and to 
 Cadiz I will go, or the nearest touching 
 point. Also, there are laws " 
 
 "There are," roared Tandy, "and 'twill 
 not suit you to come within a hundred 
 leagues of any of them. To-morrow you 
 go ashore." 
 
 "I have business with the in-coming 
 galleons," said Carstairs, leering at him. 
 "Those galleons going out now will come 
 in again, you know. Soon!" and still he 
 leered. 
 
 "Galleons, you fool ! " replied the captain. 
 " Those are the English warships. Your 
 precious galleons may be at the bottom of 
 the ocean. Very like are by now." 
 
 And then that old man's face was a sight 
 to see, as, suddenly, it blanched a deathly 
 white. 
 
 "The English warships," he murmured. 
 "The English warships," and then fell back 
 gasping to his berth, muttering: "Out 
 here! Out here!" 
 
 "Is this true?" I asked him a moment 
 later, as we went along forward together. 
 "Is it true?" 
 
 "Ay, partly," he replied. "Partly. 
 They are the English ships of war, but, my 
 lad, I have had news which I did not tell 
 him. They are in retreat. Have failed.
 
 72 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 Cadiz is not taken, and they are on their 
 way back to England." 
 
 "My God!" I exclaimed. And I know 
 that as I so spoke I, too, was white to 
 the lips. 
 
 "On their way back to England!" I 
 repeated. 
 
 "Ay that 's it," he said.
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 GALLEONS ABOUT 1 
 
 " What 's to do now? That 's the ques- 
 tion," said Tandy, an hour later, as he and 
 I sat in his little cabin abaft the mainmast, 
 while, to hearten ourselves up, we sipped 
 tog-ether a bottle of Florence wine which 
 he had on board, and he sucked at his 
 great pipe. " What now? No use for me 
 to think of Cadiz, though what a chance 
 I would have had if our countrymen had 
 only made themselves masters of it ! And 
 for you, Mr. Crespin? For you? I sup- 
 pose, in truth, you knew of this had 
 some affair of commerce, too, which brought 
 you this way, on the idea that they would 
 be sure to capture the place." 
 
 "Ay, I had some idea," I answered, 
 moodily, thinking- it mattered very little 
 what I said now, short of the still great 
 secret that the galleons were going into 
 Vigo, and never did mean coming into 
 these more southern regions. This secret 
 I still kept, I say and for one reason. It 
 was this, namely, that I thought it very 
 
 73
 
 74 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 likely that, even though the fleet under 
 Rooke might be driven back from Cadiz, 
 they yet had a chance of encountering the 
 galleons making their way up to Vigo, and, 
 if they did so, I felt very sure that they 
 would attack those vessels, even in their 
 own hour of defeat. Therefore, I said 
 nothing about the real destination of the 
 Spanish treasure ships, though I knew 
 well enough that all hope was gone of my 
 being the fortunate individual to put my 
 countrymen on their track. 
 
 Also, I remembered that that hoary- 
 headed old ruffian, Carstairs, had spoken 
 of two at least of those galleons as being 
 of importance to him and you may be 
 sure that I had no intention whatever of 
 enlightening him as to anything I knew. 
 
 "What did the Portuguese picaroon 
 tell you?" I asked of Tandy, now; "what 
 information give ? And are they sure of 
 their news?" 
 
 "Oh, very sure," he answered. "No 
 doubt about that. No doubt whatever that 
 we have failed in the attack on Cadiz 
 abandoned the siege, gone home. They 
 were too many for us there, and 't is not 
 often that it happens, God be praised ! we 
 are beaten,"
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 75 
 
 "But why so sure? And are they 
 these Portuguese to be trusted?" 
 
 "What use to tell lies? They are Por- 
 tuguese, and would have welcomed a vic- 
 tory." 
 
 I shrugged my shoulders at this then 
 asked again what the strength of their in- 
 formation was. 
 
 To which the captain made reply : 
 
 " They came in, it seems, early in the 
 month, and called on the governor to declare 
 for Austria against France, to which he re- 
 turned reply that it was not his custom to 
 desert his king, as many of the English 
 were in the habit of doing, he understood ; 
 whereon the Duke of Ormond being vexed 
 by such an answer, which, it seems, did re- 
 flect on him the siege of Port St. Mary's 
 commenced, the place being taken by 
 our people and being found to be full of 
 wealth- " 
 
 "Taken and full of wealth!" I ex- 
 claimed. "Yet you say we are defeated!" 
 
 " Listen," went on Tandy, " that was as 
 nothing; for now the German Prince of 
 Hesse-Darmstadt, who had come too, in 
 the interests of his Austrian master, inter- 
 fered, begging of Rooke and that other not 
 to destroy the town, since it would injure 
 their cause forever with the Spaniards,
 
 76 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 and and well, the Portygee captain of 
 that picaroon I spoke says that they were 
 only too willing- to fall in with his desires 
 and retire without making further at- 
 tempt." 
 
 "And these are English seamen and 
 soldiers ! " I muttered furiously. " My God! 
 To turn tail thus!" 
 
 " Ormond agreed not with these views, 
 it seems," Tandy went on, "but he could 
 not outweigh the admirals and that is all 
 I know, except that he will perhaps im- 
 peach 'em when they get back to England. 
 And, anyway, they are gone." 
 
 "And with them," I thought to myself, 
 " go all my hopes. The galleons will get in 
 safe enough ; there is nothing for it but to 
 make back for Holland and tell the earl 
 that I have failed. No more than that," and 
 my bitterness was great within me at these 
 reflections, you may be sure. 
 
 Tandy, I doubted not, observed these 
 feelings which possessed me, for a minute 
 later he said while I observed that in a 
 kindly way he filled up my glass for me, as 
 I sat brooding with my head upon my hands 
 by the side of the cuddy table : 
 
 "I see this touches you nearly, Mr. 
 Crespin, and am grieved. Yet what will 
 you do now ? Since you have missed your
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 77 
 
 chance I know not what will you return 
 with me? If so you are very welcome, 
 and and," he spoke this with a deli- 
 cacy I should scarce have looked for, "and 
 there will be no no passage money 
 needed. La Mouche Noire is at your serv- 
 ice to Rotterdam, or, for the matter of that, 
 to Deal or London, or where you will. 
 I shall but stay to go in to Lagos for wood 
 and water, and, perhaps, sell some of my 
 goods, if fortune serves so far, and then 
 why then, 't is back again to Holland or Eng- 
 land to see what may be done. I have the 
 passage moneys of you and that old ribald 
 aft. For me things might be worse, thank 
 God !" 
 
 At first I knew not what answer to make 
 to this kindly offer for kindly it was, 
 since there was according to our compact 
 no earthly reason whatsoever why he should 
 convey me back again, except as a passen- 
 ger paying highly for the service. In truth, 
 I was so sick and hipped at the vanishing 
 of this, my great opportunity, that I had 
 recked nothing of what happened now. All 
 I knew was that I had failed ; that I had 
 missed, although through no fault of mine 
 own, a glorious chance. Therefore I said 
 gloomily : 
 
 " Do what vou will I care not. I must
 
 78 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 get me back to Holland somehow, and may 
 as well take passage there with you as go 
 other ways. In truth there is none that I 
 know of. Yet, kind as your offer is to con- 
 vey me free of charge, it must not be. I can- 
 not let you be at a loss, and I have a suffi- 
 ciency of money." 
 
 "Oh! as for that, 'tis nothing. How- 
 ever, we will talk on this later. Now let 's 
 see for getting into Lagos there is noth- 
 ing else to be done. 'Specially as I must 
 have wood and water." 
 
 Then he went away to study his chart 
 and compass, while I sought my bed again, 
 and, all being perfect silence at this time in 
 Carstairs' cabin doubtless he was quite 
 drunk by now! I managed to get some 
 sleep, though 'twas uneasy at the best. 
 
 In the morning when I again went on 
 deck I saw that we were in full sail, as I 
 had guessed us to be from the motion of 
 the ship while dressing myself below; also, 
 a look at the compass box told me we were 
 running due north for Lagos. And, if 
 aught could have cheered the heart of a 
 drooping man, it should have been the sur- 
 roundings of this fair, bright morning. It 
 was, I remember well, September 22 the 
 glistening sea, looking like a great blue dia- 
 mond sparkling beneath the bright sun, the
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 79 
 
 white spume flung- up forward over our 
 bows, the equally white sheets above. Also, 
 near us, to add to the beauty of the morn, 
 the sea was dotted with a-many small craft, 
 billander rigged, their sails a bright scar- 
 let and these, Tandy told me, were Portu- 
 guese fishing boats out catching the tunny, 
 which abounds hereabout. While, away on 
 our starboard beam, were I started as I 
 looked at them what were they? 
 
 Three great vessels near together, their 
 huge white sails bellied out to the breeze, 
 sailing very free; the foam tossed from 
 their stems, almost contemptuously, it 
 seemed, so proudly did they dash it away 
 from them ; vessels full rigged, and tightly, 
 too; vessels along the sides of which there 
 ran tier upon tier of gun-ports; vessels 
 also, from each of whose mastheads there 
 flew a flag- the flag of England ! 
 
 "What does it mean?" I asked Tandy, 
 who strolled along the poop toward me, his 
 face having on it a broad grin, while his eye 
 drooped into that wink he used so. "What 
 does it mean? They are our own ships of 
 war; surely they are not chasing us ! " 
 
 "Never fear ! " said he. "They are but 
 consorts of ours just now. Oh ! it 's a 
 brave talk we have been having together 
 with the flags this morning. They are of
 
 80 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 the fleet are Her Majesty's ships Eagle, 
 Stirling Castle and Pembroke and are 
 doing- exactly the same as ourselves, are 
 going 1 into Lagos for water. Also those 
 transports behind," and he pointed away 
 aft, where half a dozen of those vessels 
 were following-. 
 
 "The fleet," I gasped, "the fleet that has 
 left Cadiz the great fleet under Sir George 
 Rooke and going into Lagos!" 
 
 "Some of them those you see now on 
 our beam, and the transports coming up." 
 
 "And the others," I gasped again, over- 
 come by this joyful news, "the others? 
 What of them?." 
 
 "Oh! they will lie off till these go out 
 with the fresh water casks. Then for Eng- 
 land." 
 
 "Never,"! said to myself. "Not yet, 
 at least," and I turned my face away so that 
 Tandy should not perceive the emotion 
 which I felt sure must be depicted on it. 
 
 For think, only think, what this meant 
 to England to me ! 
 
 It meant that I the only man in the 
 seas around Spain and Portugal who knew 
 of where the galleons would be, or were by 
 now I who alone could tell them, tell this 
 great fleet, which I had but lately missed, 
 of the whereabouts of those galleons had
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 81 
 
 by God's providence come into communica- 
 tion with them again ; meant that the instant 
 we were in Lagos bay I could go aboard one 
 of those great warships and divulge all 
 tell them to make for Vigo, tell them that 
 it was in their power to deal so fierce a blow 
 to Spain and France as should cripple them. 
 I could have danced and sung for very 
 joy. I could have flung my arms around 
 Tandy's sun-burned and hairy neck in ec- 
 stasy, have performed any act of craziness 
 which men indulge in when a great happi- 
 ness falls upon them ; nay, would have done 
 any deed of folly, but that I was restrained 
 by the reflection of how all depended on me 
 now, and of how since I was the bearer of 
 so great a piece of news from so great a man 
 as the Earl of Marlborough it behooved 
 me to act with circumspection and decorum. 
 Therefore I calmed myself, instead of in- 
 dulging in any transports whatever. I rec- 
 ollect that I even forced myself to make 
 some useless remark upon the beauty of 
 the smiling morn; that I said also that I 
 thought La Mouche Noire was making as 
 good seaway as the great frigates them- 
 selves, then asked coldly and indiffer- 
 ently, with the same desire for disguise, 
 when Tandy thought we might all be in the 
 bay and at anchorage.
 
 82 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 He glanced up at the sun he had a big 
 tortoise-shell watch in his pocket, but, sail- 
 or-like, never looked at it during- the day, 
 and when he had the sun for horloge 
 then leaned over the high gunwale of the 
 ship and looked between his hands toward 
 the north, and said : 
 
 " The old castle of Penhas is rising rap- 
 idly to view. 'T is now eight of the clock. 
 By midday we shall have dropped anchor." 
 
 "And the frigates? " I asked, with a nod 
 toward the queen's great ships, which still 
 were on our beam, in the same position to 
 us as before. 
 
 "About the same. Only they will go in 
 first to make choice of their anchorage." 
 Then he added: "But they will not stay 
 long; no longer than to fill the casks. Per- 
 haps a day, or till nightfall." 
 
 '"Twill be long enough for me," I 
 thought. "An hour would suffice to get 
 on board one of them, ask to be taken off 
 and sent to the admiral's ship to tell my 
 tale. Long enough." 
 
 And now I went below again with what 
 different feelings from those which pos- 
 sessed me when I went on deck, you may 
 well suppose and began hastily to bestow 
 my necessaries, such as they were, into the 
 bag I had carried behind me on my horse
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 83 
 
 from Venloo to Rotterdam: a change of 
 linen, some brushes, a sleeping- gown and a 
 good cloak, carried either around me or the 
 bag, if warm and dry weather, my powder 
 flask and a little sack of bullets for my cav- 
 alry pistols that was all. Also I counted 
 my pieces, took out my shagreen bill case 
 and saw that my LordMarlborough's money 
 drafts were safe, as well as my commission 
 to the regiment, which must now serve as a 
 passport and letter of presentation, and I 
 was ready to go ashore at any moment, 
 and to transfer myself to one of the ships 
 if they would take me with them after I had 
 told my news, as my Lord had said I was to 
 demand they should do. Yet, little while 
 enough as I had been a-doing of these things, 
 ' t was not so quickly finished but that there 
 was time for an interruption ; interruption 
 from Mr. Carstairs, who, a moment or so 
 after I had been in my cabin, tapped gently, 
 almost furtively, it seemed to me, upon the 
 door, and on my bidding him come in I sus- 
 pecting very well who it was put his head 
 through the opening he had made by push- 
 ing it back. 
 
 "Are we in danger? " he asked, while as 
 he spoke, I could not but observe that he 
 looked very badly this morning perhaps 
 from the renewals of his drinkings. His face
 
 84 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 was all puckered and drawn, and whiter, 
 it seemed to me, than before; his eyes were 
 hideously bloodshot that must, I guessed, 
 be the drink while the white, coarse hand 
 with which he grasped the panel shook, I 
 observed. 
 
 " Danger! " I repeated coldly, as well as 
 curtly, for, as you may be sure, I had come 
 to thoroughly despise, as well as cordially 
 to detest, this dissolute old man who, be- 
 sides, had a black and fearful past behind 
 him, if his feverish wanderings of mind 
 were to be trusted. "Danger! From 
 what?" 
 
 "There are war frigates by us," he 
 whispered. " Do you not know?" 
 
 " Yes, I know. But you who have been, 
 it seems, a sailor, should also know our own 
 flag, I think." 
 
 " Our own flag ! Our English flag ! " 
 
 " Can you not see?" 
 
 ** They are on the other side of the ship. 
 I cannot see aught through my port." 
 
 " Look through mine, then," I answered, 
 pointing to it, and he, with many courteous 
 excuses for venturing to intrude he was 
 much changed now, I thought went over 
 to my window, and gazed at the queen's 
 vessels. 
 
 "True," he said. "True. They are
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 85 
 
 English our ships. Where could they 
 come from, do you suppose?" 
 
 "From the Cadiz fleet. And they are 
 going into Lagos, as we are." 
 
 " And then do you know where to, then 
 afterward noble sir?" 
 
 " Then they will go north." 
 
 He drew a long breath at this I guessed 
 it to be a sigh of satisfaction at the thought 
 that the English fleet should be going north, 
 while the galleons, in which he had seemed 
 to be so concerned, should either be going 
 into, or gone into, Cadiz as he supposed. 
 Then he said : 
 
 "Oh, sir, this is, indeed, good news. 
 For for I have business at Cadiz very 
 serious business, and if they had remained 
 here in the south they might have done 
 much harm to honest traders, might they 
 not? Do you not think so?" 
 
 "They may do harm elsewhere," I an- 
 swered, again curtly. And my brevity 
 caused him to look at me enquiringly. 
 
 " What harm? What can they do?" 
 
 " Oh ! as for that," I said, unable to resist 
 the temptation of repaying him somewhat 
 for all the discomfort he had caused in the 
 ship, and also because I so much despised 
 him, "as for that, they might do much. 
 They say there are some galleons about.
 
 86 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 Supposing- they should meet them. 'T is a 
 great fleet ; it could be fateful to a weaker 
 one." 
 
 " Galleons ! Galleons about ! " he re- 
 peated shrieked, almost. " Nay ! Nay ! 
 Nay! The galleons are safe in Cadiz by 
 now." 
 
 "Are they?" I said, shrugging- of my 
 shoulders. 
 
 "Are they not?" And now his face was 
 death itself. 
 
 "We spoke a ship last night which did 
 not say so," I answered. "No galleons 
 have passed this way, gone in yet." 
 
 I almost regretted my words, seeing, a 
 moment later, their effect on him. For 
 that effect was great I had nigh written 
 terrible. 
 
 He staggered back from the port-hole 
 by which he had been standing, gazing out 
 at the Pembroke and her consorts, his 
 face waxy now from the absence of blood ; 
 his lips a bluish purple, so that I could see 
 the cracks in them ; his coarse white hands 
 twitching ; and his eyes roving round my 
 cabin lighted on my washing commode, 
 on which stood the water ewer ; then he 
 seized it and the glass, poured out from 
 one to the other his hand shook so that 
 the neck of the vessel clinked a tune upon
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 87 
 
 the rim of the glass and drank, yet not 
 without some sort of a murmured apol- 
 ogy for doing- so an apology that became 
 almost a whine. 
 
 "Not passed this way not gone in 
 yet? My God! Where are they ? And 
 and with that fleet here here here 
 'twixt here and Cape St. Vincent ! Where 
 are they ? " 
 
 "Probably coming in now on their 
 way," I made answer. "Or very near." 
 Then next said, quietly: " You seem con- 
 cerned about this ? " 
 
 "Concerned!" he wailed. "Concerned! 
 I have my fortune, my all 't is not much, 
 yet much to me on board two of the gal- 
 leons, and and ah 1" and he clutched at 
 his ruined shirt front. " The English fleet 
 is there across their path ! My God I "
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 LAGOS BAY. 
 
 Tandy had timed our arrival in the bay 
 with great exactness, since, soon after mid- 
 day, both the queen's ships and ourselves 
 had dropped anchor within it, the former 
 saluting-, and being- saluted in return, by 
 some artillery from the crazy old castle 
 that rose above the shore. And now from 
 those three frigates away went pinnaces 
 and jolly boats, as well as the great long 
 boats and launches, all in a hurry to fetch 
 off the water which they needed, while also 
 I could see very well that from the Pem- 
 broke they were a-hoisting overboard their 
 barge, into which got some of the land 
 officers as the sailors call the soldiers 
 and also a gentleman in black who was, I 
 supposed, a chaplain. 
 
 And then I considered that it was time 
 for me to be ashore, too, since I knew not 
 how long 't would take for the ships of war 
 to get in what they wanted, and to be off and 
 away again; though Tandy told me I 
 need be in no manner of hurry, since they
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 89 
 
 had let down what he called their shore 
 anchors, which they would not have done 
 had they intended going 1 away again in a 
 moment, when they would have used in- 
 stead their kedge, or pilot, anchors. 
 
 However, I was so impatient that I 
 would not be stayed, and consequently 
 begged the captain to let me have one of 
 the shore boats, which had come out on our 
 arrival and were now all around us, called 
 alongside; and into this I jumped the in- 
 stant it touched our ship. My few goods 
 I left on board, to be brought on land when 
 the captain himself came, which he intended 
 to do later; nor did I make my farewells to 
 him, since I felt pretty sure we should meet 
 again shortly, while it was by no means 
 certain that the admiral would take me with 
 him, after I had delivered my news; but, 
 instead, might order me to return at once 
 to the earl with some reply message. Yet 
 I hoped this would not be so, especially 
 since his Lordship had bidden me see the 
 thing out and then bring him, as fast as I 
 could make my way back to the Nether- 
 lands, my account of what had been done. 
 
 As for that miserable old creature, Car- 
 stairs, I clean forgot all about him; nor even 
 if I had remembered his existence, should 
 I have troubled to pay him any adieux,
 
 90 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 for in truth, I never supposed that I should 
 see him again in this world, and for cer- 
 tain, I had no desire to do so ; yet as luck 
 would have it but there is no need to an- 
 ticipate. 
 
 I jumped into the shore boat, I say, as 
 soon as it came along-side La Mouche 
 Noire, and was quickly rowed into the 
 port, observing as I went that there was a 
 considerable amount of craft moored in the 
 bay, many of which had doubtless run in 
 there during the storms of a night or two 
 ago, while, also, there were some sheltering 
 in it which would possibly have been lying 
 in other harbors now and those, Spanish 
 ones had it not been for the war and the 
 consequent danger of attack from the Eng- 
 lish and Dutch navies in any other waters 
 than those of Portugal, she being, as I have 
 said, neutral at present, though leaning to 
 our the allies' side. To wit, there were 
 at this moment some German ships, also a 
 Dane or two, a Dutchman and a Swedish 
 bark here. 
 
 And now I stepped ashore on Portu- 
 guese ground, and found myself torn 
 hither and thither by the most ragged and 
 disorderly crowd of beggars one could im- 
 agine, some of them endeavouring to drag 
 me off to a dirty inn at the waterside, in
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 91 
 
 front of which there sat two priests a- 
 drinking with some scaramouches, whom I 
 took to be Algarvian soldiers, while others 
 around me had, I did believe, serious inten- 
 tions on my pockets had I not kept my 
 hands tight in them. Also which hearted 
 me up to see there were many of our Eng- 
 lish sailors about, dressed in their red 
 kersey breeches with white tin buttons, 
 and their grey jackets and Welsh kersey 
 waistcoats, all of whom were bawling and 
 halloaing to one another making the con- 
 fusion and noise worse confounded and 
 using fierce oaths in the greatest good hu- 
 mour. And then, while I stood there won- 
 dering how I should find those whom I 
 sought for, I heard a voice behind me saying 
 in cheery tones in my own tongue: 
 
 "Faith, Tom, 'tis an Englishman, I tell 
 you. No doubt about that. Look to his 
 rig; observe also he can scarce speak a 
 word more of the language of the country 
 he is in than we can ourselves. Does not 
 that proclaim him one of us? Except our 
 beloved friends, the French, who are as 
 ignorant of other tongues as we are, we are 
 the worst. Let's board him we are all in 
 the same boat." 
 
 Now, knowing very well that these re- 
 marks could hardly be applied to any one
 
 92 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 but me, I turned round and found close to 
 my elbow a fat, jolly-looking- gentleman, all 
 clad in black, and with a black scarf slung 
 across him, and wearing- a tie-wig-, which 
 had not been powdered for many a day a 
 gentleman with an extremely red face, 
 much pitted with the small-pox. And by 
 his side there stood four or five other 
 gentlemen, who, 'twas easy to see at a 
 glance, were of my own trade their gold 
 laced scarlet coats, the aiguillettes of one, 
 the cockades in all their hats, showed that. 
 
 "Sir," said the one who had spoken, 
 taking off his own black hat, which, like his 
 wig, would have been the better for some 
 attention, and bowing low. "I fear you 
 overheard me. Yet I meant no offense. 
 And, since I am very sure that you are of 
 our country, there should be none. Sir, I 
 am, if you will allow me to present myself, 
 Mr. Beauvoir, chaplain of her Majesty's 
 ship, Pembroke. These are my friends, 
 officers serving under his Grace of Ormond, 
 and of my Lord Shannon's grenadiers and 
 Colonel Pierce's regiment"; whereon he 
 again took off his hat to me, in which polite 
 salutation he was followed by the others, 
 while I returned the courtesy. 
 
 And now I knew that I had found what 
 I wanted knew that the road was open to
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 93 
 
 me to reach the admiral, to tell my tale. 
 I had found those who could bring me into 
 communication with the fleet ; be very sure 
 I should not lose sight of them now. But 
 first I had to name myself, wherefore I 
 said : 
 
 " Gentlemen, I am truly charmed to see 
 you. Let me in turn present myself. My 
 name is Mervyn Crespin, lieutenant in the 
 Cuirassiers, or Fourth Horse, and it is by 
 God's special grace that I have been so for- 
 tunate as to encounter you. For, " and here I 
 glanced round at the filthy crowd which en- 
 vironed us, and lowered my voice a little, 
 "I am here on a special mission to your 
 commander from my Lord Marlborough. 
 Yet I thought I had failed when I heard you 
 were off and away from Cadiz." 
 
 Now, when I mentioned the position 
 which I held in the army all looked with in- 
 creased interest at me, and again took off 
 their hats, while when I went on to speak 
 of my mission from the Earl of Marlbor- 
 ough there came almost a dazed look into 
 some of their faces, as though 'twas im- 
 possible for them to understand what the 
 Captain-General of the Netherlands could 
 have to say with the fleet that had been sent 
 forth from England to Cadiz. 
 
 "A message to our commander," Mr.
 
 94 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 Beauvoir said. "A message to our com- 
 mander. By the Lord Harry, I am afraid 
 ' tis even now a bootless quest, though. Our 
 commander with all his fleet is on his way 
 back to England and pretty well dashed, 
 too, through being obliged to draw off from 
 Cadiz, I can tell you. I fear you will not see 
 him this side of Spithead, even if you go 
 with us, who are about to follow him." 
 
 That I was also "pretty well dashed " 
 at this news needs no telling, since my feel- 
 ings may be well enough conceived ; yet I 
 plucked up heart to say : 
 
 "I do think, if your captain but hears 
 the news I bring, that he will endeavour to 
 catch the fleet and turn it from its home- 
 ward course ay, even though he sets sail 
 again to-night without so much as a drop 
 of fresh water in his casks. 'T is great 
 news news that may do much to cripple 
 France." 
 
 "Is it private, sir ? " the chaplain asked. 
 " For the ears of the admirals alone? " 
 
 "Nay," said I; "by no means private 
 from English ears ; yet," I continued, with 
 still another glance around, "not to be 
 spoken openly. Is there no room we can 
 adjourn to?" 
 
 "We have been trying ourselves for 
 half an hour to find an inn," said one of the
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 95 
 
 grenadiers, with a laugh, "which swarms 
 not with vermin of all sorts. Yet, come, 
 let us endeavour again. Even though there 
 is naught for gentlemen to eat or drink, we 
 may, at least, be alone and hear this news. 
 Come, let us seek for some spot," and he 
 elbowed his way through the waterside 
 crowd which still stood gaping round us, 
 and which, even when we all moved away, 
 hung on our heels, staring at us as though 
 we were some strange beings from another 
 world. Also, perhaps, they thought to filch 
 some scrap of lace or galloon from off our 
 clothes. 
 
 "Away, vagabonds ! What in heaven's 
 name is Portuguese for 'away, vaga- 
 bonds'?" muttered Mr. Beauvoir, making 
 signs to the beggarly brood, who perhaps 
 because often our ships put in here for 
 water, and they were accustomed to see- 
 ing the English held out their dirty, 
 claw-like hands, and shrieked : " Moaney ! 
 Moaney ! Englase moaney ! " "Away, I 
 say, and leave us in peace ! " 
 
 And gradually, seeing there was noth- 
 ing more to be gotten after one or two of 
 us had flung them a coin or so, they left us 
 to our devices, so that we were able to 
 stroll along the few miserable streets which 
 the town possessed ; able to observe, also,
 
 96 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 that there was no decent inn into which a 
 person, who valued his future comfort and 
 freedom from a month or so of itching-, 
 could put his foot in safety. 
 
 But now we reached a little open spot, 
 or plaza, a place which had a melancholy, 
 deserted look there being several empty 
 houses in this gloomy square while, on 
 another, we saw the arms of France stuck 
 up, a shield with a blazing sun upon it, 
 the emblem of Louis ! and the lilies on 
 it, also and guessed it must be the con- 
 sul's place of business. And here it 
 seemed to me as if this was as fitting an 
 opportunity as I should find for making the 
 necessary disclosures disclosures which, 
 when these gentlemen had heard them, 
 might induce them to hurry back to the 
 Pembroke, bring me into communication 
 with the captain, and lead him to put to sea, 
 in the hopes of picking up the remainder, 
 and chief part, of the English fleet, which 
 was but twenty-four hours ahead of them. 
 
 "Gentlemen," I said, "here is a quiet 
 spot " as indeed it was, seeing that there 
 was nothing alive in this mournful plaza 
 but a few scraggy fowls pecking among the 
 stones, and a lean dog or two sleeping in the 
 sun. " Let me tell you my news." 
 
 Whereupon all of them halted and stood
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 97 
 
 round me, listening eagerly while I unfolded 
 my story and gave them the intelligence 
 that the galleons had gone into Vigo, es- 
 corted, as the earl had said while we rode 
 toward Rotterdam, by a large French fleet. 
 
 " 'Fore George, Harry," said Mr. Beau- 
 voir, turning toward the elder of the offi- 
 cers with him, a captain in Pierce's regi- 
 ment, "but this is mighty fine news. Only 
 can it be true? I mean," he went on with 
 a pleasant bow to me, "can it be possible 
 that the Earl of Marlborough is not mis- 
 taken? For, if 'tis true and we can only 
 communicate with Sir George Rooke and get 
 him back again, 't will be a fine thing ; wipe 
 out the scandal and hubbub that will arise 
 over our retreat from Cadiz, go far to save 
 Parliament enquiries and the Lord knows 
 what to say nothing of court martials. 
 Humph?" 
 
 "Why should the earl be mistaken in 
 this?" asked one of the others. At least he 
 was right in judging they would not go into 
 Cadiz." 
 
 "We must take you at once to Captain 
 Hardy, of our ship," said the chaplain. 
 "'Tis for him to decide when he has heard 
 your story. Come, let us get back to the 
 pinnace no time must be wasted." 
 
 "With the very greatest will in the
 
 98 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 world," said I. "'T is for that I have trav- 
 elled from Holland, and, pray God, I have 
 not come too late. Success means much 
 for me." 
 
 Then we turned to go, while the officers 
 attacked me on all sides for an account of 
 the siege of Kaiserswerth, of which they had 
 not yet heard full accounts, and we were 
 just leaving the square when there appeared 
 at the door of the French consul's house a 
 man who, no sooner did he observe us and 
 our English appearance which betrays us 
 all over Europe, I have noticed, though I 
 know not why and also the brilliancy of 
 the officers' dress, than he set to work bow- 
 ing and grimacing like a monkey ; also he be- 
 gan calling out salutations to us in French, 
 and asking us how the English did now in 
 the wars ? and saying that, for himself, he 
 very much regretted that France and Eng- 
 land had got flying at one another's throats 
 once more, since if they were not fools and 
 would only keep united, as they had been in 
 the days of him whom he called le grand roi 
 Charles Deux, they might rule the world 
 between them ; which was true enough as 
 regarded their united powers (if not the 
 greatness of that late king of ours), as many 
 other people more sensible than he have 
 thought.
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 99 
 
 "'Tis a merry heart," said Mr. Beau- 
 voir, smiling on the fantastic creature as he 
 gibbered and jumped about on his doorstep, 
 while the others looked contemptuously at 
 him, for we soldiers had but a poor opin- 
 ion of the French, though always pleased 
 to fight them; "a joyous blade! Let us 
 return his civility " ; whereupon he took off 
 his hat, which courtesy we all imitated, and 
 wished him " Good day " politely in his own 
 language. 
 
 "Ha! you speak French, monsieur," 
 the other said at this ; "also you have the 
 bonne mine. English gentlemens is always 
 gentlemens. Ha! I ver' please see you." 
 he was himself now speaking half Eng- 
 lish and half French. "Je vous salue. La- 
 gos ver' triste. I always glad see gentle- 
 mens. Veuillez un verre de vin ? C^est 
 Francais, vrai Francais I Ver ' goot. ' ' 
 
 "'Tis tempting," said the chaplain of 
 the Pembroke, his face appearing to get more 
 red than before at the invitation. "Well, we 
 can do no harm in having a crack with him. 
 Only silence, remember," and he glanced 
 at the officers. " Not a word of our doings 
 lately, now, or to come." 
 
 "Never fear," said the eldest. "We 
 can play a better game than that would be," 
 whereon the chaplain, after bowing grace-
 
 100 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 fully to our would-be host, said in very fair 
 French that, if he desired it, we would all 
 drink a glass of wine with him only he 
 feared we were too many. 
 
 " Not a jot, not a jot," this strange crea- 
 ture cried, beckoning all of us into the house 
 and forthwith leading us into a whitewashed 
 room, in the middle of which was a table 
 with, upon it, a great outre of wine, bound 
 and supported by copper bands and flanked 
 with a number of glasses, so that one might 
 have thought he was ever offering enter- 
 tainment to others. Then, with great dex- 
 terity, he filled the requisite number of 
 glasses, and, after making us each touch 
 his with ours, drank a toast. 
 
 "A la fin de la guerre" he said, after 
 screaming, first, "Attention^ messieurs" and 
 rapping on the table with his glass to claim 
 that attention, "4 Vamitti incassable de la 
 France et de V Angleterre. Vivent, vivent, 
 vivent la France et T Angleterre" &&& down 
 his throat went all the wine. 
 
 "A noble toast, "said Mr. Beauvoir, with 
 a gravity which I know not why! I did 
 not think, somehow, was his natural attri- 
 bute, "a noble toast. None be he French 
 or English could refuse to pledge that," 
 and, with a look at the others, away went 
 his liquor, too, while my brother officers,
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 101 
 
 with a queer look upon their faces, which 
 seemed to express the thought that they 
 scarce knew whether they ought to be 
 carousing in this manner with the repre- 
 sentative of an enemy, swallowed theirs. 
 
 "Ha! goot, ver' goot," our friend went 
 on, "we will have some more." And in a 
 twinkling he had replenished the glasses 
 and got his own up to, or very near to, his 
 lips. And catching a glance of Mr. Beau- 
 voir's grey eye as he did this, I felt very 
 sure that the reverend gentleman knew as 
 well as I did, or suspected as well as I did, 
 that these were by no means the first pota- 
 tions our friend had been indulging in this 
 morning. 
 
 "Another toast," he cried now, "sacrt 
 nom d'un chien ! we will drink more toasts. 
 A la santd" then paused, and muttered: 
 " No, no. I cannot propose that. No. Ce 
 ri 1 est pas juste." 
 
 "What is not just, monsieur?" asked 
 Mr. Beauvoir, pausing with his own uplifted 
 glass. 
 
 " Why, figurez-vous, I was going to com- 
 mit an impolitesse what you call a rudesse 
 rudeness in your English tongue. To 
 propose the continued prosperity of France 
 no! vraiment il nefautpas fa. Because 
 you are my guests I love the English gen-
 
 102 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 tlemens always and it is so certain so 
 very certain." 
 
 "The continued success of France is 
 very certain, monsieur?" said one of the 
 grenadiers, looking- darkly at him. " You 
 say that?" 
 
 " Sans doute. It cannot be otherwise. On 
 sea and land we must triumph now and 
 then then we shall have lapaix incassable. 
 Oh ! yes, now that Chateaurenault is on the 
 seas, we must perforce win there win 
 every everything. And for the land, why 
 
 "Chateaurenault is on the seas!" ex- 
 claimed the chaplain, looking very grave. 
 "And how long has that been, monsieur?" 
 
 "Oh, some time, some time." Then he 
 put his finger to his nose and said, looking 
 extremely cunning in his half drunkenness. 
 "And soon now he will be free to scour 
 them, turn his attention to you and the 
 Dutch curse the Dutch always, they are 
 cochonsl soon, ver' soon. Just as soon as 
 the galleons are unloaded at Vigo when 
 we need protect them no more." 
 
 Swift as lightning all our eyes met as 
 the good-natured sot said this in his boast- 
 fulness; then Mr. Beauvoir, speaking calmly 
 again, said:
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 103 
 
 "So he is protecting- them at Vigo, eh? 
 ' T is not often they unload there." 
 
 "Ah) non, non. Not ver' often. But, 
 you see, you had closed Cadiz against them, 
 so, naturellement, they must go in some- 
 where." 
 
 "Naturally. No not another drop of 
 wine, I thank you."
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 ON BOARD H. M. S. PEMBROKE. 
 
 A good snoring breeze was ripping us 
 along parallel with the Portuguese coast a 
 fortnight later, every rag of canvas being 
 stretched aloft foretop gallant royals, 
 mizzentop gallant royals and royal stay- 
 sails. For we had found the main body of 
 the fleet at last, after eleven days' search 
 for them, and we were on the road to Vigo. 
 
 Only, should we be too late when we got 
 there ? That was the question ! 
 
 Let me take up my tale where I left off. 
 Time enough to record our hopes and fears 
 when that is told. 
 
 Our French friend, whose boastfulness 
 had increased with every drop of Montra- 
 chet he swallowed (and 'twas real good 
 wine, vastly different, the chaplain, who 
 boasted himself a fancier, said afterward, 
 from the filthy concoctions to be obtained 
 in that part of Portugal), had been unable 
 to hold his tongue, having got upon the 
 subject of the greatness of his beloved 
 France, and the consequence was that 
 
 104
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 105 
 
 every word he let fall served but to cor- 
 roborate the Earl of Marlborough's infor- 
 mation and my statement. Nay! by the 
 time he allowed us to quit his house, 
 which was not for half an hour after he 
 had first divulged the neighborhood of 
 Chateaurenault and the galleons, and dur- 
 ing- which period he drank even more fast 
 and furious than before, he had given us 
 still further information. For, indeed, it 
 seemed that once this poor fool's tongue 
 was unloosed, there were no bounds to his 
 vaunts and glorifications, and had it not 
 been that he was our host and, also, that 
 every word he said was of the greatest 
 value to us, I do, indeed, believe that one 
 or other of the officers would have twisted 
 his neck for him, so exasperating was his 
 bragging. 
 
 " Patmre Angleterre! Pauvre Angle- 
 terre! " he called out, after we had refused 
 to drink any more, though he himself still 
 kept on unceasingly ; " Poor England. Ah, 
 mon Dieu, what shall become of her ! 
 Beaten at Cadiz " 
 
 " Retired from Cadiz, if you please, mon- 
 sieur," one of Pierce's officers said sternly, 
 "because the Dutch ships had run out of 
 provisions, and because, also, the admiral 
 and his Grace could not hope to win Spain
 
 106 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 to the cause of Austria by bombarding 
 their towns and invading their country. 
 Remember that, sir, if you please." 
 
 " Oh, la la I Oest la meme chose. It mat- 
 ters not." Then the talkative idiot went on: 
 "I hope only that the fleet is safe in Eng- 
 land by now. Ver' safe, because other- 
 wise " 
 
 "Have no fear, sir," the officer said 
 again, though at a sign from Mr. Beauvoir, 
 he held his peace and allowed the French- 
 man to proceed. 
 
 " Ver' safe, because, otherwise, Chateau- 
 renault will soon catch them poof ! like a 
 mouse in grimalkin's claws. The dlbargue- 
 ment must be over by now oh yes, over 
 by now! Vamiral will be free to roam 
 the seas with his great fleet. Tiens! c'est 
 enorme I There is, for instance, La Sirene, 
 LEsperance, La Superbe, Le Bourbon, L'En- 
 Jlame all terrible vessels. Also many 
 more. Le Solide, Le Fort, Le Promote 
 Fichtre! I cannot recall their names they 
 are fifteen in all. What can you do against 
 that?" 
 
 " What did we do at La Hogue? " asked 
 Mr. Beauvoir quietly. 
 
 "Hal La Hogue 1 Voild fautede bas- 
 sesse faute de " 
 
 "Sir," said the chaplain, interrupting,
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 107 
 
 "let us discourse no more on this subject. 
 If we do we shall but get to quarrelling- 
 and you have been polite and hospitable. 
 We would not desire that to happen. Sir, 
 we are obliged to you," and he held out his 
 hand. 
 
 The strange creature took it he took 
 all our hands and shook them; he even 
 seemed about to weep a little at our de- 
 parture, and muttered that Lagos was " ver' 
 triste." He loved to see any one, even 
 though a misguided enemy. 
 
 "And," said Mr. Beauvoir, as we made 
 our way down to the quay where the pin- 
 nace was to take them off, "to chatter to 
 them as well as see them. Forgive him, 
 Lord, he is a madman! Yet, I think," turn- 
 ing to me, "you should be satisfied. He 
 corroborates you, and he has told us some- 
 thing worth knowing. Fifteen ships of war 
 in all, eh? " whereon he fell a-musing. "A 
 great fleet, in truth; yet ours is larger and 
 we are English. That counts." 
 
 It took us a very little while to fetch off 
 to the Pembroke, and on arriving on board, 
 Mr. Beauvoir instantly sent to know if he 
 could see the captain, since he brought 
 great news from the shore. The sentry 
 would not, however, by any means under- 
 take to deliver the message, since Captain
 
 108 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 Hardy was now abed, he having been on the 
 poop all night while the ships were coming- 
 in; whereupon Mr. Beauvoir, saying- that 
 the business we were now on took prece- 
 dence of sleep and rest, pushed his way into 
 the great cabin and instantly knocked at 
 the door outside the captain's berth. Also, 
 he called to him to say that he had news of 
 the galleons and the French admiral's fleet, 
 and that there waited by his side an officer 
 of the land forces charged with a message 
 to him from the Earl of Marlborough. 
 
 " What ! " called out the captain as we 
 heard him slip his door open, after hear- 
 ing also a bound as he leaped from his bunk 
 to the floor. " What ! " and a minute after 
 he stood before us, a fine, brave-seeming 
 gentleman, without his coat or vest on. 
 
 " What ! News of the galleons ! Are 
 you the messenger, sir?" looking at me 
 and returning my salute. " Quick ! Your 
 news; in as few words as may be." 
 
 And in a few words I told him all while 
 he stood there before me, the chaplain sup- 
 plementing of my remarks in equally few 
 words by a description of what the drunken 
 French consul had maundered on about in 
 his boastings. 
 
 And the actions of this captain showed 
 me at once that I was before one of those
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 109 
 
 sea commanders who, by their daring- and 
 decision, had done so much to make our 
 power on the ocean feared, notwithstand- 
 ing- any checks such as that of Cadiz, 
 which they might now and ag-ain have to 
 submit to. 
 
 "Sentry ! " he called out, running into his 
 cabin to strike upon a gong by his bedside 
 at the same time. "Sentry 1 " And then, 
 when the man appeared, went on: "Send 
 the yeoman of the signals to me at once. 
 Away with you." 
 
 "Make signal," he said to the lad, who 
 soon came tumbling- down the companion 
 ladder, his glass under his arm, "to Cap- 
 tain Wishart in the Eagle, and all the cap- 
 tains in the squadron, to repair here for 
 consultation without loss of time. Up ! and 
 waste no moment." 
 
 And sure enough for in Her Majesty's 
 navy they are as prompt as we of the sis- 
 ter service, if not prompter, since to a 
 sailor, minutes are sometimes of as much 
 importance as an hour on land ere a quar- 
 ter of an hour had passed the waters of 
 the harbour were dotted with the barges 
 of the other captains making- for our ship, 
 and, five minutes after that, all were assem- 
 bled in the great cabin listening to my tale.
 
 110 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 And all were at once agreed on what must 
 be a-doing. 
 
 "'Tis of vast importance," said Cap- 
 tain Wishart, who I think was the senior, 
 since he presided, "that the admiral be ac- 
 quainted with this. 'T is for him to decide 
 what shall be done when he has heard the 
 mission on which this officer has come, and 
 heard also the words of the Frenchman. 
 Now, who has the fastest sailer ? You, I 
 think, Hardy." 
 
 "True enough," replied that captain, 
 " as to speed, I can sail two feet to every one 
 of all the rest. Yet the head of the ship is 
 somewhat loose, which may endanger the 
 masts ; she is also leaky, and our food is 
 short. Nevertheless, since the intelligence 
 has been by good luck brought to my hands 
 I am loth indeed to resign the honor of 
 finding- Sir George." 
 
 "Nor shall you resign it," exclaimed 
 the other captains. " The chance is yours. 
 Succeed in it and you will get -your flag 1 . 
 Hardy, you must take it." 
 
 Enough that I say he took it had he 
 not done so he would not have been worth 
 one of his ship's biscuits, the cases of 
 which were, as it happened, now running 
 extremely low. Took it, too, in spite of the 
 murmurings of some of his men, who said
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. Ill 
 
 that they had signed for the expedition 
 to Cadiz, and for that alone, and, there- 
 fore, it was plainly his duty to return to 
 England. But Captain Hardy had a short 
 way with such as these a way well enough 
 known to sailors ! while to others, with 
 whom he thought it worth while to explain 
 at all, he pointed out that there must be 
 in the galleons, if they could only get along- 
 side of them, sufficient prize money for all. 
 Off we went, therefore, to find the 
 admiral and the main body of the fleet, 
 while, as luck would have it, there blew 
 from off the Portuguese coast a soft, 
 brisk wind which took us along on the 
 course we desired, namely, that in which 
 we supposed and hoped that Sir George 
 Rooke and the Dutch fleet had gone. All 
 the same, it was no very pleasant cruise ; 
 the food ran lower and lower as day after 
 day passed and we could not see so much 
 as a topsail anywhere, until at last we came 
 to two biscuits a day, officers and men. 
 Then, to make matters worse, the weather 
 came on rough and boisterous, so that the 
 captain said for sure the fleet would sep- 
 arate ; that though we might find one 
 or two of the number ' t was scarce likely 
 we should find more, and that even those 
 which we might by chance come across
 
 112 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 would possibly not have the Royal Sov- 
 ereign, which was Rooke's ship, amongst 
 them. 
 
 Briefly, however, we did find them af- 
 ter eleven days, and when we had begun 
 to give up all hope, and while another terri- 
 ble fear had taken possession of our minds 
 the fear that even should we come together 
 and proceed to Vigo, we might find the gal- 
 leons unloaded and their treasure removed 
 inland. However, as I have now to tell 
 and, indeed, as you have read of late in the 
 published accounts of our attack upon those 
 galleons that was not to be. 
 
 We found, therefore to hurry on the 
 two fleets very close to one another, and no 
 sooner had Sir George communicated the 
 news to the Dutch admiral, Vandergoes, 
 and to the Duke of Ormond, than it was de- 
 termined to at once proceed on the way to 
 Vigo to see if the galleons were there, and 
 if above all things they still had their 
 goods in them ; for, though 't was like 
 enough that we should destroy them if we 
 could, and crush Chateaurenault as well, 
 'twould be but half a victory if we could 
 not wrench away the spoils from the enemy 
 and profit by it ourselves. 
 
 And now off went two frigates to scout 
 in the neighbourhood of the Bay of Vigo and
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 113 
 
 see how much truth there was in the in- 
 formation my Lord Marlborough had sent ; 
 and on the night of October 9, to which we 
 had come by this time, they returned ; re- 
 turned with the joyful intelligence that the 
 treasure ships were drawn up as far as pos- 
 sible in a narrow strait in the harbour ; that 
 outside and guarding- them, were some 
 twenty French and Spanish ships of war, 
 and that across the harbour was stretched 
 a huge boom of masts and spars, protected 
 on either side by great batteries of cannon. 
 
 Also they brought another piece of good 
 news : The galleons, they thought, were 
 still unloaded. 
 
 And still another piece of intelligence, 
 equally welcome : The frigates had sighted 
 Sir Cloudesley Shovel's fleet in the neigh- 
 bourhood of Cape Finisterre, had communi- 
 cated with him, and brought back word 
 that as we drew near to Vigo he would com- 
 bine with us. 
 
 That night we kept high revels on board 
 all our ships those only whose duty it was 
 to take the watches being prevented from 
 joining in the delirium of joy. Casks were 
 broached and healths were drunk, suppers 
 eaten joyously we of the Pembroke hav- 
 ing now all we could desire given us from 
 our consorts songs sung. And, if there
 
 114 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 was one who more than others was the hero 
 of the evening, it was the simple gentleman 
 who had brought the first intimation of the 
 whereabouts of those whom we now meant 
 to "burn, plunder, and destroy," as the 
 old naval motto runs ; the man who now 
 pens these lines myself. 
 
 Perhaps 't was no very good preparation 
 for a great fight that, on the night before 
 the day when we hoped to be gripping 
 French and Spaniards by the throat, blow- 
 ing up, burning or sinking their ships, and 
 seizing their treasures, we should have been 
 wassailing and carousing deeply all through 
 that night. Yet, remember, we were sailors 
 and soldiers ; we were bent on an errand of 
 destruction against the tyrant who had 
 crushed and frighted all Europe for now 
 nigh sixty years ; the splendid despot who, 
 but a few months ago, had acknowledged as 
 King of England one whom every English- 
 man had sworn deeply should never sit on 
 England's throne, nor inherit the crown of 
 his ancestors if, indeed, the Stuarts were 
 the ancestors of the youth whom the late 
 James called his son. 
 
 For this remembrance we may be for- 
 given forgiven for hating Louis and all 
 his brood hating him, the tyrant of Ver- 
 sailles, and the fat booby, his grandson,
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 115 
 
 who aspired to grasp the throne of Spain 
 by the help of Versailles and its master, 
 that great, evil King- of France ! 
 
 Through that night, I say, we drank and 
 caroused, called toasts to our good queen, 
 prayed God that we might do her credit on 
 the morrow, and exalt the name of great 
 Anna? And even the watch, coming- off 
 duty in turns, ran into the main cabin ere 
 they sought their berths, seized cans and 
 cannikins brimming' high, and drank her 
 health and that of our own dear land. 
 
 'T was a great night, yet it came to 
 an end at last, and the autumn morning- 
 dawned, thick, hazy, damp still, not so 
 thick or hazy but that we could see through 
 it the mountains over and around Vigo 
 looming up, and, at their feet, the en- 
 trance to the bay. 
 
 Also, we saw, away to the northwest, 
 the fleet of Sir Cloudesley Shovel coming 
 up toward us, escorted and led by our 
 scouts.
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 THE TAKING OF THE GALLEONS. 
 
 Looking back upon that great day it 
 was October 11 it seems to me that many 
 of the events which happened must have 
 been due to the mercy and goodness of 
 God, so incredible were they. 
 
 For see now what fell out at the very 
 first, namely, that the haze and mist were 
 so thick that we were enabled to anchor at 
 the mouth of the great river and harbour 
 without so much as even our presence be- 
 ing known, so that when the sun set and 
 the fog lifted, the surprise of those snared 
 and trapped creatures was great, and they 
 at once began firing wildly upon us, with- 
 out, however, doing any harm whatever. 
 But the lifting of that fog showed us what 
 we had to encounter, the work that was to 
 be done. 
 
 For, first, it enabled us to see that, 
 across the river, or narrow strait, as in- 
 deed it was, the French admiral had laid 
 a tremendous boom, made up of cables, 
 yards and masts, topchains and casts, some 
 
 116
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 117 
 
 nine feet in circumference, while the whole 
 was kept fixed and steady by anchors at 
 either side. This, too, we perceived, was 
 constructed between two forts known as 
 the Ronde and the Noot, one on the left 
 bank and the other on the right, while far 
 up the harbour, where we saw the gal- 
 leons all a-lying tucked in comfortably un- 
 der the cliffs, with a line of French ships of 
 battle, and some Spanish ones, ahead of 
 and guarding- them, we perceived a great 
 fort, which is known as the Fort of Redon- 
 della. 
 
 And now the night came down upon us, 
 and we knew that for this day there would 
 be no fighting, though, since all through it 
 the admiral went from ship to ship in his 
 barge, giving orders, 't was very certain 
 that at daybreak it would begin. 
 
 And so it did, as now I have to describe. 
 
 For on the morrow, and when, as near 
 six o'clock as may be, the sun came up 
 swiftly over the great hills, or mountains, 
 which abound here, we made our first prep, 
 arations for the attack by the landing of 
 the Duke of Ormond with two thousand 
 five hundred and fifty men on the side of 
 the Fort Redondella, they marching at once 
 toward it on foot. 
 
 As for myself, although a soldier, it had
 
 118 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 been decided that I should remain in the 
 Pembroke, and this for more than one rea- 
 son. 
 
 "You have," said Captain Hardy to me, 
 "no uniform with you; therefore, if you 
 fall into the hands of those on shore it may 
 go hard with you. Yet here you can be of 
 service; help train a gun, if need be, issue 
 orders, take part in the boarding, which 
 must surely occur, perhaps take part in 
 sacking of the galleons. There 's business 
 for you such, indeed as, as a soldier, you 
 are not very like to ever see again. My 
 lad ! " he went on and in truth I was a lad to 
 him, though I esteemed myself a very full- 
 fledged man " you are to be congratulated. 
 You will have much to talk about in years 
 to come if you survive this day which 
 falls not often to a landsman's lot," and he 
 ran away as gay as a lad himself, all grizzled 
 with service though he was, to prepare for 
 assisting in breaking the boom. 
 
 So I stayed in the Pembroke and, as you 
 shall see, if you do but read, the doing so 
 led to all that happened to me which I have 
 now to set down, and all of which had it 
 not so happened would have prevented 
 this narrative from ever being penned, since 
 it is not to describe only the siege of Vig-o
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 119 
 
 and the taking- of the Spanish galleons that 
 I am a-writing of this story. 
 
 Therefore I proceed: 
 
 Down from the hills already the smoke 
 was rolling- fast, obscuring- the beauteous 
 morn by now; white smoke from the can- 
 non in the fort through which there leapt 
 every moment great spits of flame from the 
 big guns' mouths! dun-coloured smoke 
 from the grenades carried by Lord Shannon 
 and Colonel Pierce's grenadiers; black, 
 greasy smoke vomited forth from the fuzees. 
 And it came down to the water and poured 
 across it in clouds, enveloping the galleons 
 in its wreaths and the great French ships 
 of battle ; clinging around our own topsails 
 and masts, almost obscuring each of our 
 vessels from the other. 
 
 Yet not so much, neither, but that a 
 breeze having sprung up after a calm which 
 had enforced us to drop our anchors for a 
 while we, of the Pembroke, could see glide 
 by us a great ship, with her men on yards 
 and masts and in fighting tops, all cheering 
 lustily, and some a-singing a vessel that 
 rushed forward as a tiger rushes to its prey. 
 At first we thought it was the Royal Sove- 
 reign that great, noble ship which trans- 
 mits a name down from Bluff Harry's days 
 then knew we were mistaken. It was the
 
 120 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 Torbay, Vice-Admiral Hopson's own, in 
 which he flew his flag 1 , her sails all clapt on, 
 her cable training- at her side, where he had 
 cut it, so as to lose no precious time, her 
 course direct for the boom. And after her 
 went ourselves, as hound let loose from 
 leash follows hound. Captain Hardy had 
 spoken true 't was a day not to be missed ! 
 We heard a snapping-, a crashing- 
 't was awful, too, to hear ! we heard roar 
 upon roar from hundreds of lusty throats 
 in that great ship we knew the boom was 
 g-one cut throug-h as a woodsman's axe 
 cuts throug-h a sapling-. Amidst all the 
 enemy's fire fire from the French ships 
 and those Spanish forts on shore we 
 heard it. And we, too, cheered and 
 shouted sent up our queen's name to 
 the smoke-obscured heavens above. Some 
 cried the old watchword of past days, " St. 
 Georg-e and England " ; some even danced 
 and jumped upon the decks for g-lee 
 danced and jumped, even thoug-h the hail 
 of ball was scattering- us like ninepins, or 
 a hundred pins ! even thoug-h some lay 
 writhing on those decks, and some were 
 lying- there headless, armless, leg-less ! 
 What mattered? The enemy were there 
 behind that boom, and it was broken. We 
 were amongst them now. Let those die
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 121 
 
 who must ; those live who were to conquer. 
 
 Between the Bourbon and L? Esp6rance 
 the noble Torbay rushed to the jaws of 
 death she went, as though to a summer 
 cruise on friendly seas, her anchor cables 
 roared through her hawse-holes Hopson 
 had anchored 'twixt those two great 
 French ships ! He was there ; there was 
 to be, could be, no retreat now ; 't was 
 death or victory. 
 
 At first it seemed as though it could 
 alone be the first. The cannon grinned 
 like teeth through tier upon tier of gun- 
 boats in the Frenchman's sides ; the balls 
 crashed into the Torbay ; they did the 
 same with us and Vandergoes' ship, now 
 ranged on the other side of the Bourbon 
 a French fireship had clapt alongside of 
 her, and set her rigging alight ; her fore- 
 topmast went by the board ; her sails were 
 all aflame ; her foreyard burnt like a dry 
 log ; her larboard shrouds burnt at the 
 dead-eyes. 
 
 Yet still she fought and fought vom- 
 ited forth her own flames and destruc- 
 tion ; still from the throats of those left 
 alive came shouts of savage exultation, 
 for, all afire as she was, we saw that she 
 was winning. And not only she, but all of 
 us. We had sunk one Frenchman our-
 
 122 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 selves. Vandergoes had mastered the 
 Bourbon she was done for ! The Asso- 
 ciation had silenced a battery ashore. And 
 now a greater thing than all happened 
 Chateaurenault saw that he was beaten, 
 set his flagship, Le Fort, on fire, and fled 
 to the shore, calling on all his captains to 
 follow him. 
 
 Yet still one awful dread remained ! 
 The Torbay was burning fiercely, charred 
 masts and yards were falling to the deck 
 itself aflame blocks burning like tarred 
 wood crashed down, too. What if her pow- 
 der magazine exploded ! If it did, all in 
 her neighbourhood would be destroyed, 
 hurled to atoms, as she herself would be. 
 
 Almost it seemed as if that had hap- 
 pened now. There came a hideous roar, a 
 belch of black, suffocating smoke; it set all 
 sneezing and coughing as though a sulphur 
 mine were afire. Yet that explosion, that 
 great cloud of filthy blackness, those 
 masses of burnt and charred wood hurled 
 up into the air and falling with a crash on 
 every deck around, amidst shrieks and 
 howls and curses terrible to hear, though 
 drowned somewhat by the booming of the 
 cannon all about, was to be the salvation of 
 the Torbay, of ourselves, and of the Dutch- 
 men.
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 123 
 
 For it was the fireship itself that had 
 exploded. It was, in truth, a merchantman 
 laden with snuff, which had been hastily 
 fitted up as one of those craft. And in so 
 doing 1 the density of the fumes which it 
 emitted, and its falling- debris when it was 
 burst asunder, helped to put out the flames 
 that raged in the Torbay and in us. 
 
 The firing began to cease even as this 
 happened; the enemy began to recognise 
 that 't was useless. They would have been 
 blind not to have so recognised. On shore 
 't was easy enough to perceive that the 
 forts of Redondella, Noot and Ronde, with 
 their platforms, had been captured by Or- 
 mond and Captain Bucknam, of the Asso- 
 ciation; on the water the Bourbon was ours. 
 The lilies were hauled down, in their place 
 floated the banner of England; the fireship 
 had vanished into the elements, the great 
 boom lay in pieces on the water like some 
 long 1 , severed snake. Yet might one have 
 wept to gaze upon the Torbay the queen 
 and victress of this fight and upon our- 
 selves. 
 
 There she lay Hopson by now in the 
 Monmouth, to which he had been forced to 
 transfer his flag 1 , so sad a ruin was she 
 listing- over to her wounded starboard side, 
 into which the water poured in volumes, it
 
 124 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 becoming tinged as it mixed with the blood 
 in her scuppers; her yards and masts were 
 charred sticks; black bits of sooty, greasy 
 matter^ which had once been her white 
 sails, floated down slowly to the waves and 
 fell upon and dissolved into them. Also 
 her shrouds were but burnt pieces of rope 
 and twine now. Upon her deck there were 
 stretched a hundred and twenty men, dead 
 or dying. And with the Pembroke it was 
 almost as bad. We were shattered and 
 bruised, our foremast gone, our own sails 
 shot through and through, and hanging 
 over the sides like winding sheets, our 
 own decks charnel houses. Yet we had 
 won the fight, the day was ours, the gal- 
 leons our booty. 
 
 But were they ? That was the question ! 
 
 ' T was true, they were all as we had first 
 seen them, though some, we noticed, had 
 been run ashore, perhaps to give them a 
 chance of hurriedly landing some of their 
 cargo ; but, alas ! we noticed now-that they 
 were all aflame, were burning fiercely. 
 
 And we knew well enough what this 
 meant meant that the French and Span- 
 iards had set them on fire so that we should 
 benefit nothing through their falling into 
 our hands. And all of us saw it at the same 
 time Rooke saw it, Hopson saw it every
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 125 
 
 man on board our English decks who was 
 still alive saw and understood. 
 
 By God's mercy the breeze was still 
 blowing- into the strait. Some of us still had 
 some sail left clinging- to our bruised and 
 battered yards ; enough to take us far- 
 ther in, enough to enable the boarding par- 
 ties to row ashore, to reach those burning 
 ships, to save something, surely ! 
 
 From all the ships' sides as we ran up 
 as far as we could toward where they lay, 
 came now the hoarse grating of the ropes 
 running through the blocks as the boats 
 were lowered. Into those boats leaped 
 swarms of men, their cutlasses ready, their 
 pistols in their hands, their eyes inflamed 
 with the lust of plunder, wild oaths and 
 jokes, curses and, sometimes, prayers 
 that we were not too late upon their lips. 
 
 And in our cutter I went, too ap- 
 pointed to the command of her in place of 
 the lieutenant who should have taken that 
 command, but who now lay dead upon the 
 Pembroke^ deck, a dozen balls in his body. 
 
 Jostling one another for there were 
 scores of boats lowered by now, and all mak- 
 ing their way, under either sail or the sea- 
 men's brawny arms, to where those burning 
 galleons lay we rushed through the half 
 mile of water that separated us from them,
 
 126 ACRJOSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 all eager to board and be amongst the spoil. 
 And woe, I thought, to him or them who, 
 when we were there, should strive to bar 
 our entrance! Our blood was up, fevered 
 by the carnage of the earlier hours ; woe to 
 them who endeavoured to prevent our final 
 triumph! Through wreckage of all kinds 
 we went, spars, yards and masts, military 
 tops floating like tubs, dead men face up- 
 ward, living men clinging to oars and over- 
 turned boats and shrieking to be saved, 
 while ever still, in front of us, the galleons 
 burned and blazed one blew up as we 
 neared it, another, spouting flames from 
 port and window and burning to the water's 
 edge, sank swiftly and in a moment beneath 
 the water. 
 
 But at last we were up to them, were 
 beneath their bows, could see their great 
 figureheads and read their names most 
 of them so terribly sacred that one won- 
 dered that even Spaniards should so dare 
 to profane those holy words by using them 
 for their ships ! 
 
 And now some orders were issued by a 
 grey-haired officer to those close by. The 
 boarding parties were told off in boats of 
 twos and threes to the different vessels 
 flaming before our eyes. The one which I 
 commanded was directed to a great vessel
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 127 
 
 of three decks, having above her upper one 
 a huge poop-royal, and named heavens, 
 what a name for a ship ! La Sacra Fami- 
 lia. And as we swept toward them all we 
 saw that one mercy was now to be vouch- 
 safed. There would be no further slaugh- 
 ter here; no need for more shedding- of 
 blood. The vessels were not defended ; 
 those who had set fire to them had un- 
 doubtedly fled. 
 
 Yet up on the poop-royal of that galleon, 
 to which we now clambered by aid of rope 
 and ladder with cutlass in mouth and pis- 
 tol in belt as well as by chains and steps, 
 we saw there was still some human life 
 left. We saw a tall monk standing there, 
 gazing down curiously at us, his shaven 
 crown glistening in the autumn sun. Also, 
 it seemed as though he smiled a welcome 
 to us, was glad to see us ; perhaps regarded 
 us as men who might save him from that 
 burning mass. 
 
 We rushed on board, and first, before 
 all other things, except a salutation which 
 I made to the monk by a touch of the finger 
 to my hat, I directed those under my com- 
 mand to endeavour to stifle the fire, which 
 seemed at present to be entirely confined 
 to the after part of the ship. " For," said 
 I to those of my own following, and also to
 
 128 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 those who had come in the other boats 
 under the command of two bo'suns, "if 
 this is not done there will be no getting- at 
 the goods whatever. Where generally is 
 the storage made?" I asked, turning to one 
 of these officers. 
 
 "Faith, sir, I know not," he said, with 
 a harsh laugh. " My account has been 
 ever with the king's and now the queen's 
 ships. We sailors know little of such 
 things as stored treasure. Yet," and he 
 again laughed, "we have our opportunity 
 now. If we can but quench this fire, we 
 may learn something." 
 
 "Perhaps," said a voice behind me, mu- 
 sical and deep, and greatly to my astonish- 
 ment when I turned round and saw who 
 its owner was, namely, the monk speaking 
 in very good English, "I may be of some 
 service here. I have been a passenger in 
 her since she loaded at Guayaquil," and his 
 eyes met mine boldly. 
 
 They were large, roving eyes, too, jet- 
 black and piercing, and looked out from a 
 dark, handsome face. A face as close-shaven 
 as the crown, yet with the blue tinge all 
 over upper lip and chin and cheeks which 
 showed where there grew a mass of hair 
 beneath. 
 
 "lam obliged to you, sir," I answered,
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 129 
 
 touching- my hat again for his manner 
 proclaimed that this was no common peas- 
 ant who had become a monk because the life 
 was easier than that of a hedger and ditcher; 
 but, instead, a man who knew something- of 
 the world and its courtesies. Then, he hav- 
 ing- told me that all the plate and coin was 
 in the middle of the ship, and the merchan- 
 dise, such as skins and leather, Campeachy 
 wood, quinquina, silks, indig-o and cochineal 
 in the after part, I sent off all the men to 
 endeavour at once to extinguish the flames 
 below; to cut off communication between 
 the atmosphere and that part of the ship 
 which was already in flames; to close all 
 hatches and bulkhead doors; to stop up the 
 crevices by which the air could pass to the 
 burning- part, and, if possible, to separate 
 the one half of the vessel from the other, 
 as well as to pour down water on the flames. 
 
 And, half an hour later while still I 
 stood g-azing- down on the men at their work, 
 and still by my side stood the monk, utter- 
 ing- no word, but regarding- with interest 
 all that was doing one of the bo'suns 
 called up to me, saying: 
 
 " We have scotched it now, sir. There 
 is no more fire left."
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 r> 
 
 SENOR JUAN BELMONTE. 
 
 And now I made my way below by the 
 main hatch for the after-companion was 
 all burnt, so that there was no descent by 
 that, I being intent on the men finding- out 
 and setting to work at once on getting at 
 and landing the specie there might be in 
 the ship ; for, although the galleons were 
 ours now, and 't was a certainty that neither 
 French nor Spaniards could make any at- 
 tempt whatsoever to recover possession of 
 them, there was another matter to be 
 thought about, namely, that this one, of 
 which I was, so to speak, in chief com- 
 mand, might be so badly injured that she 
 might sink at any moment ; and, if she did 
 that, then it would be goodbye to any bars 
 of silver and gold, pistoles or crusadoes 
 which she might have stowed away in her, 
 ready for the Castile mint. And with this 
 apprehension in my mind, I decided that 
 the unloading must at once begin. 
 
 But as I came down the main companion 
 it was apparent that I must make my way 
 
 130
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 131 
 
 aft throug-h the great cabin, since my men 
 were all at work in the hinder part of the 
 ship ; and, consequently, I put my hand to* 
 the cabin door to open it, when I discovered' 
 that it was closed shut fast. Yet, even 
 as I perceived this, while still I moved the 
 catch about between my fingers, wondering 
 what I should do, and whether I must not 
 go back and fetch some of the sailors up 
 from the after part to burst open the door, 
 I heard a footstep, light, yet firm, tapping 
 on the cabin deck ; a footstep that, I could 
 very well perceive, was coming toward the 
 closed door ; and then, a moment later, I 
 heard a voice on the other side say some- 
 thing in Spanish, of which I could not catch 
 one word ; yet I doubted not that a ques- 
 tion had been asked as to who I was, and 
 what I wanted. 
 
 Remembering, however, that I stood 
 here in the position of a captor, remember- 
 ing, too, that since all these Spanish gal- 
 leons had been under the protection of the 
 French admiral (with also three Spanish 
 ships of war, though 't is true they did not 
 count for much), I replied in the French 
 language, which, as I have before said, I had 
 very well: 
 
 "I am an officer from the English fleet,
 
 132 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 and am now in charge of this vessel. Open 
 the door without delay." 
 
 "Are you an English officer ? " the voice 
 now said, in my own tongue, to which I 
 thinking that the tones were soft, gracious 
 ones enough replied : 
 
 "I am an English officer. Open the 
 door at once." 
 
 Then I heard the bolt shot back, and en- 
 tered the great cabin. 
 
 What kind of personage I had expected 
 to find behind that door I scarcely now can 
 say though I do remember well enough 
 that, judging by the gentle, musical voice 
 which had replied to my summons, I should 
 not have been over-surprised to find myself 
 face to face with some Spanish woman 
 yet the person who appeared before me 
 raised my curiosity when we now stood 
 face to face, for, certainly, I had expected 
 some one vastly different from him on 
 whom I now gazed perhaps a Spanish 
 sailor ; a woman, as I have mentioned, 
 or some old don who had managed to get 
 left behind when all the rest had fled. 
 
 Yet I saw none of these. 
 
 Instead, a youth, somewhat tall I re- 
 member that his eyes were almost on a 
 level with mine, and I am tall myself also 
 extremely handsome, while, to add to that
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 133 
 
 handsomeness, his dress was rich, if not 
 costly. But first for his appearance. 
 
 Those eyes were soft, dark ones, such 
 as, I think, our poets call "liquid," and 
 they looked out at me from an oval face, 
 dark and olive in complexion, over which 
 the black hair curled in mighty becoming- 
 waves, though it was not all visible, since 
 on his head he wore a beaver cap, looped up 
 at one side with a steel buckle, and with, in 
 it, a deep crimson feather a hat that added 
 extremely to his boyish beauty. For that 
 he was a boy of almost tender years was 
 certain. Upon his upper lip there was that 
 soft down which is not a moustache, but 
 tells only where some day a moustache 
 will be ; his colouring, too a deep, rich 
 red beneath the olive skin proclaimed 
 extreme youthf ulness. But, what was even 
 more agreeable than all, was the bright, 
 buoyant smile with which he looked at me 
 a smile which flashed from those dark, 
 soft eyes and trembled on the full, red lips, 
 yet seemed strangely out of place here in 
 this captured vessel, and upon the face of a 
 prisoner for such, indeed, he was. 
 
 But now even as we were saluting of 
 each other, and while I noticed the easy 
 grace with which this youth took off his 
 beaver hat I noticed also the handsome
 
 134 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 satin coat he wore, the embroidered, open- 
 worked linen collar, and the pretty lace 
 at his sleeves ; perceived, also, that his 
 breeches were lined with camlet and faced 
 with white taffeta. I spoke to him, saying- : 
 
 "Sir, I am afraid this is but a rough 
 visit which I pay. Yet, since I find you 
 aboard this galleon, you must know what 
 brings me here ; must know that it and all 
 her consorts have fallen into our power 
 the power of England and Holland." 
 
 " In faith, I know it very well, " the young 1 
 man answered. " Heavens, what a cannon- 
 ading- you kept up ! Yet though perhaps 
 you may deem me heartless if I say so ! 
 I cannot aver that I am desperate sick at 
 the knowledg-e that you have drubbed 
 France and Spain this morning-. Cardmba! 
 I am not too much in love with either, 
 thoug-h you find me a passenger here." 
 
 " Monsieur is not then either French or 
 Spanish ? " I hazarded, while he unstrapped 
 his blade from its porte epe and flung it on 
 the cabin locker as though it wearied him. 
 "Perhaps English, to wit. And of the 
 West Indies? A passenger taking this 
 ship as a means whereby to reach his native 
 land ? " 
 
 He looked at me with those soft dark 
 eyes I know not even now why they
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 135 
 
 brought up the thought of velvet to my 
 mind paused a moment then said : 
 
 "Monsieur, I do protest you are a 
 wizard, a conjuror, a geomancer. In truth 
 you have hit it. I am English, though not 
 by birth but subject to England." 
 
 "I should scarce have thought, indeed," 
 I ventured to say, "that monsieur was of 
 English blood." 
 
 " No ? " with a slight intonation. "And 
 why not? I flatter myself that I have 
 the English very well." 
 
 " You have it perfectly," I replied, mak- 
 ing a little bow, "but scarce the English 
 look. Now a Spaniard a Frenchman I 
 would have ventured to say, judging by your 
 appearance, to " 
 
 Again that merry laugh rang out, and 
 again that handsome youth told me I must 
 be a wizard. "For," said he, "you have 
 pinked me in the very spot. My mother 
 was a Spaniard my father a Frenchman. 
 And we have lived so long in Jamaica that I 
 speak English like an Englishman: You 
 see?" 
 
 Then almost before I could answer that 
 I did see and understand, this handsome 
 youth who seemed as volatile as a butter- 
 fly ! began to sing softly to himself :
 
 136 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 "And have you heard of a Spanish lady? 
 
 How she wooed an Englishman ? 
 Garments gay and rich as may be, 
 Decked with jewels, had she on " 
 
 While at the same time he picked up an in- 
 strument which I learned later was known 
 as a viol d'amore, and began to produce 
 sweet sounds from it. 
 
 Now, this youth won so much upon me, 
 what with his appearance and already I 
 found myself wondering- what the ladies 
 must think of him ! and his light, merry 
 nature, that, had other things been differ- 
 ent, I could very well have passed the whole 
 day with him in this main cabin, only there 
 was duty to be done. By now I knew that 
 the men would most like have reached the 
 bullion chests and be ready for getting 
 them out ; wherefore, the moment he ceased 
 his song, I said as courteously as may be : 
 
 "I have to leave you now, sir there is 
 work to be done in this ship by nightfall. 
 Yet, since you say you are a British sub- 
 ject, we must take some care of you. Will 
 you come with me to see one of the ad- 
 mirals, who will dispose of you as best may 
 be ? If you seek to reach England, doubt- 
 less they can put you in the way give 
 you a passage or what do you propose 
 doing?"
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 137 
 
 For answer he shrugged his shoulders 
 indifferently, theji said : 
 
 "England is my destination yet there 
 is no pressing hurry. I am on my road to 
 seek some friends there, but I mind not if I 
 tarry a little. One of these friends oh ! a 
 dear old creature, a Saint, I think I have 
 been bent on finding for some years now. 
 And I shall find him. Then but no mat- 
 ter ! A few more weeks in comparison with 
 those years matter but little. I shall find 
 him. Oh, yes. I have no fear." 
 
 I, too, shrugged my shoulders now 
 for this was, after all, no answer to my 
 question ; then I said : 
 
 "But how will you proceed? You can 
 scarce stay here this galleon will proba- 
 bly be sunk by the admiral directly she is 
 unloaded. What will you do? " 
 
 He shrugged his shoulders with a look 
 of extreme indifference, muttering some- 
 thing in Spanish, which I thought might 
 be a proverb; then said: "Indeed, sir, I 
 do not know. But this admiral of yours, 
 what will he do with me where take me 
 if I go with you? I thought to ship at 
 one time from Cadiz to England ; then, 
 later, when I learned we were coming in 
 here, I thought to travel by land to some
 
 138 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 near port and find a vessel for the same 
 place. Now I know not what to do." 
 
 Neither did I know what to suggest that 
 he should do, except that I told him it was 
 very certain he must see the admiral, who, 
 without any doubt, I thought, would find 
 him an opportunity of reaching England 
 would probably take him with the fleet. 
 
 "And, "I went on, "this should be of 
 some service to you, in the way of money, 
 at least. 'T will be a good thing for you 
 to be put on English ground at no cost to 
 yourself. Also, you may have goods or 
 specie in this ship, which can be saved for 
 you. And then, too, you will be near those 
 friends you speak of that one, especially, 
 who is a Saint who will doubtless help 
 and assist you." 
 
 Again I saw the bright, luminous smile 
 come upon his features, as he answered : 
 
 "Ay ! he would assist me, no doubt. Oh ! 
 yes. Mon Dieul Yes! Beyond all doubt. 
 And he will be so glad to see me. We have 
 not met for some time. But, sir, I thank 
 you very much for your concern about me. 
 Only, as far as money goes, I am not needy. 
 I have bills about me now, drawn on the old 
 Bank of Castile, and also on some goldsmiths 
 of London, as well as some gold pieces in 
 my pocket. While as for the goods or specie
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 139 
 
 you speak of why, never fear! Neither 
 this galleon nor any other has a pistole's 
 worth of aught that belongs to me on board 
 the risk was too great with the seas 
 swarming with English ships of war. No, 
 sir, beyond the box which contains my 
 necessaries, I stand to lose nothing." 
 
 "I rejoice to hear it," I said, "though 
 doubtless, since you are a British subject, 
 all that belonged to you would have been 
 sacred. Yet, even as 'tis, 'tis better so." 
 Then, seeing the bo'sun at the cabin door, 
 pulling his long matted hair by form of 
 salute, and, doubtless, wondering what kept 
 me so long away from him and his men, I 
 said: " Now I must leave you for a time. 
 Yet it will not be long. I trust you have all 
 you require to sustain you until we reach 
 the ship I am attached to." 
 
 But even as I spoke, and without listen- 
 ing much to his answer, which was to the 
 effect that a good meal had been eaten that 
 morning before the battle began, and that, 
 if necessary, he knew very well where to lay 
 his hands on some food, a thought struck 
 me which I wondered had not occurred to 
 me before during my interview with him. 
 Therefore, turning to him, I said : 
 
 " But how comes it that I find you here 
 alone or all alone but for the reverend
 
 140 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 monk whom I saw above? How is it that 
 you and he did not desert the ship as the 
 others must have done?" 
 
 "Oh! as for that," he replied, still with 
 that sweet smile of his, and still with that 
 bright, careless air which he had worn all 
 through, and which caused him to appear 
 superior to any of the melancholy as well 
 as uncomfortable circumstances by which 
 he was surrounded, "as for that, the ex- 
 planation is simple enough." Then, speak- 
 ing rapidly now, he went on : 
 
 "We saw your great ships break the 
 boom ; ha ! por Di6s y 't was grand, splendid. 
 We saw your ships range themselves along- 
 side the Frenchmen, saw them crash into 
 them their balls, set them afire, destroy 
 them. EspUndido I EspUndido! EspUn- 
 dido!" he exclaimed, bursting into the 
 Spanish in his excitement. "Poof! away 
 went the Bourbon, topping over on her side, 
 up went the fireship we heard your shouts 
 and cries, heard the great English seamen 
 singing their songs. I tell you it was glori- 
 ous. Magnifico! Only these creatures 
 here the canailles these desperdicios 
 these Dibs! I know not the word in 
 English thought not so. 'Great God!' 
 screamed Don Trebuzia de Vera, our cap- 
 tain a miserable pig, a coward, 'Great
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 141 
 
 God, they win again, these English dogs; 
 curse them! they never lose, we are lost! 
 lost! lost! And see,' he bellowed, 'the 
 French admiral lands, he flees, deserts his 
 ship, ha I sets it afire. Flee we, too, there- 
 fore. Flee! Away! To the boats, to the 
 shore, to the mountains. Away! They 
 come nearer. Away, all, or there will not be 
 a whole throat amongst us.' " 
 
 " We knowed that was what would hap- 
 pen," chuckled the bo'sun, who still stood 
 at the open door, his fierce face lit up with 
 a huge grin of approval. " Go on, young 
 sir. Tell us the tale." 
 
 And, scarce heeding him, the youth, who 
 had recovered his breath, went on: 
 
 "They obeyed him they fled. Into the 
 water, up the rocks, off inland they went. 
 They never cast a thought to us, to Padre 
 Jaime and myself, the only two passengers 
 in the ship. Not they they cared no jot 
 whether we were blown up, or shot, or 
 sunk, no more than they thought of their 
 ingots in the hold. Their wretched lives 
 were all in all to them now." 
 
 "Therefore they fled and left you 
 here ! " 
 
 " They fled and left us here, setting fire 
 first to the ship, and caring nothing if we 
 were burnt in it or not. Though that
 
 142 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 could scarce have happened, I think, since 
 it would have been easy enough for us to 
 plunge into the water and get ashore. Also 
 the reverend father above bade me take 
 heart though I needed no such counsel, 
 having never lost mine averred that your 
 side had won, that the next thing would be 
 the arrival of your boats to secure the 
 plunder which has fallen out as he said 
 and that then both he and I would be safe. 
 Which also has come to pass," he concluded. 
 
 "The reverend father appears to be 
 well versed in the arts of war, captures and 
 so forth," I remarked, as now we made our 
 way together to the waist of the ship, fol- 
 lowed by the bo'sun. "A strange knowl- 
 edge for one of his trade ! " 
 
 " PorDidsI" the young fellow said, " 't is 
 not so strange, neither, as you will say if 
 ever you get him to speak about the strange 
 places in which he has pursued his minis- 
 trations. Why, sir, he has assisted at the 
 death of many a dying sinner of the kind 
 we have in our parts, held cups of water to 
 their burning lips, wiped the sweat of death 
 from off their brows. Oh! " he said, stop- 
 ping by one of the galleon's great quarter 
 deck ports, in which the cowards who fled 
 from the heavily armed ship had left a huge 
 loaded brass cannon run out, which they
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 143 
 
 had not had the spirit to fire; stopping 
 there and laying a long, slim hand upon my 
 arm while I noticed that the nails were 
 most beautifully shaped "Oh! he has 
 been in some strange places ; seen strange 
 things, the siege and plunder of Mara- 
 caibo, to wit, and many other places; seen 
 blood run like water." 
 
 "The siege and plunder of Maracaibo!" 
 I found myself repeating as we drew near 
 the fore-hatches, which were now open. 
 "The siege and plunder of Maracaibo!" 
 Where had I heard such words as these be- 
 fore, or words like them? Where? where? 
 On whose lips had I last heard the name of 
 Maracaibo? 
 
 And, suddenly, I remembered that that 
 wicked old ruffian, who had been fellow-pas- 
 senger with me in La Mouche Noire had 
 mentioned that place to the filthy black who 
 was his servant or his friend. 
 
 And for what reason I know not, for 
 there was no sequence whatsoever in such 
 thoughts and recollections I recalled his 
 drunken and frenzied shouts to some man 
 whom he called Grandmont; his questions 
 about some youth nineteen years old, who 
 was like to be by now grown up to be a 
 devil like that dead Grandmont to whom he 
 imagined he was speaking.
 
 144 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 Which was, if you come to think of it, a 
 strange sort of recollection, or memory, to 
 be evoked simply through my hearing again 
 the name of that tropic town of Maracaibo 
 mentioned by this handsome young man.
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 FATHER JAIME. 
 
 Under the direction of the second bo'- 
 sun, the men who had all come into the 
 ship with me had now gotten the battens 
 off and had lifted the hatch hoods for 
 although it has taken some time to write 
 down my meeting- and interview with this 
 young- gentleman, it had not, in very fact, 
 occupied more than twenty minutes and 
 I found them already beginning- to bring up 
 some large chests and boxes with strange 
 marks upon them. 
 
 Also, I found standing close by the open- 
 ing the monk whom the young man had 
 called Father Jaime, he being engaged in 
 peering down into the hold with what 
 seemed to me a great air of interest, which 
 was not, perhaps, very strange, seeing that 
 the treasure below was now destined for a 
 far different purpose from that for which it 
 was originally intended. 
 
 He turned away, however, from this oc- 
 cupation on seeing us approach, and said 
 quietly, in the rich, full voice which I had 
 
 145
 
 146 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 previously noticed, to the young- man by 
 my side : 
 
 " So, Senor Juan, you have found a friend, 
 I see. You are fortunate. This way you 
 may light on your road to England." 
 
 "And you, sir, what is your destination, 
 may I ask?" I said, for I knew I should 
 soon have to decide what to do with him. 
 The grey-haired officer had given me, 
 among other hurried instructions, one to the 
 effect that anything which was brought up 
 from below was to be instantly sent off to 
 Sir George Rooke's flagship; and 'twas 
 very easy to see that there was none too 
 much specie in this ship while I knew not 
 what was to be done with the merchandise. 
 Therefore, the time was now near at hand 
 for me to return and report myself, taking 
 with me my findings, while, also, I should 
 have to take with me these two whom I had 
 discovered left behind on board. 
 
 Father Jaime bowed graciously on my 
 asking this question indeed, he was a far 
 more courteous and well bred man than I, 
 perhaps in my ignorance, had ever supposed 
 would have been found amongst his class 
 and replied: "I, sir, have to present my- 
 self at Lugo, where there is a monastery to 
 which I am accredited." Then, with an 
 agreeable smile, he continued :
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 147 
 
 "I trust I shall not be detained. Al- 
 ready I am two years behind my time as 
 is our young friend here, Senor Juan Bel- 
 monte, and " 
 
 " Two years ! " I exclaimed. 
 
 "In truth, 'tis so," my young- gentle- 
 man, whose name I now learned, replied. 
 " Two years. These galleons should have 
 sailed from Hispaniola that length of time 
 ago, only so many things have happened. 
 First there was the getting them properly 
 laden, then the fear of filibusters and buc- 
 caneers " 
 
 " That fear exists no longer, my son," 
 the monk interrupted. "They are dis- 
 banded, broken up, gone, dispersed. There 
 will be no more buccaneering now, the 
 saints be praised." 
 
 He said: "the saints be praised"; yet had 
 he not worn the holy garb he did, I should 
 have almost thought that he said it with re- 
 gret. Indeed, were it not for his shaven 
 crown and face, he would not have ill-be- 
 fitted the general idea I had formed of those 
 gentry what with his stalwart form, bold, 
 fierce eyes and sun-browned visage. 
 
 "Ay, the saints be praised ! " the young 
 senor repeated after him, "the saints be 
 praised. They were the curse of the Indies 
 lam old enough to remember that. Yet,
 
 148 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 now, all are gone, as you say, dispersed 
 broken up. Pointis has done that, and 
 death and disease. Still, where are they? 
 those who are alive I wonder." 
 
 "There are few alive now," the monk 
 replied, "and those of no worth. Recall, 
 my son, recall what we know happened in 
 the Indies. Kidd is taken, Grogniet dead, 
 Le Picard executed. Townley a great 
 man that ! I I mean, a great villain 
 fell with forty wounds in his body; at 
 Guayaquil nine brave nine vagabonds 
 left dead ; and more, many more." 
 
 "And the villain Gramont" and now 
 I started ; was this whom he called Gra- 
 mont the man that old vagabond Carstairs 
 had spoken of as I supposed as Grand- 
 mont? " forget not the greatest of them 
 all, holy father. What of him ? " 
 
 "He died at sea. Drowned," Father 
 Jaime replied. Then added: "He was 
 the boldest of them all." 
 
 "'T was never known for certain that 
 he was so drowned," Belmonte said. 
 
 " ' T was known for certain ; is certain. 
 I have spoken with those who saw his ship's 
 boats floating near where he must have 
 been cast away and lost. Fool that he was! 
 Madman! Louis the King gave him his 
 commission, made him Lieutenant du Roi.
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 149 
 
 Then, because the devil's fever was hot in 
 his blood, he must make one more of his ac- 
 cursed cruises, and go filibustering thus, 
 besieging towns, plundering and destroy- 
 ing once more. The fool ! to do it 'neath 
 the King's lilies to ruin himself forever, 
 when he was rich, rich ah, heavens ! how 
 rich he was ! ' Tis well for him that he was 
 drowned disappeared forever. Other- 
 wise the wheel would have been his portion. 
 And," he added after a pause, "righteously 
 so. Righteously so!" 
 
 Stopping as he said those words, he saw 
 that we were regarding him with interest 
 for, indeed, had this drowned buccaneer 
 been a friend of his he could scarcely have 
 spoken with more fervency then added, 
 impressively : 
 
 " My sons, I knew that man that Gra- 
 mont; and I I pitied him. Knowing his 
 fate, and much of his life, I pity him still." 
 
 Then he turned away and began telling 
 of his beads as he strode up and down the 
 deck. And I, remembering all I had over- 
 heard the man Carstairs say, determined 
 that, if the chance arose, I would ask the 
 reverend father if he had known this Car- 
 stairs, too; for I had sufficient curiosity 
 in my composition to desire to learn some- 
 thing more about that hoary -headed old
 
 150 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 vagabond, though 'twas not at all likely 
 that I should ever set eyes on him again. 
 
 That chance was not now, however, 
 since at this moment there came along- 
 side the whole flotilla of boats, which had 
 been despatched severally to the various 
 galleons, they being at this time all col- 
 lected together ere going back to the ad- 
 miral, and needing only us to make them 
 complete. Wherefore, giving orders to 
 have all the chests and boxes which we 
 had unearthed placed in our own boats, we 
 stepped over the side, I motioning to the 
 father and the senor to take their places 
 by me. 
 
 "Your necessaries," I said, "can be 
 fetched away later, when 't is decided how 
 your respective journeys are to be brought 
 to an end." 
 
 And now, ere I get on with what I have 
 to tell, it is fitting that to make an end 
 of this siege of Vigo, which, indeed, rein- 
 stated later, in the opinion of the Parlia- 
 ment and their countrymen, all those who 
 had failed at Cadiz I set down what was 
 the advantage to England of this taking of 
 the galleons, though, in truth, that advan- 
 tage was far more in the crushing blow 
 it administered to the French sea service 
 than in aught else ; for it broke that serv-
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 151 
 
 ice's power more than aught else had done 
 since the time of La Hogue, ten years ago; 
 and it crippled France so upon the waters 
 that, though she still continued to fight us 
 boldly whenever we met, she was able to do 
 but very little harm in that way. 
 
 Of the fifteen great ships of war which 
 the French admiral, Chateaurenault, com- 
 manded, five were burned up, some being 
 set alight by themselves ere they fled, the 
 others by us. Four others were run ashore 
 and bulged. Five more, not so badly in- 
 jured, were taken home by our fleet, and 
 afterward did us good service against their 
 old masters, these being Le Prompte, 
 L? Assure, Le Firme, Le ModZre, and Le 
 Triton; while the remaining one, Le Bour- 
 bon, was captured, as I have said, by Van- 
 dergoes, and fell to the share of the Dutch. 
 Then, of their frigates, we burnt two, and 
 also a fireship other than the merchantman 
 loaded with snuff. Also, we burnt and de- 
 stroyed three Spanish men-of-war. 
 
 As to the galleons, eight of them were 
 sunk by their owners, the others were di- 
 vided between our Dutch friends and our- 
 selves. And this is what we got for our 
 share : A few ingots of gold, several bars 
 of silver and some jewels the principal 
 thing of worth amongst these being a great
 
 152 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 crown of gold set with rubies ; a gold cruci- 
 fix enriched with many stones, seven hun- 
 dred pounds' weight of silver bars, many 
 cases of silver ore, and some enormous 
 cases of plate. Also, there was much 
 cochineal, tobacco, logwood, cocoa, snuff 
 and sugar, some of which was saved and 
 some was sunk to the bottom. And the 
 gold and silver was afterward taken to our 
 English mint and coined into five-pound 
 pieces, crowns, half-crowns and shillings, 
 each piece having " Vigo " stamped be- 
 neath the queen's head, thereby to distin- 
 guish it. Later on, and somewhat later, 
 too it was when I drew my share of the 
 prize money, to which I became entitled as 
 having taken part in that great fight I ob- 
 served that my pieces had that word upon 
 them. 
 
 But alas ! there should have been much 
 more, only the galleons had lain twenty-five 
 days within that harbour ere we got to 
 them, and, during that time, they had 
 landed much which had been sent on to 
 Lugo, and, had it not been for that foolish 
 Spanish punctilio, which would not allow 
 anything to be done hastily, they would 
 have gotten all of their goods and precious 
 things ashore. Only, because they should 
 have gone into Cadiz and discharged there,
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 153 
 
 and had instead come to Vigo, much delay 
 happened ere the order for their doing so 
 was given. Which was very good for us. 
 
 Our loss, considering the fierce fight 
 both sides made of it, was not considerable. 
 Hopson, his ship, because she had borne 
 the brunt of the encounter, did suffer the 
 most, she having one hundred and fifteen 
 of her sailors killed on the deck or drowned, 
 with nine wounded ; the Barfleur and the 
 Association had each but two men killed; 
 the Mary lost none; the Kent had her 
 bo'sun wounded, while for ourselves, we 
 had many wounded, but none that I know of 
 killed. Of those who went ashore to attack 
 the Fort of Redondella under his Grace 
 of Ormond, none of much note were slain, 
 but Colonel Pierce got a bad wound from a 
 cannon shot fired by one of our own men- 
 of-war, and some other colonels were also 
 wounded. 
 
 'Twas through a mighty mass of 
 wreckage and floating spars, masts and 
 yards, that we passed toward the Royal 
 Sovereign^ which lay back a bit and was 
 nearest the mouth of the strait and be- 
 yond where that boom had been, and as 
 we did so I saw my young gentleman, 
 Senor Belmonte, turn somewhat pale as he 
 observed the terrible traces which battles
 
 154 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 and more particularly sea battles al- 
 ways leave behind. Indeed, the soft red 
 flush leapt to his cheeks, and the full scarlet 
 lips themselves looked more white than red 
 as his eyes glanced down at the objects 
 that went a-floating by on the water; and, 
 perhaps, since he was so young, 't was not 
 very strange that these sights should have 
 sickened him. For there passed us dead 
 men with half their heads blown off; others 
 with a terrible grin of agony upon their 
 faces; some with half their inwards drag- 
 ging alongside them like cords the waves 
 all tinged a horrid reddish brown while 
 hats, wigs and other things floating by as 
 the tide made, were but cruel sights for so 
 young a man and he, probably, no fighter 
 to see. And, after such a lusty encoun- 
 ter as this had been, one could not hope to 
 witness anything much better. 
 
 As for the monk on whom I could not 
 but instinctively fix my eyes now and again, 
 for (although I could not have told why) 
 the man had fascinated me with the knowl- 
 edge which he seemed to have once pos- 
 sessed of all those hideous filibusters and 
 sea rovers who now, he said, were dead and 
 gone and driven off the ocean he seemed 
 to regard these things as calmly and im- 
 passibly as though he sat in some lady's
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 155 
 
 boudoir. His dark eyes, 't was true, flashed 
 here and there and all around now on a 
 headless man, and now on the contorted 
 features of another, but he paled not, nor 
 did he express or give any sign of interest 
 in aught until we ran along-side our noble 
 Royal Sovereign, when he cast his eye ap- 
 provingly over her. 
 
 "A great vessel," he said, "a mighty 
 craft I Worthy to represent her great 
 country " ; then grasped the life line hang- 
 ing down, as I motioned him to ascend her 
 gangway, and went on board as calmly as 
 though accustomed to going over the sides 
 of ships every day of his life. From the 
 main shrouds there hung a flag when we 
 stepped on board, which I have since learned 
 to know denoted that a council of war was 
 being held in the ship ; also there were 
 many captains' gigs and some admirals' 
 barges all about her, so that 'twas plain 
 enough to see, even without that flag, that 
 a consultation was taking place on board. 
 And scarce had I given my orders for the 
 chests to be hauled in than the first lieuten- 
 ant approached me and asked very cour- 
 teously if I was not Lieutenant Crespin. 
 
 A moment later I was being ushered 
 into the great main cabin, leaving my two 
 companions on the deck for the present
 
 156 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 and in another instant was making- my 
 salutations to the grey-haired admiral, Sir 
 George Rooke, who sat at the head of the 
 table, and to his Grace, the Duke of Or- 
 mond a brave, handsome soldier who 
 had come on board after taking of the Fort 
 of Redondella. 
 
 And now I pass over the many flattering 
 things said to me by those great officers 
 seated there since we had flown straight 
 to Vigo after the Pembroke had picked up 
 the fleet at sea, and had at once been occu- 
 pied in our preparations for taking of the 
 galleons, this was the first time we had 
 met over, also, the compliments paid me 
 for the manner in which I had made my 
 way from Holland to Cadiz and Lagos. 
 Suffice it that both Sir George Rooke and the 
 duke told me that my services would not be 
 forgot, and that when I returned to my 
 Lord Marlborough I should not go unac- 
 companied by their commendations. How- 
 ever, enough of this. And now I told my 
 tale of the morning, and of the two persons 
 I had found on board La Sacra Familia 
 told, too, that they were at this moment on 
 board the Royal Sovereign, I having deemed 
 it best to bring them along with me. 
 
 "Let us see them," said Rooke, and
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 157 
 
 straightway bade his flag- lieutenant go 
 bring them in. 
 
 But I think that, although I had told all 
 assembled at this board what kind of per- 
 sons these were whom I had discovered in 
 the ship, all the admirals, generals and cap- 
 tains were astonished at their appearance 
 when they stood before them; while so 
 handsome a show of it did my young Senor 
 Belmonte make, that, perhaps almost un- 
 knowing what he did, Admiral Hopson 
 pushed a chair toward him and bade him 
 be seated. And because such courtesy 
 could not be shown to one of these visitors 
 without the same being extended to the 
 other, the monk was also accommodated 
 with a chair in which he sat himself calmly, 
 his eyes roving round all those officers as- 
 sembled there. 
 
 "You were passengers in this galleon 
 the the Sacra Familia?" Sir George 
 said, glancing at a paper in his hand, on 
 which I supposed the names of all the cap- 
 tured ships were written down, "and as this 
 officer tells me, are anxious to proceed to 
 your destination. Will you inform me of 
 what that destination is, so that we may 
 assist you in your desire?" 
 
 " Mine," exclaimed Senor Juan and as 
 bis sweet, soft voice uttered the words mu-
 
 158 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 sically, all eyes were turned on him, "is 
 England eventually; yet," and he smiled 
 that gracious smile which I had seen before, 
 "my passage was but paid to Spain and 
 I am in Spain. Beyond being permitted to 
 go ashore here with my few necessaries, I 
 know not that I need demand any of your 
 politely proffered assistance." 
 
 Sir George shrugged his shoulders while 
 he looked attentively at the handsome young 
 man who, I thought, to speak truth, re- 
 ceived the civilities of his speech with some- 
 what too much the air of one accustomed to 
 having homage and consideration paid to 
 him then he said quietly : 
 
 " That, of course, shall be done at once. 
 There can be no obstacle to that. We only 
 regret that the rigours of war have caused 
 us to inconvenience any ordinary passen- 
 ger. You have of course your papers." 
 
 "Yes, I have them here," and he pro- 
 duced from his breast a bundle, at which 
 Sir George glanced lightly. 
 
 Then he turned to Father Jaime, who 
 preserved still the look of calmness which 
 had distinguished him all through. Yet 1 
 wondered, too, that he should have done so, 
 for he had been subjected to even more 
 scrutiny than Belmonte had been, perhaps 
 because of the garb he wore; scrutiny
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 159 
 
 that, in one instance at least, would have 
 disquieted a less contained man, since Ad- 
 miral Hopson, I noticed, had scarcely ever 
 taken his eyes off him since he had entered 
 the cabin, or, when he had taken them off, 
 had instantly refixed them so upon his coun- 
 tenance that 'twas very palpable to me that 
 the man puzzled him. But what need to 
 describe that look which all the world has 
 often seen on the face of one who is en- 
 deavouring- to recall to himself where, or 
 whether, he has ever seen another before. 
 
 "And you, sir? " the admiral asked. 
 
 "My destination," the monk replied, 
 his voice firm, full and sonorous as before, 
 "is the Abbey of Lugo; and since 't is far 
 nearer here than Cadiz, I can scarce regret 
 finding myself at Vigo, instead of at the 
 latter place." 
 
 And, even as he spoke, I saw Hopson 
 give a slight start and look even more in- 
 tently at him than before. 
 
 Then he bent forward toward Father 
 Jaime, and said quietly: "Reverend sir, is 
 it possible that we have ever met before? 
 In the West Indies, to wit? "
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 WHAT DID THE ADMIRAL DISCOVER? 
 
 Not a month had elapsed ere I stood 
 alone on the beach of Viana, which is in the 
 province of Entre-Douro-e-Minho, in Por- 
 tugal, and watched, with somewhat sad 
 thoughts in my mind, the white foresail and 
 mainsail of the Pembroke's jolly boat rising 
 and falling on the waters as, gradually, it 
 made its way out to sea to where, a league 
 off, there lay the English fleet. The Eng- 
 lish fleet, and bound for England 1 
 
 Vigo was freed of its enemies and cap- 
 tors; over night, at dark, the whole of the 
 British forces had cleared out of the bay, 
 and, this morning, Juan Belmonte and my- 
 self had been put ashore at this miserable 
 Portuguese town, or rather village, lying 
 some twenty miles south of the Spanish 
 frontier. 
 
 Briefly, this was the reason why I found 
 myself standing alone upon this beach 
 watching that fast disappearing boat, while, 
 walking up to the town, went Senor Juan to 
 seek for lodgings for us for the night. 
 
 160
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 161 
 
 After that council was concluded on 
 board the Royal Sovereign and from 
 which Father Jaime, Belmonte and myself 
 had retired after our interview with the 
 admirals the conclusion had been arrived 
 at that, the work being- done here namely, 
 the French fleet incur power and the Span- 
 ish galleons destroyed it would be impoli- 
 tic as well as unnecessary for the English to 
 remain any longer in the place. This de- 
 cision was, however, come to totally against 
 the desire of the Duke of Ormond, who him- 
 self was anxious to take possession of the 
 town of Vigo, to lie there during the winter 
 months, and, in the spring, to open again 
 the campaign against France in that portion 
 of Spain. Unfortunately, however, for this 
 idea which was in fact a mighty good one, 
 and, if carried out, might have gone far 
 toward crippling France even more than 
 she was eventually crippled it was impos- 
 sible. There were no provisions whereby 
 his army could be sustained for the winter, 
 nor had Rooke a sufficiency in his ships to 
 provide him with, and neither would the 
 admiral consent to leave behind a portion 
 of his fleet with which should it come to 
 that the duke could escape in case of 
 necessity. 
 
 "For," said he to Ormond, as I learnt,
 
 162 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 " you have seen, my Lord Duke, the disaster 
 which has followed on our enemies trusting 
 themselves within this narrow and land- 
 locked bay. Would your Grace, therefore, 
 think it wise to follow their bad example 
 and give them an opportunity which, doubt 
 not, they would take as soon as possible, of 
 retaliating- upon us?" 
 
 And to this Ormond could but shrug- his 
 shoulders, being- able to find no answer to 
 such remark. Therefore, at last for all 
 was not decided on the instant, but only af- 
 ter many more councils and much further 
 arg-ument it was resolved that the fleet 
 should remain no long-er, nor, of course, the 
 land forces neither. 
 
 But while all these determinations were 
 being- come to, I had had more than one in- 
 terview with Rooke and Ormond (both of 
 whom had entertained and made much of, 
 nor ceased ever their commendations of, 
 me), since it was very necessary that a de- 
 cision should be come to as to what was to 
 be my future course. For my work was 
 done, my connection with this fleet over; I 
 had no more business there. It was time 
 I got back to my own regiment. Only how 
 to get there that was the question ! 
 
 "You will scarce find at any port, Span- 
 ish or Portuguese, "said the admiral tome,
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 163 
 
 "a vessel putting- to sea now; the risk is 
 too great. For, consider, we are all about, 
 and none know what may be our next move 
 this one has frightened all this part of 
 the world. Then that old dog-, Benbow, 
 lieth in wait farther up. While to make 
 the seas still more dangerous, the French 
 ships of war and the privateers are every- 
 where. In truth, all traffic on the water is 
 at an end for a time." 
 
 " Tis not so on land, though, sir," I ven- 
 tured to say, "with a good horse I would 
 undertake " 
 
 " What ! " exclaimed Ormond, with a 
 laugh, "not surely to make your way to 
 Flanders by land ! You would scarce try 
 that." 
 
 "Ay! but I would, though, my Lord 
 Duke," I said, laughing, too, at the look of 
 amazement on his face. "In very truth, I 
 would. I have thought it all over. " 
 
 " 'T is impossible ! You would never 
 arrive." 
 
 " Your Grace, I think I should. Permit 
 me to explain. We are here in Spain " 
 
 "Ay," said Rooke, interposing, "and so 
 we are. But, Mr. Crespin, you would never 
 get ashore, or, getting there, would never 
 escape out of Vigo. Remember, the town 
 itself is not in our hands, and the moment
 
 164 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 we were gone you would be set upon, or, 
 even though you should be unmolested 
 while we remain here, you would be fol- 
 lowed from Vigo and " 
 
 "Sir," I interrupted in my excitement, 
 " this is my plan: There is a seaport hard 
 by here, called Viana, and 't is in Portu- 
 guese territory therefore neutral yet 
 inclining more to us than to France." 
 
 "Aye," said Rooke, "and will come 
 over to us ere long. The king leans to 
 our side the most, because we are strong- 
 est on the seas this taking of the galleons 
 will decide him." 
 
 " Meanwhile," I went on, " 't is neutral. 
 Now, from there I can make my way to 
 
 Spain " 
 
 "There's the rub! When you are in 
 Spain. And afterward, in France. What 
 then?" 
 
 " In both countries I can be a French- 
 man," and now I saw these two great offi- 
 cers look at me attentively. " I have the 
 French tongue very well well enough to 
 pass through Spain as a Frenchman, while 
 when in France I can pass as a Span- 
 iard who knows the French." 
 
 "'S heart!" exclaimed Ormond, slap- 
 ping of the table with his be-ringed hand, 
 "but I would you were in one of my regi-
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 165 
 
 ments. You have a brain as well as a stal- 
 wart form. You must go far ; and shall, if 
 my word is any good with Jack Churchill." 
 
 "My Lord Duke, you are most gra- 
 cious. Yet may I not ask if the plan is a 
 fair one? At least, remembering that, by 
 sea, the way is closed." 
 
 Fair or not fair, at least I brought them 
 to it more especially since, even though 
 they had most utterly disapproved of my 
 proposed method, they could neither of 
 them have opposed it. For I was the Earl 
 of Marlborough's officer; nay, more, I was 
 his own particular and private messenger ; 
 I had come under his orders, and was still 
 under them. Moreover, his last words to 
 me had been : " Do your duty ; fulfil the 
 task I charge you with; then make your 
 way back to me as best you can." That 
 was all, yet enough. 
 
 Therefore it was arranged without more 
 demur, though Sir George Rooke, who was 
 now growing old, shook his head somewhat 
 gravely, even as he ceased endeavouring to 
 turn me from what I had resolved on. 
 
 "For, "said he, kindly, "I like it not. 
 You are still young some years off thirty, 
 I should suppose and you are a good sol- 
 dier too good to be spared to any crawl- 
 ing Spaniard's knife or to fall into any true-
 
 166 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 ulent Frenchman's hands. And I would 
 have taken you to England and put in the 
 first queen's ship for Holland, had you 
 chosen. Still, as you will, you will. Only, 
 be very careful." 
 
 "Sir!" I said, touched at his fatherly 
 consideration. "Be sure I will. Yet I 
 think I can take care of myself. I have 
 a good sword and a strong 1 arm, and 
 well, one bullet is much the same as 
 another. If one finds me in Spain or 
 France, 'twill be no worse than one in 
 Flanders. And, perhaps, my bullet is not 
 moulded yet ! " 
 
 As for his Grace, he took a different 
 tack, he being younger and more dlbonnair 
 than the admiral. 
 
 "Oddsbobs," he said, "bullets are bul- 
 lets, and may be a soldier's lot or not. But 
 for you, Lieutenant, I fear a worse danger. 
 You are a good-looking fellow enough, with 
 your height and breadth, blue eyes and 
 brown hair. Rather, therefore, beware of 
 the Spanish girls, and keep out of their 
 way or, encountering them, give them 
 no cause for jealousy! Oh! I know them, 
 and well, they are the devil ! 'T is they 
 who wield the knife as often as not 
 against those whom they loved five min- 
 utes back."
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 167 
 
 And, looking- at the duke who was 
 himself of great manly beauty I could 
 well enough believe he knew what he was 
 talking of. For, if all reports were true 
 but this matters not. 
 
 The time had not, however, yet come, 
 for some day or so, for me to set out, since 
 't was arranged that I should be put ashore 
 by one of the Pembroke's boats when the 
 fleet went out of the bay, and that then 
 my last farewell would be made to those 
 amongst whom I had now lived for some 
 weeks. Meanwhile, Sir George asked me 
 what had become of my young friend, the 
 Spanish gentleman, whom he called my 
 "captive." 
 
 Now, this young captive had had still 
 another interview with him after that first 
 one, Sir George having sent for him from 
 the Pembroke, into which he had been tem- 
 porarily received as a guest since La 
 Sacra Familia had been sunk by us after 
 being dismantled of all in her of any worth 
 and he had once more renewed his offer 
 of taking- him to England. And it sur- 
 prised me exceedingly I. being present at 
 this interview to observe the extraordi- 
 nary courtesy and deference which he ' 
 who was more used to receive deference 
 from his fellow-men than to accord it
 
 168 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 showed to the youth ; for he took him 
 very graciously by the hand when he en- 
 tered the cabin, led him to a seat, and, 
 when there, renewed once more that offer 
 of which I have spoken. 
 
 Indeed, his politeness was so great that 
 I began to wonder if, by any chance, the 
 admiral knew of this young man being 
 any one of extreme importance, to whom it 
 might be worth his while, as the chief rep- 
 resentative of England here, to pay court. 
 Yet, so silly was that wonderment that I 
 dismissed it instantly from my mind, de- 
 ciding that it was pity for his youth and 
 loneliness which so urged the other. 
 
 "If you would go with us," he said, sit- 
 ting by Belmonte's side, and speaking in 
 the soft, well bred tones which were special 
 to him, "you should be very welcome, I 
 assure you, sir ; and I do not say this as a 
 sailor speaking to one who has by chance 
 fallen into his hands, so to put it, but as an 
 old man to a to a young one ; for, sir, I 
 have children myself, some young as you, 
 some older ; have sons and and daugh- 
 ters, and I should be most grateful to all 
 who would be kind to them." 
 
 Now, as he spoke thus there became 
 visible in Seiior Juan another trait of char- 
 acter which I had scarce looked to see, it
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 169 
 
 proving- him to be a youth of great sus- 
 ceptibility. For, as the admiral made his 
 kindly speech, I saw the beautiful dark eyes 
 of the young- man fill with tears 't was 
 marvellous how handsome he appeared at 
 this moment and, a second later, he had 
 seized the old man's hand and had clasped 
 it to his breast and kissed it. 
 
 But, even as he performed this action, I 
 also saw Sir George start a little, give, in- 
 deed, what was but the faintest of starts ; 
 yet beneath the bronze upon his manly face 
 there rose a colour which, had he not been 
 a sailor, and that a pretty old one, might 
 have appeared to be a blush. But because 
 he was so manly and so English himself 
 being always most courteous and well bred, 
 though abhorring, as it seemed to me, all 
 signs of emotion I concluded that this 
 foreign style of salutation did not commend 
 itself over-much to him ; yet he listened 
 very courteously, deferentially almost, it 
 appeared, to the words of gratitude which 
 the youth was now pouring out words of 
 gratitude for his offer, yet combined also 
 with an absolute refusal of that offer. 
 
 "Very well; since you will not, sir," 
 he said, when the young man had finished, 
 " there is no more to be done. Yet, take a 
 word of warning from me, I beseech you.
 
 170 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 You will find it hard to reach England in a 
 better way than I have suggested to you. 
 Both France and Spain must be overrun 
 with troops of all kinds at this time and if 
 you fall into their hands with your papers 
 about you, showing- you are an English sub- 
 ject it may go hard. Also" and now 
 he tapped the cabin deck with his red-heeled 
 shoe and looked down at it for a moment 
 "also you are extremely well favoured. 
 That, too, may injure you should should 
 but, "he went on, and without conclud- 
 ing his last sentence, "you understand 
 what I mean," and now he gazed at Senor 
 Juan with clear, frank eyes ; gazed straight 
 into his own. 
 
 For the life of me I could not under- 
 stand what he was driving at, even if the 
 youth himself could; since how a man 
 should be injured by his good looks, even 
 though in a hostile country, I failed to con- 
 ceive. Certain, however, it was that the 
 other understood well enough Sir George's 
 meaning his next action showed plainly 
 enough that he did. 
 
 For now the rich warm colouring left 
 his soft downless cheeks, even the full lips 
 became pale, and he lifted his long slim 
 hand and thrust it through the clusters of 
 curls that hung over his forehead, as though
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 171 
 
 in some distress of mind; then said, a 
 moment later, looking- up now and return- 
 ing- the admiral's glance fearlessly, while 
 speaking- very low. 
 
 " Yes, I understand. Yet, Senor, have 
 no fear." 
 
 But I noticed, all the same, that he lifted 
 his other hand as though to deprecate Sir 
 Georg-e saying- another word, which gesture 
 he too seemed quite to understand, since 
 he gave a half bow very solemnly ere he 
 turned away. 
 
 Later, after Senor Juan had departed, 
 and when Admiral Hopson had come over 
 to the Royal Sovereign, to prepare for 
 another of those endless councils which 
 took place daily, Sir George looked up at 
 me from some papers he was perusing, and 
 said: " You are in the Pembroke, Mr. Cres- 
 pin. Where have they bestowed that young 
 man?" 
 
 "He is very comfortable, sir," I replied. 
 " They have given him a spare cabin in the 
 after flat." 
 
 "And the officers? Do they make him 
 welcome, treat him with courtesy? " 
 
 "Oh, yes, indeed. He is popular with 
 them already, sings them sweet songs ac- 
 companied by that instrument of his; is a 
 rare hand a^t tricks of all kinds with the
 
 172 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 pass-dice and cards, and so forth. They will 
 miss him when he has gone." 
 
 " Humph ! Does he say who or what he 
 is which island in the Indies he belongs 
 to who are his kith and kin? " 
 
 "He says not much, sir, on that score; 
 except that he is well enough to do is 
 traveling more or less to kill time cares 
 very little where he goes to for the present, 
 so that he sees the world. As for his home, 
 he appears best acquainted with Jamaica." 
 
 " Ha 1 " said Sir George. " He says all 
 that, does he ? Yet, though 't is not per- 
 missible to doubt those who stand more or 
 less in the degree of guests, I somewhat 
 suspect that young man of not being all he 
 appears to be. There is some other reason 
 for his voyage to Europe than that he gives; 
 he comes not on mere pleasure only. I 
 know that some day if you ever meet him 
 again you will very likely know it, too, Mr. 
 Crespin." 
 
 "Perhaps," exclaimed Admiral Hopson 
 who was soon to become Sir John Hopson 
 (with a good pension) for the gallant part 
 he had played in the late fight "he was a 
 friend of that accursed monk, although he 
 has not levanted as he did. And since you 
 talk of meetings, why, i'fags, I would like 
 to meet that gentleman once more,"
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 173 
 
 " Levanted ! " Sir George and I ex- 
 claimed together. "Is the monk set out?" 
 
 "Ay, he is," replied the other. "Went 
 last night the instant he could get his 
 necessaries out of the galleon's hold. It 
 was discourteous, too, since I had previously 
 sent to crave a few words with him." 
 
 " 'S faith, "Sir George exclaimed with a 
 laugh, "you are not turning Papist, old 
 friend, [are you ? Didst want the monk to 
 shrive or confess you, or receive you into 
 his church?" 
 
 "Not I no Papistical doings for me," 
 the blunt old gentleman replied. "The 
 church my mother had me baptised in, and 
 under whose blessing I have been fighting 
 all my life, is good enough for me to finish 
 in. Still, had I a foolish woman's mind to 
 change, 't would not be to that man I 
 should go." 
 
 "Why!" exclaimed Sir George, "what 
 know you of him? Yet yet," and he 
 spoke slowly, "you know the Indies, Tom 
 and the monks are not always what they 
 might be. Did you chance to know him, 
 since you sent to demand an interview?" 
 
 "I thought so," said the inscrutable old 
 sea dog quietly, "wherefore I sent asking 
 him for a meeting. Yet, as our beloved 
 friends the French say, the cowl does not
 
 174 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 always make the monk. Hey ? And, if 't is 
 the man I think, 't was not always the cowl 
 and g-own that adorned his person rather, 
 instead, the belt and pistols, buff jerkin, 
 scarlet sash, long 1 serviceable rapier handy, 
 and have at you, ha! one, two and through 
 you. Heyl" 
 
 And as he spoke he made a feint of 
 lunging at his brother admiral with a quill 
 that lay to his hand.
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 "DANGERS WORSE THAN SHOT OR STEEL OR 
 
 DEATH." 
 
 Now I return to the beach at Viana, on 
 which I stood after having- quitted the fleet 
 yet still, ere I go on, I must put you in the 
 way of knowing how it comes about that for 
 companion I have Senor Juan Belmonte, 
 who at this moment is making his way into 
 what proved to be a very filthy town in 
 search of lodgings for us for the night. 
 And this is how it came about : 
 
 When it was decided finally that I should 
 part from the British squadron on the day 
 they cleared out they intending to anchor 
 over night outside of Vigo bay and to send 
 forward some frigates scouting ere going 
 on their way to England I made mention 
 to Belmonte that such was my intention. 
 Also I asked him I finding of him in his 
 cabin, where he was reading a Spanish book 
 of love verses what he meant to do with 
 himself, since, if he did not leave the ship 
 when, or before, I did, he would be forced 
 
 175
 
 176 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 to accept Sir George's invitation to proceed 
 to England with bin. 
 
 " Oh, my friend ! " he said, with ever the 
 soft, gentle smile upon his handsome feat- 
 ures, "my friend and conqueror" for so 
 he had taken to terming- me "I want no 
 terrible journey to England in these great 
 fierce ships of war. Tell me, tell me, amlgo 
 mio, what you are going to do yourself. 
 Your plans ! Your plans ! " 
 
 "My plans," I said, seeing no reason 
 why I should not divulge them to him, since 
 it was impossible he could do me any hurt, 
 even if so inclined, which I thought not 
 very likely, " are simple ones. I go ashore 
 at Viana, find a horse one will carry me 
 part of the journey, then I can get another 
 and so, by God's will, get to the end, to 
 my destination." 
 
 " But the destination. The destination. 
 Where is it? Tell me that." 
 
 " The destination is Flanders, the seat 
 of the present war. I am a soldier. My 
 place is there." 
 
 "Aye, aye," he replied. "I know. You 
 have told me. Your service is not with 
 these ships nor their soldiers, but with 
 others a great army, far north." 
 
 "That is it, "I said.
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 177 
 
 "And you will travel all that way 
 mean to travel alone! " 
 
 "I must," I said, "if I intend to get 
 there. There is no other way." 
 
 "Take me with you!" he exclaimed, 
 suddenly, spring-ing- impetuously to his 
 feet from the chair in which he sat. "Take 
 me with you ! I will be a good companion 
 amuse you, sing to you, wile away the 
 long hours, stand by your side. If neces- 
 sary," yet he said this a little slower, and 
 with more hesitation, as I thought, " fight 
 with you." 
 
 Now, putting all other objections which 
 rose to my mind away for the moment, this 
 last utterance of his did not recommend 
 him very strongly to me. "Fight for me, 
 indeed ! " I thought. " A fine fighter this 
 would be ! a youth who had turned pale 
 at seeing a dead man or two floating by in 
 the water after the battle, or at hearing the 
 shriek of a wounded one as we rowed past 
 him on our way to the Royal Sovereign ! " 
 
 However, aloud I said : 
 
 "Senor Belmonte, I fear it cannot be as 
 you desire. The road will be hard and 
 rough, the journey long ; there will be 
 little opportunity for singing and jigget- 
 tings. Moreover, death will always be 
 more or less in the air. If, in Spain or
 
 178 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 France, I am discovered nay, even sus- 
 pected of being 1 what I am, an English sol- 
 dier 'twill be short shrift for me. I 
 shall be deemed a spy, and shot, or hung 
 to the nearest tree. Take, therefore, my 
 counsel at once, and follow it. Go you to 
 England in this ship, as the admiral in- 
 vites you. That way you will be safe 
 and easy." 
 
 "No, no, no," he answered. "I will 
 not ; I will not. I will go with you. I like 
 you," he said, with a most friendly glance. 
 "If if you go alone if we part here 
 we shall never meet again. That shall not 
 be. I am resolved. And and only let 
 me go, and I will be so good ! I promise. 
 Will not sing a note will see there!" 
 and, like a petulant boy as he was, he 
 seized his viol d'amore, which hung on a 
 nail in the cabin, and dashed it to the 
 floor, while, a moment later, he would have 
 stamped his foot into it had I not stopped 
 him. " Yes, I will break it all to pieces. 
 Since it offends you, I will never strike 
 another note on it, nor will I ever sing 
 again not in your hearing, at least 
 though I have known some who liked well 
 enough to hear me play and sing, too." 
 
 "Juan," I said, not knowing in the 
 least why his impassioned grief moved me
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 179 
 
 so much as to address him thus familiarly, 
 which I had never done before, "it offends 
 me not at all ; instead, I have often listened 
 gratefully to the music of your voice and 
 viol. But now now on such a journey 
 as I go it would be out of place, even if you 
 were there, which you must not be." 
 
 "I must. I must. I must," he an- 
 swered. " I will. You called me Juan just 
 now ah ! you are my friend, or you would 
 not speak thus. Oh ! " he went on, and now 
 he clutched my arm and gazed fervently 
 into my face, "do not refuse. And see, 
 think, Mervan," pronouncing my name 
 thus, and in a tone that would have moved 
 a marble heart, "I shall be no trouble to 
 you. I can ride, oh! like a devil when I 
 choose I have ridden with the Mestizos 
 and natives in the isles and I can use a pis- 
 tol or petronel, also a sword. See," and he 
 whipped his rapier off the bed where it was 
 a-lying, drew it from its sheath impetu- 
 ously, as he did everything, and began 
 making pass after pass through the open 
 door of the cabin into the gangway. "I 
 know what to do. Also, remember, I can 
 speak Spanish when we are in Spain pass 
 for a Spaniard if 'tis necessary and 
 
 and and " he broke off, " if you will 
 
 not take me with you, why, then, I will fol-
 
 180 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 low you ; track you like a shadow, sleep like 
 a dog- outside the inn in which you lie warm 
 and snug- ; ay ! even though you beat me 
 and drive me away for doing 1 so." 
 
 Again and still again I resisted, yet 
 't was hard to do ; for, though I had spoken 
 against his singings and playings, and kept 
 ever before my eyes the stern remembrance 
 of my duty, which was to make my way 
 straight to my g-oal and crash throug-h all 
 impediments, I could not but reflect that 
 this bright, joyous lad by my side would 
 help to cheer many a lonely hour and many 
 a gloomy mile. Yet again I spoke against 
 the project, putting- such thoughts aside. 
 
 " Child, " I said, ' ' you do not know, do not 
 understand. Our my path will be be- 
 set with dangers, /know what I am doing-, 
 what lies before me. Listen, Juan. 'T is 
 more than like that I shall never reach 
 Flanders, never ride with my old troops 
 again, never more feel a comrade's hand 
 clasped in mine ; may perish by the way 
 side, have my throat cut in some lonely inn, 
 be shot in the back, taken as a spy. Yet 
 't is my duty. I am a soldier and a man ; 
 you are " 
 
 " Yes? " with an inward catching- of the 
 breath, a flash from the dark eyes. 
 
 "A boy; a lad; also, you say, well
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 181 
 
 enough to do, with a long- and happy life 
 before you, no call upon you to fling that 
 life away. Juan, it must not be." 
 
 "It shall," he said, leaning forward to- 
 ward me. "It shall; I swear it by my 
 dead mother's memory. Boy ! Lad, you say. 
 So be it. Yet with the will and determina- 
 tion of a hundred men. To-morrow, Mer- 
 van, to-night, to-day, if I can get a boat 
 to the great ship out there, I 'visit the ad- 
 miral and ask him to put me ashore with 
 you. And he will doit. Great as he is, in 
 command over all you English here, I have 
 a power within," and he struck his breast 
 with his hands, "a power over him which 
 will force him to do as I wish. Do you dare 
 me challenge me? " 
 
 "No," I answered quietly, though in 
 truth somewhat amazed at his words, while 
 still remembering the strange deference 
 Sir George had shown all along to the 
 youth. "I dare to say you may prevail 
 with him." 
 
 "Aye with him ! " and now he laughed 
 a little, showing the small pearly white 
 teeth, somewhat. " With him ! I under- 
 stand. But you mean not with you also. 
 Yet, with you, too, I shall prevail. I will 
 follow you till you give me leave to keep 
 ever by your side. Remember, if I am not
 
 182 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 Spanish, I have lived in Spain's dependen- 
 cies. I can be very Spanish when I 
 choose, "and again he laughed, and again 
 the white teeth glistened beneath the scar- 
 let lips. 
 
 "If, "I said, scarce knowing or under- 
 standing what power was influencing me, 
 making me a puppet in this youth's hands 
 yet still a yielding one! "the admiral 
 gives his consent to put you ashore, then 
 I " 
 
 "Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes, Mervan?" he 
 interposed quickly. 
 
 " Then I will not withhold mine. Come 
 with me if you choose remember, 't is at 
 your own risk." 
 
 In a moment his whole face was transfig- 
 ured with joy. Seeing that joy, I deemed 
 myself almost a brute to have ever tried to 
 drive him away from me, although I had 
 endeavoured to do so as much for his own 
 safety as my own. He laughed and mut- 
 tered little pleased expressions in Spanish 
 which I neither understood nor am capable 
 of setting down here ; almost I thought he 
 would have flung his arms around my neck 
 and embraced me. Indeed, it seemed as 
 though he were about to do so, but, sud- 
 denly recollecting himself, desisted per-
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 183 
 
 haps because he knew that to us English 
 such demonstrations were not palatable. 
 
 And now I have to tell how Sir George 
 placed no obstruction in the way, allowing 
 him to go ashore with me; yet, when he 
 heard that we were to travel together the 
 look upon his face was one of extreme 
 gravity, almost of sternness. Also, he 
 maintained a deep silence for a moment or 
 two after I had told him such was to be the 
 case, and sat with his eyes fixed on me as 
 though he were endeavouring to read my 
 very inmost thoughts. But at last he said 
 quietly, and with even more than usual of 
 that reserve which characterised him : 
 
 " You have found out nothing about this 
 young man yet, Mr. Crespin, then? know 
 nothing more about him than you have 
 known from the first? Um?" 
 
 44 1 know nothing more, sir." 
 
 Again he paused awhile, then spoke once 
 more, with the slightest perceptible shrug 
 of his shoulders as he did so : 
 
 "Very well. 'T is your affair, not 
 mine. You are not under my command, 
 but that of the Earl of Marlborough. You 
 must do as seems best to you. Yet have a 
 care what you are about." Then he leant 
 forward toward me, and said : " Mr. Cres- 
 pin, you have done extremely well have
 
 184 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 gained a high place in our esteem. When 
 his Lordship reads what the Duke of 
 Ormond and myself have to say about 
 you, you will find your promotion very 
 rapid, I think. Do not, I beseech of you 
 do not imperil it in any way ; do not be 
 led away into jeopardising the bright 
 future, the ^brilliant career, that is before 
 you. Run on no rock, avoid every shoal 
 that may avert your successful course." 
 
 " Sir," said, " I am a soldier with many 
 unknown dangers before me. This boy can 
 add nothing to their number. Yet, sir, for 
 your gracious consideration for me I am 
 deeply grateful." 
 
 Still he regarded me, saying nothing for 
 a moment or so, then spoke again : 
 
 " Dangers ! " he said " the dangers 
 every honest soldier or sailor encounters 
 in his calling are nothing; they are our 
 portion ; must be avoided, if may be ; if 
 not, must be accepted. And he who falls 
 in the battle has naught to repine at at 
 least he falls honourably, leaves a clean 
 memory behind." 
 
 "Sir!" 
 
 "But there are other dangers that are 
 worse than shot, or steel or death ! 
 Many a brave soldier and sailor has gone 
 under from other causes than these. Mr.
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 185 
 
 Crespin, I say no more have, perhaps, 
 said too much, were it not that you have 
 strangely interested me." Then, abruptly, 
 he went on, and as though with the inten- 
 tion of forbidding any more remarks on 
 that subject : " Captain Hardy shall be in- 
 structed to send you both ashore on the 
 morning after we go out. Here are some 
 papers from the duke and myself to the 
 Earl of Marlborough. Be careful of them ; 
 they relate to you alone. I we hope 
 they will assist you to go far." 
 
 I bowed and murmured my thanks, for 
 which he observed there was no necessity 
 whatever, then gave me his hand and said : 
 
 "Farewell, Mr. Crespin; we may not 
 meet again. I wish you all you can desire 
 for yourself. Farewell." 
 
 But he uttered no further word of warn- 
 ing of any kind, and so let me go away from 
 him wondering blindly what it was he knew 
 of this young man; wondering above all 
 what it was against which he covertly put 
 me on my guard. 
 
 Later on though not for some time to 
 
 come I knew and understood. 
 
 ********** 
 
 I found Juan after the sails of the boat 
 from the Pembroke had faded into little 
 white specks upon the surface of the water,
 
 186 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 until they looked no bigger than the flash 
 made by seagull's wing- found him outside 
 the one and only inn of this small town, loll- 
 ing against the doorpost made dirty and 
 greasy with the shoulders of countless Al- 
 garvian peasants and amusing himself by 
 trying to make a group of ragged children 
 understand the pure Spanish he was speak- 
 ing to them. 
 
 Then, as he saw me crossing the filthy 
 street, he came over to meet me never 
 heeding the splashing of mud administered 
 to the handsome long boots which he had 
 now upon his legs, though he was dainty, 
 too, in his ways and began telling me of 
 what arrangements he had already made 
 for our journey. 
 
 "First, mio amigo" he said, joyously, 
 "about the horses. Two are already in 
 command. One, a big bony creature which 
 is for you, Mervan, because you also are 
 big and stalwart, and require something 
 grand to carry you while for me there is 
 a j ennet with, oh ! such a fiery eye and a way 
 of biting at everything near it. But have 
 no fear ! Once I am on its back, and por 
 DiosI it will do as I want, not as it wants." 
 
 I laughed, then asked if these animals 
 were to be our own. 
 
 "Oh, yes, our own," he said. "Our
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 187 
 
 very own. I have bought them they are 
 ours. And, if they break down yours, I 
 think, must surely do so why, we will turn 
 them loose into the nearest wood, and buy 
 some more." 
 
 "At this rate we shall spend some money 
 ere we strike Flanders," I said. 
 
 "Ho! Hoi Money who cares for 
 money ! I have plenty, enough for you and 
 me, too. We will travel comfortably, mon 
 ami; have the best of everything. Plenty 
 of money, and and, Mervan, do you know, 
 if it was not for one of the most accursed 
 villains who ever trod the face of the earth, 
 I should be so rich that that oh! it is 
 impossible to say. Mervan," catching at 
 my arm with that boyish impetuosity of his 
 which ever fascinated me; "you are Eng- 
 lish, therefore you know all the English, I 
 suppose. In Jamaica and Hispaniola and 
 all the other islands we know everybody. 
 Mervan, who is, or where is, James Eaton?" 
 
 "James Eaton!" I exclaimed, with a 
 laugh at his innocent supposition that we 
 were all acquainted with each other in Eng- 
 land as they are in the Indies ; yet 't is true 
 that he could not know that our capital city 
 alone had so vast and incredible a popula- 
 tion as half a million souls ! " James Eaton ! 
 Who and what is he ? An officer ? If so,
 
 188 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 I might, perhaps, know, or get to know, 
 something- of him." 
 
 "An officer? Oh! yes,por Dibs! he is an 
 officer has been once. But not such as you 
 or those brave ones we have just parted 
 from. An officer. Corpo di Bacco I A vil- 
 lain, vagamundo, Mervan a jlibustier 
 what the English call in the islands a 
 damned pirate." 
 
 " Humph ! " I said. "A friend of yours ? 
 Eh, Juan ? " 
 
 "A friend of mine? Ho! Yes. Mon 
 Dieul He is a friend. Wait when we 
 are in England you shall see how much I 
 love my friend. Oh, yes ! You shall see. 
 When I take him by his beard and thrust 
 this through his black heart," and he 
 touched the quillon of the sword by his 
 side as he spoke. 
 
 "And is he the villain who has stolen 
 your wealth?" I asked, as we entered now 
 the door of the inn, I nearly falling back- 
 ward from the horrible odours which 
 greeted my nostrils when we did so. 
 
 "He is the villain. Oh! 'tis a story. 
 Such a story. You shall hear. But not 
 now not now. Now we will eat and drink 
 and be gay." 
 
 "But," I said, my curiosity much 
 aroused, " if he has stolen your wealth how
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 189 
 
 comes it you are rich, as you say? Have 
 you two fortunes two sources of wealth ?" 
 
 " Yes," he replied, with his bright, sweet 
 smile. "Two fortunes the one he stole, 
 the other but no matter for fortunes now. 
 I have enough and plenty for myself and, 
 Mervan, for you if you want it. Plenty." 
 
 " I, too, have enough for present wants," 
 I said. " Quite enough." 
 
 " Bueno. Bueno" he said. "Then all 
 is well. And now to eat, drink and be gay 
 until to-morrow. Then away, away, away to 
 Flanders anywhere, so long as we are 
 together. Joy to-day, work and travel to- 
 morrow. But, Mervan," and once more he 
 placed his hand supplicatingly on my arm. 
 "Forgive. Forgive me. I I have brought 
 the viol d'amore."
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 "IT is WAR TIME! IF IT MUST BE, IT MUST." 
 
 We were English gentlemen furnished 
 with passports to enable us to travel 
 through Spain which might not be diffi- 
 cult, since there were likely to be as many 
 English troops in that country as there 
 were French, while one-half of the inhab- 
 itants wavered in their espousals of either 
 us and Austria or Louis and Philip. 
 
 That, at least, was what we meant to give 
 out if any one in Portugal and in Viana 
 especially should make it their business 
 to ask us any questions, which, however, 
 was not very likely to be the case ; for, in 
 this miserable hole and miserable it was 
 beyond all thought there were none who 
 could have any possible right to so ask us 
 of our affairs, there being no consul of any 
 country whatever in the place and, for 
 the rest, we were English. That was 
 enough ; we were English, come ashore 
 from that great fleet whose deeds of the 
 last few weeks had spread consternation for 
 leagues around and on either side of Vigo, 
 
 19Q
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 191 
 
 and whose topmasts were now very plainly 
 visible a mile or so out from the shore ; 
 topsails, too, which would be conspicuous 
 enough to all in Viana for another day or 
 so, until the scouts returned with their 
 news ; and before this fleet had disappeared 
 we should be gone, too on our road to 
 Spain, to France, to Flanders. 
 
 That road was already decided on we 
 were poring- over the chart now upstairs in 
 the sleeping 1 room Juan had secured for me, 
 he having- another one for himself on the 
 opposite side of the corridor poring- over 
 it by the light of an oil lamp and the flames 
 cast by a bright cork-wood fire which we 
 had caused to be lit, since 'twas already 
 very cold, it being now November. 
 
 We had resolved, however, thatithe great 
 high road to France would not be the very 
 best, perhaps, for our purpose the road 
 which, passing through Portugal into Spain 
 at Miranda and Tuy, runs through Valla- 
 dolid and Burgos up to Bayonne and France, 
 for these towns were in the kingdoms of 
 Leon and Castile, and here all were, we 
 learnt, for Philip and France ; but we knew 
 also that with other parts of Spain it was 
 no so. Away on the eastern shores, Cat- 
 alonia and Valencia had declared for Charles 
 of Austria and the allies. Nearer to where
 
 192 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 we were, namely, in Galicia, above Portu- 
 gal, they wavered. Yet 't was said now that 
 they inclined toward us, perhaps because 
 Vigo is in Galicia and, therefore, they had 
 had a taste of how we could be either good 
 friend or fateful foe. Certainly we had 
 shown we could well be the latter ! 
 
 " Yes," I said to Juan, my finger on the 
 chart ; " this way will be our road. Across 
 the frontier where the Minho divides the 
 two countries, then up its banks to Lugo, 
 and so through the Asturias to Biscay and 
 Bayonne. That is our way, and, after all, 
 'tis not much farther than t'other. And 
 safer, too. If Galicia leans to us, so may 
 the Asturians. If not, we shall be no worse 
 off than if we traversed Leon, Castile and 
 Navarre." 
 
 " Vogue la galtrel " cried the boy, who 
 generally varied his exclamations from 
 Spanish to French and French to English 
 
 whichever came uppermost "I care 
 nothing. We shall be together, mio amigo; 
 that 's enough for me." 
 
 "Together for a time," I put in; "for 
 a time. Remember, once we reach Flan- 
 ders if we ever do which is more than 
 doubtful my service claims me. 'T is 
 war there, hard knocks and buffets for me 
 
 for you the first sloop or vessel of any
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 193 
 
 sort that will run you over to the English 
 coast." 
 
 "Oh, la, la! " said Juan, " 't is not come 
 yet. We have a month, at least, together, 
 and perhaps even then we will not part. 
 This great soldier, this fierce captain you 
 speak of, this English lord who contends 
 with France perhaps he will let me fight 
 too. Give me what is it you call it ? a 
 pair of colours. Then we could fight side 
 by side, Mervan, could we not ? " 
 
 I nodded and muttered: "Perhaps," 
 though in truth I thought nothing was more 
 unlikely. In some way I had come to have 
 none too great an opinion of the youth's 
 courage or capacity for fighting, remem- 
 bering how he had paled, nay, almost shud- 
 dered, at the sight of those poor dead ones 
 floating in Vigo harbour ; while for the 
 "pair of colours " well, there was plenty of 
 interest being made on all sides by those of 
 influence in England to obtain such things 
 for their own kith and kin. There would 
 be mighty little chance for this young 
 stripling to be received into any regiment. 
 Therefore I went on with our plans, say- 
 ing, as I still glanced at the chart : 
 
 "That must be the road. And from 
 Lugo across the mountains to Baos, then to
 
 194 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 Elcampo, and so to Bilbao up to Bayonne. 
 That is the way." 
 
 "To Lugo, "he repeated, meditatively. 
 "To Lugo. Humph! To Lugo. That is 
 the way they went, you know Chateau- 
 renault and his captains when they fled 
 from you." 
 
 Now I started when he said this, for I 
 had, indeed, forgotten the slight rumour I 
 had heard to that effect forgotten it amidst 
 all the excitement of the stirring times that 
 had followed the battle and the taking of 
 the galleons. Yet now the fact was re- 
 called to my mind, I did not let it alter my 
 determination, and after a moment's re- 
 flection, I said : 
 
 "Still it matters not. They will not 
 have gone that way for the same reason 
 that we shall go it. On their road to France ! 
 Chateaurenault will not stay there, but 
 rather push on to Paris to give an account 
 of his defeat make the best excuses he 
 can to his master. Nor will he come back 
 an he does, he will find nothing here. 
 His ships are sunk or being carried to Eng- 
 land, and 't is so with the galleons that are 
 not themselves at the bottom of the ocean. 
 'T is very well. To-morrow we set out for 
 Lugo, take the first step on our road." 
 
 And on the morrow we did set out
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 195 
 
 amidst, perhaps, as disagreeable circum- 
 stances as could be the case. 
 
 For when we rose early the snow was 
 falling- in thick flakes; also 'twas driven 
 into our faces by a stiff northeasterly wind 
 which brought it down from the Cantabrian 
 mountains, and soon our breasts were cov- 
 ered with a layer of it which we had much 
 ado to prevent from freezing on them, and 
 could only accomplish by frequent buffets. 
 Yet we were not cold, neither, since our 
 horses were still able to trot beneath it 
 for as yet it lay not upon the roads, and 
 we could thus keep ourselves warm. Yet, 
 withal, we made some ten leagues that day 
 
 the animals under us proving far better 
 than might with reason have been expected, 
 judging by their lean and sorry appearance 
 
 and arrived ere nightfall at a small vil- 
 lage yet walled and fortified, because it 
 lies close on to the Spanish frontier called 
 Valenza. And here we rested for the night, 
 finding, however, at first great difficulty in 
 being permitted to get into it, and, next, an 
 equal trouble in obtaining lodgings in the 
 one inn of the place. 
 
 Also we learnt that it behooved us to be 
 very careful when we set out next day, or 
 we might find it impossible to enter Spain, 
 which now lay close at hand, and separated
 
 196 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 only by the Minho from this place; or, being 
 in, might find it hard to go forward. 
 
 "For," said the host, a filthy, unkempt 
 creature who looked as though he were 
 more accustomed to attending to cattle in 
 their sheds than to human beings, but who 
 by great good fortune was able to speak 
 broken French, "atTuy, where you must 
 pass into Spain, they are rigourous now as to 
 papers, letting none enter who are not prop- 
 erly provided. Basto ! 't is not a week ago 
 that one went forward who was passed 
 through with difficulty. And a Spaniard, 
 too, though from the Indies." 
 
 "From the Indies!" exclaimed Juan, 
 with impetuosity. "From the Indies! 
 Why, so am I and and this senor," look- 
 ing at me, " both from the Indies. There- 
 fore, we can pass also, I should suppose." 
 
 "Oh, for that," answered the man, "I 
 know not. Yet this old man went through, 
 somehow. He had come up from the 
 south from Cadiz, as I think, or Cartagena, 
 or the Sierras in a great coach and four, 
 travelled as a prince, had good provisions 
 with him, and ho! he gave me to taste 
 of it ! some strong waters that made me 
 feel like a prince, too, though the good 
 God knows I am none ! " and he cast his 
 eyes round the filthy room into which we
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 197 
 
 had been shown. "Also, he had his papers 
 all regular; also," and here he gave a 
 glance at us of unspeakable cunning, "he 
 was generous and open-handed. That 
 spared him much trouble." 
 
 " Perhaps 't will spare us, too ! " again 
 exclaimed Juan. "We can also be gener- 
 ous and open-handed." 
 
 " It will do much. Yet the papers ! The 
 papers ! Have you the papers ? " 
 
 Now, we had no papers whatsoever that 
 would stand us in such stead ; therefore, 
 when we were alone together in the room 
 which was to be ours, and in which there 
 were two miserable, dirty-looking beds, 
 side by side, covered with sheepskins for 
 coverlets and perhaps for blankets, too ! 
 we fell to discussing what must be done ; 
 for it was at once plain and easy to see that 
 at Tuy we should never get through. I 
 had no papers nor passports whatever, 
 while Juan bore about him only those which 
 proved that he was a subject of England. 
 
 "Yet," said he, "they knew not that 
 on board La Sacra Familia, and, because 
 I could speak Spanish as well as they, 
 deemed me a Spaniard. I wonder if I could 
 get through that way." 
 
 " You might, possibly," I replied. "I 
 am sure I never should. The Spanish
 
 198 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 which I know is scarce good enough for 
 that." 
 
 " 'T is true," he said, reflectively 
 "true enough. Yet, you have the French. 
 See, Mervan, here is an idea. I am a Span- 
 iard and you are a Frenchman, for the mo- 
 ment. Both countries are sworn friends 
 now as regards their government, if not 
 their people. Why should not we be trav- 
 elling together as natives of those lands ? " 
 
 "An we were," I answered, "we 
 should not be without passports. Remem- 
 ber, we come to them from Portugal; 
 therefore, to have gotten into Portugal as 
 either Spanish man or Frenchman, we 
 should have wanted papers ; and we have 
 none. Consequently, the first question 
 asked us will be, How got we into Portugal? 
 Then what reply shall we make ? That we 
 came from the English fleet, which has just 
 destroyed their galleons ? That will scarce 
 do, Juan, for our purpose, I think." 
 
 Acknowledging such to be the case, Juan 
 sat himself down on the dirty bed and be- 
 gan to ponder. 
 
 "At least we will not be whipped," he 
 muttered, "and at the outset, too. Mervan, 
 we must find another road somehow, or, 
 better still there must be some part of 
 the frontier which runs the northern length
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 199 
 
 of this miserable land, and which is un- 
 guarded. Can we not get across without 
 any road? Up one side of a mountain and 
 down another, and so into Spain! " 
 
 " 'T is that I have thought of. Yet there 
 are the horses also a river to cross. And, 
 as luck will have it, the mountains here- 
 abouts are none too high nor dense with 
 woods, nor do they run from east to west, 
 but rather south and north. Such as there 
 are, you can see from this window," and I 
 pointed in the swift, on-coming- darkness of 
 the November evening- to where they could 
 be seen across the river, their summits low, 
 and over them a rusty rime-blurred moon 
 rising". 
 
 Then I went on : 
 
 "Juan, we must tempt the landlord with 
 some of that largesse which the old man who 
 came in the coach seems to have distributed 
 so lavishly only, he has bestowed it on the 
 Spanish side ours must begin here. Come, 
 let us go and see what can be done with him." 
 
 " But what to do? " the boy said, looking 
 at me with his strange eyes full of intelli- 
 gence and perhaps anxiety. 
 
 "This: there must be some way of trav- 
 ersing the river when there is no town on 
 either side if the worst came to the worst 
 we could swim it on our horses at night."
 
 200 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 "On such a night as this!" exclaimed 
 Juan, shuddering and glancing 1 out through 
 the uncurtained window at the flakes of 
 snow which still fell. "It would be death," 
 he whispered, shuddering- again. 
 
 " You are easily appalled," I said, speak- 
 ing coldly to him for the first time since our 
 acquaintance. "Yet, remember, I warned 
 you of what you might expect in such an 
 expedition as this. You would have done 
 better to accept the admiral's offer. A 
 cabin in the Pembroke would have been a 
 lady's withdrawing room in contrast to 
 what we may have to encounter." 
 
 " Forgive me. Forgive," he hastened to 
 say pleadingly. "Indeed, indeed, Mervan, 
 I am bold and no coward but, remember, 
 I am of the tropic south, and 't is the cold 
 of the river that appalls me not fear for 
 my life. Like many of our clime, I can 
 sooner face death than discomfort." 
 
 " There will be enough facing of both ere 
 we have done that is, if we ever get far- 
 ther than here," I said, almost contemp- 
 tuously. 
 
 "So be it," he exclaimed, springing to 
 his feet and evidently bitterly hurt by my 
 tone. Indeed, 't was very evident he was, 
 since the tears stood in his eyes. "So be 
 it. We face it ! Now," and he rapped the
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 201 
 
 table between us as though to emphasise 
 his words, "continue your plans, make your 
 suggestions, bid me swim rivers, cross 
 mountains, plunge into icy streams or burn- 
 ing houses, and see if I flinch or draw back 
 again. Only only," and his voice sank to 
 its usual soft tones, "do not be angry 
 with me." 
 
 That it was impossible to be angry with 
 him long I felt, nor, for some unexplained 
 reason, could I despise him for his evident 
 objection to discomfort the discomfort 
 which would arise from so trifling a thing 
 to me, a cuirassier as swimming one's 
 horse across a river on a winter night. 
 And, as my contempt, such as it was, 
 vanished at once at his plea to me not to be 
 angry with him, I exclaimed : 
 
 "At worst it shall be made as light for 
 you as may be, since you are only a boy 
 after all ! And if that worst comes," I con- 
 tinued, in a good natured, bantering way, 
 which caused the tears to disappear and the 
 smiles to return, which brought back to 
 my mind a song my good old father used to 
 sing about "Sunshine after Rain " " if that 
 worst comes, why, I will swim the river 
 with you on my back, and your jennet shall 
 swim by my horse's side. Now, for the 
 landlord J "
 
 202 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 We found that unclean personage a-sit- 
 ting over a fair good fire, which roared 
 cheerfully up a vast open chimney from the 
 stone floor upon which the logs were, with, 
 by his side, a woman who was blind, as we 
 saw very quickly when she turned eyes on 
 us which were naught but white balls with 
 no pupils to them. And, because we at 
 once perceived that there was no power of 
 sight in those dreadful orbs, I made no more 
 to do, but, slipping of my finger into my 
 waistcoat pocket, pulled out two great gold 
 doubloons worth more than our guineas 
 * and held them up before him. Then I 
 said in French, and speaking low, because 
 I knew not whether that stricken one might 
 understand or not : 
 
 "See, this will pay our addition and 
 more. Now listen. You may equally as 
 well have them as the guarda frontira at 
 Tuy. Will you?" 
 
 He nodded, grasping the pieces I 
 noticed that he kept them from clinking 
 against each other, perhaps because he 
 wanted not his wife to know that he had 
 gotten them then put each into a different 
 pocket, and said : " She understands not the 
 French. Speak." 
 
 " We have no papers. Listen ; we are 
 English 1 We must cross into Spain. Tell
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 203 
 
 us some other road ; put us in the way, and 
 
 see to-morrow morning 1 , these are for 
 you also." 
 
 And I took forth two more of the golden 
 coins. 
 
 He looked at us a moment, then said : 
 " You hate Spain ? " 
 
 Again I nodded. 
 
 "So all of us here at Valenza," he went 
 on. "A fierce, cruel neighbor, would tram- 
 ple on us because we are weak. Will seize 
 us yet an England helps not. Crush them 
 
 and France the world's plague I Lis- 
 ten ! " 
 
 Then, as we bent our heads, he went on: 
 
 "From here there is a bye-road leads to 
 the river bank ; it crosses by a wooden 
 bridge into Spain, a league this side of Mel- 
 agasso. I will put you in the way in the 
 morning. Once over that bridge, there is 
 a road cut from the rock that mounts two 
 hundred paces. There at the summit is 
 the guarda frontira. Two men are there, 
 an old and a young one. Kill them, and 
 you are through, leaving no trace behind. 
 Afterward, there is no sign of life for three 
 leagues." 
 
 " Kill them ! " I exclaimed. " Must that 
 be done ? " 
 
 "Ay or silence them. But killing
 
 204 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 is best. And and the cliff is high, the 
 river runs deep beneath. Cast them in, and 
 you are safe." 
 
 " They may see us passing the bridge 
 kill us ere we can mount the road." 
 
 "Do it in the night," the fellow whis- 
 pered. "In the night, when all is dark. 
 And 't will be almost nightfall ere you are 
 there. Do it then." 
 
 " There is no other way, no other en- 
 trance to Spain?" 
 
 " None without papers. " 
 
 " Good. It is war time ! If it must be, 
 it must."
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 "DRAW SWORDS! " 
 
 Another night had come 't was already 
 dark and Juan and I sat on our horses in 
 the cork wood, at the end of which we could 
 hear the Minho swirling along beneath the 
 ramshackle bridge that divided Portugal 
 from Spain. And, as good fortune would 
 have it, there was on this, the Portuguese 
 side, no guarda frontlra whatever. Per- 
 haps that poor, impoverished land thought 
 there was naught to guard from ingress, 
 also that nothing would be brought from 
 Spain to them. The traffic set all the 
 other way ! 
 
 Because there was no need for us to be 
 too soon where we were now; indeed, be- 
 cause 't was not well that we should be here 
 ere nightfall, the landlord had not awakened 
 me until nine in the morning. And then, 
 on his doing so, I perceived that the other 
 sheepskin-clad bed by my side had not been 
 occupied at all. Wherefore I started up 
 in some considerable fright, calling out to 
 him through the door to know where was 
 
 305
 
 206 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 my friend, the young senor, whom I had 
 left warming himself at the great fire below 
 over night, and saying that he would follow 
 me to bed ere long. 
 
 "Oh ! he is below," he replied. "Has 
 passed the night in front of the fire wrapped 
 in his cloak, saying that 't was there alone 
 he could keep himself from death by the 
 cold. He bids me tell you all is well for 
 your journey, the horses fresh; also there 
 is a good meal awaiting you"; whereon I 
 performed my ablutions, hurried on my 
 garments and rapidly made my way to the 
 public room below. 
 
 "Juan," I said, "you should have 
 warned me of your intention of remaining 
 below. This is not good campaigning, nor 
 comradeship. Had I awakened in the night 
 and found you missing, I should have de- 
 scended to seek for you, fearing that dan- 
 ger had come to you, and 't is not well for 
 travellers to be aroused unnecessarily from 
 their beds on winter nights. Also we 
 should keep always together. Soldiers 
 and you have to be one now ! on danger- 
 ous service should not separate." 
 
 "Forgive," he said, as, it seemed, he 
 was always saying to me, and uttering the 
 words in his accustomed soft, pleading 
 voice. "Forgive. But oh! Mervan!"
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 207 
 
 pausing- a moment as though seeking- for 
 some excuse for having deserted me for 
 the nig-ht " oh ! Mervan ! that bed was so 
 so filthy and untempting-. And the room 
 so cold, when without fire. And it was so 
 warm here. I could not force myself to 
 leave this room. 
 
 Remembering- what he had said about 
 those who came from the tropics dreading 
 cold and discomfort even more than death, 
 I thought I understood how he should have 
 preferred sleeping- here to doing- so above. 
 Therefore, I merely said: 
 
 " There might be worse beds than that 
 you would not use may be worse for us 
 ere long-. Still, no matter. You slept warm 
 here as I did upstairs. Yet 'tis well I did 
 not waken. Now let us see for breakfast 
 and our departure," and giving- a glance at 
 the landlord, who was bringing in a sort of 
 thick soup in which I saw many dried rai- 
 sins floating-, also some egg's and coarse 
 black bread, as well as some chocolate which 
 smelt mighty good and diffused a pleasing 
 aroma through the room, I tapped my waist- 
 coat pocket to remind him of the other 
 doubloons that were in it. And he nodded 
 understandingly. 
 
 The journey to where we now stood this 
 evening was as uneventful as though we
 
 208 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 had been traveling- in safety in our own 
 England. The road into which the man 
 had put us in the morning- led first of all 
 through countless villages I have since 
 heard that in all Europe there is no land so 
 thickly sown with villages as this poor one 
 of Portugal then trailed off into a dense 
 chestnut-fringed track that was no longer 
 a road at all. 
 
 And now we knew that we were close 
 unto the spot where our first adventure on 
 the journey, that we hoped might at last 
 bring us to Flanders, must of necessity 
 take place. We were but half an hour's 
 ride from the crazy bridge the man had 
 spoken of as connecting his country with 
 Spain the bridge on the other side of 
 which was the rocky path, with, at the top 
 of it, the hut in which we should find two 
 Spanish guardasfrontdras armed to the teeth 
 and prepared to bar the way to all who 
 could not show their right to pass. 
 
 Yet we were resolved to pass or leave 
 our bodies there. 
 
 "There is," the landlord had said, "a 
 holy stone at the spot where the path lead- 
 ing to the bridge enters the cork wood. 
 You cannot mistake it. Upon that stone is 
 graven the Figure, beneath it an arrow 
 pointing the way to Melagasso. Your path
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 209 
 
 lies to the left and thus to the bridge. God 
 keep you." 
 
 We left that stone as he had directed, 
 with one swift glance upward at those 
 blessed features I noticing- Juan crossed 
 himself devoutly slowly over fallen leaves 
 that lay sodden on the earth beneath their 
 mantle of snow, and over dried branches 
 blown to the earth, our horses trod. And 
 so for a quarter of an hour we pursued our 
 way, while still the night came on swifter 
 and swifter until, at last, we could scarce 
 see each other's forms beneath the thick 
 foliage above our heads. 
 
 Yet we heard now that swirling, rush- 
 ing river heard its murmur as it swept 
 past its banks, and its deep swish as it 
 rolled over what was doubtless some great 
 boulder stone out in the stream heard, 
 too, its hum as it glided by the supports of 
 the bridge that we knew was before us. 
 Also, we saw above our heads a light 
 gleaming a light that we knew must come 
 from the frontiermen's house. 
 
 And we had to steal up to where that 
 light twinkled brightly, in what was now the 
 clear, frosty air, since the snow had ceased 
 indeed, had not fallen all day and all 
 was clear overhead ; to steal up, and then, 
 if might be, make our hasty rush past on
 
 210 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 our horses' backs, or stay to cross steel 
 and exchange ball with those who barred 
 our way. 
 
 " Forward to the bridge ! " I whispered 
 to Juan, fearing- that even from where we 
 were my voice might be borne on the clear 
 night air up to that height. " Loosen, also, 
 your blade in its sheath ! And your pis- 
 tols, too are they well primed? " 
 
 "Yes," he whispered back, his voice 
 soft and low as a woman's when she mur- 
 murs acknowledgment of her love. "Yes." 
 
 " You do not fear ?" 
 
 "I fear nothing we are together," 
 and, as he spoke, I felt the long, slim, 
 gloved hand touch mine. 
 
 A moment later we had left the shadow 
 of the wood ; we stood above the sloping 
 bank of the river rushing by ; another 
 moment and our horses' feet would be 
 upon the wooden bridge its creaking 
 quite apparent to our ears as the stream 
 swept under it. 
 
 " 'T is God's mercy, " I whispered 
 again to him, "that the river is so brawl- 
 ing ; otherwise the horses' hoofs upon 
 these boards would be heard as plain as 
 a musket's roar. Ha ! I had forgotten ! " 
 
 "Forgotten what, Mervan? " the gentle
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 211 
 
 voice of Juan whispered back. "Forgot- 
 ten what ? " 
 
 "If they should neigh ! If there should 
 be any of their kind up there ! " and as I 
 spoke, as the thought came to me, I felt as 
 though I myself feared. 
 
 " Pray God they do not ; yet, if they 
 do, it must be borne." And now I noticed 
 his voice was as firm as though he had ex- 
 perienced a hundred such risks as this we 
 were running. Then he added : " The In- 
 dians muffle theirs with their scrapes when 
 they draw near a foe. Shall we do that? " 
 
 " No, "I answered, " 't is too late. Let 's 
 on. Yet, remember, at the slowest pace. 
 Thus their hoofs will fall lighter." And 
 again I exclaimed : " Thank God, the river 
 drowns their clatter ! " 
 
 Yet, a moment later, and I had cause for 
 further rejoicing. From above where that 
 light twinkled there came a sound of singing 
 a rich, full voice a-trolling of a song, with 
 another voice joining in. 
 
 Or was there more than one voice joining 
 in? If so, we might have more than the 
 old man and the young one, of whom the 
 landlord had spoken, to encounter. Almost 
 directly Juan confirmed my dread. 
 
 "There are half a dozen there," he said,
 
 212 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 very calmly. "I know enough of music to 
 recognise that. What to do now ? " 
 
 " To go on," I answered. " See, we are 
 across the bridge there is the road in 
 another moment we shall be ascending the 
 path. Praise heaven, we can ride abreast." 
 And in that other moment we were riding 
 abreast slowly up that path, the snow that 
 lay on it deadening now the sound of the 
 horses' hoofs, while the voices within helped 
 also to silence them. 
 
 "I know the song," Juan whispered 
 and I marvelled at his calmness his 1 the 
 youth's who had been so nervous when 
 there was naught to fear, yet who now, 
 when danger was close upon him, seemed to 
 fear nothing " have sung it myself. 'T is 
 4 The Cid's Wedding.'" 
 
 '"Twill not be songs about weddings 
 that they will be engaged on," I said, "if 
 any come out of that hut during the next 
 ten minutes; but rather screeches of death 
 from us or them. Have your sword 
 ready, Juan, also your pistols." 
 
 " They are ready, " he said. " Yet what 
 to do ? Suppose any come forth ere we are 
 past the door, over the frontier. Am I to 
 ride straight through them are we to 
 do so?" 
 
 "Ay. Sit well down in your saddle,
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 213 
 
 give your nag his head, and if any man 
 impedes your way, stand up in your stir- 
 rups, cut down straight at him, or, if yours 
 is not a cutting sword, thrust straight at 
 the breast of Hal" 
 
 My exclamation still under my breath, 
 since my caution did not desert me was 
 caused by what now met our eyes, namely, 
 the opening of some door giving on to the 
 road in front of where the frontier cabin 
 stood ; the gleaming forth into that road 
 of a stream of light, and then the coming 
 out from the hut and the mingling of some 
 four or five figures of men in the glare. 
 
 Now, when this happened, we had pro- 
 gressed up the hillside road two-thirds 
 of the way, so that we were not more than 
 seventy paces, if as much, from where 
 those people were ; yet, as I calculated, 
 even at this nearness to them, we might 
 still, if all went well, escape discovery. 
 For we were under the shelter of the shelv- 
 ing rock which reared itself to our left 
 hands, and not out in the middle of the road, 
 which was here somewhat broad ; and, 
 therefore, to the darkness of the night was 
 added the still deeper darkness of the 
 rock's obscurity. And, I reflected, 't was 
 scarce likely any would be coming our way 
 from this party, which was evidently
 
 214 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 breaking- up, since the Portuguese and 
 Spaniards did not, I thought, fraternise 
 very much. 'T was not very probable 
 any would be returning- our way. Conse- 
 quently, I deemed that we were safe, or 
 almost so ; that, soon, some of those in 
 the road would take themselves off, and 
 would leave behind in the hut none but the 
 old man and the young- man of whom the 
 landlord had spoken. Nay, more, a glance 
 down the road in the direction of where we 
 were would, in the darkness of the night, 
 reveal nothing- of our whereabouts. And 
 I conveyed as much to Juan by a pressure 
 of my hand, yet leaning forward, too, over 
 to his side and whispering : 
 
 "All the same, be ready. It may come 
 to a rush. If one of our horses neighs or 
 shakes itself so much as paws the earth 
 if a bridle jangles we are discov- 
 ered." 
 
 And a glance from those bright eyes 
 I protest, I saw them glisten in the dark- 
 ness of the starlit night ! told me that 
 he had heard and understood. Told me, 
 also, that he was ready. After that after 
 those whispered words of mine, that re- 
 sponsive glance of his we sat as still as 
 statues on our steeds, hardly allowing our
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 215 
 
 breath to issue from our lung's watching- 
 watching- those fig-ures. 
 
 " God 1 would they never separate ? 
 Would not some depart and the others re- 
 tire into the cabin and shut the door against 
 the cold wintry nig-ht? Offer us the op- 
 portunity to make one turn of the wrist on 
 our reins, give one pressure of our knees 
 to the animals' flanks and dash up the re- 
 mains of the ascent and past the hut ere 
 those within could rush out and send a bul- 
 let after us from fusil, gun or musketoon? 
 
 At last they g-ave signs of parting- we 
 heard the buenas noches and the adios issu- 
 ing- from those Spanish throats ; we saw 
 two of the men their forms blurred and 
 magnified in the outstreaming- rays of the 
 lamp clasp each other's hands ; we knew 
 that they were saying- farewell to one an- 
 other. And then curse the buffoon! 
 and then, when they had even parted and 
 two had turned toward the door to re-enter, 
 and the others had taken their first steps 
 upon the road forward then, I say, one of 
 these latter turned back, made signs to 
 all the others, and, when he had fixed their 
 attention, began to dance and caper about 
 in the road, imitating for the benefit of his 
 friends, as I supposed, some dance or 
 dancer he had lately seen.
 
 216 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 From the lips of my doubtless high- 
 strung 1 companion there came a long-drawn 
 breath ; almost I could have sworn I heard 
 the soft murmur of a smothered Spanish 
 oath; and then once more those whom we 
 watched parted from each other the buf- 
 foonery was over, the imitation, if it was 
 such, finished. Again, with laughs and 
 jokes, they broke up and separated. 
 
 " Our chance is at hand, at last ! " I 
 whispered. 
 
 Was it? 
 
 The others those going away had dis- 
 appeared round a bend of both rock and road; 
 the two left behind were retiring into their 
 house when, suddenly, the last one stopped, 
 paused a moment, put up his hand to his 
 head as though endeavouring to recall some- 
 thing, then put out his other hand, seemed 
 to grasp a lantern from inside the door, and, 
 slowly, began a moment later to descend the 
 road where we sat our steeds. 
 
 And now we were discovered beyond all 
 doubt ; in a moment or so he would perceive 
 us ; another, and he would challenge us ; 
 would shout back to his comrade in the hut 
 perhaps call loud enough to attract the 
 attention of his departing friends. We 
 should be shot down, our horses probably
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 217 
 
 hamstrung-, we brought to earth, prisoners 
 or dead. 
 
 "Swords out!" I said to Juan, "and 
 advance. Quick, put your horse to the 
 canter at once; ride past him over him if 
 need be." 
 
 A moment later and we had flashed by 
 the astonished man, the jennet that bore 
 Juan spring-ing- up the hill like a cat, my 
 own bony but muscular steed along-side ; 
 behind us we heard his roars ; an instant 
 after the ping- of a bullet whistled by my ears, 
 fired at us by the other one in the hut as we 
 advanced ; another moment and he was out 
 in the road, endeavouring to swing- a wooden 
 gate, that hung on hinges attached to the 
 cabin, across the road. Also, which was 
 worst of all, we heard answering calls from 
 the men who had gone on ahead tram- 
 plings and shouts we knew that they 
 were coming back to help. 
 
 But we were at the gate now, and still it 
 was not shut, there wanted yet another 
 yard or so ere its catch would meet the 
 socket post, and, shifting my reins into my 
 sword hand, I seized its top bar, endeavour- 
 ing to bear it back by the combined weight 
 of my horse and myself upon the man striv- 
 ing to shut it. 
 
 Then I heard the fellow at the gate call
 
 218 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 out something 1 of which I understood no 
 word, heard Juan give a reply with who 
 would have believed it of him at this mo- 
 ment a mocking- laugh ; heard the word, 
 Inglese; knew intuitively that he had told 
 them who and what we were, and had de- 
 fied them. 
 
 And also, as I divined all this, I saw that 
 the other men had returned, had reached 
 the g-ate and were lending- their assistance 
 to aid in its being barred against us. 
 
 It was war time, as I had said before ; I 
 took heart of grace in remembering- this, 
 and I set to work to hew my way, even 
 though I killed all who opposed me, toward 
 the distant goal I sought. One brawny 
 Spaniard who, even as he lent his whole 
 weight to the gate, drew forth a huge pistol, 
 I cut down over those bars, he falling all 
 a-heap in the road ; another I ran through 
 the shoulder; and I saw the steel of Juan's 
 lighter sword gleam like a streak of light- 
 ning betwixt the upper and the second bar; 
 I heard the third man who had come back 
 give a yell of pain as it reached him, while 
 a pistol he had just fired fell to the ground 
 he falling a moment later on top of it. 
 
 And now there was but the original man 
 left at the gate, and still it was not shut ! 
 Wherefore I brought the whole strength
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 219 
 
 and power of my body to force it back so 
 that there should be room for us to pass. 
 
 Yet, even as I did so, I had to desist, for 
 from behind, I heard Juan shout : 
 
 "Mervan, Mervan, help me!" and on 
 looking- round I saw that the jennet was 
 riderless. Saw also, that he was down, that 
 the man who had begun to descend the hill 
 was wrestling- with him on the ground, and 
 that, as they struggled together, both were 
 rolling- over toward the lower part of the 
 precipice or rock side, which hung- perpen- 
 dicularly above the swift flowing river
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 THE FIRST FIGHT. 
 
 In a moment I, too, was off my horse 
 had tied it and the jennet's reins together 
 and had flung- myself on the man a big, 
 brawny fellow who had one arm around 
 Juan's body while, with his disengaged 
 hand, he felt for a knife in his girdle. 
 
 Even as I did so I saw that they were 
 both perilously near the edge of the rock 
 which hung over the river, that in a few 
 more moments both must have gone over 
 it over and down, crashing through 
 bushes and shrubs until they fell into that 
 rapid stream below, or were hurled on to 
 the timbers of the crazy bridge, with, prob- 
 ably, their bones broken all to pieces. 
 
 Yet, small as was the space left in which 
 a third man might intervene, be sure I lost 
 no time in doing so, in flinging myself upon 
 that muscular Spaniard and in tearing him 
 off his prey. Seizing him by the collar of 
 his jacket, one hand around his throat, I 
 dragged him from the boy for I was as 
 muscular as he, and, maybe, younger, too 
 
 220
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 221 
 
 wrenched him to his feet and sent him reel- 
 ing- back into the road. 
 
 "Catch the horses," I said to Juan, 
 " quick. And mount yourself. Be ready. 
 Once I have disposed of this fellow there 
 remains none but the one at the gate." 
 
 And, although the lad tottered as he rose 
 to his feet, he did as I bade him, and, secur- 
 ing- the animals, which had but backed a few 
 paces down the road, g-ot into his saddle 
 again. Then he said though faintly: "I 
 will go forward and dispose of the remain- 
 ing man." 
 
 Yet there was still this one to be dis- 
 posed of and I understood at a glance 
 that I had no easy task before me ere I 
 could do so. 
 
 He was a fellow of great bulk this I 
 could observe in the light of a watery half 
 moon that now peeped up over the bend of 
 the rock by where the cabin stood ; also he 
 was well armed. In his hand he held now a 
 long cavalry sword, which he had drawn 
 from its steel scabbard with a clash even as 
 he staggered back against the rock; with 
 his other hand he fumbled at the silken 
 sash around his waist, in which was the 
 knife he had endeavoured to draw against 
 Juan. 
 
 In God's mercy, he had no pistol !
 
 222 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 He muttered some hoarse words to me 
 they conveyed little yet no words were 
 needed. I knew as well as though he had 
 spoken my own tong-ue that one of three 
 things must happen now : That great inch- 
 deep blade either buried in my heart or my 
 head cleft open with it, or my straight Eng- 
 lish weapon through and through him ! 
 
 Then we set to it. 
 
 As animals which are bereft of speech 
 fight, so we fought now only more warily. 
 For they fly at each other's throats, in a 
 moment are locked in each other's grasp, 
 their fangs deep in the other's flesh. It 
 was not so with us. We had not to come 
 too close, but rather to guard and feint, to 
 avoid each other till the moment, the one 
 critical and supreme moment, came. Thus 
 we began. 
 
 At first, perhaps, because of the deadly 
 weight of his blade better for cut than 
 thrust he aimed twice at my head, and 
 tried again a third time, then jumped back 
 with another of his tome unintelligible 
 hoarse and raucous exclamations ; for, at 
 that attempt, I had quickly ay ! and easily, 
 too parried the blow, had disengaged my 
 weapon, and, with a rapid thrust, had nearly 
 struck home had missed the inside of
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 223 
 
 his ribs by an inch only. Then knew that 
 the next time I should not fail. 
 
 "Curse you," I muttered, "if I could 
 speak your patois, I 'd tell you that you are 
 doomed." While to myself I said : "He is 
 a clumsy fool, and he is mine." 
 
 We had turned in these passadoes, as I 
 drove him back ; so, too, I had edged him 
 round. Now, 't was I who had the rock be- 
 hind me, 'twas he who had the declivity 
 of the lower precipice behind him. 
 
 And he knew it as well as I saw in a 
 moment all that this meant, and endeav- 
 oured to turn again. 
 
 Yet he never had the chance. Trust 
 me for that ! as my recollection of the 
 daily lessons in the fence school at Houns- 
 low, which for a year Dutch William's best 
 ferrailleurs had taught me ere my father got 
 my guidon for me. 
 
 He never had the chance ! Yet he strove 
 hard for it, too; proved 'that Spain made 
 no bad choice when she sent him to this 
 frontier post; strove hard to beat me round 
 again, to bring my back in the position his 
 was to the lip of the plateau and failed. 
 
 If I could have spoken to him in his 
 patois for 'twas scarce Spanish if I 
 could have made him understand, if he 
 would have discontinued his contest with
 
 224 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 me, I would have spared him, and willingly ; 
 would have bidden him let me go in peace, 
 and be saved himself. For he was a brave 
 man ; too good a one for the doom that must 
 now be his. Yet he forced me to it, forced 
 me to go on, ceased not for one instant his 
 swinging blows and thrusts, forced me to 
 parry and thrust in turn for my own sal- 
 vation to drive him back step by step to 
 the brink of the precipice behind him. And, 
 now, it was not five paces behind him. 
 
 His was the danger I wondered if he 
 knew it yet mine the horror. Above the 
 clashing of our swords I heard now the 
 dull, hoarse roaring of the river below, 
 heard its angry swish as it struck past the 
 timbers of the bridge below in my desire 
 to save him I told him madly in my best 
 Spanish to desist to save himself. Also, 
 I think, he saw upon my face some look of 
 horror at the fate that must be his, some 
 beads of sweat, perhaps, upon it, too I 
 know I felt them there saw them, and 
 God help him ! misunderstood them. 
 Misunderstood, and thought my look of 
 horror, my sweat, were for my own safety. 
 
 With a leap, a roar, he came at me again 
 like a tiger springing at its prey, his blows 
 raining upon my sword ; almost I thought 
 that even now he would have borne me to
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 225 
 
 the earth, have conquered. And I thrust 
 blindly, too, in desperation, knew that my 
 blade was through his arm, saw him jump 
 back, stagger and disappear ! 
 
 And up from below where he had last 
 stood there came a scream of awful fear and 
 terror, the branches and the bushes crashed, 
 there was a thud upon the water a hundred 
 feet below and then nothing- more but 
 the swirl of the river and its hoarse mur- 
 mur as it swept along. 
 
 It had not taken much time in the doing. 
 A moment later I was running up the road 
 to where the gate stood, swung back now 
 so that the road was clear. And Juan was 
 sitting on his horse, a pistol in his hand, 
 and in the road, standing beneath him, his 
 hands by his side, stood the last remaining 
 man, dreading to move, palsied with fright, 
 and speechless. 
 
 "What shall we do with him?" the youth 
 asked, turning on me a face in which there 
 was now left no vestige of that brilliant col- 
 our it had once borne. "What? Killhim?" 
 and his eyes flashed ominously, so that I 
 knew the lust for blood was awakened. 
 
 "Nay," I said. "Nay. There is no 
 need for that. Bind him and lock him up 
 here in his hut. That will do very well.
 
 226 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 Also, he is old. What of these others?" 
 and I turned to those who lay in the road. 
 
 As I looked at them, it seemed that none 
 were hurt to death for which I was thank- 
 ful enough, since a soldier needs but to dis- 
 able his enemy, and seeks not to take life 
 needlessly. The one whom I had first cut 
 down seemed to have but a scalp wound 
 doubtless the thick, coarse hat of felt he 
 wore had turned my blade ; he whom I 
 had run through the shoulder had but a 
 flesh wound, which would trouble him for 
 some weeks at most; while the fellow whom 
 Juan had pinked had got an ugly gash in 
 the neck. 
 
 " We will put them all in here together," 
 I said, pointing to their hut, "then leave 
 them. Doubtless they will be relieved in 
 some hours. Yet the longer ere it happens 
 the better. We must press on and on till 
 we are well clear of this part of the world. 
 There will be a hue and cry." 
 
 After saying which, I proceeded to drag 
 the wounded men in one of them was 
 able .to enter the place unaided, though not 
 without many melancholy groans and ejac- 
 ulations and then motioned to the old man 
 to follow. 
 
 But now, obeying me even as I so pointed 
 to the door, he cast an imploring glance at
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 227 
 
 Juan, and then muttered something- to him, 
 the boy answering- him with a laug-h. And 
 on my demanding- to know what he had said, 
 my companion replied: 
 
 " He saw you take up the lamp. There- 
 fore he asked if you were going- to burn 
 them all when they were locked in the hut." 
 
 "Humph!" I said. "It has not quite 
 come to that." 
 
 Time was, however, precious now, there- 
 fore it was useless for us to remain here 
 any longer, or to waste any more of it; 
 whereon, ag-ain taking up the lamp, I carried 
 it out into the road. Then I removed the 
 key from where it hung by the side of the 
 door, and, going out, locked them all inside. 
 
 "Now," I said, "they can remain there 
 till some one comes by to set them free. 
 Yet, if that some one comes across from 
 Portugal, and our late landlord speaks 
 truth, they will be in no hurry to do that 
 friendly office for them." After which I 
 blew out the lamp, and, walking to the edge 
 of the under precipice, hurled both it and 
 the key down into the river beneath. 
 
 For some time after we had set out 
 upon our journey again we rode in silence, 
 Juan being as much occupied, I supposed, 
 with his thoughts as I with mine. And, 
 indeed, my own were none of the pleasant-
 
 228 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 est; above all I regretted that that brave 
 man with whom I had fought had gone to 
 his doom. For, although killing was my 
 trade, and although I had already taken part 
 in several skirmishes and fights, I had none 
 too great a liking for having been obliged 
 to slay him. Yet I consoled myself with 
 the reflection that it was his life or mine, 
 and with that I had to be content. But 
 also there were other things that troubled 
 me, amongst them being what I feared 
 would prove certain, namely, that there 
 would be that hue and cry after us of 
 which I had spoken for some time at least, 
 and until we had left the frontier far behind. 
 Nor, since Lugo was but a short distance 
 from this place, would it be possible for us 
 to stop there even for so much as a night's 
 rest. We must go on and on till we had out- 
 stripped all chance of being recognised as 
 the two men who had forced themselves 
 into a hostile country in the manner we had 
 done. 
 
 But now, breaking in on these reflec- 
 tions, I heard Juan's soft voice speaking to 
 me, murmuring words of admiration and 
 affection. 
 
 "Mervan," he said, "if I liked you be- 
 fore ay! from the very moment you stood 
 outside the cabin door of La Sacra Familia
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 229 
 
 and bade me unlock it, and when the first 
 sound of your voice told me I had naught to 
 fear I love you now. My life upon it! you 
 are a brave man, such as I delight in 
 seeing 1 ." 
 
 I laughed a little at this compliment, 
 yet soberly, too, for this was no time for 
 mirth also, I recognised clearly enough 
 that every step the animals beneath us took 
 brought us nearer to other dangers, by the 
 side of which our recent adventure was 
 but child's play then answered : 
 
 "And what of yourself, Juan? You 
 have done pretty well, too, I 'm thinking ; go 
 on like this, and you will be fitted to ride 
 stirrup to stirrup with the most grim old 
 blades of Marlborough's armies when we 
 get to Flanders if we ever do ! I thought 
 you nervous, to speak solemn truth ; now I 
 am glad to have you by my side." 
 
 Yet," said the boy, his face radiant with 
 delight, as I saw when he turned it on me 
 under the rays of the moon, " I was deathly 
 sick with fear all the time. Oh ! my God ! " 
 he cried suddenly, "what should I have 
 done, what become of me, if you had been 
 struck down? " Then added, anxiously, a 
 moment later. " You are not wounded ?" 
 
 " Not a scratch. And you?" 
 
 " Nor I, either. Yet I was so faint as I
 
 230 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 guarded that old man by the gate, that I 
 doubted if I could sit the horse much longer; 
 I should have fallen to earth, I do verily be- 
 lieve, had you not joined me when you did." 
 
 "Poor lad," I said, "poor lad. You have 
 chosen but a rough road, a dangerous com- 
 panion. You should have gone to England 
 in the Pembroke, with the fleet. You would 
 have been half way there by now, and in 
 safety." 
 
 "Never!" he said. "Never!" And, 
 as if to give emphasis to his words, he 
 turned round in his saddle toward me, plac- 
 ing his left hand on the cantle as though to 
 obtain a steady glance of my face, and con- 
 tinued. 
 
 U I told you we were friends, sworn 
 friends and true. Also, that to be together 
 was all that I asked. Mervan, our friend- 
 ship is rivetted, bound, now; nothing but 
 death or disaster shall part us nothing; 
 till at least, this journey is concluded. 
 Then then if you choose to turn me off 
 you may; but not before. You have not 
 yet learnt, do not know yet, what a Span- 
 ish a a man reared amongst Spaniards 
 feels when he swears eternal friendship." 
 
 After which he regained his position 
 and rode on, looking straight between his 
 horse's ears. But once I heard him mutter
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 231 
 
 to himself, though still not so low, either, 
 but what I heard it very well: 
 
 "Friendship. Dies!" 
 
 And this warm, fervent youth, this 
 creature full of emotion and glowing friend- 
 ship, was him against whom the admiral 
 had expressed some distaste when he 
 learned that I proposed to ride in his com- 
 pany; had doubted if that companionship 
 might not be of evil influence over my for- 
 tunes during the journey. If he knew 
 nothing, what did it all mean ? I asked my- 
 self. Above all (and this I had pondered 
 on again and again, though without being 
 able to arrive at any answer to the riddle), 
 why warn me against one whom he, when 
 brought into contact with that one himself, 
 had treated with such scrupulous defer- 
 ence? 
 
 Even as I thought again upon these 
 things I resolved that as our acquaintance, 
 our friendship and comradeship ripened, I 
 would ask Juan who and what he was. 
 
 For at present I knew no more than I 
 have written down that he was young and 
 handsome, and was well to do. But beneath 
 all, was there some mystery attached to 
 him ? Some mystery which the older and 
 more far seeing eyes of Sir George had
 
 232 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 been able to pry into and discover, while 
 mine were still blinded to it? 
 
 We were passing- now through a wild 
 and desolate region, a portion of the west- 
 ern extremity of northern Spain, in which 
 we met no sign of human life or human habi- 
 tation, hardly, indeed, any sign of animal 
 life. Also we had struck a chain of mount- 
 ains densely clothed with cork and chest- 
 nut woods, the trees of which were bare of 
 leaves, and through the branches of which 
 the wind moaned cheerlessly. On our left 
 these mountains, after an interval of bar- 
 ren moorland, rose precipitously; to our 
 right the Minho rolled sullenly along, the 
 road we traversed lying- between it and the 
 moor. So desolate, indeed, was all around 
 us now that we might have been two 
 travellers from another world journeying 
 through this, a forgotten or undiscovered 
 one; no light either far or near twinkled 
 from hut or cottage, neither bark of dog 
 nor low of cattle reached our ears; all was 
 desolate, silent and deserted. 
 
 Yet, even as the road lifted so that we 
 knew we were ascending those mountains 
 step by step, we observed signs which, 
 added to the well kept state of the road 
 itself, told us it was not an altogether un- 
 used one. For though the snow lay hard
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 233 
 
 and caked upon it, we could observe where 
 it had taken the impression of cart wheels 
 and of animals' hoofs, could perceive by 
 this that it was sometimes traversed. 
 
 And, presently, we observed something 1 
 else, something- that told us plainly enough 
 that we were now in the direct way for Lu- 
 go, observed that there branched into the 
 road we were travelling an even broader 
 one than it causing, too, our own road to 
 broaden out itself as it ran further north ; 
 a road in the middle of which was a huge 
 stone column or pedestal, with arms also of 
 stone upon it, pointing different ways, and 
 with, carved on them, words and figures. 
 
 And of these arms one pointed west and 
 bore upon it the words : To Vigo ; an- 
 other pointed north with, on it, the words : 
 To Lugo. 
 
 And seeing all this by the aid of a tinder 
 box and lantern which we carried amongst 
 our necessaries seeing it, too, by craning 
 our necks and standing up in our stirrups 
 we knew that we had now struck the 
 route along which those must have come 
 who had fled from Vigo after the taking of 
 the galleons.
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 MY GOD ! WHO IS HE ? 
 
 All that night we rode, yet slowly, too, 
 for the sake of the horses, and in the morn- 
 ing- which broke bright, clear and frosty, 
 the sun sparkling and shining gaily amongst 
 the leafless branches and trees of the for- 
 ests through which we passed reached a 
 little town, or village, about half way 'twixt 
 the frontier and Lugo, a place called Chan- 
 tada, and not far from another town named 
 Orense, which, because it had a large pop- 
 ulation as we gathered from a sight of 
 its roofs and spires, all a-shining in the 
 morning sun, as we could see very well from 
 the mountains as we passed along them 
 we avoided. Also, we avoided it because 
 it lay not so much upon our direct route, 
 by some three or four leagues, as Chantada 
 itself. 
 
 " Now, come what may," said I to Juan, 
 as we drew near this place, "and even 
 though we should be pursued from the 
 border which is not very like we must 
 stop here for some hours. We require
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 235 
 
 rest ourselves ; as for the beasts, they 
 must have it ; otherwise they will have 
 to be left behind and others found. And 
 that would be a pity they are better than 
 might have been looked for ! " As, indeed, 
 they were, especially considering 1 the hap- 
 hazard manner in which we had come by 
 them, both having- kept on untiring on the 
 road, while, as for the jennet which Juan 
 bestrode, it was, possibly because of his 
 light weight, as fresh as on the hour we 
 set out. 
 
 Then, turning to him, I said, even as I 
 noticed that he showed no signs of fatigue 
 at which I marvelled somewhat! and 
 that his handsome face was as bright and 
 full of colour as it had ever been : 
 
 " You must be a-weary, Juan ? Three 
 or four hours' sleep will do you a world of 
 good. And you shall have it, my lad, even 
 though I sit at your door with a drawn 
 sword in my hand to prevent interruption." 
 
 As usual, he smiled that gracious, win- 
 some smile upon me a smile which was 
 always forthcoming in response to any 
 simple little kindness I evidenced to him 
 and said : 
 
 " I could ride on for hours thus feel no 
 fatigue. Maybe 't is the brightness of the 
 morning that heartens me so; perhaps
 
 236 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 the crisp coolness of these mountains 
 Heavens ! how different 't is from aught 
 we know of in the Indies ! that makes me 
 insensible to it! Yet, Mervan," and he 
 gave me a glance from his eyes, under the 
 dark and now dishevelled curls that hung 
 almost over them, "there is one thing I 
 long to do now. Mervan, do not refuse. I 
 have earned the right ! " 
 
 " What is it, child? " I asked, wondering 
 what strange request he might be about to 
 prefer. 
 
 " Let me sing and play a little. ' T will 
 do no harm, and and you know the 
 viol is here," and he touched lightly the 
 valise strapped in front of his saddle. 
 
 " Sing, if you will," I said, yet casting a 
 glance around and ahead of me to see if 
 there were any about whose curiosity might 
 be attracted by the music though in sober 
 truth it would not much have mattered had 
 there been. In such a land as this though 
 I scarce knew it then ! for a traveller to 
 pass along on his way singing for cheerful- 
 ness and for solace was no strange thing, 
 but rather, instead, the custom. "Sing, if 
 you wish I shall be glad enough to hear a 
 merry note or so. For audience, however, 
 there will be no other." 
 
 "I want none," he replied, "if you are
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 237 
 
 content." And by now, having- got out the 
 little viol d'amore, he struck a few notes 
 upon it and began to sing. 
 
 At first his song was, as I understood 
 and as he told me afterward, a love-ballad 
 addressed by a youth to his mistress; the 
 words as he uttered them soft and lus- 
 cious as the trill of the nightingale on 
 summer night. And his marvellous beauty 
 added also to the effect it had on me, made 
 me wonder how many dark, tropic beauties 
 in the lands he came from had already lost 
 their hearts to him. Nay, wondered so 
 much that, as the last sweet tones of both 
 his voice and viol died upon the crisp morn- 
 ing air, I asked him a question to that effect. 
 
 " Hoi Ho! " he laughed, yet softly as he 
 had just now sung. " None ! None ! None! 
 In the Indies I am nothing; all are as dark 
 as I except when they are golden fair 
 and and Mervan, mon ami, no woman 
 has ever said a word of love to me." 
 
 " Humph ! " I said, doubting. " Nor you, 
 perhaps, a word of love to them." 
 
 " Nor I a word of love to them. Never, 
 never. Le grand jamais I ' ' 
 
 " Nor ever loved? " with a tone of doubt 
 so strong in my voice now that he could not 
 fail to understand it. 
 
 " Nor ever loved," he repeated, " Yes
 
 238 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 yes I love now. Now!" Then, im- 
 petuously, as he ever spoke like a torrent 
 let loose from mountain side he went on: 
 
 "Love! Love! Love! With heart and 
 soul, and brain, on fire. Love ! so that for 
 the creature I adore have learnt to wor- 
 ship, I would ah! what would I not do? 
 Cast my body beneath that creature, plunge 
 through fire or water Oh! " he exclaimed, 
 breaking off as suddenly as he had begun, 
 "Oh! I am a fool! A fool! A fool!" 
 
 "But, surely," I said, "surely, with 
 such as you are, that love does not go un- 
 requited. If you have spoken to the ob- 
 ject of this passion, told of this love you 
 say you bear and are believed it must 
 be returned. Such love as yours would not 
 be simulated, must therefore be appre- 
 ciated." 
 
 "Simulated!" he exclaimed. "Simu- 
 lated. It cannot be simulated, not as- 
 sumed like a mountebank's robe ere he 
 plays a part. Any one can paint a flame, 
 any tawdry daubster of an inn signboard, 
 but not even Murillo himself could paint 
 the heat. And my love is heat not 
 not flame." 
 
 "And the lady? The lady?" I asked 
 almost impatiently. "Surely she does 
 she must return this love."
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 239 
 
 Volatile as he was, and, changing his 
 mood again in a moment, he looked slyly at 
 me under the dark locks, twanged the viol 
 again and burst into another song, different 
 from the one he had but recently finished, 
 the song which I had previously known 
 him to sing : 
 
 " Oh ! have you heard of a Spanish lady, 
 How she wooed an Englishman ? " 
 
 "I am an Englishman now, you know, 
 Mervan," interrupting the song. Then 
 going on : 
 
 " Garments gay and rich as may be, 
 Decked with jewels, she had on. " 
 
 "Did she woo you, then?" I asked, as 
 he paused a moment. 
 
 For answer he sang again : 
 
 " As his prisoner fast he kept her, 
 
 In his hands her life did lie; 
 Cupid's bands did tie them faster 
 By the twinkling of an eye " 
 
 He stopped abruptly and pointed ahead 
 of him with the little viol, then wrapped it 
 up again in his valise and said : 
 
 "See, amigo, there is the village what 
 was its name cut on the pedestal? Now 
 what are we ? Eh ? And whence come we 
 if any questions are asked ? " 
 
 "You are a young Spanish gentleman," 
 I said, repeating a lesson I had hitherto in
 
 240 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 our ride tutored him in, "from Vigo. I 
 am a Frenchman. We are on our way 
 to Bayonne to join the French forces. 
 Also, we neither of us know English." 
 
 " Bon, pas un mot" he replied, catching 
 me up brightly. " Et nous parlons Anglais 
 comme une vache parle EspagnoL N'est-ce 
 pas, mon ami? " 
 
 " C'est fa. En avant" I replied, and 
 with a laugh we each touched our horses 
 with the heel and cantered down into the 
 village of Chantada. 
 
 'T was a poor place enough for any trav- 
 ellers to see, consisting of a long, but very 
 wide street, with a fountain in the midst of 
 a wide open square, around which there lay 
 a number of grunting swine lean and re- 
 pulsive and also some score or so of geese, 
 all basking in the morning sun. 
 
 Yet next in importance to the church, 
 which was on one side of this plaza, was that 
 which we most sought for, an inn, and, per- 
 haps because of the road being one of im- 
 portance 'twixt both Portugal and Vigo to 
 France, it was a large, substantial-looking 
 house, long, and with many rooms on either 
 side the great porte, as well as in the two 
 stories beneath its sloping and serrated 
 Spanish roof ; also, it looked prosperous 
 a huge gilt coronet hung out over the un-
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 241 
 
 paved street. For name it had painted 
 along all its front, the words ' ' Taverna 
 Duquesa Santa Ana.' ' 
 
 Under the great archway we rode in, 
 seeing- that in a vast courtyard there stood 
 a travelling coach on which, although there 
 were no horses attached to it, some baggage 
 was still left piled up beneath some skins ; 
 hearing also the stamping of several horses 
 in their stables. 
 
 "Ask," said I to Juan, speaking in 
 French as agreed between us, there was 
 to be no more English spoken unless we 
 were certain no ears could overhear us 
 "ask if we can be accommodated for some 
 hours, say, until night. Then we must 
 resume our journey. Ask that." 
 
 Obedient to my behest, the youth turned 
 to a man who came out from the door giv- 
 ing entrance to the inn itself and, in Span- 
 ish, made his demand, whereupon the fel- 
 low, after bowing politely, said : 
 
 "There is ample accommodation for 
 for more alas ! than travel these roads." 
 
 Then, because I addressed a word or so 
 in French to him, he continued in that 
 language, which, however, he had exceed- 
 ingly badly : 
 
 "Messieurs will stay here till night, 
 then push on to Lugo ? Bon, they will be
 
 242 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 there by morning 1 . So ! So ! Yes, in ver- 
 ity, they can have a good meal. There are 
 geese, fowls, meat, also some wine of excel- 
 lence. Messieurs may refresh themselves 
 in all ways." 
 
 Our horses put in the stable, therefore, 
 we sat down half an hour later in a vast sala 
 in which a great banquet might have been 
 given with ease to a dish of veal, a fowl, 
 and an olla-podrida, all of which would have 
 been good enough had they not been fla- 
 voured so much with garlic that to my 
 taste, at least all pleasure was destroyed ; 
 also we had some most excellent chocolate 
 and some good spirituous liquor to follow 
 at which latter Juan turned a wry face. 
 Then ordering another meal to be ready 
 ere we set out with strict injunctions 
 that the flavouring should on this occasion 
 be omitted we betook ourselves to the 
 rooms above, where we were to get a few 
 hours' rest. 
 
 Yet, as we passed along the whitewashed 
 corridor, the windows of which gave on to 
 the stable yard, the travelling coach stand- 
 ing there caught our eyes, and I said to the 
 host: 
 
 " You have at least some one else here 
 besides us. Some great personage, I should
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 243 
 
 suppose, by his equipage," and I directed 
 my glance to where the great carriage was. 
 
 "Ho!" said the man with the true Span- 
 ish shrug of the shoulder, which is even 
 more emphatic than the French one, more 
 suggestive, as it seems to me ; "a person- 
 age of wealth, I should say, but no grandee 
 of Spain, at least." 
 
 " Of what land, then ?" I asked. "And 
 why a personage of wealth, yet no grandee?" 
 
 "Oh ! well, for that," the man said, with 
 again the inimitable shrug, "his deport- 
 ment, his conduct is not that which our no- 
 bility permit themselves. Though I know 
 not perhaps it may be so he is a noble- 
 man of well possibly, England. He 
 drinks heavily name of a dog I but he 
 drinks like a fiend, un enragt cognac, 
 cognac, cognac also he sings all the night, 
 sometimes so that even the fowls and the 
 dogs are awakened, also all our house. 
 Yet he pays well very well ! " 
 
 "Doubtless," I replied, quietly, "an 
 English nobleman. Such is their custom, 
 according to the ideas of other nations. 
 Well, let us to rest," whereon Juan and I 
 turned each into a room which the landlord 
 indicated, and, so far as I was concerned, I 
 slept calmly and peacefully until awakened 
 by him at three of the afternoon.
 
 244 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 Now, when I descended to where our 
 other repast was prepared for us, which 
 would probably be the last one of a sub- 
 stantial nature which we should be likely to 
 get ere reaching- Lugo, I found Juan there 
 walking- up and down the great sala, his 
 sword swishing about against his left leg 
 as he turned backward and forward petu- 
 lantly. Also, I could see that something had 
 ruffled his usually sweet disposition that 
 his colour was a little higher than in general, 
 and that the soft velvet-looking eyes were 
 sparkling angrily. 
 
 " Why, what is it?" I asked, even as the 
 landlord brought in the first cover, "what 
 is it, my boy ? You are ruffled." 
 
 "Be very sure I am!" he exclaimed, 
 speaking rapidly, and of course in French, 
 so that the man heard and understood all 
 he said. " I have been insulted " 
 
 "Insulted!" 
 
 "At least rebuffed, and rudely, too; 
 and by, of all men, a filthy blackamoor 
 a a por Didsl a slave! Oh! that I 
 had him in the Indies ! He would insult 
 no white one again, I tell you ! " and he 
 fingered the hilt of his weapon and 
 stamped his shapely foot on the uncar- 
 peted floor till his spurs jangled. 
 
 "Come," I said, "vou can afford to de-
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 245 
 
 spise the creature. How did it happen?" 
 
 "Happen! Happen!" Juan replied, 
 still angry. "How?" 
 
 "Monsieur saw the black man prepar- 
 ing 1 the luggage on the great coach," the 
 landlord said, as he removed the dish-cover 
 from a course of pork and raisins, "and 
 asked which way his master went. And 
 the fellow was surly, rude said that was 
 their business, not the affair of strangers. 
 Also, they sought no companions, if if the 
 young senor meant that " 
 
 "Who never offered our company," 
 Juan broke in again. " Curse him ! I wish 
 I had him in the Indies ! " he repeated. 
 
 "Come, "I said again, "come. This is 
 beneath you, Juan to be angry with a 
 slave ! As well be vexed with a dog that 
 yaps and snaps at you when you go to pat 
 it. Sit down and eat your meal. We have 
 a long ride before us." 
 
 Perhaps he saw some sense in my sug- 
 gestion, for he flung himself into a chair 
 and began to eat ; and meanwhile the host, 
 who was still hovering about, handing us 
 now a dish of mutton dressed with oysters 
 and pistachio nuts, and now some stewed 
 pomegranates, chattered away at one side, 
 telling us that the negro's master was not
 
 246 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 well that he had been drinking again ; but 
 yet he was determined to set out at once. 
 
 "Though," said he, "but an hour be- 
 fore the caballeros rode in he had resolved 
 to stay until to-morrow. I know not why 
 he has changed his mind so swiftly. Oh ! 
 
 the drink, the drink, the drink ! " and he 
 wagged his head. 
 
 That the dissolute man whom the land- 
 lord considered to be, in consequence, an 
 English nobleman, was about to depart 
 there could be no possibility of doubt. 
 From where we sat at table, and because 
 curtains to the windows seemed to be 
 things of which those who kept the inn had 
 never thought, we could see out into the 
 courtyard quite plainly. Saw first the 
 horses brought out four of them and 
 harnessed to the huge, lumbering vehicle 
 
 the nobleman would have proved him- 
 self a kinder-hearted man if he had used 
 six ! saw their cloths taken off their 
 backs by the postillion, and observed the 
 latter make ready to mount the near side 
 leader. Also we saw the facchinos on lad- 
 ders strapping tight the baggage which 
 had been brought down and hoisted on top, 
 then heard the landlord, who had now left 
 serving us to attend to his parting guest, give 
 orders that the noble traveller should be in-
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 247 
 
 formed that all was ready for his depart- 
 ure. Upon which we quitted our seats at 
 the table and walked over to the window, 
 Juan's curiosity much excited at the chance 
 of seeing- this drunken English milor, as he 
 called him. We had not long- to wait. For 
 presently we heard a considerable tram- 
 pling on the stairs and some mumbled 
 words to my surprise the deep, g-uttural 
 tones seemed familiar ! and then we saw 
 a wrapped figure carried out between two 
 of thzfacchinos and lifted up into the car- 
 riage. 
 
 And behind that figure walked a negro, 
 his head also enveloped in a rich red shawl 
 as though the black creature feared the 
 cold night air, forsooth ! 
 
 But, even as they lifted the debauched 
 man into his carriage, the wrappings 
 about his face became disturbed and fell 
 back on his shoulders, so that I could see 
 his face and I started as I did so. 
 Started even more, too, when, a second 
 later, I heard Juan exclaim in a subdued 
 voice: 
 
 "My God, who is he? Almost I could 
 swear " 
 
 While in my excitement I interrupted 
 him, saying : 
 
 " That an English nobleman ! That !
 
 248 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 Why, 'tis the drunken old ruffian who 
 came from Rotterdam with me in the 
 ship." 
 
 "And his name? His name?" Juan 
 asked, breathlessly. " His name ? " 
 
 "John Carstairs." 
 
 Even as I spoke the postillion cracked 
 his whip, and the great carriage rolled out 
 of the courtyard, the lamps twinkling 1 and 
 illuminating our faces as it passed before 
 the window. Showed, too, as they flashed 
 on Juan's face, that he was once more 
 deathly pale and all his rich colouring- van- 
 ished as I had seen it vanish more than 
 once before.
 
 CHAPTER XVIH. 
 
 BETRAYED. 
 
 " His name is Carstairs ? Humph ! " 
 Juan said to me when the last sound of the 
 wheels had died away, and we no longer 
 heard the rumbling of the great Berlin 
 upon the stones of the roughly paved street 
 outside. " Carstairs ! " 
 
 " That is the name under which he was 
 entered as a passenger in the papers of 
 La Mouche Noire" I answered. Then con- 
 tinued, looking at the boy as a thought came 
 to my mind. " Why 1 have you ever seen 
 him before, Juan, or have you any reason 
 to suppose it is anything else than Car- 
 stairs ? " 
 
 For the thought that had come to me, 
 the recollection which had suddenly sprung 
 to my mind, was the memory of the words 
 Captain Tandy had used when first we dis- 
 cussed the old man. " ' T is no more his 
 name than 't is mine or yours." 
 
 Also I recalled that he had said, after 
 meditation, that he was more like to have 
 been one Cuddiford than anybody else. 
 
 249
 
 250 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 And now it seemed as though this strip- 
 ling who had become my companion, this 
 boy whose years scarce numbered eigh- 
 teen, also knew something of him disbe- 
 lieved that his name was Carstairs. 
 
 "Do you think," I went on, "that it is 
 something else ? Cuddiford, say?" 
 
 "Nay," he replied. "Nay. Not that. 
 Not that. I have heard of Cuddiford, 
 though. I think he was brought to Lon- 
 don and tried. But but oh!" he ex- 
 claimed, breaking off, " it cannot be ! " 
 
 "What cannot be?" 
 
 "If," he said, speaking very slowly, very 
 gravely now, "if it were not eight years 
 since I last set eyes on him, when I was 
 quite a child; if he had a beard down over 
 his chest instead of being close shaven, I 
 should say, Mervan, that this was the ruf- 
 fian I have come to England to seek; the 
 villain who robbed me of the fortune my 
 father left me the scoundrel, James 
 Eaton." 
 
 "James Eaton!" I exclaimed. "The 
 man you asked me about; thought I might 
 be like to know?" 
 
 "The same." 
 
 " Had he, this Eaton, been a buccaneer ? 
 for I make no doubt that man has." I said. 
 "The captain of La Mouche Noire thought
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 251 
 
 so and and his raving's and deliriums 
 seemed to point that way." 
 
 "I know not," Juan said. " Eaton was 
 a villain yet yet I can scarce suppose 
 my father would have trusted him with a 
 fortune if he had known him to be such as 
 that." 
 
 " Who was your father, Juan? " 
 
 "I I, "he answered, looking 1 at me with 
 those clear starry eyes eyes into which 
 none could gaze without marvelling at their 
 beauty " I do not know." 
 
 " You do not know! yet you know he 
 bequeathed a fortune to' you and left it in 
 the man Eaton's hands." 
 
 "Mervan," he said, speaking 1 quickly, 
 "you must be made acquainted with my 
 history I will tell it you. To-nig-ht, when 
 we ride forth again; but not now. See, our 
 horses are ready, they are bringing them 
 from the stables. When we are on the road 
 I will tell you my story. ' T will not take 
 long. Come, let us pay the bill, and away." 
 
 "I will pay the bill," I said; "later we 
 can regulate our accounts. And as you 
 say, we had best be on the road. For if 
 that old man has seen me, or if his black 
 servant has done so it it may be 
 serious." 
 
 "Serious!" he repeated. "Serious!
 
 252 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 For you, my friend?" And as he spoke 
 there was in his voice so tender an evidence 
 that he thought nothing of any danger 
 which could threaten him, but only of what 
 might befall me, that I felt sure, now and 
 henceforth, of the noble, unselfish heart he 
 possessed. "Oh! not serious for you." 
 
 "Ay," I replied. "Ay. Precious seri- 
 ous ! Remember, he knows I went ashore 
 in Lagos bay, that I sailed in the English 
 fleet to Vigo. What will happen, think you, 
 if he warns them at Lugo that such a one 
 as I an Englishman who assisted at 
 the taking of the galleons, is on the road 
 'twixt here and there? " 
 
 "My God!" the boy exclaimed, thrust- 
 ing his hand through the curls clustering 
 over his eyes as he always did when in 
 the least excited. "It might mean " 
 
 " Death," I said, " sharp and swift; with- 
 out trial or time for shrift; without " 
 
 "But whether he be Eaton or 
 Carstairs he is English himself." 
 
 " Ay, and so^ he is. " I answered, "But 
 be sure he has papers also he can speak 
 Spanish well, will doubtless pass for a 
 Spaniard. Also, unless I am much mistook, 
 had a cargo in one of those galleons for 
 what else has he followed up here? For 
 what but the hopes of getting back some
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 253 
 
 of the saved spoil which has been brought 
 to Lugo? That alone would give him the 
 semblance of being- Spanish would earn 
 him sympathy. Meanwhile, what should I 
 be deemed? A spy! And I should die the 
 spy's death." 
 
 "What then to do next?" Juan asked, 
 with a helpless, piteous look. 
 
 "There is but one thing- for me to do," 
 I replied. " One thing alone. As I told you 
 ere we set out from Viana, my task is to 
 ride on straight, unerringly, to my goal 
 on to Flanders, through every obstacle, 
 every barrier; to crash through them, if 
 heaven permits, as Hopson crashed 
 through that boom at Vigo to reach Lord 
 Marlborough or to fall by the wayside. 
 That is my duty, and I mean to do it." 
 
 " Mervan ! Mervan ! " he almost moaned. 
 
 " ' T is that," I went on. " But think 
 not I say it unkindly, with lack of friend- 
 ship or in forgetfulness of our new found 
 camaraderie for you the need does not 
 exist." 
 
 "What!" 
 
 " Hear me, I say, Juan. I speak but for 
 your safety. For you there is no duty call- 
 ing; the risk does not exist. You are free 
 a traveller at your ease." 
 
 "Silence!" he cried his rich, musical
 
 254 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 voice ringing- clear through the vast sala in 
 the midst of which we now stood once more; 
 and as he spoke he raised his hand with a 
 gesture of command. " Silence, I say ! By 
 the body of my dead and unknown father, 
 you do not know Juan Belmonte. What! 
 Set out with you and turn back at the first 
 sign of danger, and that a danger to you 
 alone! Oh!" he exclaimed, changing his 
 tone again, emotional as ever. "Oh! Mer- 
 van, Mervan." 
 
 "I spoke but for your sake," I said, 
 sorry and grieved to see I had wounded 
 him. "For that alone." 
 
 "Then speak no more, never again in 
 such a strain. I said I would never quit 
 your side till Flanders is reached; no need 
 to repeat those words. Where you go I go 
 unless you drive me from your side." 
 
 And now it was my turn to exclaim 
 against him, to cry: "Juan! you think I 
 should do that!" Yet even as I spoke, I 
 could not but add: " The danger to you as 
 well as me may be terrible." 
 
 "No more," he said. "No more. We 
 ride together until the end comes for one 
 or both of us. Now, let us call the reckon- 
 ing and begone. The horses are there," 
 and he strode to the window and made a 
 sign to the stable-man to be ready for us,
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 255 
 
 Yet ere the landlord came, he spoke to me 
 again. 
 
 " Remember," he said, " that beyond our 
 camaraderie, of which you have spoken 
 ay 1 't is that and more, far more beyond 
 all this, I do believe the old man whose face 
 I saw as the great lamps shone full on it is 
 James Eaton. I have come to Europe, to 
 this cold quarter of the world, to find him. 
 Do you think with him not half a league 
 ahead that I will be turned from the trail? 
 Never ! I follow that man to Lugo since 
 his beard is gone I cannot pluck him by that, 
 but I can take his throat in my hands, 
 thrust this through his evil heart," and he 
 rapped the quillon of his sword sharply as 
 he spoke. Then added : "As I will. As 
 I will." 
 
 "You do not think he has recognised 
 you, too? Seen you, though unseen him- 
 self, while we have been in this house, pass- 
 ing through these passages and corridors ? 
 as I doubt not either he saw me, or that 
 negro of his." 
 
 He thought a moment after I said this, 
 then suddenly emerged from his medita- 
 tion and laughed a bright, ringing laugh, 
 such as I had learnt to love the hearing of. 
 
 "Nay," he replied. "Nay," and still 
 he laughed. " He has not could not rec-
 
 256 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 ognise me. No ! No ! No ! When I pre- 
 sent myself to him he will he will be 
 astonished." 
 
 And once more he laughed. 
 
 What a strange creature it was, I 
 thought. As brave as a young lion ; as 
 emotional and variable as a woman. 
 
 In answer to our pealing at the bell, to 
 our calls also, the landlord came in at last, 
 not hurrying himself at all, as it seemed to 
 us, to bring the bill. Indeed, we had ob- 
 served him, as we looked forth from the 
 window, engaged in a conversation with 
 two of the townspeople shrouded in the 
 long cloaks which Spaniards wear their 
 heads as close together as if they were con- 
 cocting a crime, though, doubtless, talk- 
 ing of nothing more important than the 
 weather. 
 
 "The bill," I said, "the bill. Quick. 
 Our horses await us, and we have far 
 to ride." 
 
 "Ay," he replied. "Ay," and flinging 
 down a filthy piece of paper on the table, 
 added : " There is the bill " ; and he stood 
 drumming his fingers on the table while I 
 felt for the coins with which to pay it. Yet, 
 even as I did so, I noticed that the fellow's 
 manner was quite changed from what it had 
 been hitherto. His obsequiousness of the
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 257 
 
 morning- had turned to morose surliness, 
 which he took no trouble to conceal. And, 
 wondering- if Juan, who was standing- by, 
 fastening- his spur strap, had observed the 
 same thing, I glanced at him and saw his 
 eyes fixed on the man. 
 
 "There are two pistoles," I said, fling-- 
 ing- them on the table. " They will more 
 than pay our addition ; give the rest to the 
 servants." 
 
 "Ay ! " he replied. "Ay ! " but with no 
 added word of thanks. 
 
 *' Is 't not enoug-h ? " Juan asked. 
 
 "It is enough." Then he turned to me 
 and said: "You are riding- to Lug-o to- 
 night?" 
 
 "That is our road," I replied, feeling 
 my temper mount at the man's changed 
 manner. "What of it? Does that route 
 displeasure you, pray?" 
 
 " Ho ! " he grunted ; " for that, it makes 
 no matter to me." Then added: "The 
 horses are there," in so insolent a tone that 
 I had a difficulty in restraining myself from 
 kicking or striking him. But I remem- 
 bered that, before all else, our safety had 
 to be consulted, and that naught should be 
 done to cause delay to our progress ; where- 
 fore, I swallowed my ire as best I might. 
 
 Yet, as we rode out of the courtyard,
 
 258 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 I saw at once that Juan's own thoughts 
 tended exactly in the same direction as 
 mine, since he said to me : 
 
 "That fellow has been told something 
 by the old man doubtless, that you are 
 English that we both are. Par Dibs! 
 Suppose he has informed him that you 
 were in the English fleet ! " 
 
 "I have no doubt that the man has been 
 told so," I replied. "But no matter. If it 
 were not for you I should not care a jot." 
 
 Then once more I saw the dark eyes 
 turned on me, and wished that I had held 
 my tongue at least as regarded the latter 
 part of my speech. 
 
 It seemed as if the town had gone to bed 
 already. The great square was deserted 
 except that the geese and pigs were still 
 in it, huddled together around the fountain, 
 and severally cackled and grunted as we 
 trotted by them ; down the long street, as 
 we rode, we saw no signs of any one being 
 outside the doors. 
 
 Yet, as we neared the extremity of both 
 the town and the street, and came to where 
 the latter ended off into a country road 
 stretching along a dreary -looking plain, 
 over which the moon had risen, we saw 
 that such was not precisely the case. At 
 the end of the street, that which was the
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 259 
 
 last building- was a little, low, whitewashed 
 chapel ; above its black door there was a 
 figure in a little niche, with, burning- in 
 front of it, a candle in a miserable red- 
 g-lassed lantern ; and, feeble as were the 
 rays cast forth from this poor, yet sacred, 
 lamp, they were sufficient to show us three 
 men on horseback, all sitting- their steeds 
 as rig-idly as statues. 
 
 Judging- by their long- black cloaks and 
 the tips of steel scabbards which protruded 
 beneath them, and which were plainly 
 enoug-h to be seen, even in that dim, cloudy 
 lig-ht, I imagined these men to be the town 
 g-endarmerie thoug-h doubtless they had 
 some other name to denominate them 
 and supposed this was a comfortable po- 
 sition which they probably selected night- 
 ly. Also, the position was at both an exit 
 and an entrance to the place, therefore a 
 natural one. 
 
 "A fine night, gentlemen," one re- 
 marked, and next I heard him say some- 
 thing to Juan, which he replied to ; in both 
 of their remarks the name of Lugo being 
 quite distinct to my ears. But, beyond 
 this, nothing else passed, and, a few mo- 
 ments later, we were riding at a smart 
 trot across the dreary, moor-like plain. 
 
 "They asked," Juan said, in answer to
 
 260 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 my question, "if our destination was Lugo. 
 That was all." 
 
 "So I thought I heard," I said. And 
 added: "Until we were past them I felt 
 not at all sure they might not be on the 
 lookout for us. Might, perhaps, intend to 
 stop us. If Carstairs, or Eaton, or what- 
 ever his name is, blew upon me to the land- 
 lord, he would be as like to do it to the au- 
 thorities also. However, we are in the 
 open now, and all is well so far." 
 
 By this time the moon was well up, and 
 we could see the country along which we 
 were riding; could perceive that 'twas in- 
 deed a vast open plain, with, however, as it 
 seemed to me, a forest or wood ahead of 
 us, into which the road we were on trended 
 at last. Could see, too, the snow lying 
 white all around, as far as the moor 
 stretched, and looking beneath the moon- 
 beams like some dead sea across which 
 no ship was trying to find its way. 
 
 "A mournful spot," I said to Juan, as, 
 half an hour later, we had almost reached 
 the entrance to the great forest, which we 
 had observed drawing nearer to us at 
 every stride our beasts took; "'tis well 
 we made a full meal ere we set out. We 
 are not very like to come across another 
 ere we reach Lugo."
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 261 
 
 I spoke as much to hearten up my 
 companion as for any other reason, since 
 I feared that, in spite of his bravery and 
 firm-fixed determination to never leave my 
 side, he must be very much alarmed at the 
 thoughts of what might happen to us ere 
 we had gone many more leagues. 
 
 But, remarking that he made no answer 
 to my idle words, I glanced round at him 
 and perceived that his head was turned half 
 way back toward whence we had come, and 
 that upon his face was a look of intense 
 eagerness the look of one who listens 
 attentively for some sound. 
 
 " What is it, Juan ? " I asked. 
 
 " Horses' hoofs on the road behind us," 
 he said, "and coming swiftly, too. Hark! 
 do you not hear ? " 
 
 And even as he spoke I did hear them. 
 Heard also something else to which my 
 soldier's ears had made me very well ac- 
 customed: The clank of steel-scabbarded 
 swords against horses' flanks. 
 
 " It is the men we passed by the chapel," 
 I said, "following us now. Yet, if 'tis us 
 they seek, why not stop us ere we left the 
 town? They could do as much against us 
 there as here." 
 
 "They were but three then," the lad 
 answered, calmly as though he were count-
 
 262 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 ing- guineas into his palm instead of the 
 hoof-beats of those on-coming- horses; "now 
 there are more half a dozen, I should say. 
 If 't is us they follow, they have waited to 
 be reinforced." 
 
 And I felt sure that he had guessed 
 right, since the very thought which he 
 expressed had already risen in my own 
 mind.
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 THE SECOND FIGHT. 
 
 We had entered the forest five minutes 
 later, and be very sure, we wasted no more 
 time in waiting for those behind to come 
 up, since, if ' t was us they followed, we 
 might as well be in its shadow as in the 
 open. For if we were outnumbered the 
 trees themselves would afford us some 
 shelter, make a palisade from behind which 
 we might get a shot at them if ' t was too 
 hot for a hand-to-hand encounter. At any 
 rate, I had sufficient military knowledge to 
 know that 't is best to fight against unequal 
 odds with a base, or retreat, to fall back on, 
 than to be without one. 
 
 Yet as we rode into this forest I loos- 
 ened my blade in its sheath, and felt with my 
 thumb to see that the priming of my pis- 
 tols was ready; also bade Juan do the same; 
 likewise to keep behind me as much as 
 might be. 
 
 "For," said I, "if they mean attack I 
 will give them no chance of beginning it. 
 The first hostile word, and I force my horse 
 
 263
 
 264 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 between them, cutting- right and left, and 
 do you the same, following 1 behind me. 
 Thereby you may chance to take off those 
 whom I miss." 
 
 And I laughed a little grimly, perhaps 
 as I spoke, for I thought that if there 
 were, indeed, six men behind us, my jour- 
 ney toward Flanders was already as good 
 as come to an end. Yet, all the same, I 
 laug-hed, for, strang-e thoug-h it may seem to 
 those who have never known the delights 
 of crossed steel, a fight against odds had 
 ever an exhilarating effect upon me; which 
 was, perhaps, as it should be with a knight 
 of the blade. 
 
 Juan, however, did not laugh at all, though 
 he told me he would follow my orders to the 
 utmost, and, indeed, was so silent that I 
 asked him if his nerves were firm. To 
 which he replied that I should see when the 
 moment came. 
 
 And now upon the crisp night air we 
 heard the clang of those on-coming hoofs 
 ringing nearer and nearer; a rough or 
 deadened kind of sound told us the iron 
 shoes were on the fallen leaves which cov- 
 ered all the track from where the wood be- 
 gan; the scabbards of the riders flapped 
 noisily now against spur and horses' flanks; 
 bridles jangled very near.
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 265 
 
 Then they were close upon us five of 
 them ! and a voice called out: 
 
 "Halt, there 1 You are Englishmen 
 one a sailor and a spy passing through 
 the land." 
 
 "You lie!" rang out Juan's voice, in 
 answer. " We are not Englishmen." 
 
 That his reply in fluent Spanish the 
 Spanish, too, of a gentleman, and not of a 
 common night patrol astonished them, I 
 could see. The leader, he who had spoken, 
 glanced round at his four comrades, and, 
 an instant after, spoke again : 
 
 44 Who are you, then, and why does not 
 the big man answer ? " 
 
 "He speaks French. I am Spanish. 
 Molest us not." 
 
 " Molest ! Cuerpo di Baco! We are in- 
 formed you are English. Produce your 
 papers ! " 
 
 " We have none. They are lost." 
 
 " Ho I ho 1 ho ! " the leader replied. 
 ' Very well, very well. 'T is as I thought. 
 That man is English ; he is denounced this 
 night. As for you, the accursed English 
 have many possessions wherein our tongue 
 is spoken. We understand." 
 
 And he gave, as I supposed, some order, 
 since all advanced their animals a few paces 
 nearer, while, as they did so, Juan whis-
 
 266 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 pered to me in the French: "Be ready, 
 but do nothing- yet." 
 
 " You will return to Chantada with 
 us," the spokesman said, sitting- his horse 
 quietly enough, yet with the blade of his 
 drawn sword glistening in the moonbeams 
 as it lay across the creature's neck as, I 
 observed, did the blades of all the others. 
 "That finishes our affair. For the rest 
 you will answer to the Regidor." 
 
 " We shall not return. Our way lies on." 
 
 "So be it. Then we must take you," 
 and, as he spoke, I saw a movement of his 
 knee of all their knees that told me 
 they meant to seize us. 
 
 And I knew that the time had come. 
 
 "At them ! " cried Juan at the same 
 moment. "Advance, Mervan ! " 
 
 A touch to the curb, and my beast fell 
 back 't was a good animal, that ! had, I 
 believe, been a charger in its day, so well 
 it seemed to know its work then a free 
 rein and another touch of the heel, and I 
 was amongst them, my sword darting like 
 lightning around. Also, at my rear, came 
 the jennet's head ; near me there flashed 
 the steel of Juan's lighter weapon ; and in 
 a moment we had crashed through them 
 they fell away on either side of us like 
 waves from a ship's forefoot ! fell away
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 267 
 
 for a moment, though closing again in an 
 instant. 
 
 "Return and charge ! " I cried to Juan, 
 still in French. "At them again ! See, 
 one has got his quietus already ! " As, in- 
 deed, he had, for the great fellow was hang- 
 ing over his horse's neck, in a limp and list- 
 less fashion, which showed that he was 
 done for. But now those four closed to- 
 gether as we went at them, Juan stirrup 
 to stirrup with me in this second charge, 
 and our tactics had to be changed. We 
 could no longer burst through them, so 
 that it was a hand-to-hand fight now ; they 
 had pistols in their holsters, but no chance 
 to use them ; they could not spare a hand 
 to find those holsters could not risk our 
 swords through their unguarded breasts ; 
 wherefore we set to work, blade to blade. 
 
 We should have won, I do believe. Al- 
 ready I had thrust through and through 
 one man's arm as luck would have it, 
 'twas not the sword arm already they 
 backed before our rain of blows and cuts 
 and thrusts, when, by untoward fate, my 
 horse stumbled on the frosty road and came 
 down ; came down upon his haunches, slip- 
 ping me from the saddle over the cantle and 
 so to the earth ; then regained its hind legs 
 once more and dashed out from the fray.
 
 268 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 And now our position was mighty peril- 
 ous. Above I saw Juan on the jennet fenc- 
 ing 1 well with two of the men ; over me were 
 the two others cutting down at my head, 
 though, since by God's mercy I had re- 
 tained my weapon, their blows were up to 
 now unavailing. Yet I knew this could not 
 be for long nor last wherefore I cried : 
 
 "Save yourself, Juan, save yourself; 
 disengage and flee." 
 
 Under my own blade, under those two 
 others that beat upon it so that I wondered 
 it shivered not in my hand, I saw the boy 
 manfully holding his own once, too, I saw 
 him rip up the jerkin of one of his oppo- 
 nents, and heard the latter give a yell of 
 pain then, "Great God!" I thought, 
 " what has happened now ? " 
 
 For there was a fifth man upon the scene. 
 A man, tall and stalwart, mounted on a 
 great, big boned, black horse, who had sud- 
 denly sprung from out a chestnut copse by 
 the side of the track ; a man in whose hands 
 there gleamed a sword that a second later 
 was laced and entwined with those attack- 
 ing Juan ; a man who hurled oaths in Span- 
 ish and French at them I heard caram- 
 bas and par Dibs' s and other words 
 which sounded like the rolling of some great 
 cathedral organ as they came from his deep
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 269 
 
 throat tonneres, ventre-bleus and carrognes 
 I heard. 
 
 Heavens ! who was this man who beat 
 back those others as a giant might push 
 back a handful of children ; whose sword 
 even as with one hand he grasped Juan 
 round the waist went through an adver- 
 sary's neck so that he fell groaning upon 
 me, his blood spurting as if from a spigot ? 
 Who was he who laughed loud and long as, 
 with one accord, all those still alive turned 
 and fled back upon the road they had come? 
 Fled, leaving us, thanks be to God and this 
 new arrival, the victors of the fray. 
 
 He sat his horse calmly now, looking 
 after their retreating figures, his great 
 sombrero slouched across his face, wiping 
 his blade upon the coal-black creature's 
 mane ; then, as their figures disappeared 
 from our view, he said in French : 
 
 "Warmer work this, Senor Belmonte, 
 than twanging viols and singing love songs, 
 ri*est-ce pas?" and from his throat there 
 came again that laugh. 
 
 Glancing up, I saw that which caused 
 me to start, even as I heard Juan say : 
 " You ! You here ! And in this garb ! " 
 saw that which made me wonder if I had 
 gone demented. For this man who had 
 so suddenly come to our rescue, this fine
 
 270 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 lame whose thrusts had won the fray for 
 us, was none other than the monk I had 
 seen on board La Sacra Familia^ the holy 
 man known there as Father Jaime. 
 
 And swiftly as I gazed up at him there 
 came to my recollection old Admiral Hop- 
 son's suspicions as to having- seen him be- 
 fore, also the imitation pass he had made 
 across the table with the quill at his 
 brother-admiral, and his words : 
 
 "'Twas not always the cowl and gown 
 that adorned his person rather instead 
 the belt and pistols the long, servicea- 
 ble rapier, handy." 
 
 What did it mean ? 
 
 Ere he answered either Juan's startled 
 enquiries or my stare of amazement, which 
 he must very well have seen in the moon's 
 rays as I regarded him, he cantered off 
 after my horse, which was standing quietly 
 in the forest side by side with that other 
 animal on whose neck the first wounded 
 man had fallen he was now lying dead 
 upon the ground 1 and brought both back 
 to where we were, leading them by their 
 reins. 
 
 " You will want your horse, monsieur," 
 he said, " to continue your journey. Bon 
 Dieu! you both made a good fight of it,
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 271 
 
 though they would have beaten you had I 
 not come up at the moment." 
 
 "Believe us, we both thank you more 
 than words can express," I said, while 
 Juan sat his jennet, still breathing heavily 
 from his exertions, yet peering with all the 
 power of those bright eyes at the man be- 
 fore him, " but your appearance is so dif- 
 ferent from what it was when last we met 
 that that I am lost in amazement. You 
 were, sir, a holy monk then." 
 
 " Cucullus non facit monachum," he re- 
 plied, in what I recognised to be very good 
 Latin, then added, with a laugh : " In jour- 
 neying through dangerous places we are 
 not always what we seem to be. To wit: 
 Monsieur was either an English soldier or 
 sailor when I saw him last an enemy to 
 Spain and France hating both, as I should 
 suppose. Yet now he is a private gentle- 
 man, and, I imagine, desires nothing less 
 than that his real position should be known. " 
 
 "But you you," Juan interposed, 
 "you were monk from the first moment I 
 set eyes on you, from the hour when we left 
 Hispaniola. Are you not one ? " 
 
 "My boy," he said, and as he spoke he 
 touched Juan on the sleeve as they both sat 
 their horses side by side I being also 
 mounted again by this time "my boy, I
 
 272 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 replied to your companion just now with a 
 proverb. I answer you with another : 
 'Look not a gift horse in the mouth.' I 
 have saved your life, at least, if not this 
 gentleman's. And " 
 
 But Juan stammering forth some words 
 of regret for the curiosity he had shown, 
 he stopped him with still another touch on 
 the sleeve, and said : 
 
 "Briefly, let me tell this : I had reasons 
 to be in Spain, to quit the Indies and accom- 
 pany the galleons, get a passage by some 
 means. It suited me to come disguised as 
 a monk; there was no other way. For, 
 rightly or wrongly, both Spain and France 
 are my enemies ; in my own proper char- 
 acter I could never have reached here. 
 Being here, I am still in danger if dis- 
 covered ; to avoid that discovery I have 
 now doffed the monkish garb, so that all 
 traces of me are lost. Enough, however; 
 I am on my road to Lugo. Does your way 
 lie the same road?" 
 
 We both answered that it did, whereon 
 he said, speaking quickly and, as I noticed, 
 in the tone of one who seemed very well 
 used to issuing orders, as well as accus- 
 tomed to deciding for himself and others: 
 
 "So be it. Let us ride together and 
 at once. Every moment we tarry here
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 273 
 
 makes our position more dangerous. Those 
 men will no sooner have returned to Chan- 
 tada than every available soldier will be 
 sent forward to arrest us, even though we 
 be in Lugo itself. You will be recognised 
 without doubt if you stay an instant in the 
 town. Your one chance is to get into it and 
 out again as soon as may be. 
 
 "And you?" I asked, as now we put 
 spurs to our horses and dashed along the 
 forest track. "And you? If any of those 
 who were in this affray return with the 
 soldiers you speak of, it will be hard for 
 you, too, to escape recognition. Your form 
 cannot be disguised." 
 
 " It will be disguised again, " he answered 
 very quietly, "when I have once more re- 
 sumed the monk's garb. I have it here," 
 and he tapped the great valise strapped on 
 his horse's back. "It has not been worn 
 since I got ashore at Vigo, and that 's far 
 behind this by many leagues. There are 
 none here like to recognise me." 
 " You stay, then, in Lugo ? " 
 ** I must stay. I have affairs." 
 He said this so decidedly that we neither 
 of us ventured to ask him any more ques- 
 tions, though, a moment or two afterward, 
 he volunteered to us the statement that, if 
 another horse he had previously bought
 
 274 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 when he landed at Vigo had not broken 
 down, he would long* ere this have been in 
 Lugo. Only the finding of a fresh animal 
 the one he now bestrode had taken him 
 some time, and thereby caused him to be 
 late on his road, which, as we said grate- 
 fully enough, was fortunate for us. 
 
 " Ay, " he replied, " it was ; and also that 
 I was breathing my animal in the forest at 
 the time those others overtook you. But, 
 nom d'un chou ! I have been a fighter in my 
 day myself, and, since I could not see two 
 men set upon by five, my old instincts were 
 aroused; though," he added, with extreme 
 sangfroid, "had it been an even fray, I 
 might have left you to it." 
 
 And now it seemed to both Juan and my- 
 self as though this man's assistance to us 
 necessitated us showing some confidence in 
 him ; wherefore, very briefly, we gave him 
 some description of why we were travelling 
 together, and of how, because Juan had 
 naught else of much importance to do at the 
 outset of his arrival in Europe, he had 
 elected to be my companion as far as 
 Flanders. 
 
 " Humph ! " he exclaimed at this, " he is 
 a young knight errant, as I told him oft 
 enough in the galleon, when he talked some 
 rhodomontade about being on his way to
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 275 
 
 Europe to seek out and punish a villain who 
 had wronged him. Well, sir, even if he 
 finds not the man, he is likely enough to 
 meet with sufficient adventures in your 
 company ere he reaches Flanders." 
 
 "He thinks he has found him already," 
 I said quietly, in reply. 
 
 " What ! " and he turned his great eyes 
 on both of us. "Found him. Here in 
 Spain ! " and he laughed incredulously. 
 
 "He thinks nothing of the kind," Juan 
 cried hotly, roused more, I thought, by that 
 scornful laugh than by my doubting words. 
 " He is sure of it I" 
 
 And then he told the whole story of our 
 having seen the old man's coach in the inn, 
 of the black's insolent reply, of his depart- 
 ure at night, and of the little doubt there 
 could be that he it was who had betrayed us 
 to the people of Chantada ; also he added : 
 
 "But I have him. Have him fast. He 
 is but a league or so ahead of us, must stop 
 some hours, at least, in Lugo. And then 
 then, James Eaton, look to yourself 1 " 
 
 As he uttered those words the black 
 horse which the other bestrode plunged for- 
 ward, pricked, as I thought, by some unin- 
 tentional movement of the rider's spur, 
 while that rider turned round in his saddle
 
 276 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 and gazed at Juan, his face, as it seemed to 
 me, livid beneath the moonlight. 
 
 "Who? What name is that on your 
 lips?" 
 
 ** The name of a damned villain. The 
 name of James Eaton." 
 
 " James Eaton. James Eaton what is 
 he to you, then ? What evil has he done to 
 you ? " 
 
 "What evil?" Juan replied, with a bit- 
 ter laugh. " What evil? and what is he to 
 me ? Only this : He was left guardian to 
 me by my dead father, and and he ill- 
 treated and robbed me. No more than 
 that I " 
 
 " You ! You 1 You ! " this mysterious 
 man said, his hand raised to his eyebrows, 
 his dark, piercing eyes gleaming beneath 
 that hand upon his face a look I could not 
 fathom. " You ! "
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 "THE COWL DOES NOT ALWAYS MAKE THE 
 
 MONK." 
 
 We were drawing- very near to Lugo 
 now, as the wintry morning- gave sig-ns of 
 breaking; already the great spurs and 
 canons of the mountains that flanked the 
 east side of the river Minho began to shape 
 themselves into something tangible and 
 distinct from the dull clouds at their sum- 
 mits, and their peaks and crags to stand 
 out clearly. Also, we noticed that villages 
 were scattered about at the base of these 
 mountains ; observed lights twinkling in 
 the windows of cottages, and passed a 
 bridge which spanned the river and car- 
 ried on a road that led from that east side 
 to .the western one ; a road with, on it, a 
 great pedestal of rock, serving, as others 
 which we had passed had served us, as mile- 
 stones and finger-posts ; a road leading, as 
 we learnt, from another Viana, different 
 from the one in Portugal at which Juan 
 and I had landed from the English fleet. 
 
 We were drawing very near. 
 
 277
 
 278 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 For the last two or three hours we had 
 ridden almost in silence, knee to knee, all 
 wrapped in our long- cloaks, and with noth- 
 ing- breaking 1 in upon that silence but, some- 
 times, the hoot of an owl from out the 
 beeches and tamarisks which fring-ed the 
 road, and sometimes the scream of an 
 eagle far up in the mountains, roused, per- 
 haps, from his eyrie by the clang- of our 
 animals' hoofs upon the hard-bound, frosty 
 earth. 
 
 Yet some words had been spoken, too, 
 ere we lapsed into this silence ; for, as our 
 friend and deliverer had exclaimed, " You ! 
 You ! " on hearing- that James Eaton had 
 robbed Juan of whatever might have been 
 left in his care by the lad's dead father, 
 Juan himself had quickly exclaimed : 
 
 " Is he known also to you, then ? " 
 
 " He was once, long ago ay, long ago ! " 
 Then he paused, as though unwilling to tell 
 more, though, a moment later, he said : 
 
 "And now you think he is ahead of us? 
 that we shall find him in Lugo? " 
 
 " Without doubt," Juan and I answered, 
 both speaking together, while the former 
 went on : 
 
 " He must halt for some time in Lugo, if 
 only to get a change of horses." 
 
 " 'Tis my belief," I struck in, "he will
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 279 
 
 do more than that. Judging- from what I 
 learnt of him in the ship which brought us 
 both from Holland, Lugo is his destination, 
 the end of his journey." 
 
 "Wherefore?" the man who had been 
 " Father Jaime " asked. 
 
 "Because," I replied, "he was on his 
 way to Cadiz, where, he thought, as all did, 
 that the galleons were going in. And he 
 told me in a frenzy, when he learnt that the 
 English fleet was about in those waters, 
 that he had a fortune on board two of the 
 galleons. Be sure, therefore, he would fol- 
 low them up to Vigo as soon as he could, 
 after being put ashore at Lagos and learn- 
 ing that much of the treasure had been set 
 ashore and then forwarded on to Lugo " 
 
 " Would follow them here ? " the other 
 said. "Ha! Well, then, we shall surely 
 meet," and he laughed a little, very quietly, 
 to himself. " Must meet ! And I I shall 
 have something to say to James Eaton 
 shall recall myself to him. He will be 
 pleased to see me ! " and again he laughed 
 though this time the laughter sounded 
 grimly. 
 
 "I also shall have something to say to 
 him," exclaimed Juan. " To " 
 
 "Recall yourself to him also," the other 
 broke in.
 
 280 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 "Perhaps," the boy replied, "perhaps. 
 We shall see, though it may not be just at 
 first." 
 
 "At first," said the other, taking him 
 up, "let me present myself. I assure you 
 't will be best. Let me put in my claim to 
 his attention. Then you can follow suit." 
 
 "And I," I exclaimed, speaking now. "I, 
 too, have something to settle with Mr. James 
 Eaton, if that be his name. I owe it to him 
 that my journey to Flanders has been in- 
 terrupted by that scene upon the road, owe 
 it to him that I ran a very fair chance of 
 never continuing that journey further than 
 a couple of leagues this side of Chantada. 
 
 I believe, too, that it was he who drew 
 the attention of a French ship of war to the 
 vessel which was carrying me and my in- 
 telligence to Cadiz, as then supposed." 
 
 "How?" asked the ex-monk, "and 
 why?" 
 
 "The reason wherefore," I replied, 
 "might be because he suspected my mis- 
 sion in some way. The manner in which 
 he let the French ship know of our where- 
 abouts was probably by leaving open the 
 dead light of his cabin when he lay drink- 
 ing, while all the others were closed so as 
 to avoid her. Oh ! be sure," I continued,
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 281 
 
 "when you two have done with him I shall 
 have an account also to make." 
 
 "We are three avengers," the other re- 
 plied, with still that grim laugh of his. 
 "James Eaton will have other things to 
 think of besides getting back his treasure 
 at Lugo, if it is there ; for, when Senor 
 Belmonte and myself and you have finished 
 with him sir," he said, breaking off 
 and regarding me, "I do not know your 
 name, how to designate you. What may 
 it be?" 
 
 "My name," I replied, "is Mervyn 
 Crespin. May I ask by what we are to ad- 
 dress you ? At present, at least, you do not 
 style yourself 'Father Jaime,' I appre- 
 hend." 
 
 " Nay, " he said. " Nay not until I don 
 the cowl again. But, see, none of us, I 
 should suppose, are desirous of travelling 
 through this hostile country, entering this 
 town of Lugo, which may bristle with dan- 
 gers to all of us, under our right names. 
 Therefore though even thus 'tis not de- 
 sirous that these names should be spoken 
 more often than needs I will be Senor 
 Jaime. There are Jaimes for second names, 
 as well as first." 
 
 "And, "exclaimed Juan, entering at once 
 into the spirit of the matter, "there are
 
 282 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 Juans for second names as well as first, also. 
 Therefore I will be Senor Juan." 
 
 " And I," I said, "since I pretend to speak 
 no Spanish, but am supposed to be a French- 
 man, will be Monsieur Crespin. That is a 
 French name, as well as English. There 
 are scores of Crespins in Maine and Anjou 
 'tis from there we came originally. 
 'Twill do very well." 
 
 So, this understanding arrived at, we 
 rode on afterward in that silence which I 
 have told you of. 
 
 But now it was full day, cold, crisp and 
 bright, with the sun topping the mountains 
 to our left and sending down fair, warm 
 beams athwart the river, which served to 
 put some life into us, as well as a little ex- 
 tra heat besides that which the motion of 
 our horses and the glow of their bodies 
 had hitherto afforded us. 
 
 Also, we had left the forest now and en- 
 tered a great plain which rolled away to the 
 west of those mountains, and of the river 
 which brawled and splashed at their base; 
 a plain that in summer was, doubtless, 
 covered with all the rich vegetation for 
 which the north of Spain is famed, but that 
 now stretched bare as the palm of a hand, 
 and recalled to my mind the fair Weald of 
 Kent when winter's icy grip is on it. Yet
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 283 
 
 't was well covered with villages, some 
 close together, some a league or two 
 leagues apart, and, under where the last 
 spurs of the Cantabrian mountains swept 
 round directly to the west, we saw rise be- 
 fore us the high walls of a town, with above 
 them an incredible amount of towers we 
 making out between twenty and thirty of 
 these as each stride of our animals brought 
 us nearer to them. 
 
 "That," said Senor Jaime as he was 
 now to be called though God only knew 
 what his right name wasl while our eyes 
 regarded it from still afar, "must be Lugo. 
 Now let us decide for our plan of action. 
 And, first, as to getting into it." 
 
 "Do you make your entry," I asked, 
 "as a gentleman travelling through the 
 land, or as priest monk? " 
 
 "As monk! "he replied. "So best! I 
 have other affairs here, besides the desire of 
 meeting my old friend, Eaton. Now, ob- 
 serve, this is what I propose: You shall 
 go first together you will have no diffi- 
 culty in getting in, seeing that there is no 
 frontier to cross. Nor will you be asked 
 for papers, since, once in, you will not get 
 out again unless you appear satisfactory to 
 those who are there." 
 
 "We must get out again after a short
 
 284 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 rest, after a few hours, "I replied. "I make 
 no manner of doubt that by now we are 
 followed from Chantada if those who are 
 behind us reach Lugo ere we have quitted 
 it, we shall be stopped beyond all doubt.'* 
 
 Senor Jaime paused a moment ere he 
 answered ; pondering-, doubtless, on this 
 being the case. Then, speaking slowly, 
 he said : 
 
 "If if 'twere possible that you," 
 looking at me, "and you," regarding Juan, 
 " could also enter the town disguised; could 
 appear as something vastly different from 
 what you are, you would be safe; we would 
 remain together. And and that would 
 please me. We must not part, having met 
 as we have done," and his eyes rested par- 
 ticularly upon Juan as he spoke, so that I 
 felt sure he would far less willingly part 
 with him than with me; that it was of this 
 bright, handsome boy he was thinking 
 most. 
 
 "I," exclaimed Juan, "would, above 
 all other things but one that one the not 
 parting company with Mervan, my friend !" 
 how softly he murmured those words, 
 "my friend!" "stay here. For I am 
 resolved to bring to bar that villain, James 
 Eaton. But how how to do it? How to 
 enter the town disguised? We do not
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 285 
 
 travel with masks and vizards, nor could 
 we assume them an we did. Also, how 
 to change our appearance sufficiently to be 
 unrecognised by any of those behind ? " 
 
 " For him," said Senor Jaime, address- 
 ing 1 Juan, but looking at me, "'tis easy 
 enough. I can help him to change himself 
 in a moment. I have here," and he tapped 
 the great valise strapped on to his horse's 
 back, "a second monk's gown, of another 
 order than the one I wore that was a 
 Carmelite's and, as you know, brown; the 
 second is a Dominican's, and white. The 
 object which brings me to Europe later 
 you shall know it if it prospers, forced 
 me to provide myself with more than one 
 disguise." 
 
 Then after pausing a moment, perhaps 
 to judge of the effect of this announcement 
 on us, he went on: " Well, Monsieur Cres- 
 pin! What do you say? Will you be a 
 monk and stay with Juan till he has seen 
 his beloved friend, James Eaton, or will 
 you insist on his abandoning his interview 
 with that personage and riding post-haste 
 to Flanders ? Only remember, if he and 
 you do so, or if you do this alone, the 
 chance is also missed of your having a reck- 
 oning with that old man also." 
 
 Now I was sorely posed by this sugges-
 
 286 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 tion of his sorely. For, firstly, there was 
 something- bitterly distasteful to me, a 
 soldier and, I hoped, a brave one, in mas- 
 querading 1 in any such guise as this sug- 
 gested. Also, I knew that it ill became me 
 to tarry on my journey back for any cause 
 whatever, let alone a new formed friend- 
 ship for Juan Belmonte. My place was 
 with the Cuirassiers, and with them I ought 
 to be both the earls having- hinted that 
 there would be some hard fighting ere long- 
 while, as for revenging myself on the 
 villain whose name now seemed for a cer- 
 tainty to be Eaton, well ! that might easily 
 be left to Senor Jaime and Juan. If they 
 did not between them very effectually con- 
 found that hoary-headed scoundrel, I should 
 be much astonished. 
 
 On the other hand, there were many 
 thing's that made for my disguising myself 
 ere I entered Lugo, and, rapidly enough as 
 I sat my horse deliberating, those things 
 ran through my mind. To begin with, it 
 would be full of Spanish and French sol- 
 diers and sailors, the runaways from Vigo, 
 who, undoubtedly, would have followed the 
 bulk of the treasure which had been re- 
 moved from the galleons and transported 
 here ; and it was possible that there might 
 be some who would recognise me, since I
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 287 
 
 had played a pretty prominent part in the 
 attack. It might, therefore, be best that 
 little as this disguising- of myself was to 
 my taste I should do as Senor Jaime sug- 
 gested. 
 
 Yet, all the same and in the next mo- 
 ment I decided that I would not do this 
 thing ; for, besides that it was too repug- 
 nant to me, I knew that it would be use- 
 less. And, knowing this, I said so, in spite 
 of the pleading, pitiful glances which Juan 
 cast at me glances which plainly enough 
 implored me to adopt the monk's dress, and 
 thereby be enabled to stay in Lugo until 
 vengeance was wrought upon James Eaton. 
 
 "No," I said, turning to Senor Jaime, 
 who sat quietly on my horse awaiting my 
 answer, while I studiously avoided Juan's 
 gaze. "No, I will not do it. I am a sol- 
 dier, and as a soldier at least as a man, 
 and not a monk I will get through Spain 
 and France. Besides, the disguise would 
 be useless." 
 
 "Wherefore?" 
 
 "In reply to that," I said, "let me ask 
 you a question : What do you intend to do 
 with your horse? Monks do not ride, as 
 a rule in Flanders I never saw one on 
 horseback ; also, your boots and great steel 
 spurs beneath the gown would betray you."
 
 288 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 Now, he seemed very fairly posed at 
 this, and for a moment bent his head 
 over his animal's mane, as though lost in 
 thought. Then suddenly he burst out into 
 one of his deep, sonorous laughs, and ex- 
 claimed : 
 
 "Body of St. lago ! I never thought of 
 that. Though, for the boots, it matters not ; 
 I have the monkish sandals with me. And 
 and perhaps the horse can be smuggled 
 into the town somehow, and with it the 
 boots ! Ha ! I must think 1 " 
 
 And again he became buried in thought ; 
 yet, a moment later, he spoke once more : 
 
 "If you enter Lugo as you are," he 
 said, "you will be taken for a certainty. 
 There are there must be many com- 
 ing after us from behind, from Chantada 
 they will describe you. Remember, you 
 were not only seen under the moon's rays 
 during the fight in the wood, but in the 
 town previously. And, if you are taken, 
 there is no hope for you ! Eaton has told 
 that you are English fought against the 
 galleons at Vigo. God ! it means the gar- 
 rote for both of you. You understand 
 what that is ? An upright post, a hasp of 
 iron around your neck and it, a wheel to 
 screw that hasp tight to the post with 
 your neck between them I and and <
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 289 
 
 your eyeballs out of your head your 
 tongue half a foot long. That is what 
 awaits you if you are taken." 
 
 "I will never be taken," I said, between 
 my teeth, " to suffer that. Bah 1 If I can- 
 not, if we cannot, get out of the town again 
 on the other side, have I not this, and 
 this ? " and I touched my pistol holsters. 
 " They will be in my belt then." 
 
 After saying which I turned to Juan to 
 ask him if he agreed with me, and saw that 
 Senor Jaime's ghastly description of the 
 garrote had made him as pale as death. 
 
 "What think you, comrade?"! asked. 
 "Is it not best that you and I forego our 
 vengeance on this man, Eaton, and push on 
 as fast as may be, leaving him to our friend 
 here, who also seems to have a reckoning to 
 make who appears, also, one who can ex- 
 tort it ? Or will you disguise yourself and 
 stay behind ? " 
 
 "Nay. Nay," he answered. "Where 
 you go, I go. And God knows I am no 
 poltroon yet yet I could not suffer 
 that. I have seen it in the Indies oh!" 
 and he put his hands to his eyes, letting 
 his reins fall. " Not that, not that ! " 
 
 " Will you push on with me, then, fore- 
 going your vengeance?" 
 
 " Yes. Yes, since my vengeance risks
 
 290 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 such death as that. But," turning to the 
 other, "you proposed a disguise for me. 
 Was I to be a monk, too? " 
 
 "Nay," he said. "Nay. But you are 
 a brave, handsome lad I thought that in 
 some way we might have transformed you 
 into a woman. You would make a present- 
 able one." 
 
 "A woman!" he echoed, looking mighty 
 hot and raging at the suggestion. "A 
 woman ! I, who have fought by Mervan's 
 side! Never. Also," he added, after 
 somewhat of a pause, " it is not as a woman 
 that I intend to meet James Eaton, if at all; 
 but as a man demanding swift justice. A 
 woman would be like to get none of that 
 from him."
 
 CHAPTER XXL 
 
 A NARROW ESCAPE. 
 
 That evening or rather afternoon, 
 when already the wintry night was at hand 
 Juan and I were in Lugo and once more 
 making preparations to continue our jour- 
 ney to go on west now, through the Astu- 
 rias, Santander and Biscay, as our chart 
 showed us, toward St. Sebastian and Ba- 
 yonne, which would bring us into France. 
 But also we hoped that, after we had passed 
 by the former of these provinces, on reach- 
 ing the sea, which we should then do, our 
 journey by land might be at an end ; that 
 we might find, by great good fortune, at 
 some seaside town a vessel, either English 
 or Dutch, which would take us north to 
 where we desired to go. 
 
 But, alas ! 't is useless to write down all 
 the plans we concocted in the dirty parlour 
 of the inn we had rested in an inn digni- 
 fied by the name of the " Posada del Gran 
 Grifon," since 'twas not to be our lot to 
 make that journey, nor to set out upon it. 
 
 Let me not, however, anticipate, but 
 
 291
 
 292 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 write down all that now befell us ; also let 
 me now begin to tell of the strange marvels 
 that I was destined to behold the unravel- 
 ling of, as also the dangers which from this 
 period encompassed me. 
 
 We were alone, had entered Lugo alone, 
 Senor Jaime having bidden us ride ahead of 
 him and leave him to find his way into the 
 town by himself. 
 
 "And," he said, "be very sure I shall 
 do it. Fear not for me. Only, if I come 
 not by the time four o'clock has struck, be- 
 lieve that either I have fallen into the hands 
 of the enemy or that, for some reason, I 
 have not been able to get face to face with 
 Eaton. Therefore, ride on without me. 
 Remember my disguise will save me. You 
 have both refused to be disguised. By 
 consequence, look to yourselves. We shall 
 meet again. I know your road. " 
 
 And now four o'clock had struck from 
 the cathedral hard by, and he had not come. 
 Yet, why not? we asked each other. A 
 peasant whom we had met on the road when 
 but a league between us and Lugo had men- 
 tioned this inn as one where good accommo- 
 dation for man and beast could be obtained, 
 and ere we parted from Jaime we had de- 
 termined that it should be our meeting 
 place.
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 293 
 
 And still he had not come. And it was 
 four o'clock and past. 
 
 "We must go," I said to Juan, "we 
 must go. 'Tis courting- frightful danger 
 to remain here. Already I have observed 
 half a dozen French and Spanish sailors 
 pass this window, whom I saw on board 
 some of the ships and galleons ; also some 
 officers. If I meet them face to face, and 
 they remember me, as I do them, there 
 will be " 
 
 "What?" asked Juan, his face full of 
 terror. 
 
 " Well no Mervyn Crespin a few 
 hours hence I that's all." 
 
 "Oh, come, come, come," he exclaimed, 
 catching- at my arm. "For God's sake, 
 come ! Why, why did we ever enter this 
 town ! 'T was madness. We should have 
 remembered they had fled hither." 
 
 " There is no other high road to France 
 and Flanders," I said, "that justifies the 
 risk. Yet, Juan, remember, even now it 
 is not too late for you to part from me, if 
 you choose. Your coming on here means 
 nothing. You did not fight against the gal- 
 leons ; therefore you are in no danger " 
 
 "Silence!" he said again, as he had 
 said once before. "Silence! I will hear 
 no word about leaving you."
 
 294 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 Then suddenly he came away from the 
 window, at which he had been standing-, and 
 crossed the room to me. 
 
 " Look," he said. " Look from out that 
 window into the street ; then say if it is not 
 too late for us to part if my danger is not 
 as great as yours. Look, I say I " 
 
 Glancing first at him, in wonderment at 
 his exclamation, and what the meaning of it 
 might be, yet with some sort of under- 
 standing mounting to my brain also, I 
 stepped across to the dirty, unwashed 
 window and looked out into the street. 
 
 And then I understood. 
 
 Through the dim light cast on the now 
 darkened street by oil lamps, swung across 
 it at intervals, and also by the candles burn- 
 ing in. relicdrios, set into the walls, as well 
 as by the feeble glare which emerged from 
 curtainless and unshuttered windows, I saw 
 a band of men slowly passing, their drawn 
 swords in their hands, or with musketoons 
 upon their shoulders. 
 
 And ahead of all this body, which was 
 composed of perhaps a dozen, there marched 
 two of those with whom we had fought on 
 the road between Chantada and this place 
 the leader who had addressed us, and 
 another. As they passed along they gazed 
 at each man whom they encountered ; halt-
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 295 
 
 ing opposite our window, they looked at an 
 inn which faced ours directly, a little place 
 on which was painted the name, " P6sada 
 Buena Ventura." 
 
 "Open the window a crack,"! said to 
 Juan doing so myself, however, as I 
 spoke "and let us listen. Hear what 
 they say. Softly, "and following- my words 
 we placed our ears to the inch-wide orifice. 
 
 And then we heard every word as it fell 
 from their lips. 
 
 "That house opposite," the leader said, 
 is the last to be examined except this and 
 another " while Juan whispered : "I can- 
 not catch its name It sounds like the 
 San Cristobal. Yes. Yes. 'T is that. Ha! 
 And, see, they enter the house opposite. 
 Yet some remain in the street." And we 
 both peered from behind the side of the 
 window at them as they stood there in 
 the road, a crowd of urchins gathered 
 round. 
 
 "We are trapped," I said, "trapped. 
 We can never get out. The horses are in 
 the stables behind also, the gates are 
 shut." 
 
 "God!" exclaimed Juan, suddenly, 
 even as I spoke, " they have finished there 
 already are coming here. Another five 
 minutes and they will be in this room."
 
 296 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 "What shall we do? "he wailed a mo- 
 ment later. 
 
 "Escape while there is time from this 
 room, at least. Loosen your sword in its 
 sheath follow me," and I drew him back 
 from the window. 
 
 " But where ? Where to go to ? " 
 
 "Out of the house, at least. Come. 
 The stairs lead down to the back part of 
 the house ; there is the yard and the sta- 
 bles also a garden. I observed it when 
 the horses were put up. Come. There is 
 a wall at the end of the garden which sep- 
 arates it from another. If we can get over 
 that we can at least escape into the town. 
 By God's grace, there may be some way 
 out of it besides the gates. And we have 
 the cloak of night to help us." 
 
 All the time I was speaking I had been 
 drawing Juan toward the door ; also I had 
 seen that my papers and money were be- 
 stowed about me safely I doubted if we 
 should ever see our valises again ! or, for 
 the matter of that, our horses. It would be 
 heaven's providence now if we ever got 
 out of this town alive, and even that I 
 deemed unlikely. And at this crisis that 
 was all we had to hope for, if so much. 
 
 "Lift your porte epee by the hand," I
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 297 
 
 whispered. "If the scabbard clanks on 
 the stairs we are undone. Follow me." 
 
 In another instant we were outside the 
 door of the room. For precaution and as a 
 possible means of gaining time I drew the 
 key from the inside of the lock, then placed 
 it in the keyhole outside, made a turn and, 
 again withdrawing it, dropped it into my 
 pocket. This would take up some moments, 
 while they clamoured without, bidding us 
 open. It would take some few more to 
 break down the door, which they would 
 very probably do. They might be precious 
 moments to us. 
 
 It was quite dark outside in the corridor, 
 but at the farther end there glimmered a 
 faint light from an oil lamp set upon a 
 bracket, though its rays scarcely reached 
 here, namely, to the head of the deep oak 
 stairs opposite where the door of the room 
 we had just quitted was. But from below, 
 which was a stone-flagged passage running 
 from the front of the house to the back, 
 there was another light thank God, 'twas 
 nearer the street than the exit to the yard ! 
 
 We descended seven steps, then the 
 stairs turned sharply from a small landing 
 we ourselves did not dare, however, to 
 turn them. 
 
 For below, in that cold stone corridor.
 
 298 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 we heard and recognised the voice of the 
 man who had challenged us in the forest ere 
 the fight began, a night ago. 
 
 "Here, are they?" we heard him say. 
 ' ' Here so the birds are caught. The one, 
 big, stalwart, brown that is the English 
 demonio the other, younger, dark, hand- 
 some, might play the lover in one of Vega's 
 spectacles. Ha ! And the third who joined 
 in the murder an elder one, swart and 
 grimy, black as the devil himself is he 
 here, too?" 
 
 "Nay," said the woman, whose voice 
 told us she was the landlady, "there are 
 but two, the bronzed one and the youth. 
 You will not hurt him ! Nay! Nay! Didst 
 he is young and beautiful." 
 
 " Have no fear. We will not hurt either, 
 if they do not resist. If they do, we shall 
 cut them down. But otherwise no! no!" 
 and he laughed a fierce, hard laugh. " Oh, 
 no. There are others to hurt them the 
 governor, the Regidors, the judges. Ho ! 
 They will hurt them through the garrote 
 or or the flames. Thebrasero! The 
 wheel I Now lead up to them. Where is 
 the room they harbour in ? " 
 
 "I will fetch another lamp," the woman 
 said. "This one is fixed. Wait." And 
 we heard her clatter down the corridor on
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 299 
 
 her Spanish pattens. Yet she paused, too, 
 a moment, and turned back, saying : 
 
 " Spare him the young one. Heavens ! 
 his lips and eyes are enough to madden an 
 older woman than I am." 
 
 "Quick, then, quick," the other an- 
 swered. " They sleep in the prison to- 
 night, and our supper waits at the gate- 
 house. Quick." 
 
 "Shall we dash through them?" Juan 
 whispered ; and now I noticed that, as be- 
 fore in the hour of danger, his voice was 
 firm and steady. " One might escape even 
 though the other is taken." And I heard 
 him mutter, in even lower tones: "Pray 
 God it is you." 
 
 "No," I said. "No. We go together. 
 Together escape or die. " 
 
 Then, even as I spoke, I saw what I had 
 not observed before, owing to the dim light 
 in which all was surrounded ; saw that op- 
 posite to us on the landing where the 
 stairs turned there was a door. Closed 
 tight into its frame, 't was true, yet leading 
 doubtless into some 'room opening off the 
 stairs which led up to the other one we 
 had quitted. 
 
 I was near enough to put my foot out 
 quietly and touch it with my toe and God 
 be praised 1 it yielded, opened inward.
 
 300 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 "Into it," I said in Juan's ear, "into it. 
 They will pass it as they go up to where 
 we have come from. When they have done 
 so we may creep down. In!" 
 
 A moment later we had entered that 
 room, had quitted the stairs and the 
 woman had come back and rejoined the 
 men, was leading- them up those very 
 stairs, across the very spot where a few 
 instants before we had been standing. 
 
 Yet our hearts leapt to our mouths 
 mine did, I know'. when we who were 
 standing on the other side of the door heard 
 him stop outside it, and, striking the panel 
 with his finger the rap of his nail upon it 
 was clearly perceptible to our eager ears 
 say to the woman: 
 
 "Is this the room are they here? " 
 
 The woman gave a low laugh in answer ; 
 then she said: 
 
 "Nay. Nay. 'T is mine. 'By the saints ! 
 what should they do there! That hand- 
 some IngUs, devil though he be! or that 
 lovely boy? Heavens, no!" and again she 
 laughed, and added: "Come. They are 
 here. Up these stairs." 
 
 Even as we heard their heavy, spurred 
 feet clatter on those stairs we were seeking 
 for some mode of escape, and that at once. 
 
 Alas ! 't was not to be out of the door
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 301 
 
 again and down into the stone passage, as 
 we had thought. 
 
 For one glance through a great crack, 
 and we saw, by peering down below, that 
 these Spanish alguazils had some method 
 in their proceedings. They had left two 
 of their number behind ; they stood in the 
 passage waiting for what might happen 
 above ; waiting, perhaps, to hew down the 
 two fugitives whom those others were seek- 
 ing for, should they rush down ; waiting 
 for us. There was no way there ! 
 
 Then, for the room what did that 
 offer? 
 
 It was as dark as a vault we could dis- 
 tinguish nothing not even where the bed 
 was at first. Yet, later, in a few mo- 
 ments while we heard, above, the rap- 
 ping of sword hilts upon the door of the 
 chamber we had just quitted while we 
 heard, too, the leader shouting : " Open. 
 Open Bandidos 1 Assassinatdres I Espias 1 
 or we will blow the lock off" we saw at 
 the end of the room a dull murky glimmer, 
 a light that was a light simply in contrast 
 to the denser gloom around knew there 
 was a window at that end. 
 
 Was that our way out ? 
 
 Swiftly we went toward it tore aside 
 a curtain drawn across a bar the noise
 
 302 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 the ring's made as they ran seemed enough 
 to alarm those men above, must have done 
 so but for the infernal din they themselves 
 were making- opened the lattice window 
 
 and, heaven help us ! found outside an 
 iron, interlaced grate that would have 
 effectually barred the exit of aught bigger 
 than a cat ! 
 
 We were trapped ! Caught ! It seemed 
 as if naught could save us now ! 
 
 "Lock the door, " I whispered to Juan. 
 " They will come here next. The moment 
 they find we are not in the other room ! 
 ha ! they know it now, or will directly." 
 
 For as I spoke there rang the report of 
 a musketoon through the empty passages 
 of the house. They were blowing the 
 lock off ! 
 
 Desperately, madly, exerting a force 
 that even I had never yet realized myself 
 as possessing, I seized the cross-bars of 
 that iron grating ; I pushed them outward, 
 praying to God for one moment only one 
 moment of Samson's strength. And 
 could do nothing ! Nothing, at first. Yet 
 
 as still I strained and pushed, as I drew 
 back my arms to thrust more strongly 
 even than before it seemed as if the 
 framework, as if the whole thing, yielded, 
 as if it were becoming loosened in its stone
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 303 
 
 or brick setting. Inspired by this, I 
 pushed still more, threw the whole weight 
 of my 'big body -into one last despairing 
 effort and succeeded! The grate was 
 loosened, torn out of the frame ; with a 
 clatter of falling chips and small ddbris it 
 fell into the yard ten feet below. 
 
 My prayer was heard ! 
 
 "Quick, Juan," I said, "quick, come. 
 Out of the window, give me your hands. I 
 will lower you. 'T is nothing." 
 
 From Juan there came in answer a cry, 
 almost a scream of terror. 
 
 "Save me! Save me!" he shrieked, 
 " there is another man in the room!" and 
 as he so cried, I heard a thump upon the 
 floor a thump such as one makes who 
 leaps swiftly from a bed a rush across 
 that floor. Also a muttered curse in Span- 
 ish, a tempest of words, a huge form hurled 
 against mine, two great muscular hands at 
 my throat. 
 
 In a moment, however, my own hands 
 were out, too, my thumbs pressing through 
 a coarse beard upon a windpipe. " Curse 
 you," I said in Spanish, as I felt that grasp 
 on me relax. " Curse you, you are doomed," 
 and drawing back, I struck out with my full 
 force to the front of me. 
 
 Struck out, to feel my clenched fist
 
 304 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 stopped by a hairy face the thud was 
 terrible even to my ears! to hear a bitter 
 moan and, a moment later, a fall dull and 
 like a dead weight ! upon the floor. 
 
 " Come, Juan, come," I cried. " Come."
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 WHO ? GRAMONT ? 
 
 As he scrambled through the window 
 as I let him down by his hands, so that, with 
 the length of his arm and mine together, his 
 feet were not more than a yard from the 
 ground I heard those others outside the 
 door. Heard also the woman shriek : 
 
 "There is none in here, I tell you 
 pigs, idiots ! If they have escaped, 't is 
 to the street or to the roof. Search those 
 rooms first. This is my chamber. Dios! 
 Are you men to enter thus a woman's 
 apartment ! " 
 
 " So be it," the leader said. " We will. 
 But, remember, if we find them not we will 
 search this room. Remember ! " and we 
 heard him and the others striding off to 
 some other part of the house. 
 
 By this time I was myself half out of the 
 window. From the creature I had felled 
 to the floor there came no sound ; but 
 from the door outside I heard the woman 
 whisper : 
 
 " Renato, come forth. Quick, I say ! If 
 
 305
 
 306 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 they find you here you are lost. You will 
 be taken sent to the colonies. Come 
 forth ! " 
 
 Then I waited to hear no more, under- 
 standing clearly enough that the woman 
 had herself been sheltering- in her own 
 room some malefactor, probably some lover. 
 And, doubtless, he had thought we were 
 seeking for him, had found him in that 
 darkened room that we were the algua- 
 zils. His presence was explained. 
 
 Taking Juan by the hand, I passed 
 rapidly by the stables as we went away 
 from the street and up into the garden be- 
 yond a small place, neglected and dirty, 
 in which I had noticed, when we arrived, 
 numbers of enormous turnips growing 
 vegetables much used in the country. 
 
 Then, a moment later, we were close by 
 a low, whitewashed wall 'twas not so 
 high as my head over which I helped 
 Juan, following instantly myself. 
 
 "Heaven knows," I said, "where we 
 are now, except that we have left the inn 
 behind. This may be the garden of some 
 great residtncia, or of another inn. Well, 
 we must get through somehow into the 
 street beyond." 
 
 "And afterward ? " Juan asked, his face
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 307 
 
 close to mine, as though trying- to see me 
 in the dark of the night. "Afterward ? " 
 
 "God knows what afterward! We 
 shall never get out of the gates, 't is certain. 
 There are five all are doubtless warned 
 by now. Pity 'tis we did not follow our 
 friend's suggestion and disguise ourselves. 
 That way, we might have been safe. I as 
 a monk, you as a woman, we should never 
 have been recognised." 
 
 " 'T is too late," said Juan. " Too late 
 now. We must go on ; on to the end. Yet 
 I wonder where that friend, Jaime, is. Per- 
 haps taken, his disguise seen through." 
 
 We had reached the house to which this 
 garden belonged by now a 'different one 
 from the neglected thing we had lately left, 
 well cared for, and with great tubs of olean- 
 ders and orange trees placed about it at 
 regular intervals, as we could now see by 
 the rising moon, which was peeping over 
 the chimney tops and casting its rays along 
 a broad path which we had followed ; were 
 close up to the house, a great white one, 
 with this, its garden side, full of windows 
 covered with persianas, or jalousies, and 
 from some of them lights streaming. 
 
 " 'T is an inn, for sure, " I said, "and full 
 of hark I whose voice is that? " 
 
 Yet there was no need to ask ; 'twas a
 
 308 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 voice not easily forgotten which was speak- 
 ing- now ; the voice of the man, Senor, or 
 "Father," Jaime." 
 
 " Ay," we heard in those rich, sonorous 
 tones, "alive, and here to call you to ac- 
 count." 
 
 And following- this we heard another 
 voice, supplicating 1 , wailing-, screaming 1 , al- 
 most: "No! No! No! Mercy! Par- 
 don ! " 
 
 Beneath the moon's increasing rays we 
 gazed into each other's eyes, then quickly, 
 together as if reading each other's 
 thoughts also we moved toward where 
 those sounds proceeded from. 
 
 Toward a room in the angle of the great 
 white house, with a door opening on to the 
 garden in which we stood 't was open now, 
 though half across it hung a heavy curtain 
 of some thick material. It was easy enough 
 to guess how 't was that curtain was thrown 
 half back and the door stood open. 
 
 That way Jaime had come upon his prey. 
 
 Standing behind that door, behind that 
 heavy half-fallen curtain, this was what we 
 saw : The man Jaime, with in his hand a 
 drawn sword doubtless he had hidden it 
 beneath his monk's gown since he returned 
 to the assumption of the latter. 
 
 In front of Jaime, upon his knees, his
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 309 
 
 hands clasped, his white hair streaming be- 
 hind him, was the man whose name I had 
 deemed to be Carstairs, or Cuddiford, but 
 which Juan had averred was in truth James 
 Eaton. 
 
 "Alive!" Jaime went on. "Alive. 
 Villain, answer for your treachery ere I 
 slay you. Where is my wealth my 
 child's wealth. Where is my daughter ?" 
 
 As he spoke I heard a gasp, a moan be- 
 side me, felt a trembling-. And, looking 
 down, I saw Juan staring into the room, 
 his eyes distended as though he was fas- 
 cinated. 
 
 "My child," Jaime went on. "My 
 child. Where is she ? " 
 
 "I I do not know," the old man 
 muttered hissed in a whisper. "I do 
 not know. She left me years ago. Yet 
 I loved her." 
 
 "Liar. I have heard of you in the In- 
 dies. You stole the wealth I left in your 
 hands for her you drove her forth. An- 
 swer. Is she dead ? " 
 
 "I lost all in trade," Eaton moaned 
 again, "all, all. I thought to double it 
 you were dead they said so would 
 never come back. I I " 
 
 " Look," whispered Juan in my ear. 
 "Look behind you."
 
 310 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 At his words I turned, and then I knew 
 that we were lost, indeed. Lost forever. 
 
 The men from Chantada, accompanied 
 by those of Lug-o, were in this garden 
 had followed us over the wall, had found 
 out our way of escape. 
 
 We were doomed! The garrote the 
 stake were very near now. 
 
 They saw us at once, in an instant 
 doubtless our forms stood out clearly 
 enough in the beams of the lamp as they 
 poured forth into the garden and made 
 straight for us, their swords drawn, the 
 unbrowned barrels of their musketoons 
 and pistols gleaming in the moonlight. 
 And the leader shouted, as he ran slightly 
 ahead of the others: "You cannot escape 
 again. Move and we fire on you ! " 
 
 Yet we heeded him not, but with a 
 bound leapt into the room where those two 
 were leapt in while I cried: "Jaime, we 
 are undone. Assist us again. " 
 
 Then swift as lightning I shut the door 
 to, let fall the curtain and drew my sword. 
 " I will never yield to them," I said. " Juan 
 and I escape or die here together." 
 
 "Together!" Juan echoed, drawing also 
 his weapon forth. 
 
 There was but time to see a still more 
 frightened glance on Eaton's face than be-
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 311 
 
 fore if added terror could come into a 
 man's eyes more than had been when those 
 eyes had glinted up at Jaime as he stood 
 over him, it came now as Juan sprang- to 
 my side, his hat fallen off and his hair dis- 
 hevelled while those men were at the 
 door giving on to the garden. And in an 
 instant it was burst open by them 't was 
 but a poor frail thing ! they were in the 
 room. 
 
 "Yield I" the leader cried, " yield, or 
 you die here at once ! " 
 
 But now Jaime was by our side ; three 
 blades were flashing in their faces; we 
 were driving them back, assisted also by 
 a fourth the negro servant of Eaton, 
 who had sprung into the room from an- 
 other door. Yet that assistance lasted but 
 a second. Doubtless the unhappy wretch 
 preferred it, thinking it was his master 
 who was in danger 1 A pistol was fired by 
 some one, and I saw him reel back, falling 
 heavily on the floor, dead, with a bullet be- 
 tween his eyes. And, as he did so, from 
 Eaton there came a scream, while he flung 
 himself over the creature's body. 
 
 With those others pistols were now the 
 order of the day, fired ineffectually at first, 
 while still I and the leader fought hand-to- 
 hand around the room. And I had him
 
 312 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 safe. I knew if I was not cut down from 
 behind that he was mine. My blade was 
 under and over his guard. I prepared for 
 the last lunge, when curses on the luck ! 
 a bullet took me in the right forearm ; 
 there ran through that arm, up to my 
 shoulder, a feeling of numbness, a burn- 
 ing twinge ; my sword fell with a clang 
 to the floor. 
 
 And in another moment two of them had 
 sprung on and secured me ; two others had 
 grasped Juan, and disarmed him, too. 
 
 And now there was none on our side 
 to oppose himself to them but Jaime. 
 
 "Shoot him down! Kill him!" the 
 leader cried. Then added: "You fool, 
 there is naught against you, yet, if you 
 court fate, receive it." 
 
 But, great fighter as he was, what could 
 he do against all those? One hung upon 
 his sword arm, another clasped a leg, a 
 third was dragging at his neck from be- 
 hind, a fourth holding his monkish gown. 
 
 In another moment he, too, was dis- 
 armed. We were beaten prisoners 1 The 
 lives of all of us were at an end. None 
 could doubt that ! 
 
 The leader drew a long breath, then 
 turned to where, at the open door of the 
 passage, were gathered the landlord, as I
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 313 
 
 supposed ; several facchinos and some 
 trembling 1 women servants, white to the 
 lips, and said : 
 
 "Observe, all you. I take these men 
 these asasinos within your house. I de- 
 nounce these two," and he indicated Juan 
 and me, "the one as an English spy and a 
 man who fought against us at Vigo, this 
 other one, this boy, as his comrade and 
 accomplice. Bear witness to my words, 
 also to their deeds of blood." 
 
 From that crowd in the passage there 
 came murmurs and revilings in reply: 
 "You should have slain them here," some 
 said; "Better the garrote or the flames in 
 the plaza da mercado^ said others. 
 
 "As for this monk, this false monk 
 for such I know him now to be easy 
 enough to recognise him as one of the 
 brigands we fought with the other night 
 had he not joined in this fray he had been 
 safe. We sought him not. Now, also, the 
 flames or the garrote for him." Then, 
 breaking off, he exclaimed : " Who is this 
 and that black slave lying dead there?" 
 and he pointed to Eaton and the other. 
 "Who are they?" 
 
 "A gentleman and his servant staying 
 in this, my house," the landlord said, speak-
 
 314 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 ing- for the first time, " doubtless assaulted 
 by the vagabundos. Oh! 't is terrible." 
 
 " Off with these three," the leader said. 
 " To the prison in the ramparts to-night 
 the judge to-morrow." 
 
 And as he gave his orders his men and 
 the men of Lugo with him formed round 
 us, prepared to obey. 
 
 But, now, for the first time Eaton spoke, 
 approaching the leader fawningly, speaking 
 in a soft voice. 
 
 "Senor," he said, "ere you take them 
 away, a word. " This one," looking at me, 
 "you knew already at Chantada; I have 
 told you who and what he is. For the boy 
 it matters not. He is but a follower." 
 
 Yet as he spoke I noticed he carefully 
 avoided Juan's eyes, fixed full blaze on him 
 as they flamed from out of his now white, 
 marble face. 
 
 "These, I say, you know," he went on. 
 But for this other one this pretended 
 monk, this brigand of the night you do 
 not know him ; nor who he is and what has 
 been. Let me tell you." 
 
 "Viper," Jaime murmured. "Villain. 
 Thief! Yet," he continued, "I stoop not 
 to ask your silence. Speak. Tell all. But, 
 James Eaton, beware. Caged tigers some- 
 times break their bars and get free,"
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 315 
 
 "Yours will never be broken," the 
 leader said, looking at the same time with a 
 wondering" glance from one to the other. 
 
 "'Tis true. 'Tis very true," Eaton 
 went on, his voice oily, treacherous as be- 
 fore. " Yet since you might break yours, 
 I give this gentleman a double reason for 
 binding you faster. Sir," turning to him 
 whom he so addressed, "this monk, this 
 brigand as he appears, would be an innocent 
 man were he that alone, in comparison with 
 what he really is." 
 
 " Who in the name of all the fiends is he, 
 then? Answer quick." 
 
 "A murderer," the old man hissed now, 
 raising his voice, "not four-fold, but four 
 thousand-fold. See," and he pointed his 
 fingers at Jaime, "see in him the man who 
 sacked Maracaibo, Guayaquil, Campeachy; 
 the man who has burnt men and women 
 alive in their houses like pigs in a stye, 
 sunk countless Spanish and French ships, 
 plundered, murdered, ravished the arch- 
 villain of the Caribbean Sea not dead, but 
 alive, and trapped at last. The buccaneer, 
 filibuster, pirate Gramont ! " 
 
 Amidst their voices their shouts and 
 cries for all in Spain had known that 
 awful name, though its owner had long been 
 deemed dead and lost at sea I heard a cry
 
 316 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 it was a scream from Juan; I saw him 
 reel as he stood by my left side, then stag- 
 ger heavily against me, supported from 
 falling to the floor only by my unwounded 
 arm around him. 
 
 He had fainted. 
 
 And, as I held up the drooping form, I 
 learnt the secret hidden from me for so 
 many days. I knew now what it was that 
 Sir George Rooke had earlier learnt. I pen- 
 etrated the disguise of Juan Belmonte.
 
 CHAPTER XXIH. 
 
 SENTENCED TO DEATH. 
 
 I lay within a darkened cell in the 
 prison which formed part of the ramparts 
 of Lugo. Lay there, a man doomed to 
 death-; sentenced to be burnt at the stake, 
 as a spy taken in a country at war with my 
 own. To be burnt at the stake on some Sun- 
 day morning-, because that day was always 
 a day of festival, because all Lugo would be 
 there to witness, because from all the coun- 
 try round the peasants would come in to see 
 the Englishman expire in the flames. 
 
 Doomed to death 1 
 
 Yet not alone. By my side his right 
 hand nailed to an upright plank ! (so the 
 sentence had run) to which our bodies 
 were to be fastened by chains was to 
 stand that other man, Gramont the pi- 
 rate and buccaneer who, as Eaton had testi- 
 fied, had been called the Shark of the Indies. 
 
 I had been tried first by the Alcaide of 
 Lugo and the principal Regidor, assisted 
 by the Bishop of the province, an extremely 
 old man and had been soon disposed of. 
 
 3J7
 
 318 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 Evidence was forthcoming there was 
 plenty of it in Lugo in the shape of French 
 sea-captains and sailors from the Spanish 
 galleons that I had fought with the Eng- 
 lish at Vigo ; also, that I had slain men be- 
 twixt the border and here. And, again, 
 there was the evidence of Eaton that I had 
 travelled from Rotterdam as the undoubted 
 bearer of the news that the galleons were 
 approaching Spain. 
 
 Also, not content with all this, I was on 
 my way through the land, gleaning evi- 
 dence of all that was taking place within it, 
 so as to furnish, as none could otherwise 
 suppose, information to my countrymen 
 when I should reach them. 
 
 No need for my trial to be spun out ; 
 one alone of all these facts was enough to 
 condemn me, and, after a whispered con- 
 ference between the Alcaide, the Regidor 
 and the Bishop, the latter delivered the 
 above sentence, his voice almost inaudible 
 because of his great age, yet strong enough 
 for the purpose powerful enough to 
 reach my ears and those of the small 
 crowd within the court house ; that was 
 sufficient. 
 
 So I knew my fate, and knew, too, that 
 it was useless to say aught, to utter one
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 319 
 
 word. I had lost the game ; the stakes 
 would have to be paid in full. 
 
 Then began the unravelling of the his- 
 tory of him who stood beside me swarthy, 
 contemptuous his eyes glancing around 
 that court, alighting at one moment on the 
 withered form and cadaverous face of the 
 Bishop, at another on the figure of the 
 Regid6r, a moment later on the Alcaide, 
 a younger, well favoured man, whom I 
 guessed a soldier in the past or present. 
 
 Gramont's condemnation was assured 
 by the part he had played on that night 
 when he assisted us on the road 'twixt 
 Chantada and Lugo. That alone would 
 have forfeited his life amidst these Span- 
 iards ; yet, perhaps from curiosity, per- 
 haps because even they doubted whether 
 so summary an execution, and one so hor- 
 rible, was merited by that night's work, 
 they decided to hear the denouncement 
 of Eaton, the story of Gramont's past life. 
 They bade the former speak, tell all. 
 
 And what a story it was he told I 
 
 Sitting in a chair near the Bishop, look- 
 ing nearly as old as that old man himself, 
 he poured out horror after horror; branded 
 the man by my side as one too steeped in 
 cruelty to be allowed to live another hour, 
 if what he said was, indeed, true.
 
 320 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 Told how this man had ravaged all the 
 Spanish main had besieged Martinique, 
 Nombre de Dios, Campeachy, and scores 
 of other places, shedding blood like water 
 everywhere had sunk and plundered 
 ships ; burnt them and the men in them 
 burnt them alive ; gave instances, too, of 
 cruelty extreme. 
 
 " I have known him to tie dead and liv- 
 ing together and fling them to the sharks," 
 he said "dead and living Spaniards I 
 Also hang them to the bowsprit by a cord 
 round their waists, a knife placed in one 
 hand, so that, while freedom was theirs if 
 they chose to sever the rope, a worse death 
 awaited them when they fell into the water 
 a death from sharks, from alligators ! 
 Oh, sir, oh, reverend prelate," he con- 
 tinued, stretching out his hands toward 
 the old, almost blind man, "I have seen 
 worse than this. Once he and his follow- 
 ers besieged a monastery full of holy 
 fathers, governed by a bishop saintly as 
 yourself; and they defended it vigorously, 
 bravely would have driven this tiger back 
 but for one thing." 
 
 "What?" asked the younger of the 
 judges, the Alcaide. And I noticed that 
 now, as all through this testifying of Eaton, 
 that Alcaide seemed less disposed to ac-
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 321 
 
 cept his evidence than the others were. 
 Later on I knew the reason that so urged 
 him. 
 
 "What?" he said. 
 
 " Some of the priests had already fallen 
 into his hands and the hands of his crew. 
 Then they it was whom he forced to ad- 
 vance first against the monastery to fire 
 the brass cannon they had brought with 
 them against their brethren ; forced them 
 to do so, so that those brethren should not 
 know them, should shoot them down first. 
 
 " Also," said the Alcaide, " it might have 
 been to prevent their firing at all. In open 
 war a great commander would, perhaps, 
 have availed himself of such a cunning 
 ruse." 
 
 Then I knew for sure this man had been, 
 or was, a soldier. 
 
 More, much more, was told by Eaton 
 't is best I set down nothing further then 
 the end came, The sentence was passed ; 
 he, too, was doomed to die, by my side, on 
 the Sunday that should later be appointed. 
 
 "Break off," the Bishop said. "Justice 
 will be done." Whereupon he glanced 
 down at his papers I wondering that he 
 could see them with those purblind eyes 
 while, pausing in his attempt to rise, he 
 said :
 
 322 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 " Yet there was another. The youth " 
 
 and here I pricked up my ears, for of 
 Juan I had heard nothing since taken to the 
 prison in the ramparts "the youth who 
 fought by the side of this man this spy 
 
 this Ingles. How comes it he is not 
 before us?" 
 
 For a moment, as it seemed to me, the 
 Alcaide hesitated, then he said : 
 
 "He is not well. He was hurt in the 
 melee; he cannot be brought before us for 
 some days. Later, if necessary, he can be 
 tried." 
 
 Although I had drawn as far away from 
 Gramont as I could since I had learned 
 his true nature and character and the blood- 
 shed of which he had been guilty, I could 
 not prevent myself from letting my eyes 
 fall on him now ; and I saw that for the first 
 time there was a look of eagerness in his 
 eyes, that he was watching the younger of 
 those judges, watching as though filled with 
 an intensity of feeling as to what might 
 next be said. 
 
 "If necessary, Capitan Morales," the 
 Regidor said, speaking now for almost the 
 first time, " if necessary ! By all reports he 
 is as bad as his elder comrades. A wild cat, 
 all say. Why should it not be necessary ?" 
 
 " He is very young," the Alcaide replied,
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 323 
 
 undoubtedly confused, "very young-; also 
 he he is not well. I should do wrong- to 
 produce him before you in the state he is. 
 As governor I must use my discretion," 
 and he made a feint of being- engaged with 
 the papers before him. 
 
 Then I felt sure that he, too, knew Juan's 
 secret, as I now did. 
 
 And I wondered to what advantage he 
 might put that secret on behalf of Juan. 
 Wondered while I felt glad at the thought 
 which had now risen to my mind the 
 thought that, at last, Juan might be saved 
 from our doom. 
 
 Again the Bishop said at this time 
 doubtless his worn old frame was fatigued 
 by the morning's work: 
 
 " Let us rise. There is no more to be 
 done, since since this youth cannot yet 
 be brought before us," and once more he 
 placed his white, shrunken hands upon the 
 desk in front of him to obtain the necessary 
 aid to quitting his seat. 
 
 But now the governor, whose name was 
 Morales, made a motion of dissent, accom- 
 panying it, however, by soft, respectful 
 words. 
 
 "Nay, most reverend father, nay," he 
 said, " not yet, if you will graciously permit 
 that we continue our examination farther,"
 
 324 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 while as he spoke the Bishop sank back 
 again with a wearied look of assent. " I am 
 not satisfied." 
 
 "Not satisfied," the old man whispered, 
 while the Regid6r also echoed his words, 
 though in far louder tones. "What is it 
 you are not satisfied with, Capitan Mo- 
 rales?" 
 
 "With that man's testimony," he ex- 
 claimed, pointing his finger over his desk 
 at Eaton. " In no manner of way satisfied," 
 and as he spoke it almost seemed I should 
 have believed it to be so in any other coun- 
 try but Spain, a land of notorious injustice 
 and love of cruelty for the sake of cruelty 
 as if the crowd in the court somewhat 
 agreed with him. Also, even as he spoke, 
 a voice shouted from the midst of those 
 forming it : 
 
 "Ay! How knows he all this? Ask him 
 that." 
 
 Glancing my eyes in the direction 
 whence those words came, they fell upon 
 a man of rude though picturesque ap- 
 pearance, whose voice I thought it was; a 
 fellow bearded and bronzed, with, in his 
 ears, great rings of gold; a man whom, I 
 scarce know why, I instantly deemed a 
 sailor. Perhaps, one of the many who had
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 325 
 
 fled from the galleons or the French ships 
 of war. 
 
 "I am about to ask him that ! "exclaimed 
 Morales, though he cast an angry glance 
 toward the crowd. "It is his answer to 
 that which I require." 
 
 Then all eyes were instantly directed 
 toward Eaton, one pair flaming like burn- 
 ing coals from beneath their bushy ibrows 
 .the eyes of Gramont. 
 
 Looking myself at him, noticing the 
 ashy colour of his face as he heard that un- 
 known voice uprise amidst the people 
 gathered in the court as also he heard 
 in reply the words of Morales noticing, 
 too, the quivering of his white lips and the 
 look as of a hunted rat that came into his 
 eyes I found myself wondering if he had 
 not thought of how his denunciation of the 
 man by my side was his own accusation 
 also. 
 
 "I ask you," went on Morales, "how 
 you know all these things. None but an 
 eye-witness, a participator, could have told 
 as much ! " 
 
 Upon that muttering and gesticulating 1 
 crowd, upon the shaggy, black-bearded 
 Asturians and Biscayans some of them 
 rude mountaineers from the Gaviara and 
 some even ruder sailors from the wild and
 
 326 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 tempest-beaten shores of Galicia upon 
 the swarthy Spanish women with knives 
 in their girdles and babes at their bare 
 breasts, there fell a hush as all listened for 
 his answer a hush, broken only by his 
 own halting- attempt to find an answer that 
 should be believed gain credence not 
 only with the judges, but the people. 
 
 "I have heard it said heard it 
 told," he whispered, in quavering tones. 
 " 'T was common talk in all the Indies 
 his name hated dreaded. Used as a 
 means to fright the timid to " 
 
 He paused. For, like a storm that 
 howls across the seas, sweeping- all before 
 it in its course, another voice, a deeper, 
 fuller, more sonorous one, swept through 
 that court and drowned his; the voice of 
 the lost man by my side. 
 
 "Hear me, you judges," he cried, con- 
 fronting all standing there with his man- 
 acled hands in front of him, yet his form 
 erect, his glance contemptuous, his eyes 
 fire. "Hear me. Let me tell all. I have 
 the right the last on earth granted to one 
 such as I for one who sees and reads his 
 doom in all your faces. Give me your 
 leave to speak." 
 
 "Speak!" the Bishop murmured, his
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 327 
 
 tones almost inaudible. " Speak yet hope 
 nothing-." 
 
 44 Hope !" Gramont said. "Hope! What 
 should I hope ? Nothing 1 ! in truth. No 
 more than I fear aught. I am the man this 
 one charges me with being am Gramont. 
 That is enough. Gramont, the filibuster 
 one of a hundred of your countrymen, of 
 Frenchmen, of Englishmen. But," and 
 he glanced proudly around the court, "the 
 leader of them all, of almost all. Yet, if I 
 am guilty, who is there in the Indies that is 
 innocent ? Was Morgan, the English bull- 
 dog? yet his king- made him deputy-gov- 
 ernor of his fairest isle. Was Basco, Lolo- 
 nois is Pointis? Answer me that. And, 
 you of Spain, you, one of her bishops, you, 
 one of her soldiers," and he glanced at 
 each of them, " how often has one of you 
 blessed the ships that sailed from your 
 shores laden with men of my calling how 
 often have men of your trade, "again he 
 glanced at Morales, "belonged to mine? 
 Yet now I, a Frenchman, a comrade in 
 arms of you Spanish, am judged by the 
 words of such as that" and this time his 
 eyes fell on Eaton. 
 
 Also all in the court looked at him again. 
 
 "Now," went on Gramont, "hear who 
 and what he is hear, too, how he knows
 
 328 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 all that I have done. He was my servant 
 my ship's steward once then rose 
 through lust of cruelty to be my mate and 
 second in command. And he it was who 
 first whispered that the captured monks 
 and priests, as he terms them, should be 
 sent against the monastery at Essequibo. 
 Only he has forgotten, his memory fails 
 they were not monks and priests but 
 nuns." 
 
 "No, no, no!" shrieked Eaton, as a 
 tumult indescribable arose within the 
 court, while now the mountaineers and 
 seamen howled, "burn him and let the 
 other go," and the fierce 1 dark-eyed women 
 clutched their babes closer to their breasts, 
 fingering 1 the hilts of the knives in their 
 girdles at the same time. 
 
 "Nuns ! Holy nuns ! " the Bishop gasped. 
 "Great God!" 
 
 "Ay! Holy nuns. And hear one more 
 word from me; it is the truth, though it 
 avails me nothing 1 . I was not at Essequibo 
 then, was far away, was, in truth, at Cape 
 Blanco. And he he James Eaton, was 
 the man." 
 
 There rose more tumult and more up- 
 roar it seemed as though all the men in 
 the court would force the barrier that sep- 
 arated them from the judges and from
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 329 
 
 Eaton and us, the prisoners would slay 
 that .villain, that monstrous wretch, upon 
 the spot. But at a look from the Alcaide 
 some of the alguazils and men-at-arms by 
 that barrier, thrust and pushed them back, 
 and made a line between them and the body 
 of the court. 
 
 "Again listen," Gramont went on, when 
 some silence had at last been obtained. "It 
 is my last word. I was not there was 
 gone the band was broken up, dispersed. 
 From Spain had come an order from your 
 king- that those who desisted were to be 
 pardoned ; from Louis of France came the 
 same news by Pointis. And I was one who 
 so desisted, took service under Louis, was 
 made his lieutenant. Also I was on my way 
 to France when I was cast away. Cast 
 away, after leaving my child, my wealth, 
 in that man's hands for safe keeping. He 
 drove the one from him with curses and 
 cruelty, he stole the other. And hear 
 more those galleons coming to Cadiz were 
 bringing that stolen wealth to him be- 
 cause I knew that it was so I came in them 
 to Spain, hoping by my disguise to meet 
 him, to wrench it back from him, to call him 
 to account for his treatment of my girl." 
 
 On the court there had come a hush 
 as the calm comes after the storm ; hardly
 
 330 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 any spoke now yet all, from Bishop down, 
 ward, regarded Eaton, trembling-, shiver- 
 ing there. 
 
 And once more in that hush, Gramont's 
 voice uprose again. 
 
 "For myself I care not. Do with me 
 what you will. But, remember, I denounce 
 him, that man there, as pirate and buc- 
 caneer ten times more bloodthirsty and 
 cruel than any other who ever ravaged the 
 Indies; I denounce him, the denouncer, as 
 thief, filibuster and spy. Do with me what 
 you will only take heed. Spare him not. 
 And if you seek corroboration of my word, 
 demand it of him who is my fellow-prisoner, 
 demand the truth from Juan Belmonte."
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 MY LOVE ! MY LOVE ! 
 
 The days passed as I lay in my dung-eon 
 in the ramparts, and each morning when 
 the jailer who, I soon learned, was deaf 
 and dumb came with a loaf of bread and 
 jar of water, I braced myself to receive the 
 tidings that it was my last on earth. 
 
 Yet a week went by and I had not been 
 summoned to the plank and flames I be- 
 gan, as I lost count of time as I forgot the 
 days .of the week themselves to wonder 
 if, after all, the sentence was one that they 
 did not dare to carry out. And, remember- 
 ing that in Spain nothing could be done 
 without reference to the powers at Madrid, 
 I mused upon whether, if they did so dare, 
 the sanction for the execution of Gramont 
 and myself must be first obtained ere the 
 execution could take place ; also I mused on 
 many other things, be sure, besides my own 
 impending fate, a fate which, I thought, 
 would never be known to any of my country- 
 men, which would be enveloped forever in 
 a darkness nothing could lift. I thought of 
 
 331
 
 332 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 Juan and of the secret which that wild, im- 
 pulsive nature had concealed from me for 
 so many days wondered what would be 
 the end of that career; thought, too, of 
 Gramont, the man whose blood-guiltiness 
 had been so great, yet who, as he stood by 
 my side a doomed man, had seemed almost 
 a hero by reason of his indifference to, his 
 scorn of, his fate. 
 
 The dungeon, as I have termed it, though 
 in fact it was more like a cell, was in and at 
 the uppermost part of the ramparts of 
 Lugo noted for being the most strongly 
 walled and fortified town in all Spain was, 
 indeed, a room in the great wall which 
 sloped down perpendicularly to the Minho 
 beneath ; a wall, smooth and absolutely up- 
 right, or vertical, on which a sparrow could 
 scarcely have found a crevice in which to 
 lodge or perch, rising from eighty to a hun- 
 dred feet from the base of the rock on which 
 it was built and through which the river 
 rushed. This I had seen as we had passed 
 under it on the other side of the Minho when 
 we approached the town ; could see, indeed, 
 in the daytime as I glanced down on to the 
 river beneath through the heavily grated 
 and barred window which admitted light to 
 my prison ; also I could observe the country 
 outside and the mountains beyond, while I
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 333 
 
 heard at night the swirl of the river as it 
 sped by those rocks below. 
 
 Because there was no chance of escape 
 for any creature immured within this cell, 
 since none could force away those grates 
 and bars, even had he possessed that 
 strength of Samson, for which I had once 
 prayed ; because, also, had I been able to 
 do so, there was nothing but the jagged 
 rocks beneath, or the swift river, into which 
 to cast myself, I was not chained nor man- 
 acled ; was at liberty, instead, to move 
 about as I chose ; to peer idly out all day 
 at the freedom of the open country beyond, 
 which would never again be mine, or to cast 
 myself upon the pallet on the floor and sleep 
 and dream away the hours that intervened 
 between now and my day of doom. Nay, I 
 was at liberty, had I so chosen, to strangle 
 myself with my bedding, or, for the matter 
 of that, my belt or cravat, or end my life 
 in any manner I might desire. Perhaps, 
 though I knew not that it was so, it might 
 be hoped such would be the end. It might 
 save trouble and after consequences. 
 
 None came near me all the day or night, 
 except that mute jailer, of whom I have 
 spoken, when he brought me my bread 
 and water every morning, and it was, 
 therefore, with a strange feeling of sur-
 
 334 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 prise with a plucking- at my heart, and a 
 fear, which I despised myself for, that 
 my last hour was come that one night, as 
 I lay in the dark, I heard footsteps on the 
 stones of the passage outside the cell door 
 
 footsteps that stopped close by that door, 
 some of them heavy, the others light. I 
 heard, too, the clash of keys together, the 
 grating of one in the huge lock, a moment 
 later. 
 
 "Remember," I whispered to myself. 
 "Remember, you are a man a soldier. 
 Be brave." 
 
 Then slowly the door opened, and a 
 figure came in, bearing a light in its hand, 
 while, a second later, the door was closed 
 and locked again from the outside; the 
 heavy footsteps were heard by me re- 
 treating down the passage. 
 
 The figure was that of "Juan " Belmonte. 
 
 "You here?" I said, springing up, and 
 then I advanced toward it, my hands out- 
 stretched, while my companion of so many 
 days sprang to my arms, lay in them, sob- 
 bing as though with a broken heart. 
 
 "Do not weep, do not weep," I said, and, 
 as I spoke, my lips touched that white brow 
 
 no whiter now than all the rest of the 
 face, " do not weep. What is, is, and must 
 be borne."
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 335 
 
 " My love, my love ! " those other lips 
 whose rich crimson I had once mar- 
 velled at so much sobbed forth now, 
 "my love, how can I help but weep? Oh, 
 Mervan, I have learnt to love you so, to 
 worship you, for your strength and cour- 
 age ! And now to see you thus thus! 
 My God ! " 
 
 "Be brave still," I said; would have 
 added " Juan" ; only, not knowing-, I paused. 
 
 " What shall I call you ? " I asked. 
 
 "Juana." 
 
 " Do they the judges know ? " 
 
 "The Alcaide knows: 'T is through that 
 knowledge I am here." 
 
 "Why, "I whispered, my arms about her 
 as she clung to me, "why was this dis- 
 guise assumed, these dangers run ? Oh ! 
 Juana, since I learnt what you were in truth 
 I have shuddered, sweated at the memories 
 of your risks. What reason had you for 
 coming to Europe as a man ? and with such 
 beauty, too 1 'T is marvellous it was never 
 seen through." 
 
 " They would not give passage to women 
 in the galleons," she answered. "There- 
 fore I came as I did ; also I knew I might 
 better find Eaton confront him, in a garb, 
 another sex, which would prevent him from 
 recognising the little child he had treated
 
 336 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 so evilly." Then, suddenly, with a wail, she 
 exclaimed: "Oh, my God ! Mervan, I have 
 not come to talk of this, but to be with you 
 for our last hour; one hour before we die. 
 The Alcaide has granted me that and one 
 other thing on conditions; " and I felt her 
 shudder in my arms. 
 
 "Before we die," I repeated stupidly, 
 saying most of her words over again. 
 "Granted you this and one other thing 
 and on conditions. What conditions ? Tell 
 me all ; make me to understand. We die ? 
 Not you ! They cannot slay you." 
 
 From some neighbouring church a deep- 
 toned bell was pealing solemnly as I spoke. 
 Far down below, by the river banks, I heard 
 the splash of some fishermen's boats as they 
 went by to their night work always, until 
 my eyes close for the last time, I shall re- 
 member those sounds accompanying her 
 words in answer to mine shall hear them 
 in my ears her words: "I can slay 
 myself." 
 
 "Juana!" 
 
 "Must slay myself," she went on, 
 " there is no other way. Can I live without 
 you or, living, fullfil hose conditions?" 
 and, even as she said this, our lips met. 
 
 "But," I asked, my voice hoarse with
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 337 
 
 grief and misery, "what are they, and 
 wherefore granted ? " 
 
 " He gives me one life his my 
 father's! My God! he my father! he 
 will not give me yours because he thinks 
 you are my lover and and the condition 
 is that on the night when he is set free, I 
 fly from Lugo with him, Morales, to Portu- 
 gal. He will be safe there, he says. 'T is 
 rumoured the king has joined England." 
 
 "And you accept the terms? " I asked, 
 bitterly, knowing that I loved this girl as 
 fondly as she loved me. Had loved her 
 since I discovered her sex as she reeled 
 into my arms on that night. "You ac- 
 cept?" 
 
 "I accept. Nay!" she exclaimed, "do 
 not thrust me from you you cannot doubt 
 my love, my adoration. Else why am I 
 here a prisoner in Lugo why, except be- 
 cause I could not quit your side, could not 
 tear myself from you? " 
 
 " How then accept ? " 
 
 " Listen. I must save him. God ! he 
 is my father to my eternal shame ! Yet 
 yet, being so, his soul must not go to seek 
 its Maker yet 't is too deeply drenched 
 with crime, he must have time time to 
 live to repent to wash away his sins. 
 Oh ! Mervan, you are my love, my love, my
 
 338 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 first and only love will be my last yet 
 
 I must save him." 
 
 " At what a cost ! Your own perdition!" 
 " No, no. Listen. Morales leaves here 
 the day before my unhappy father is given 
 his chance of escape the door of his cell 
 will be set open for him at night ; none will 
 bar his exit by a back way I, too, shall be 
 gone. Morales will take me with him in my 
 own proper garb, that of a woman. Then 
 
 then because I shall not believe in my 
 father's freedom until I am sure of it, know 
 it, he will join us at the frontier not the 
 one which we passed, but where the road 
 crosses to Braganza at a place called Car- 
 vallos and " 
 
 " You will keep your word ! " 
 
 "Yes. To myself not him. My father 
 will be safe Morales unable to do more 
 against him I I shall be dead. Once I 
 am assured all is well with him I shall end 
 my life. There will be nothing more to live 
 for." 
 
 "Suppose," I whispered, "suppose it 
 mig-ht be! that I should escape, and, doing 
 so, find you dead ! Oh, Juana, how would 
 it be with me then? How could I live? " 
 
 "Ah, my love," she said, whispering, 
 too, "can you not believe I have thought of 
 that believe that if all hope of your escap-
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 339 
 
 ing- was not gone I should not have decided 
 thus ? But, Mervan, you are a brave man, 
 have faced death too often to fear to do so 
 once again for the last time. Mervan, my 
 love, my life there is no hope. None. 
 He has told me he Morales that the 
 morning after all are gone but you, you will 
 surely be put to death. My own, my sweet, 
 there is no hope." 
 
 "If I could escape first " 
 
 " It is impossible. Impossible. Oh! I 
 have begged him on my knees again and 
 again to give you the same chance as he 
 gives my father have told him that, since 
 he ruins himself to set free the one, it 
 would cost him no more to let both go yet, 
 yet he will not." 
 
 "Why not?" 
 
 "I have said. And he makes but a sin- 
 gle answer. One is my father the other 
 my lover. Laughs, too, and says he does 
 not jeopardise his own body ruin for cer- 
 tain his own life in his own land to fling 
 that lover back into my arms." 
 
 "Still, if he knows that until a few days 
 ago I deemed you a boy " 
 
 " Knows it ! " she exclaimed. " Oh, my 
 God 1 have I not told him so a hundred 
 times sworn that we were but strangers 
 thrown together scarce a month past ; had
 
 340 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 never met before. And to all my vows and 
 protestations he replies : 'Knowing you now 
 to be a woman as I have myself by chance 
 discovered he must love you as I do. I 
 will not save him to steal you from me.' " 
 
 " Yet, with this refusal on his lips, you 
 yield or appear to yield." 
 
 " My father ! My father ! " she cried, 
 fling-ing- her arms madly around my neck. 
 " My father I My father ! For his sake I 
 must yield. Oh, my love, my love, my love 
 I must" 
 
 ********** 
 
 I cannot write down in absolute truth, 
 cannot recall our last sad parting-, our 
 frenzied words, our fond embraces. Suf- 
 fice it that I say we tore ourselves apart at 
 the sound of the mute's footsteps that 
 Juana was borne away almost insensible. 
 
 For that we should never meet again in 
 this world we recognised we were parted 
 forever. I had found and won although 
 till lately unknown to myself ! the most 
 fond and loving heart that had ever yielded 
 itself up to a man found it only as I stood 
 upon the brink of my grave. 
 
 Yet if there were anything that could 
 reconcile me to my loss of her it would 
 be that grave, I knew; that or the cast- 
 ing of my ashes to the wind after my
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 341 
 
 body was consumed by the bras6ro would 
 bring the oblivion I desired. And, since 
 she, too, meant to die the moment her 
 father was safe, neither would be left to 
 mourn the other. At least the oblivion of 
 death would be the happy lot of both. Yet, 
 as now the hours followed one another, as 
 I heard them strike upon the bells of all 
 the churches in this old city, and boom 
 forth solemnly from the cathedral tower 
 wondering- always, yet resignedly, when I 
 should hear them for the last time ; won- 
 dering, too, when the key would once more 
 grate in the lock and I should be summoned 
 to my doom I cursed myself for never 
 having penetrated Juan's disguise, for 
 never having guessed she was a woman. 
 Sir George Rooke had done so, I knew now ; 
 that was what he meant by his solemn 
 warnings to me fool that I was, not to be 
 as far-seeing as he ! 
 
 There were many things, which I now 
 recalled, that should also have opened my 
 eyes her timidity, her nervousness, the 
 strange power of mustering up courage at 
 a moment of imminent danger ; also the 
 frequent change of colour ; the remain- 
 ing in the inn kitchen all one night ; the 
 shriek for assistance at the barrier en- 
 counter. And yet I had been blind, and
 
 342 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 thought it was a boy who rode by my side 
 through all the perils we had passed. 
 
 I might have saved her had I but had 
 more insight might have refused to let 
 her accompany me ; have sternly ordered 
 her to travel in some other way than along 
 the danger-strewn path which I had come. 
 She would have been safe now what mat- 
 tered it what had befallen mel would 
 have been free, with no hideous necessity 
 of taking her own life to escape from the 
 love which Morales forced upon her. 
 
 Yet, as I tossed upon my pallet, thinking 
 of all this thinking, too, of how fondly I 
 had come to love this girl, so dear to me 
 now that we were lost to each other forever 
 I knew, I felt sure, that no stern com- 
 mands issued to her to turn back and quit 
 my side would have been of any avail ; that, 
 as she had once threatened, she would have 
 followed me like a dog, have lain upon the 
 step of the house wherein I slept, would 
 never have quitted my side. 
 
 For hers was the hot, burning love of 
 the southern woman, of which I had often 
 read and heard told by wanderers into 
 far-off lands the love that springs in a 
 moment into those women's breasts, and, 
 once born, is never quenched except by 
 death as, alas! hers was now to be 
 quenched.
 
 CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 "AS THE NIGHT PASSETH AWAY." 
 
 Still the days passed and I meditated on 
 whether each as it came was to be my last. 
 Wondered as every morning I watched the 
 opening of the heavily clamped door, if, in- 
 stead of my loaf and jar of water, that deaf 
 and dumb jailer had come to summon me 
 forth to my fate; and wondered again at 
 what might cause the delay, since morning- 
 after morning- his behaviour was ever the 
 same, the bread always placed on the rough 
 stone shelf that ran around the room, with 
 the water by its side. That, and nothing- 
 more. 
 
 That Juana had gone by now with the 
 Alcaide, I thought must surely be the case. 
 I had taken since that night when last we 
 met and parted forever to scoring with 
 a nail a mark daily on the whitewashed but 
 filthy wall, so that thereby I might keep 
 some count of the days as they went by, 
 and now there were six of such marks 
 there. Surely she was gone surely, too, I 
 thought, Gramont's escape had taken place 
 
 343
 
 344 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 by now yet they came not for me. What 
 did it mean? 
 
 In my agony at the thought that by now, 
 perhaps, Juana was dead by her own hand 
 I pictured her to myself using the small 
 poniard I knew she carried, or the equally 
 small pistol of which she was possessed 
 I groaned nay ! almost shrieked sometimes 
 at my horrible picturings of her beautiful 
 form and face stiff with death ; in that agony 
 I came to pray at last to God that the day or 
 night which was passing over me might be 
 my last. That He, in His supreme mercy, 
 would see fit to inspire them with the re- 
 solve to make an end of me. Prayed that, 
 by the time those never ceasing clocks with- 
 out had struck once more the hour they 
 were striking as I made my supplication, 
 my soul might have left my body that 
 that body might be no more than a heap of 
 ashes. 
 
 For I could bear my existence no longer. 
 My thoughts of my beauteous mistress 
 lying in death's hideous grasp, of my poor 
 old father, and the misery which would be 
 his not at my falling like a soldier, but 
 at the mystery which would forever en- 
 shroud my death were more than I could 
 support. 
 
 But still another day passed the sev-
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 345 
 
 enth and still again at daybreak there was 
 no summons to me to go forth and meet my 
 fate. Yet, since by the increased pealings 
 of the bells, and by the ringing- of some 
 sweeter sounding ones than those usually 
 heard, I knew it was the Sabbath I won- 
 dered that my doom had not come. For 
 the Sabbath was, I remembered, the day of 
 execution in this land, because 't is always 
 a f e"te day, when the people are at leisure to 
 be excited and amused. 
 
 That day passed, however, the night 
 drew on, the dark had come ; and still I 
 was alive ; had before me another night of 
 horror and of mortal agony unspeakable to 
 endure. 
 
 From my ghastly, silent warder I had 
 tried more than once to obtain some hint, 
 or information, as to when I might expect 
 my sentence to be carried out if I could 
 have learnt that, I should have known also 
 that Gramont was gone was free that, 
 my God ! Juana was dead, or near to her 
 death. But as well might I have asked the 
 walls of this cell in which I was, for a word 
 or sign. I wrote on those walls with the 
 nail a question the question : " When am 
 I to die ? " and he stared as stolidly at it as 
 though he were no more able to see than to 
 speak or hear. Thinking, perhaps, that
 
 346 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 he could not read, I made signs upon my 
 fingers to him, at all of which 'he shook his 
 head, though what he meant to convey I 
 know not. Yet, had my mind not been so 
 distraught, I should have remembered that, 
 perhaps, if he could not understand the one 
 neither could he the other. Reflecting later 
 on, however, I felt sure that he was able to 
 do both it was the only way in which one 
 so afflicted as he was could have been made 
 to understand his orders ; and, still later, I 
 knew that such was the case. And now, on 
 that Sunday, as the horrid gloom of the win- 
 ter night enveloped all the country around, 
 while up from the pastures and fields there 
 rose a vapour or fog, I took a terrible 
 resolve, driven thereto by the misery of my 
 reflections. 
 
 I determined that, if my death by the 
 hands of the executioner came not to-mor- 
 row, I would take my own life. I could en- 
 dure no longer, could think no more upon 
 Juana as a dead woman, as one slain by her 
 own hand. 
 
 "Oh! Juana, Juana," I wailed more 
 than once, "my lost Juana. Then added, 
 with fierceness, "Yet no matter. We 
 meet to-morrow at the latest." 
 
 Though they had taken my weapons 
 from me ere they brought me here, there
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 347 
 
 was enough of opportunity to my hand for 
 accomplishing- my purpose. There was the 
 nail I had found my sash, or belt my 
 cravat either would serve for my purpose 
 if I was brave enough to accomplish it. 
 
 "Brave enough brave enough!" I 
 found myself repeating. " Brave enough ! 
 Or," I whispered, "cowardly enough? 
 Which is it? Which?" 
 
 And, as still the long hours of the night 
 went on, and I lay on my pallet staring up 
 into the darkness, listening to the hours told 
 over and over again by the bells, until my 
 soul sickened at their sound, watching a glint 
 of the moon's rays on the metal roof of the 
 cathedral, I answered my own question, 
 reasoned with myself that self-destruction 
 was the coward's, not the brave man's, act, 
 and resolved at last to cast that awful reso- 
 lution behind me, to endure and meet my 
 fate like a man, as a gallant soldier should. 
 
 And so, eased I scarce knew why by 
 my determination, I fell at last into a tranquil 
 sleep, and dreamt that I was back in Eng- 
 land, walking in my father's old flower gar- 
 den in the Weald, with my love, Juana, by 
 my side. 
 
 Some unaccustomed noise awoke me 
 from that fair dream something to which 
 I was not used in the long silence of the
 
 348 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 nights some sound which, as I raised my- 
 self on my elbow and peered around the 
 cell, I could not understand ; for in that 
 cell there was no other presence, as for a 
 moment I had imagined when I sprang up, 
 half asleep and half awake ; the moon, 
 which had now overtopped the cathedral 
 towers, showed that plain enough. Deep 
 scurrying clouds were passing beneath her 
 face swiftly obscuring sometimes her 
 brilliancy for some moments, 'tis true; 
 yet, as she emerged now and again from 
 them, her flood poured in and lit up the 
 whole chamber. There was no one in it 
 but myself ! 
 
 What, therefore, was the sound I 
 had heard ? Stealthy footsteps outside ? 
 those of my doomsmen, perhaps I or 
 was it some silent executioner about to 
 steal in on me in the night, thereby to pre- 
 vent the publicity of a death in the mar- 
 ket place a death which might by chance 
 be reported to my own countrymen afar 
 off, and like enough, if the war rolled down 
 this way, be bitterly avenged ? Was that it ? 
 
 Again beneath the moon there passed 
 heavy clouds, extinguishing her light so 
 that for a moment my prison was once 
 more steeped in darkness I found my- 
 self thinking that there would be snow ere
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 349 
 
 morning-; that, if that morning- brought my 
 death, 't would be a bleak and wintry scene 
 which the flames of the braslro would illu- 
 minate ! then throug-h a break in those 
 clouds a ray stole forth, a ray that glinted 
 in through the iron bars of the window 
 grate, across the stone-flagged floor, and 
 onward to the heavily clamped door, then 
 was arrested there one spot shining out 
 amidst those beams with the brightness 
 and the dazzle of a diamond. 
 
 What was that thing, that spot on which 
 the ray glinted so? 
 
 Creeping toward the door, as silently and 
 lightly as I could go, I reached it, put out 
 my finger and touched that gleaming spark, 
 and found that it proceeded from the ex- 
 tremity of a key which was in the lock and 
 which now protruded by a trifle into the 
 room. It was the insertion of that key 
 which had awakened me. 
 
 Yet what did it mean, and why, when 
 once in the lock, was it not turned ; why not 
 followed by the entry of one or more per- 
 sons into the cell? 
 
 Were they coming back later to fall on 
 me? Had the key been first inserted by 
 some who had withdrawn directly after- 
 ward, so that, if the noise awakened me, I 
 should sleep again shortly, when they could
 
 350 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 return to finish their work? This must be 
 the true explanation I was to be executed 
 in the depth of the night when all were 
 asleep in the old town, when no cry of 
 anguish, no scream from one being done to 
 death, would be heard. 
 
 "Yet," I thought to myself, "these 
 precautions are useless. As well here as 
 in the flames to-morrow. What matters 
 where or how? " 
 
 At that moment my ears caught a sound 
 something was passing down the stone 
 passage outside something that was not 
 the heavy tread of the jailer. Instead, a 
 muffled sound yet perceptible to me. A 
 shuffling, scraping sound as though one 
 who was shoeless was dragging each foot 
 carefully along after the other. 
 
 Then I saw the end of the key which 
 projected through the lock turn I saw it 
 sparkle in the moon's rays once it grated 
 harshly, creaked! And, slowly, a moment 
 afterward the door opened inward, leaving 
 the passage outside dark and cavernous. 
 He who had so opened it with one hand car- 
 ried no light in the other. 
 
 Stepping back from it, watching what 
 should happen next yet, I swear before 
 heaven, with no fear at my heart why 
 should there be, since I desired to die
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 351 
 
 join my love? yet still with that heart 
 beating loudly from excitement I saw the 
 blackness of the doorway blurred with a 
 deeper intensity by a form standing outside 
 it. I saw the moonbeams reach that form, 
 lighting it up for a moment and glistening 
 on the eyes of it. I saw before me the great 
 figure and heavy, stolid face of my dumb, 
 impenetrable jailer. The mute! Also ob- 
 served that under his arm he carried some- 
 thing long a sword. 
 
 His eyes upon me, he advanced into the 
 cell I seeing that his feet were bare ex- 
 cept for thick, coarse stockings which he 
 wore yet making no motion as though to 
 attack me, his action not such as would 
 have rendered a more desperate man than 
 myself resolved to defend himself. Then 
 slowly, while I, my back against the far- 
 thest wall, stared at him more in wonder 
 than in awe, he raised the arm under which 
 the sword was not borne, and motioned to 
 me with his finger, crooked somewhat, to 
 follow jhim, pointing a moment afterward 
 down the dark passage. 
 
 " So," I whispered to myself, drawing a 
 deep breath as I did so, " the hour has come. 
 He bids me follow him. I understand it 
 is to be done before daylight. Well, I am
 
 352 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 ready. God give me strength and par- 
 don me." 
 
 Then I made ready to follow him, while 
 he, observing- this, prepared to lead the 
 way. 
 
 All was profound and dark outside that 
 cell when once we were in the passage so 
 dark that, ere I had barely reached it, I 
 felt his great hand upon my arm, felt him 
 clutching my sleeves between his fingers. 
 And thus together we went on, he silent 
 as a corpse, except for his breathing, which 
 sometimes I heard sometimes, too, felt 
 upon my cheek I going to my death. 
 
 One thing I noticed, even in these mo- 
 ments of intensity. We went the opposite 
 way from that by which I had first been 
 brought the opposite way from which 
 his footsteps, when he had been shod, had 
 invariably sounded ; also the opposite way 
 from which my love had come to bid me 
 a last farewell, and had been carried in- 
 sensible after our parting. 
 
 Whither was I being taken ? 
 
 The end of the corridor was reached 
 in the darkness ; I knew that by the fact 
 that his grasp tightened perceptibly on 
 my sleeve ; also that, by a pressure of his 
 fingers on it, he was turning me somewhat 
 to the left ; likewise, that grasp put a de-
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 353 
 
 gree of curb upon me ; a moment later 
 seemed to signify that I was to go on again. 
 And it felt to me that, in a way, I was being- 
 supported held up. 
 
 Another instant, and I knew why. We 
 were descending stairs on the way down, 
 doubtless, to some exit that should lead to- 
 my place of doom ! Still I resisted not. One 
 path to oblivion served as well as another. 
 
 By the manner in which the steps were 
 cut I knew at once that we were in some 
 tower, and that the stairs were circular ; 
 also my hand, which I kept against the side, 
 told me the same thing. Moreover, there 
 were ceillets^ or arrow slits, in the wall, 
 through which I could see the moon shining 
 on another wall, which seemed to be some 
 fifty paces off probably, I thought, the 
 opposite wall of some courtyard built into, 
 or by the side of, the huge ramparts. 
 
 Of sound there was none, no noise of any 
 kind, no tramp of sentry to be heard, 
 although I knew well enough that on the 
 ramparts themselves soldiers were kept 
 constantly on guard. Nothing ; all as still 
 as death, the death to which I was being led. 
 
 At last the stairs ended. My feet told 
 me we were on the level now, a level into 
 which they sank somewhat as I took step 
 after step, whereby I judged that we were
 
 354 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 walking- on sand, and wondered in what 
 part of that prison, of those huge ramparts, 
 we might be. Surely, I thought, some lower- 
 most vault or dungeon, perhaps beneath 
 the foundations of the structure, beneath 
 the rocks between which the river flowed. 
 
 "My God ! " I murmured to myself, "is 
 this my fate ? To be immured forever in 
 some dark dung-eon in the bowels of the 
 earth, where neither light, nor sound 
 never hope can come again. Better death 
 at once, swift and merciful, than this. Far 
 better." 
 
 Yet almost it seemed to my now frighted 
 heart that this alone could be the case. 
 
 The air reeked and was clammy, as 
 though with long confinement in this under- 
 ground place, and by remaining ever unre- 
 freshed from without by heaven's pure 
 breezes was mawkish and sickly as the 
 breath of a charnel house perhaps 'twas 
 one ! perhaps those who died here were 
 left to fester and moulder away till their 
 corpses turned to skeletons and their skel- 
 etons to dust ; to die here, where no cry for 
 help could issue forth, no more than any 
 sound except a muffled one could penetrate, 
 as I knew at this moment, for far above I 
 heard a deep boom that seemed like the 
 muffled roar of a cannon a sound that was
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 355 
 
 in truth the eternal bell of the cathedral 
 telling the hour ; also another broke on my 
 ear a swift, rushing- noise, yet deadened, 
 too the sound, I thought, of the Minho 
 passing- near. 
 
 Then, all at once as I knew that the 
 sickly, reeking air would choke me, felt 
 sure that ere many paces more had been 
 traversed I must reel and fall upon that 
 sanded floor there blew upon my face a 
 gust of air oh ! God ! it was as though I 
 had changed a monumental vault all full of 
 rankling dead for some pure forest through 
 which fresh breezes swept far down to- 
 ward where my dimmed eyes gazed I saw 
 a glimmer of something that looked like the 
 light of a coming dawn. 
 
 And I thanked heaven that, at least, these 
 horrid vaults were not to be my prison or 
 my grave ; that, let whatever might befall 
 me, my punishment was not to be dealt 
 out here. 
 
 And ever still as I went on that stricken 
 man walked by my side, held my arm with 
 his hand, and directed the way toward the 
 sombre light that gleamed afar.
 
 CHAPTER XXVI. 
 
 WHAT HAS HAPPENED? 
 
 The light increased as we advanced ; 
 the space it occupied grew larger ; also it 
 seemed to be entering'at what I now judged 
 to be the mouth, or exit, of some narrow, 
 vaulted passage, through which we were 
 progressing and arriving at the end of; 
 almost, too, it seemed as if this passage 
 was itself growing less dark ; as if now 
 as I turned my eyes to where the mute 
 walked by my side the outline of his form 
 was becoming- visible. 
 
 What was I to find at the end of this out- 
 let what to see awaiting me when at last 
 I stood at the opening in the midst of the 
 wintry dawn a scaffold, or the brastro? 
 Which? I perceived now my eyes accus- 
 toming themselves to the dusky gloom 
 that this vaulted way, or corridor, was one 
 hewn through a bed of rock, and roughly, 
 too, blasted, perhaps, in earlier days; and 
 that all along its sides were great slabs, 
 or masses, of this rock, that lay where they 
 had fallen. Perceived something else,
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 357 
 
 also a man crouching down behind one of 
 the fallen blocks, his cape held across his 
 face by one hand, so that naught but the 
 eyes were visible ; the eyes and one other 
 thing that shone and glistened even in the 
 surrounding gloom a huge gold earring, 
 of the circumference of a crown-piece, 
 which fell over the crimson edge, or guard- 
 ing, of that cloak. 
 
 Where had I seen a man wearing such 
 earrings as that before ? Where ? Then, 
 even as I went on to my death, I remem- 
 bered recalled the man. 'T was he who 
 had cried out to the Alcaide in the court, 
 bidding him question Eaton as to how he 
 knew so much of Gramont's past yet 
 what doing here, why hiding behind 
 that fallen mass? Was there some one 
 within these dungeons whom he sought 
 some one for whom an attempted rescue 
 was to be planned? I knew of none 
 knew of no other prisoner within these 
 walls since now Gramont was, must be, 
 as far away as his unhappy child my lost 
 love, Juana. Yet, perhaps, it was not very 
 like I should have known. 
 
 But now the end was at hand. I scarce 
 cared to turn my eyes to observe whether 
 or not the mute had seen the sailor shrink- 
 ing behind the stone ; instead, nerved my-
 
 358 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 self, by both prayer and fierce determina- 
 tion, to meet my fate, to make my exit into 
 the open as bravely as became a man ; to let 
 not one of my executioners see that I feared 
 them or the flames that were to burn the 
 life out of me. 
 
 So we drew near the mouth of the pass- 
 age moving- through the gloom that was 
 as the gloom of a shuttered and darkened 
 house on some wintry morn I seeing that, 
 beyond and outside, was a sloping, stone- 
 flagged decline that led down to a lane 
 which ran out into the open country be- 
 yond. We were, therefore, outside the 
 walls of Lugo, and I deemed that it was 
 here, unknown to the towns-people, that 
 I was to meet my fate. 
 
 We stood a moment later on that stone- 
 covered descent, and I gazed around it 
 startled amazed 1 For here, upon it, was 
 no hideous brasdro piled up with logs of 
 wood, and drenched with resin and pitch to 
 make those logs burn more fiercely ; no up- 
 right plank nor beam against which the 
 sufferer's hand my hand! was to be 
 nailed through the palm; no executioners 
 clad in black from head to foot. Instead, a 
 man in peasant's dress green breeches, 
 leather zapdtas and a sheepskin jacket. A
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 359 
 
 peasant holding- by the reins two horses, 
 one black, the other dappled grey. 
 
 I felt almost as though once more I 
 should faint felt as I had done in that 
 reeking, mouldy corridor through which I 
 had come became sick, indeed, at the 
 relief, even though 't were for an hour or 
 so only, which was accorded me from 
 instant death, since I knew that here that 
 death could not be dealt out. 
 
 Then I turned to the deaf and dumb 
 man if such he was who had now re- 
 leased my arm had done so, indeed, since 
 the half light had been reached and im- 
 plored him to tell me what was intended. 
 
 For answer he guessed, no doubt, the 
 import of my words he pointed to the 
 horses and made signs I should mount one 
 of them. And I, incredulous, asking God 
 inwardly what was meant, went toward the 
 black one and seizing its reins and twisting 
 a lock of its mane around my thumb pre- 
 pared to do as I was bid, yet with my 
 nerves tingling and trembling so that I 
 scarce knew whether I could reach the 
 saddle or not. 
 
 Then, ere the attempt was made, as I 
 raised my foot to the iron, the mute touched 
 my arm, felt in his belt with the other hand
 
 360 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 and, producing- a piece of paper, gave it 
 to me. 
 
 It was from Juana; ran thus in English: 
 
 Your road is through Samos, Caldelas and 
 the other Viana. At Terroso you will cross the 
 frontier. The jailer will guide you to us. Come 
 quickly, so that thereby my fate may be decided. 
 
 JUANA. 
 
 That was all. All from her to me! 
 From her to me ! No word of love accom- 
 panying the message. Not one ! 
 
 She had saved me in some way had 
 induced the Alcaide to bring about my es- 
 cape also had done this, yet could send me 
 no greeting such as she must have known I 
 hungered for. Was it shame, remorse, 
 that made her so silent and so cold? 
 Heartbroken, I thrust the letter into my 
 pocket, and, at a sign from the mute, 
 mounted the horse, he doing the same with 
 the other. 
 
 Then, ere we gave them their reins, he 
 leant across and put into my hands the 
 sword he had carried under his arm since 
 first he opened the door of my cell ; a sword 
 long and serviceable-looking, with a great 
 hilt and curled quillon ; one that I had seen 
 another like somewhere, though where it 
 
 was I could not recall. 
 
 ********** 
 
 'T was over twenty leagues to Terroso,
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 361 
 
 I learnt in the course of our ride. Dimin- 
 ishing- those leagues moment by moment, 
 we went on and on, the black horse that I 
 bestrode never faltering 1 in its quick pace, 
 the grey keeping- close to it. 
 
 And I, my brain whirling-, my heart 
 beating- tumultuously within my breast, my 
 whole being- my soul! shaken by the 
 release from an awful death which had 
 come to me, would have given all that I was 
 possessed of if from that stricken, silent, ter- 
 rible companion by my side I could have ex- 
 tracted one word gleaned from him one 
 jot or atom of information! Yet to my re- 
 peated exclamations he, seeing that I was 
 speaking to him, shook his head persist- 
 ently ; when I made signs to him in the 
 alphabet which I felt sure he knew, he 
 turned his face away and rode on stolidly. 
 Had a dead man, a spectre, been riding 
 ever by my side, swiftly when I rode 
 swiftly, halting when I halted, neither could 
 have been more terrible to me than this 
 living creature, so immutable and impene- 
 trable. 
 
 I was sore beset distraught, my mind 
 full of fearful fancies ! Fancies that I 
 should find Juana dead though, too, I 
 imagined that she would not slay herself 
 until she had made sure of my safety,
 
 362 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 else why her letter? fancies that, since 
 the letter contained no word or hint of love, 
 she had forced herself to tear me out of 
 her heart forever ; forced herself to do so 
 because now she knew she could never be 
 aught to me again. These fancies, these 
 thoughts, were awful in their intensity ; 
 were made doubly so by this silent crea- 
 ture who never quitted my side. 
 
 And once my agony of nerves grew so 
 great that I turned round upon him ges- 
 ticulating fiercely hating myself for my 
 brutality in doing so against one who was, 
 in truth, my saviour shrieking at him : 
 
 "Speak! Speak! For God's sake, speak! 
 Utter some word. Give some sign of being 
 alive a reasoning thing. Speak, I say, or 
 leave me else I shall slay you." 
 
 Then I shuddered and could have slain 
 my own self at the man's action. 
 
 For he turned and looked at me it was 
 in the fast gathering twilight, as side by 
 side always, we were slowly riding up a 
 mountain path looked then, as I gazed, 
 the tears rolled down his coarse face ! And, 
 poor unhappy, afflicted thing! those tears 
 continued to trickle down that face till night 
 hid it from my eyes. 
 
 I knew now that he understood at least, 
 that be comprehended the words of pity
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 363 
 
 and remorse I poured forth before the dark- 
 ness came; at least the touch I made gently 
 on his sleeve was read aright by him. For 
 on his broad, expressionless face, to me for 
 so long 1 a stolid mask, there came a placid 
 smile, and once he returned my touch 
 lightly as still we rode on, and on, and on. 
 
 We halted that night to rest our horses 
 and ourselves at a miserable inn, high up 
 in the mountains, a place round which the 
 sjiow was falling in great flakes, that seemed, 
 indeed, to be embedded in snow. A ghastly, 
 horrid place in which, as I sat shuddering 
 by the fire, while my companion and the 
 landlord slept near it wondering if by 
 now Juana had accomplished her dreadful 
 purpose, unable longer to bear the company 
 of the man, Morales, to whom she had sold 
 herself; or, almost worse still, the company 
 of her sin stained father; wondering too, if 
 by now that splendid form was stiff in death! 
 I almost cursed the escape that had come 
 to me. In truth, I think that now, upon this 
 night, amidst the horrors of this lonely 
 mountain inn, I was almost a madman; for 
 the soft beat of the flakes upon the glass of 
 the window seemed to my frenzied mind 
 like the tapping of ghostly fingers; as I fixed 
 my eyes upon those flakes and saw them 
 alight one by one upon the panes and then
 
 364 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 dissolve and vanish, it looked to me as 
 though they were fingers that scratched at 
 the window and were withdrawn only to 
 return a moment later. Also the wind 
 screamed round the house I started once, 
 feeling sure I heard a woman Juana 
 shriek my name, plucked at the sword by 
 my side and would have made for the door, 
 but that the landlord laughed at me and 
 pushed me back, saying that those shrieks 
 were heard nightly and all through the 
 night during the winter. 
 
 At last, however, I slept, wrapped in my 
 cloak before the peat fire, the mute in an- 
 other chair by my side. And so, somehow, 
 the night wore through. The morning came, 
 and we were on our road once more, ten 
 leagues still to be compassed ere the front- 
 ier was reached, with, behind us, as now I 
 gathered from my mutilated companion's 
 manner in answer to my questions, the pos- 
 sibility that we might be pursued. That 
 after us, in hot chase, might be coming some 
 from Lugo who had discovered our escape. 
 
 The mountain water courses and rivu- 
 lets hummed beneath the frozen snow bound 
 over them by the bitter frost, the tree 
 boughs waved above our heads and across 
 our path as, gradually descending once 
 more to the plain, the chestnuts and the oak
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 365 
 
 trees took the place of the gaunt black pines 
 left behind above; once on this bitter morn- 
 ing we saw the sun steal out from amidst 
 the clouds lying down low on the horizon 
 as though setting instead of rising. Yet on 
 we rode for our lives, with upon me a deeper 
 desire than the salvation of my own exist- 
 ence the hope that I should be in time to 
 save Juana, to wrench her from Morales ere 
 it was too late, to bear her away at last to 
 happiness and love unspeakable. Rode on, 
 my black horse stumbling once over amass 
 of stone rolled down from the heights above; 
 the dappled grey coming to its haunches 
 from a similar cause, yet both lifted quickly 
 by a sharp turn of our wrists and rushing 
 on again down the declivity, danger in every 
 stride and only avoided by God's mercy. 
 
 The leagues flew by were left behind 
 a long billowy plain arrived at, sprinkled 
 with hamlets from which the cheerful smoke 
 rose to the sky ; the mute had passes which 
 took us through thatothertown of Viana; the 
 last spot of importance was reached and 
 passed ! that lay between us and the 
 border between us and Portugal and 
 safety. 
 
 Then once more our beasts slackened in 
 their stride, again the ground rose upward, 
 once more the hills were before us, above
 
 366 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 them at the summit was the frontier, Ter- 
 roso. Another hour and we should be there 
 
 Juana's and my fate determined. 
 
 To use whips neither of us had spurs 
 
 was cruel, yet there was no other way; 
 therefore we plied them, pressed reeking 
 flanks, rode on and on mercilessly. And 
 now the end was at hand ; afar off I saw a 
 cabin over which floated both the banner of 
 Spain and of Portugal. We were there some 
 moments later the mute's papers again 
 examined our passage allowed. 
 
 We had escaped from Spain ! 
 
 "You ride quickly," the Portuguese 
 aduanista said ; "seek some others, perhaps, 
 who come before you?" and he addressed 
 himself to my companion, probably because 
 he bore the passports. Then continued : 
 "If 'tis a senor and senora you desire, 
 they are in the fonda half a league fur- 
 ther on." 
 
 "7%*y," he said, " l T/ieyf God be 
 praised! " I murmured. Had any tragedy 
 occurred it would not have been " they."* 
 
 Not waiting to answer, but briefly nod- 
 ding my thanks, we went on, the last half 
 league dwindling to little more than paces 
 now. 
 
 And then I saw the fonda, a place no big- 
 ger than a wooden cabin. I saw a woman!
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 367 
 
 seated on a bench outside against its wall, 
 her elbows upon her knees, her dark head 
 buried in her hands. 
 
 She heard the ring- of our horses' hoofs 
 upon the road, all sodden as it was with 
 half-melted snow, and sprang to her feet 
 then advanced some paces and, shading her 
 eyes, looked up the way that we were com- 
 ing; dashed next her hand across those 
 eyes as though doubting what she saw, and 
 ran down the road toward us. 
 
 " As I leapt from my horse she screamed, 
 "Mervan!" and threw herself into my 
 arms, her lips meeting mine in one long 
 kiss, then staggered back some paces from 
 me, exclaiming : 
 
 "How! How, 'oh, my love, how how 
 have you escaped found your way here 
 tome?" 
 
 "How? "I repeated after her, startled 
 at the question ; startled, too, at the tone of 
 her voice. " How ! Do I not owe my sal- 
 vation to you to your power over him 
 the Alcaide ? " 
 
 "My God! No! "she answered. "Never 
 would he have aided you to escape." Then, 
 suddenly, as some thought struck her, she 
 screamed aloud: "Mervan Mervan 
 where is my unhappy father? " 
 
 " Your father ! Is he not here ? "
 
 368 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 "No 1 No ! No ! Oh, God ! what has 
 happened? Has he been left behind to 
 meet his doom ? " 
 
 And, as she spoke, she reeled and would 
 have fallen had I not caught her in my arms.
 
 CHAPTER XXVII. 
 "LIAR, i WILL KILL YOU!" 
 
 He had been left behind and I was 
 here ! He whose escape had been arranged 
 for was still a prisoner I, whose doom 
 had been fixed, was free. 
 
 What did it mean? What mystery had 
 taken place? 
 
 One glance toward the fonda fifty yards 
 away was sufficient to show that mystery 
 there was as unintelligible to another as 
 to Juana. And more than mystery ! that 
 my presence here was as hateful as unex- 
 pected, to one person at least. To Morales, 
 the Alcaide ! 
 
 For even as my love recovered suffi- 
 ciently to be able to stand without my as- 
 sistance, though still leaning heavily upon 
 me, I looking toward that fonda saw 
 Morales issuing rapidly from it, his sword 
 carried in his left hand, his right hand 
 plucking the blade from the scabbard. 
 And more ominous still of what his in- 
 tentions were, as well as of his fury I as 
 he ran toward us he flung the now empty 
 
 MO
 
 370 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 sheath away from him and rushed forward, 
 the bare blade gleaming 1 . 
 
 Then as he reached the spot where we 
 both stood together, the mute behind us 
 while, even as I too plucked the sword the 
 poor creature had furnished me with from 
 its scabbard and stood upon my guard, I 
 saw that his stolid face expressed not only 
 fear but something else astonishment! 
 Morales shouted, his words tumbling pell 
 mell over each other so much as to be diffi- 
 cult of understanding. 
 
 "Wretches! Traitor! Traitress! 'T is 
 thus I am deceived hoodwinked ! Tricked 
 and ruined so that your lover may be 
 restored to your false arms. So be it 
 thus, also, I avenge myself," and horror! 
 he made a pass at Juana as she stood by 
 my side. He was a Spaniard and his love 
 had turned to hate and gall! 
 
 Yet ere the shriek she uttered had 
 ceased to ring on the wintry morning air, 
 the deadly thrust that was aimed full at her 
 breast was parried by my own blade; put- 
 ting her behind me with my left hand, I 
 struck full at him, resolved that ere another 
 five minutes were over his own life should 
 pay for that craven attempt; struck full 
 at his own breast, missing it only by an 
 inch, yet driving him back from me.
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 371 
 
 Back, step by step, yet knowing- even as 
 I did so that it was no odds on me in this 
 encounter, that here was a swordsman who 
 would dispute every thrust of mine; that it 
 would be lucky if his long- blade did not 
 thread my ribs ere my own weapon found 
 his heart. 
 
 It behooved me to be careful, I knew. 
 Already, in the first moment, he had set- 
 tled down to fighting carefully and cau- 
 tiously ; already one devilish Italian thrust 
 was given he must have crossed the 
 Alps, I thought, to learn it ! that almost 
 took me unawares ; that, had my parry not 
 been quick, would have brought his quillon 
 hurtling- at my breast, with the blade 
 throug-h me. Yet, it had failed ! and with 
 the failure the chance was g-one. 
 
 "I know your thrust," I whispered, 
 maybe hissed, at him; "'twill serve no 
 more." 
 
 But even as I said these words it came 
 to me that I should not win this fight, that 
 he was the better man my master at 
 the game that I was lost. And as I 
 thought this I saw while we shifted 
 ground a little on, the sodden snow the 
 mute standing gazing- earnestly, almost 
 fascinated, upon us ; I saw some people 
 at the door of t\\Q fonda a man and a
 
 372 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 woman regarding- us with horror-stricken 
 glances I saw Juana on her knees, per- 
 haps praying ! It might be so, since her 
 head was buried in her hands ! 
 
 And if he won, if he slew me, even 
 wounded and disabled me, she was lost, 
 too; with me out of the way, with her 
 father dead or still a prisoner, nothing could 
 save her. Her last hope would be gone. 
 
 That spurred me, egged me on, put a 
 fierce and fresh determination in my heart, 
 since I had not lost my courage, but only my 
 confidence. That, and one other thing ; for 
 I saw upon the melting snow beneath our 
 feet, even as we trod it into water, a tinge 
 of crimson ; I saw a few drops lie spotting it 
 and I knew that that blood was not mine. 
 Therefore, I had touched him, had only 
 missed his life by a hair's breadth ; next 
 time it might not be drops might be the 
 heart's blood of him who had sought that 
 of my loved one ! 
 
 Still, I could not do it, could not thrust 
 through and through him. Every drive, 
 every assault, was parried easily. Once, 
 when I lunged so near him that I heard his 
 silk waistcoat rip, he laughed a low, mock- 
 ing laugh as he thrust my blade aside with 
 a turn of his iron wrist ; I could not even,
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 373 
 
 as I tried, take him in the sword arm and 
 so disable him. 
 
 Also, I knew what was in his mind, spe- 
 cially since, for some few moments, he had 
 ceased to thrust back at me. He was bent 
 on tiring- me out. Then then his op- 
 portunity would have come, would be at 
 hand. 
 
 "Disable him! Disable him!" Why 
 did those words haunt my brain, ring 
 through it again and again ; seem to deaden 
 even the scraping hiss of steel against steel. 
 "Disable him ! " What memory was aris- 
 ing- in that brain of some one, something, 
 long forgotten ? A second later, even as I 
 felt my point bring pressed lower and lower 
 by his own blade, knew a lunge was coming 
 parried it as it came safely once more, 
 thank God ! I remembered, knew what 
 that memory meant. 
 
 Recalled a little, hunchbacked Italian 
 escrimeur who used to haunt a fence school 
 at the back of the Exchange in the Strand ; 
 a man whose knowledge of attack was poor 
 in the extreme, yet who could earn a 
 beggar's wage by teaching some marvellous 
 methods of disarming an adversary. And 
 I had flung him a crown more than once to 
 be taught his tricks ! 
 
 Now those crowns should bear interest !
 
 374 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 I changed my tactics, lunged no more ; 
 our blades became silent ; they ceased to 
 hiss like drops of water falling- on live coals 
 or hot iron ; almost they lay motionless 
 together, mine over his, yet I feeling 
 through blade and hilt the strength of that 
 black, hairy wrist which held the other 
 weapon. Also, I think he felt the strength 
 of mine ; once his eye shifted, though had 
 the moment been any other the shift would 
 have been unnoticeable. 
 
 That was my time ! Swift as lightning, 
 I, remembering the dwarf's lessons of long 
 ago why did I remember also the little 
 sniggering chuckle he used to utter as he 
 taught them? drew back my sword an 
 inch, then thrust, then back again with a 
 sharp wrench, and, lo 1 Morales' sword was 
 flying through the air three feet above his 
 head he was weaponless ! My own was 
 drawn back a second later, another moment 
 I should have avenged his assassin's thrust 
 at Juana yet I could not do it. For he, 
 recognising he was doomed, stood there be- 
 fore me, his arms folded over his breast, his 
 eyes confronting mine. 
 
 " Curse you ! " he said, "you have won. 
 Well kill me. At once." 
 
 No need for me to say that could not be. 
 In the moment that I twisted his weapon out
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 375 
 
 of his wrist I had meant to slay him, had 
 drawn back my own weapon to thrust it 
 through chest and lung's and back, and 
 stretch him dead at my feet yet now I 
 spared him. 
 
 Villain as he was scoundrel who would 
 traffic with a broken-hearted woman for her 
 honour and her soul as a set-off against her 
 father's safety, and, in doing- so, also betray 
 the country he served I could not slay a 
 defenceless man. 
 
 His sword had fallen at my feet ; one of 
 them was upon it. I motioned to him now 
 to return to ihefonda to begone. 
 
 "You have missed your quarry," I 
 said; "'twill never fall to your lure again. 
 Away ! " 
 
 Yet, still standing there before us for 
 now Juana had once more flown to my side, 
 and was sobbing bitterly, her wild, passion- 
 ate words expressing partly her thanks to 
 God for my double safety, and partly her 
 bewailings that her father had gone to his 
 fate he had something to say, could not 
 depart without a malediction. 
 
 "Curse you both!" he exclaimed once 
 more. " Curse you ! Had I known of your 
 trick you should all have burnt and grilled 
 on the drasdroere this ay, even you, wan- 
 ton 1 ere I had let you fool me so."
 
 376 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 Then he turnedaway as though to goback 
 to ihefonda, yet returned again, and, strid- 
 ing back to where the mute stood motion- 
 less, his expression one of absolute vacancy 
 as though, in truth, he was only now be- 
 come dumb from utter surprise he struck 
 at him full in the face with his clenched fist. 
 
 "Dolt, idiot, hound!" he said. "Was 
 it to aid in such treachery against me as 
 this that I saved you from the Inquisition ? 
 God ! that I had left them to take your use- 
 less life ! Dumb fool ! " 
 
 I, standing there, with Juana still cling- 
 ing to my neck, as she had done since the 
 duel was over, saw the man stagger back 
 and wipe the blood from his lips ; saw, too, 
 his hands clench firmly ; saw him take one 
 step forward, as though he meant to throw 
 himself upon Morales ; then stop suddenly, 
 and do nothing. Perhaps even now, after 
 this foul blow, he remembered that he had 
 been saved from death once by him who 
 struck that blow. 
 
 But a moment later he approached the 
 Alcaide, though now humbly, and like a 
 beaten slave who sues for pardon, and en- 
 treats that no further punishment shall 
 be dealt out to him, and, an instant after, 
 began, with fingers and hands and many 
 strange motions, to tell his master some-
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 377 
 
 thing something in a dumb language that 
 was, still, not the deaf and dumb language 
 in common use, and which I myself chanced 
 to know, yet one that none could doubt both 
 of these men were in the habit of convers- 
 ing in. 
 
 He was telling some strange tale, I saw 
 and understood by one glance at my late op- 
 ponent's face ; neither could any doubt that 
 who gazed upon it ! 
 
 At first that face expressed amazement, 
 incredulity all the emotions that are to be 
 observed on the countenance of one who 
 listens to some story which he either cannot 
 believe, or thinks issues, at best, from a 
 maniac. Yet gradually, too, there came 
 over the face of Morales another look 
 the look of one who does believe at last, in 
 spite of himself; also there dawned on it 
 a hideous, gloating expression, such as 
 might befit a fiend who listens to the tor- 
 tured cries of a victim. 
 
 What did it mean? What tale was that 
 stricken creature telling him by those sym- 
 bols, which none but he understood? 
 What? What? 
 
 A moment later we knew if Morales 
 did not lie to us. 
 
 The mute had ceased his narrative, his 
 bands made no further signs, and, slowly,
 
 378 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 he stepped back again to where the horses 
 we had travelled on stood together, the 
 reins of one tied to the other and Morales 
 turned to us, his features still convulsed 
 with that horrible expression of gloating. 
 
 "I have wronged you," he said, raising 
 his forefinger and pointing it at Juana, who 
 shuddered and clasped me closer even as 
 he did so'; "and you, "glancing at me. "The 
 treachery was not yours, but another's ; un- 
 less unless" and he paused as though 
 seeking for words "unless it should be 
 termed otherwise. Say, not treachery, but 
 sublime sacrifice." 
 
 " What ! " from both her lips and mine. 
 "What!" 
 
 "Your father," he said, "had his 
 chance" and again that forefinger was 
 pointed at her "this poor fool, my servant, 
 went to set him free ; the horse was waiting 
 for him only, instead, it has borne you to 
 safety" and now he glanced at me 
 "also there was his sword for him that by 
 your side." 
 
 "My God! My God!" I heard Juana 
 whisper on my breast. 
 
 "Only he this buccaneer would not 
 accept it, not take it. He, stained deep 
 with crime as he was, his name an accursed 
 one through all the Indies men spit upon
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 379 
 
 the ground there, they say, with loathing 
 when they hear it mentioned, even now 
 could bear all thing's but one. Shall I tell 
 you what that one thing- is? " and he glanced 
 again at Juana, a very hell of hate in his 
 look. 
 
 But she could only moan upon my bosom 
 and murmur : " My father ! Oh, my 
 father ! " 
 
 "He could not bear," Morales went on, 
 " that his child should be what he knew she 
 had become by now my friend " 
 
 "Liar!" I cried. "I will kill you for 
 this." 
 
 "Could not bear that she should bring 
 deeper disgrace than even he had done upon 
 your tainted names. Therefore he refused 
 to come ; therefore he preferred the flames 
 to which he has gone" a wild, piercing 
 scream broke from Juana as he said those 
 words "and so so that there should 
 be nothing rise up to prevent him from 
 going to his death, so that he should put 
 away from himself all chance of salvation 
 from that death and earn his oblivion from 
 disgrace, he persuaded this fool that a mis- 
 take had been made that 'twas you, not 
 he, who was to be saved, allowed to escape." 
 
 "You lie," I said again. "You lie. 
 Some part of this story is true, some false*
 
 380 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 Gramont never believed that she would give 
 herself to you ; knew that she meant to slay 
 herself the instant she was assured of his 
 safety. Spanish dog-, you lie, and I will have 
 your life for it." 
 
 "It is true," he said hoarsely, "as true 
 as that an hour after you left Lugo he was 
 led out and burnt at the brastro the bra- 
 s6ro that was prepared for you. Now," and 
 once more he addressed Juana, "you have 
 your lover back again be happy in the 
 possession ; in the knowledge that his life 
 is saved by the loss of your father's. Be 
 happy in that."
 
 CHAPTER XXVIII. 
 
 THE DEAD MAN*S EYES THE DEAD MAN'S 
 HANDS. 
 
 Was Juana dying, I asked myself that 
 night dying of misery and of all that she 
 had gone through? God, He only knew 
 soon I should know, too. 
 
 Ere I had carried her to the fonda, 
 Morales had disappeared, his afflicted fol- 
 lower with him ere we reached the mis- 
 erable room, in which she had passed the 
 two nights that had elapsed since she had 
 come here with him who had bartered for 
 the sacrifice of her honour against her 
 father's safety, I heard the trample of 
 horses' hoofs, I saw from the inn window 
 both those men ride swiftly away, their 
 road being that which led on into Portugal. 
 
 It was not possible that I should follow 
 him and exact vengeance for all that he had 
 done or attempted to do against her, force 
 him once more to an encounter, disarm him 
 again and, when he was thus disarmed, 
 spare him no further. Not possible, be- 
 cause, henceforth, my place was by her 
 
 381
 
 382 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 side. I must never leave her again in life 
 leave her who had come to this through 
 her love of me, her determination to follow 
 me through danger after danger, reckless 
 of what might befall. 
 
 She lay now upon her bed, feverish and 
 sometimes incoherent, yet, at others, sane 
 and in her right mind, and it was at one of 
 such moments as these that I, sitting by 
 her side, heard her whisper : 
 
 "Mervan, where is that man Mo- 
 rales?" 
 
 " He is gone, dear heart ; he will trouble 
 you no more. And and remember we 
 are free. As soon as you are restored we 
 can leave here there is nothing to stop 
 us now. My journey through Spain and 
 France can never be recommenced we 
 must make for England by sea somehow. 
 Then, when I have placed you in safety, I 
 must find my way across to Flanders." 
 
 For a while she lay silent after I had 
 said this; lay there, her lustrous eyes open, 
 and with the fever heightening and inten- 
 sifying, if such were possible, her mar- 
 vellous beauty. For now the carmine of 
 her cheeks and lips was although fever's 
 ensign! even more strikingly lovely than 
 before; this woman on whom I gazed so 
 fondly was beyond all compare the most
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 383 
 
 beautiful creature on which my eyes had 
 ever rested. As I had thought at first, so, 
 doubly, I thought now. 
 
 Presently she moaned a little, not from 
 bodily pain, but agony of mind, as I learnt 
 shortly then she said : 
 
 " Mervan, why do you stay by my side 
 why not go at once back to your own land ? 
 Leave me?" 
 
 "Juana!" I exclaimed, deeming that I 
 had mistaken her state, and that, in truth, 
 she was beside herself. Then added, 
 stupidly and in a dazed manner: "Leave 
 you!" 
 
 "Ay. Why stay by me? You have 
 heard, know all, whose child to my eter- 
 nal shame ! I am. The child of that blood- 
 stained man, Gramont. Ay," she said, 
 again, "he, that other, Morales, spoke true. 
 There is no name in all the Indies remem- 
 bered with such hate and loathing as his. 
 And I I am his child. Go leave me 
 to die here." 
 
 "Juana," I said, "can you hear me, 
 understand what I am saying going to say 
 to you? Is your brain clear enough to com- 
 prehend my words ? Speak answer me. " 
 
 For reply she turned those eyes on me ; 
 beneath the dark dishevelled curls I saw
 
 384 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 their clear glance I knew that all I should 
 say would be plain to her. 
 
 "Listen to my words, " I continued there- 
 fore. " Listen and believe ; never doubt 
 more. Juana, I love you with my whole 
 heart and soul before all and everything 
 else this world holds for me. I love you. I 
 love you. I love you," and as I spoke I 
 bent forward and pressed my lips to her hot 
 burning ones. "And you tell me to leave 
 you, because, forsooth 1 you are his child. 
 Oh ! my sweet, my sweet, if you were the 
 child of one five thousand times worse than 
 he has been, ay ! even though Satan claimed 
 you for his own, I would love you till my last 
 breath, would never quit your side. Juana, 
 we are each other's forever now." 
 
 "No! No! No!" 
 
 "Yes, I say," I cried almost fiercely. 
 " Yes. We are each other's alone. You are 
 mine, mine, mine. I have no other thought, 
 no other hope in all this world but you. If 
 if our faith were the same I would send 
 for a priest now who should make us one ; 
 there should be no further moment elapse 
 in all the moments of eternity before you 
 were my wife." 
 
 I felt the long slim hand tighten on mine 
 for an instant, then release it a moment 
 later ; but she said no more for a time. Yet
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 385 
 
 the look on her face was one of happiness 
 extreme. After a while, however, she spoke 
 again. 
 
 "The admiral knew," she whispered. 
 " He had found out my secret." 
 
 For a moment I could not recall what 
 she referred to the incidents which had 
 happened in such quick succession since 
 we had quitted the fleet had almost obliter- 
 ated from my memory the recollection 
 of all that had taken place prior to that 
 time. Yet now I remembered, and re- 
 membering there came back to me Sir 
 George Rooke's strange diffidence after 
 she had seized his hand and pressed it to 
 her heart. Also, I recalled the deference 
 with which he had treated her whom I 
 thought then to be no more than a hand- 
 some, elegant youth, as well as my feeling 
 of surprise at that deference. 
 
 And still, as I reflected over this, there 
 was one other thing in connection with him 
 which also came back to me ; his words, to 
 wit, that there were even worse things than 
 shot or steel or death to cloud a brave 
 man's career that many a soldier had 
 gone down before worse than these. And 
 I knew now against what he had intended 
 to warn me against the woman now lying 
 here sore stricken, the woman whom I
 
 386 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 loved and worshipped, the one who had 
 been to me as faithful as a dog. 
 
 "So be it," I said to myself, "so be 
 it. If I am to become bankrupt and ship- 
 wrecked through my love for her, I must 
 be. Henceforth she is all in all to me, and 
 there is nothing- else in my life. Yet, up 
 to now, the admiral's warning has been but 
 little realised I owe no ruin to her, but, 
 rather, salvation." 
 
 For I could not but recall that 'twas 
 through her that any loophole of escape 
 had come to me in the prison of Lugo ; to 
 her unhappy father that I owed, if Morales 
 had spoken true, the absolute escape itself. 
 
 Even as I sat there meditating thus she 
 moaned again : " My father. My lost, 
 doomed father," and once more I heard her 
 whisper: "His child! His child! The 
 saints pity me ! " 
 
 And now I set myself to place that lost 
 father before her in a far different light 
 than that in which she regarded him to 
 make her believe that, when almost all in 
 the Indies who had their account with the 
 sea had in their time been much as he had 
 been, his crimes were not so black as they 
 appeared to her ; to also paint in glowing 
 colours that sublime sacrifice Morales 
 had termed it truthfully ! which he had
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 387 
 
 made in remaining behind whilst I escaped, 
 in dying while opening to me the path to 
 life and freedom. 
 
 "Juana, my sweet," I said, speaking 
 low, yet as sympathetically as I could to 
 her, " Juana, you deem his sin greater than 
 it is. Also, remember, 't is almost certain 
 Morales lies when he said he died because 
 because of your flight with him. For, 
 remember what the vagabond forgot in 
 his rage and hate I remember, he knew 
 of your resolve, your determination to pre- 
 tend to give yourself to him in exchange 
 for his safety." 
 
 As I said these words I saw her eyes 
 glisten, saw her head turned more toward 
 me on the pillow in her face the expres- 
 sion of one to whose mind comes back the 
 recollection of a forgotten fact, a truth. 
 
 " Dids! " she whispered, " it was so. He 
 knew of my intention. ' T is true ; Morales 
 lied. Yet," she went on a moment later, 
 "yet that cannot cleanse him from his past 
 sins, purge his soul from the crimes with 
 which 'tis stained." 
 
 "Crimes!" Ire-echoed, "Crimes! Think, 
 recall, -my beloved, what those crimes 
 were. Those of buccaneer, ' t is true, yet 
 not so bad but that all like him were not 
 deemed too sunken in sin to be refused par-
 
 388 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 don by Spain, by France, even by my own 
 land. Those pardons were sent out to the 
 Indies shortly before he was thought to be 
 lost had he returned to France, then he 
 would have held a position of honour under 
 Louis." 
 
 " How? " she asked and now I noticed 
 that in her face there seemed to be a look of 
 dawning hope, a look too, as though with 
 that newborn hope there was a return of 
 strength accompanied by an absence of 
 such utter despair as had broken her down. 
 " How know you that? " 
 
 " I was there in the court when he was 
 tried," I said, "I heard his words and 
 none who heard them could doubt their 
 truth, no more than they could his fierce 
 denouncement of that unutterable villain, 
 Eaton. Juana," I said, endeavouring to 
 speak as impressively as was in my power, 
 to thrust home more decisively the growing 
 conviction to her heart that Gramont was 
 not the devil he had been painted, "you 
 must teach yourself to think less ill of your 
 father than report has made him. And 
 and remember, he could have escaped an 
 he would ; it was, as that man said, a sublime 
 sacrifice when he went to his doom." 
 
 "But why?" she asked, "why?" 
 Though even as she did so, I saw, I knew,
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 389 
 
 that in her heart there was the hope and 
 wish to find something that might whiten 
 his memory for her. 
 
 "Why," I repeated, bending near to her, 
 speaking as deeply and earnestly as I could ; 
 above all, the softened feeling I was endeav- 
 ouring to bring about in her heart toward 
 that lost, dead father must be made to grow, 
 until at last she should regard his memory 
 with pity if naught else. "Why, because 
 as I do believe, as I believe before God, he 
 knew we loved each other, Juana " 
 
 "Ah, Mervan!" 
 
 "Because his life was already far spent, 
 because ours were in their spring ; because, 
 it may be, he knew that with him gone and 
 me escaped in his place there was the hope 
 of many happy years before you with me 
 of years always together, of our being ever 
 by each other's side until the end. Juana, 
 my beloved, my love, think not of him as one 
 beyond pardon and redemption, but rather 
 as one who purified forever the errors of his 
 life by the deep tenderness and sacrifice of 
 his end." 
 
 I had won. 
 
 As I concluded she raised herself from 
 the pillows on which she lay, the long 
 shapely arms met round my neck, the dark 
 curly head sank to my shoulder ; soon
 
 390 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 nothing broke the silence of the room but 
 her sobs. Yet ever and again she whis- 
 pered through her tears : " My father, my 
 unhappy father. May God forgive me if I 
 have judged you too harshly." 
 
 Soon after that I left her sleeping peace- 
 fully and with, as it seemed to me, much of 
 her fever gone yet even as she slept I, 
 sitting watching by her side, saw still the 
 tears trickle forth from beneath the long 
 eyelashes that fringed her cheeks, and knew 
 that in her sleep she was dreaming of him. 
 
 But again I told myself that I had won ; 
 that henceforth the memory of her father's 
 erring life would not stand between her and 
 me, between our love. 
 
 The peasant who kept the miserable inn, 
 and whose curiosity as to all that had taken 
 place recently the arrival of Juana and 
 Morales, the duel, and then the rapid de- 
 parture of him and the mute, while I re- 
 mained behind in his place was scarcely 
 appeased by my curt and stern information 
 that the lady above was shortly to become 
 my wife, told me that there was no suitable 
 sleeping place for me other than the public 
 room. The other sefior, he said, had had 
 to make shift with that, since the one spare 
 room which the senora occupied was the 
 only one available in the house. He sup-
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 391 
 
 posed, he added gruffly, that I, too, could 
 do the same thing. There was a bench 
 and he pointed as he spoke to a rough 
 wooden thing which did not promise much 
 ease or rest on which the other senor had 
 slept ; also a deep chair, in which one might 
 repose easily before the fire. Would that 
 doj? Yes, I answered, either would do very 
 well. I was fatigued, and could sleep any- 
 where. All I asked was that I should be 
 left alone. 
 
 This was done, though ere the man and 
 his wife departed to their quarters for the 
 night the latter took occasion to make a re- 
 mark to me. The lady, she observed, if she 
 might make so bold as to say it, seemed to 
 be of an undecided frame of mind. When 
 she and the other senor arrived she had 
 understood that he was the person to whom 
 she was about to be married. It was 
 strange, she thought, that the lady should 
 elope over the border with one senor, to be 
 married to another. However, she added, 
 it was no affair of hers. 
 
 "It is no affair of yours," I said sternly 
 once more. " Leave me alone and interfere 
 not in our affairs. Your bill," I continued, 
 "will be paid; that is sufficient." Whereon 
 she said that was all that was required, and 
 so, at last, I was left to myself.
 
 392 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 Left to myself to sit in the great chair 
 before the fire and muse on all that had 
 lately occurred to make my journey toward 
 Flanders a failure; to muse still more deeply 
 on the love that had come to me unsought, 
 unthought of; the love that, when I had at 
 last accomplished my task and rejoined 
 Marlborough, would, I hoped, crown my life. 
 
 Yet, as the snow beat against the win- 
 dow, for once more it was a rough night and 
 the wind howled here as it had howled the 
 night before, across in Spain while as be- 
 fore the flakes falling 1 on the rude panes 
 seemed to my mind to resemble ghostly 
 finger-tips that touched the glass and then 
 were drawn off it back into the darkness 
 without I thought also of the now dead 
 and destroyed man, the buccaneer who, all 
 blood-guilty as he was, had yet gone to a 
 doom that he might have escaped from. 
 
 And my thought prevented sleep, even 
 though I had not now slept for many, many 
 hours my terrible reflections unstrung 
 me it seemed almost as if the spirit of 
 that dead man had followed me, was out- 
 side the rough wooden door ; as if, amidst 
 those falling and swift-vanishing snow- 
 flakes on the glass, I saw his eyes glaring 
 out of the blackness into the room. And 
 soon I became over-wrought, the gentle
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 393 
 
 beat of the snow became the tap of a hand 
 summoning 1 me to open and admit his spec- 
 tral form an awful fantasy took posses- 
 sion of me ! 
 
 Was, I asked myself as furtively I 
 turned my eyes to those solemn, silent 
 flakes that fell upon the window pane, 
 rested there a moment gleaming- white, 
 then vanished into nothingness was the 
 lost soul of that man hovering- outside the 
 door or that window the soul that but a 
 few hours ago had quitted his body? 
 
 If I looked again at the casement should 
 I see, as though behind some dark veil, the 
 eyes of Gramont glaring into the room ; see 
 those flakes of snow take more tangible 
 form the form of a dead man's fingers 
 scratching at the panes, tearing at them to 
 attract my attention? 
 
 Distraught maddened by the terror 
 of my thoughts, fearful of myself, of the 
 silence that reigned through the house, I 
 sprang to my feet I was mad! I must 
 go out into the gloom and blackness of the 
 night 
 
 God ! what was that? 
 
 There was a tapping at the door a 
 footstep next a tap at the window. The 
 hands were there ; I saw the fingers the 
 snow falling round them on them. I saw,
 
 394 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 too, the eyes of Gramont peering 1 in at me. 
 
 "What is it?" I cried hoarsely. "What? 
 What?" 
 
 Then through the roar of the tempest 
 without, through the shriek of the wind, 
 above the loud hum of the torrent, I heard 
 
 or was I mad and dreaming that I heard ? 
 
 the words : 
 
 " Open. To me her father."
 
 CHAPTER XXIX. 
 
 "LET us KISS AND PART." 
 
 As I unbarred the door that gave di- 
 rectly from the miserable living-room of 
 the house to the outside he came in, the 
 snow upon the shoulders of the cape he 
 wore some flakes even upon his face. 
 
 " You are alive 1 Escaped ! " I whis- 
 pered, recognising that this was no phan- 
 tom of my brain, but the man himself. 
 "Safe! Thank God!' 
 
 " Where is she? " he asked, pausing for 
 no greeting, giving me none. " My child ! 
 Is she safe ? Or have I come too late ? " 
 
 "She is here safe. It is not too late." 
 
 His eyes roamed round the room ; then, 
 not seeing her, he continued : 
 
 " Where ? I must see her once. " 
 
 "Once?" 
 
 " For the last time. After that we shall 
 never meet again. The shadow of my life, 
 my past, must fall on her no more. Yet 
 once I must see her. Lead me to where 
 she is." 
 
 905
 
 396 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 "She has been ill, delirious is crushed 
 by all that has happened by " 
 
 "All that she has learnt," he inter- 
 rupted, his voice deep and solemn broken, 
 too. " Yet I must see her." 
 
 "She is asleep above." 
 
 For answer to this he made simply a 
 sign, yet one I understood very well a 
 sign that I should delay no longer. 
 
 " Come," I said, " come." And together 
 we went up the narrow stairs to the room 
 she occupied stole up them, as though in 
 fear of waking her. 
 
 Pushing the door open gently, we saw 
 by the rays of the veilleuse^ which I had 
 ordered to be placed in the room, that she 
 was sleeping ; observed also that our entry 
 did not disturb her ; also it was easy to per- 
 ceive that she was dreaming. Sometimes, 
 as we standing there gazed down, the long, 
 dark lashes that drooped upon her cheeks 
 quivered ; from beneath them there stole 
 some tears ; once, too, the rosy lips parted, 
 and a sigh came from between them. 
 
 "My child, my child !" Gramont whis- 
 pered to himself, "child of her whom I 
 loved better than my life that we should 
 meet at last, only to part forever !" 
 
 And from his own eyes the tears rolled 
 down from his ! He stooped and bent
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 397 
 
 over her ; his face approached hers ; his 
 lips touched that white brow, over which 
 the short-cut hair curled in such glorious 
 dishevelment, while he murmured : 
 
 "Unclose those eyelids once, look for 
 the last time on me." Then he half-turned 
 his head away, as though to prevent his 
 own tears from falling 1 on and awaken- 
 ing her. 
 
 Was he a sorcerer, I wondered, even 
 as I watched a sorcerer, as well as other 
 things unnamable? Had he the power over 
 his own child to thus reach her mind and 
 brain, even though both were sunk in a 
 deep, feverish sleep? In truth, it ap- 
 peared so. 
 
 For, even as he spoke, those eyelids did 
 unclose, the dark, dreamy eyes gazed up 
 into his, while, slowly, the full, white, 
 rounded arms encircled his neck, and their 
 lips met, and from him I heard the whis- 
 pered words : 
 
 "Farewell, farewell, forever. Oh, my 
 child, my child ! " 
 
 Yet and I thanked God for it then, as 
 ever since I have thanked Him again and 
 again ! he had turned away ere the an- 
 swering whisper came from her lips, had 
 not heard the words that fell from them 
 words :
 
 398 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 " Mervan, Mervan, my beloved ! " 
 Thanked God he had not known how, in 
 
 her sleep, she deemed those kisses mine, 
 
 and dreamed of me alone. 
 
 ********* 
 
 As the night went on the storm in- 
 creased, the snow no longer came in flakes 
 against the window of the room below, in 
 which we sat, but, instead, lay thick and 
 heavy in masses on the sill without was 
 driven, too, against the window by the 
 fierce, tempestuous wind that howled down 
 from the mountains above, and rocked the 
 miserable inn. 
 
 "There is no going on to-night," Gra- 
 mont said, coming in out of the storm after 
 having gone forth to attend to the horse 
 that had brought him from Lugo, and hav- 
 ing bestowed it in the stables, where were 
 the animals on which Juana and I had also 
 ridden. "No going on to-night." Then,* 
 changing the subject abruptly, he said : 
 "Where is that man?" 
 
 Not pretending to doubt as to whom he 
 made allusion, I said : 
 
 "The Alcaide?" 
 
 "Ay, the Alcaide." 
 
 Whereon I told him of all that had hap- 
 pened since my arrival with the mute, and
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 399 
 
 of his immediate departure further on into 
 Portugal. 
 
 "You should have slain him, "he said, 
 " the instant you had disarmed him. You 
 loved Juana and she you she told me so 
 when she divulged his scheme to me in the 
 prison you should never have let him go 
 free with life." 
 
 "I had disarmed him. I could not slay 
 a weaponless, defenceless man." 
 
 "One slays a snake awake or sleep- 
 ing. He merited death." 
 
 "Yet to him, in a manner, we all owe 
 our lives. Juana I you." 
 
 " Owe our lives 1 Owe our lives to him ! 
 To one who trafficked with my girl's hon- 
 our as against her father's freedom ; a man 
 who betrayed his trust to his own country 
 as a means whereby to gratify his own evil 
 desires ! And for you for me what do 
 we owe him? The chance of my escape 
 came from another's hand than his." 
 
 " From another's ! You could have es- 
 caped even without that vile compact made 
 between God help us Juana and him ? " 
 "Ay listen. You stood by my side in 
 the court when they tried us ; you heard a 
 voice in that court ; saw the man who 
 called out in loud tones to the man, Mor-
 
 400 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 ales. You saw him, observed, maybe, that 
 he bore about him the signs of a sailor." 
 
 As he spoke there came to me a recol- 
 lection of something 1 more than this a 
 recollection of where I had seen that man 
 again, of how it was he who crouched be- 
 hind the fallen masses of blasted rock in 
 the passage beneath the bed of the river 
 through which I had passed to freedom ; 
 also, I remembered the great gold rings in 
 his ears, and the glistening of one upon the 
 guarding of his cloak as he shrank back 
 into the darkness. 
 
 "I remember him, "I said, "very well 
 also, I saw him again, on the night that 
 mute led me forth, helped me to escape." 
 
 " 'T is so. That man saved me, was 
 bent on saving me from the moment he 
 saw my face in the court. He is a Bis- 
 cayan yet we had met in other lands; 
 once I had saved his life from Eaton. He 
 that doubly damned traitor that mon- 
 ster of sin had taken him prisoner in a 
 pink he owned, yet had not captured her 
 without a hard fight, in which this man, 
 Nunez Picado, nearly slew him. Then, 
 this was Eaton's revenge: He bound him 
 and set him afloat in a dismantled ketch he 
 had by him, that to which Picado was 
 bound being- a barrel of gunpowder. And
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 401 
 in that barrel was one end of a slow match, 
 the other end alight and trailing the length 
 of the ketch's deck." 
 
 " My God ! " 
 
 "So slow a match that it would take 
 hours ere it reached the powder, hours in 
 which the doomed wretch would suffer ten 
 thousand-fold the tortures of the damned. 
 Yet one thing Eaton forgot forgot that 
 those hours of long drawn-out horror to his 
 victim were also hours in which succour 
 might come. And it was so. I passed that 
 craft drifting slowly to and fro off Porto 
 Rico. In the blaze of the noontide I saw a 
 brighter, redder light than the sparkle of 
 sun on counter and brass when I stepped 
 on board the ketch there was not a foot of 
 the slow-match left not an hour longer of 
 life left to the man. Only, the bitterness 
 of death was over for him then he was 
 a raving maniac, and so remained for 
 months." 
 
 " He has at last repaid you in full." 
 
 "Ay! In full. He knew the secret way 
 into the ramparts ; all was concocted, all 
 arranged for our escapes." 
 
 " For yours and hers ? " 
 
 " For hers and mine. Had it not been 
 that you had to be saved also that the 
 freedom which Juana had obtained from
 
 402 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 Morales for me must be transferred to you, 
 since I needed it not, she would never have 
 been allowed to go forth with him. I or 
 Picado would have slain him in the prison 
 and escaped with her." 
 
 " I begin to understand." 
 
 " 'T was best, however, to let her go 
 forth unknowing at least it removed him 
 away from what had to be done made it 
 certain that he could not impede your es- 
 cape. The rest was easy. I persuaded 
 the mute that 'twas you, not I, whom it 
 was intended to save, that 't was for you her 
 letter was meant, that it was I who was 
 doomed." 
 
 "And Eaton ? Eaton ? " I asked. 
 
 " Eaton has paid the forfeit of his treach- 
 ery," he said. "It has rebounded on his 
 own head. The brasero thirsted for its 
 victim the populace for its holiday. They 
 have had it. Trust Nunez Picado for that." 
 
 He said no more, neither then nor later, 
 and never yet have I learnt how that vilest 
 of men was the substitute for those whom 
 he had hoped and endeavoured to send to 
 the flames. Yet, also, never have I doubted 
 that it was done, since certain it is that 
 from that time he has never again crossed 
 my path. 
 
 "The storm increases," Gramont said,
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 403 
 
 as he strode to the window and peered out 
 into the darksome night. " Yet yet I 
 must go on at daybreak. I I have that 
 which needs take me on." 
 
 "Stay here with us," I cried, " stay here. 
 Juana will be my wife at the first moment 
 chance offers. Stay." 
 
 "Nay," he said. "Nay. She and I 
 must never meet again. That is the ex- 
 piation of my life which I have set myself 
 I will go through with it. In that last 
 kiss above, I took my farewell of her for- 
 ever in this world." 
 
 " What will you do? " I asked through 
 my now fast-falling tears, tears that none 
 needed to be ashamed of; tears that none, 
 listening to his heart-broken words as they 
 dropped slowly from his lips, could have 
 forborne to shed. "What is your life to be?" 
 
 "God only knows," he replied; "yet 
 one of penitence, of prayers for forgiveness 
 so long as that life lasts. Thereby there- 
 by I shall be fitter for the end. I am 
 almost old now; it may not be far off." 
 
 Silence came upon us after that a 
 silence broken only by the howl of the 
 wind outside the lonely house, by the thud 
 of snow falling now and again from the roof 
 and eaves blown off by the fury of the 
 tempest. But broken by scarcely aught
 
 404 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 else, unless 't was a sigh that occasionally, 
 and all unwittingly, as I thought, escaped 
 from that poor sinner's overcharged breast. 
 Yet, for the rest, nothing; no sound from 
 that room above, where Juana lay sleeping; 
 nothing but sometimes the expiring logs 
 falling together with a gentle clash in the 
 grate. 
 
 Then suddenly, as I almost dozed on one 
 side of those logs, he being on the other, I 
 heard him speaking to me, his voice deep, 
 sonorous and low perhaps he feared it 
 might reach her above! yet clear and 
 distinct. 
 
 "Evil," he said, "as my existence has 
 been, misjudge me not. None started on 
 life's path meaning better than I. God 
 help me! none drifted into worse extremes. 
 Will you hear my story such as 't is meet 
 you should know you who love my child?" 
 
 I bowed my head ; I whispered, "Yes." 
 Once, because I pitied him, I gently touched 
 his hand with mine. 
 
 "I was a sailor," he went on, nis dark 
 eyes gleaming tenderly at that small offer- 
 ing of my sympathy, " bred up to the sea, 
 the only child of a poor Protestant woman. 
 Later when Louis the king first fell 
 under the thrall of the wanton, De Mainte- 
 non, my mother died of starvation, ruined
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 405 
 
 by the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, 
 ruined ere that revocation by the shadow 
 it cast before it on all of our faith. Think 
 you that what was doing- in the Indies by 
 the Spaniards made me love the followers 
 of the Romish church more? " 
 
 He paused a moment again he went on : 
 "In the Indies to which I had wandered, 
 I met'with men who had sworn to extirpate, 
 if might be, every Spaniard, every one of 
 those who in their time swore that there 
 was to be no peace beyond the line. That 
 was their oath we helped them to keep it, 
 made it our watchword, too. All of us, 
 Morgan, Pointis, Avery, Lolonois, your 
 other countryman, Stede Bonnet, a hundred 
 others, all of different lands, yet all of one 
 complexion hatred against Spain. And 
 there -was no peace beyond the line. You 
 are a soldier, may be one for years, yet you 
 will never know blood run as blood ran 
 then. You may rack cities, even Louis' 
 own capital, you will never know what 
 sharing booty means as we knew it. Ere 
 I was thirty I possessed a hundred thou- 
 sand gold pistoles, ere another year had 
 passed I owned nothing but the sword by 
 my side, the deck I trod." 
 
 "Yet," I said, "when you were lost
 
 406 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 disappeared you left your child a fortune 
 
 which Eaton stole." 
 
 "I did more," he answered. "I left her 
 that but I left her another which Eaton 
 could not steal. She has it now; it is, it 
 must be safe. Do you know your wife 
 brings you a great dowry ? " 
 
 I started I had never thought of this I 
 
 yet, ere I could say aught, he went on 
 again. 
 
 "I pass over much. I come to twenty 
 yearsago. Eaton was my lieutenant; we were 
 about to besiege Maracaibo, a gallant com- 
 pany three hundred strong. Well, let me 
 hurry see, the daylight is coming. I must 
 away Maracaibo fell, our plunder was 
 great. Also, we had many prisoners. 
 Amongst them one, a girl, young and beau- 
 tiful; God ! she was an angel ! " 
 
 " Juana's mother that was to be," I whis- 
 pered, feeling sure. 
 
 "Hear me. She was my prize there 
 were others, but I heeded them not, had eyes 
 only for her. Her ransom was fixed at five 
 thousand pistoles, because she was the niece 
 of the wealthiest man of all, to be paid ere 
 we sailed three days later. And I prayed 
 that they might never be forthcoming, that 
 I might bear her away with me, teach her 
 to love me as I loved her."
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 407 
 
 "And they were not paid?" I asked 
 breathlessly. 
 
 " We did not sail in three days' time ; the 
 money of the place had been sent away in- 
 land on our approach ; also one-half our body 
 were all mad with drink ashore. ' T was 
 more nigh three weeks ere we were ready 
 to depart." 
 
 "And the lady?" 
 
 "Her uncle had died meanwhile of a 
 fever yet yet the ransom was forth- 
 coming 1 . She was affianced to a planter ; he 
 came on board my ship, and with him he 
 brought the gold." 
 
 "Ah!" 
 
 "My oath bound me to take it had I 
 refused, my brethren had the right since 
 we had laws regulating- all things amongst 
 us to remove me from my command. I 
 had to see him count the gold out on the 
 cabin table, to tell her she was free to go." 
 
 "And she went? " I asked again, almost 
 breathless.
 
 CHAPTER XXX. 
 
 GONE. 
 
 "She went," he continued, "and I 
 thought that she was gone from me for- 
 ever, since, filibuster as I was, as I say, my 
 oath to my companions bound me to set her 
 free upon payment of the ransom. Yet, by 
 heaven's grace, she was mine again ere 
 long." 
 
 He paused, looking out of the snow- 
 laden window through which there stole 
 now a greyness which told of the coming of 
 the wintry day; pointed toward it as though 
 bidding me remember that his time with 
 me was growing short ; then went on : 
 
 " I was ashore for the last time before 
 we sailed for Port Royal ; those of us who 
 were something better than brutish ani- 
 mals seeking for those who were wallowing 
 in debauchery; finding them, too, either 
 steeped in drink, or so overcome by their 
 late depravity that they had to be carried 
 on board the ships like logs. Then, as we 
 passed down a street seeking our comrades, 
 I saw her again saw her lovely face at the 
 
 408
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 409 
 
 grilled window of a house that looked as 
 though it might be a convent; at a window 
 no higher from the ground than my own 
 head. And she saw me too, made a sign 
 that I should stop, should send on my com- 
 pany out of earshot ; which done, she said : 
 
 " 'Save me. For God's sake, save me! ' 
 
 "'Save you, Senorita,' I whispered, for 
 I knew not who might be lurking near, might 
 be, perhaps, within the dark room to which 
 no ray of the blazing sun seemed able to 
 penetrate ; ' save you from what, from 
 whom?' 
 
 " ' From him who ransomed me Dibs! 
 that you had not taken the money. I hate 
 him, was forced to be affianced to him, am a 
 prisoner here in this convent until to-mor- 
 row, when I am to become his wife.' 
 
 "'Yet, Senorita,' I murmured 'how 
 to do it? These walls seem strong, each 
 window heavily grated, doubtless the house 
 well guarded and and we sail at day- 
 break.' 
 
 " ' Yet an entrance may be made by the 
 garden, ' she whispered in reply ; ' the 
 house is defended by negroes only my 
 room at the top of the stairs. Save me. 
 Save me.' " 
 
 Again Gramont paused again h
 
 410 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 pointed at the day-spring outside hur- 
 riedly he went on: 
 
 "I saved her. Twenty of us that vile 
 Eaton was one! passed through the garden 
 at midnight up those stairs killing three 
 blacks who opposed us" even as he spoke 
 I remembered Eaton's ravings inLaMouche 
 Noire as to the dead men glaring down into 
 the passage ; knew now of what his frenzied 
 mind had been thinking on "bore her 
 away. Enough 1 three months later, we 
 were married in Jamaica! " 
 
 He rose as though to go forth and seek 
 his horse, determined to make his way on 
 in spite of the snow that lay upon the 
 ground in masses because, as I have 
 ever since thought, he had sworn to un- 
 dergo his self-imposed expiation of never 
 gazing more upon his child's face! then 
 he paused, and spoke once more : 
 
 "She died," and now his voice was 
 broken, trembled, "in giving birth to her 
 who is above ; died when I had grown rich 
 again so rich that when I sailed for 
 France, my pardon assured, my commis- 
 sion as Lieutenant du Roi to Louis in my 
 pocket, I left her with Eaton, not even then 
 believing how deep a villain he was ; think- 
 ing, too, that I should soon return. Left 
 with him, also, a fortune for her, What
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 411 
 
 happened to her and that fortune you have 
 learnt. Yet, something- else you have to 
 learn. Her mother's name had been Bel- 
 monte, and when Juana fled from Eaton, 
 driven thence by his cruelty, she, knowing- 
 this, found means to communicate with an 
 old comrade of mine, by then turned priest 
 and settled at the other end of the island 
 at Montego. Now, see how things fall 
 out ; how, even to one belonging- to me, 
 God is good. 'T was in '86 I sailed for 
 France, my commission in my cabin 
 nailed in my pride to a bulkhead when, 
 alas ! madman as I was, I encountered a 
 great ship a treasure ship, as I believed, 
 sailing under Spanish colours. And and 
 the devil was still strong in me still 
 strong the hatred of Spain the greed and 
 lust of plunder. God help me ! God help 
 and pardon me ! " and as he spoke he beat 
 his breast and paced the dreary room, now 
 all lit up by the daylight from without. 
 Even as I write I see and remember him, 
 as I see and remember so many other 
 things that happened in those times. 
 
 "We boarded her," he continued, a mo- 
 ment later; "we took her treasure; she 
 was full of it yet even as we did so I 
 knew that I was lost forever in this world, 
 all chance of redemption gone my hopes
 
 412 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 of better things passed away forever. For 
 she was sailing under false colours ; she 
 was a French ship, one of Louis' own, and, 
 seeing that we ourselves carried the Span- 
 ish flag, the better to escape the ships of war 
 of Spain that were all about, had herself run 
 them up. And we could not slay them and 
 scuttle the ship we had passed our word for 
 their safety moreover, an we would have 
 done so 't was doubtful if we should have 
 succeeded. There were women on board, 
 and, though the men fought but half-heart- 
 edly to guard the treasure that was their 
 king's, they would have fought to the death 
 for them. Therefore, we emptied the vessel 
 of all that it had we left them their lives 
 let them go free." 
 
 " But why, why ? " I asked, still not com- 
 prehending how this last attack upon an- 
 other ship and that but one of many 
 stretching over long years ! should be 
 so fateful to him, " why not still go on to 
 France, commence a new life under better 
 surroundings ? " 
 
 "Why?" he repeated, "why? Alas! 
 you do not understand. I, a commissioned 
 officer of the French king, had made war 
 on his ships, taken his goods; also," and 
 he drew a long breath now, "also there 
 were those on board who knew and recog--
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 413 
 
 nised me we had met before knew I 
 was Gramont. That was enough. There 
 was no return to France for me ; or, if once 
 there, nothing but the block or the wheel." 
 
 "God pity you," I gasped, "to have 
 thrown all chance away thus thus!" 
 
 He seemed not to heed my words of 
 sympathy, wrung from me by my swift 
 comprehension of all he had lost ; instead, 
 he stood there before me, almost like those 
 who are turned to stone, making no move- 
 ment, only speaking as one speaks who 
 encounters a doom that has fallen on him, 
 as one who tells how hope and he have 
 parted forever on wide, diverging roads. 
 
 " There were others besides myself," he 
 continued, " who had ruined all by their act 
 of madness, others of my own land who 
 had gained their pardon, and lost it now 
 forever, flung away all hopes of another 
 life, of happier days to come, for the dross 
 that we apportioned between ourselves, 
 though in our frenzy we almost cast it into 
 the sea. As for my share, though 'twas 
 another fortune, I would not touch a pistole, 
 but sent it instead to the priest I have 
 spoken of sent it by a sure hand and 
 bade him keep it for my child, add it to 
 that which Eaton held for her ; told him,
 
 414 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 too, to guard it well, since neither he nor 
 she would ever see me more ! " 
 
 "And after after ? " I asked. 
 
 " After, we disbanded parted. I went 
 my way, they theirs ; earned my living 
 hardly, yet honestly, in Hispaniola; should 
 never have left the island had I not discov- 
 ered that Eaton, who even then sometimes 
 passed under the name of Carstairs that 
 was his honest name and who had long 
 since disappeared from my knowledge, 
 was having a large amount of goods and 
 merchandise shipped under that name in 
 the fleet of galleons, about to sail as soon as 
 possible. And then then knowing how 
 he had treated the child I left in his care 
 the child of my dead and lost love I swore 
 to sail in those galleons, to find him, to 
 
 avenge " He paused, exclaiming, 
 
 "Hark! What is that?" 
 
 Above I heard it as soon as he there 
 was a footfall on the floor. We knew that 
 Juana was moving, had arisen. 
 
 "Go to her," he said, and I thought that 
 his voice was changed was still more 
 broken " Go ; it may be she needs some- 
 thing. Go." 
 
 " Is this our last farewell ? Surely we 
 shall meet again,"
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 415 
 
 "Go. And and tell her her father 
 nay. Tell her nothing 1 . Go." 
 
 O'ermastered by his words, by, I think, 
 too, the misery of the man who had been my 
 companion through the dreary night, my 
 heart wrung with sorrow for him who stood 
 there so sad a figure, I went, obeying- his 
 behest. 
 
 But ere I did so, and before I opened the 
 door that gave on the stairs leading to her 
 room, I took his hand, and whispered : 
 
 "It is our last farewell! Yet oh, 
 pause and think she is your child. Have 
 you no word no last word of love nor plea 
 for pardon to send ? " 
 
 For a moment his lips quivered, his 
 breast heaved and he turned toward the 
 other, and outer, door, so that I thought he 
 meant to go without another sign. But, 
 some impulse stirring in his heart, he moved 
 back again to where I stood ; murmuring, 
 I heard him say : 
 
 " In all the world she has none other but 
 you. Remember that. Farewell forever. 
 And in days to come teach her not to 
 hate my memory. Farewell. " 
 
 Then, his hand on the latch of the outer 
 door, he pointed to the other and the stairs 
 beyond. 
 
 While I, stealing up them, knew that
 
 416 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 neither his child nor I would ever see 
 him more, and, so knowing, prayed that 
 God would at last bring- ease and comfort to 
 the erring 1 man. 
 
 As I neared the door of the room in which 
 she had slept she opened it and came forth 
 upon the bare landing- pale, as I saw in the 
 light of the now fully broken day, but with 
 much of the fever gone ; also with, upon her 
 face, that smile which ever made summer in 
 my heart. 
 
 "You are better," I said, folding her to 
 me, "better? Have slept well ? Is it not 
 so?" Yet, even as I spoke, I led her back 
 to the room whence she had come. She 
 must not descend yet ! " You have not 
 stirred all through the night, I know." 
 
 " I dreamt," she said, " that you came to 
 me, bade me farewell forever. Yet that 
 passed, and again I dreamed that we should 
 never part more. Therefore, I was happy, 
 even in my sleep." Then broke off to say: 
 *' Hark ! They are stirring in the house. 
 Are the horses being prepared? I hear 
 one shaking its bridle. Can any go forth 
 to-day ? " and she moved toward the win- 
 dow. 
 
 "Nay, Juana," I said, leading her back 
 again, although imperceptibly, to the middle
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 417 
 
 of the room, "do not go to the window. The 
 cold is intense stay here by my side." 
 
 Not guessing- my reason since it was 
 impossible she should understand what 
 was happening below ! I led her back. 
 Led her back so that she should not see 
 one come forth from the stable whom she 
 deemed dead and destroyed so that she 
 should not be blasted by the sight of her 
 father passing away in actual life from her 
 forever ; then sat down by her side and led 
 the conversation to our future to how we 
 should get away from here to England and 
 to safety. Also, I told her not to bewail, as 
 she did again and again, my failure to pro- 
 ceed further on my journey to Flanders 
 and the army ; demonstrated, to her that, 
 at least, there had been no failure in the 
 mission I had undertaken ; that my secret 
 service had been carried out and well 
 carried out, too and, consequently, my 
 return mattered not very much with re- 
 gard to a week or month. The allies, 
 I said, could fight and win their battles 
 very well without my aid, as I doubted 
 not they were doing by now, while 
 for the rest had I not done my share 
 both here and in Spain? Proved, too 
 speaking a little self-vauntingly, per- 
 haps, by reason of my intense desire to
 
 418 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 soothe and cheer her and testify that she 
 had been no barrier in my path to glory 
 that I, also, though far away from my com- 
 rades, had stood in the shadow of death, 
 had been face to face with the grim mon- 
 ster equally with those who braved the 
 bayonets, the muskets and the cannon of 
 Louis' armies. 
 
 But all the time I spoke to her my ap- 
 prehension was very great, my nerves 
 strung to their bitterest endurance, my 
 fear terrible that she would hear the man 
 below going forth, that she might move to 
 the window and see him and that, thus 
 seeing, be crushed by the sight. 
 
 For I knew that he was moving now 
 that he was passing away forever from this 
 gloomy spot which held the one thing in all 
 the world that was his, and linked him to 
 the wife he had loved so dearly ; knew that, 
 solitary and alone, he was about to set 
 forth into a dreary world which held no 
 home for him nor creature to love him in 
 his old age. I, too, heard the bridle jan- 
 gling again ; upon the rough boards of the 
 stable beneath the windows of the fonda I 
 heard the dead, dull thump of a horse's 
 hoofs ; I knew that the animal was moving 
 that he was setting out upon his journey 
 of darkness and despair.
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 419 
 
 "You are sad, Mervan," she said, her 
 cheek against mine, while her voice mur- 
 mured in my ear. " Your words are brave, 
 yet all else belies them." 
 
 "It is not for myself," I answered. "Not 
 for myself." 
 
 The starry eyes gazed into mine, the 
 long, slim hand rested on my shoulder. 
 
 "For whom?" she whispered. "For 
 whom ? For him ? My father ? " 
 
 I bowed my head from my lips no 
 words seemed able to come yet said at 
 last: 
 
 "For him. Your father." Then, for a 
 moment, we sat there together, saying 
 nothing. But soon she spake again. 
 
 " My thoughts of him are those of pity 
 only, now," she murmured once more. 
 " Pity, deep as a woman's heart can feel. 
 And and my love remember, I never 
 knew who my father was until that scene in 
 the inn at Lugo thought always his, our, 
 name was in truth Belmonte. The secret 
 was well kept by Eaton, for his own ends, 
 doubtless ; by my father's friend, the priest 
 who had once been as he was, for his past 
 friendship's sake. If I judged him harshly, 
 a life of pity for his memory shall make 
 atonement." 
 
 As she said these words, while I kissed
 
 420 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 and tried to comfort her, she rose from 
 where we were sitting and went to the win- 
 dow, I not endeavouring to prevent her now, 
 feeling sure that he was gone ; for all had 
 become very still; there was no longer any 
 sound in the stable, nor upon the snow, 
 which, as I had seen as the day broke, had 
 frozen and lay hard as iron on the ground 
 beneath it. 
 
 Yet something there was, I knew, that 
 fascinated her as she gazed out upon the 
 open ; something which as she turned 
 round her face to me I saw had startled, 
 terrified her. For, pale as she had been 
 since we had met again here, and with all 
 the rich colouring that I loved so much gone 
 from her cheeks, she was even whiter, paler 
 than I had ever known her in her eyes, 
 too, a stare of astonishment, terror. 
 
 " Mervan ! " she panted, catching her 
 breath, her hand upon her heart, " Mervan, 
 look, oh, look ! " and she pointed through 
 the window. 
 
 "See," she gasped, " see. The form of 
 one whom I deemed dead or is he in truth 
 dead, and that his spectre vanishing into 
 the dark wood beyond? See, the black 
 horse, that which he bestrode that night 
 oh ! Mervan Mervan Mervan why 
 has his spirit returned to earth? Will it
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 421 
 
 haunt me forever forever punish me 
 because of my shame of him ? " 
 
 And while I saw the horseman's figure 
 disappear now and forever into the 
 darkness of the pine forest, she lay trem- 
 bling 1 and weeping- in my arms. To calm 
 which, and also bring ease to her troubled 
 heart, I told her all.
 
 CHAPTER XXXI. 
 
 ALWAYS TOGETHER NOW. 
 
 The frost held beneath a piercing east 
 wind which blew across the mountains that 
 separated Portugal from Leon, so that now 
 the snow was as hard as any road and there 
 was no longer any reason to delay our set- 
 ting- forth. And more especially so was 
 this the case because my beloved appeared 
 to have entirely recovered from the fever 
 into which she had been thrown by the 
 events of the past weeks. 
 
 "I am ready, Mervan," she said to me 
 the next day, "ready to depart, to leave 
 forever behind these lands which I hope 
 never to see again to dwell always in your 
 own country and near you." 
 
 Wherefore I considered in my mind 
 what was best now to be done. 
 
 That we were safe here in Portugal we 
 knew very well only it was not in Port- 
 ugal that we desired to remain, but rather 
 to escape from; to cross the seas as soon 
 as might be to reach England or Holland. 
 Yet how to do that we had now to consider.
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 423 
 
 I had said we were safe here, and of this 
 safety we had sure proof not many hours 
 after her unhappy father had departed on 
 his unknown journey; a journey that led 
 I knew not where, no more than I knew 
 what would be the end of it. And this 
 proof was that, in the afternoon of the same 
 day, the landlord of 'the inn came running 
 in to us as fast as he could scamper across 
 the already frozen snow; his face twitching 
 with excitement, his voice shaking-, too, from 
 the same cause. 
 
 " Holy Virgin! " he exclaimed, while he 
 gesticulated like a madman, his wife doing 
 the same thing- by his side, "who and what 
 have I sheltered here in my house. Pirates 
 and filibusters, gaol breakers and murder- 
 ers, women whose vows are made and 
 broken day by day. 'T is mercy we are 
 not all stabbed to the death in our beds," 
 and again he grimaced and shook and 
 spluttered. 
 
 "You are as like," I said sternly, with 
 a tap to my sword hilt, " to be stabbed to 
 the death now, and at once, if you explain 
 not this intrusion and your words, fellow." 
 For he had roused my ire by bursting in on 
 Juana and me in the manner he had done, 
 and by frightening her, as I knew by the
 
 424 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 way she clung- to me. "Answer at once, 
 what mean you? " 
 
 "There are at the frontier," he said, 
 speaking- now more calmly, also more re- 
 spectfully as he noted my attitude, while 
 his wife ceased her clamour too, "some half 
 dozen Spaniards from Lugo, all demanding 
 where you are and and the wo the 
 lady; also asking 1 for one they call their 
 Alcaide, as well as another, who, they say, 
 is a hundred-fold assassin. Likewise they 
 vow they will have you back to Lugo." 
 
 "Will they! Well, we will see for that! 
 Meanwhile, what say the frontiermen on 
 this side, here in Portugal? " 
 
 "They dispute. They refuse. They 
 say 'tis whispered o'er all our land that 
 the king has joined with the English brig- 
 ands " 
 
 "Fellow! remember." And again I 
 threatened him. 
 
 "With the English nation against Spain 
 and France. It may be so or not; I do not 
 know. Yet I think you will be spared to 
 to slay " 
 
 Again he halted in his speech, reading 
 danger in my glance, while I, turning to 
 Juana, bade her keep calm and await my re- 
 turn from the border, to which I meant to 
 proceed to see what was a-happening.
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 425 
 
 At first she would not hear of my doing 
 this; she threw herself upon my neck,. she 
 besought me by our new-born love, by all 
 our hopes of happiness in days to come, 
 not to go near those men. Reminded me, 
 too, that even now we were free to escape, 
 to seize upon the horses, push on further 
 into Portugal and to safety. Also she 
 pleaded with me to remember that if aught 
 happened to me, if I was taken again and 
 carried back to Spain, all hope would indeed 
 be 'gone, no more escape possible. Wept, 
 also, most piteously, and besought me to 
 recollect that if aught such as this befell 
 she would indeed be alone in the world, and 
 must die. 
 
 Yet I was firm ; forced myself to be so. 
 In my turn, bade her remember that I was 
 a soldier, that soldiers could not skulk and 
 run away when there was naught to fear. 
 
 "For," I said, whispering also many 
 other words of love and comfort in her ear, 
 "it maybe true that the king has joined 
 with us. For months it has been looked 
 for, expected. And if 't is not even so, 
 these people hate Spain and all in it with a 
 deep hatred. They cannot harm us, cer- 
 tainly no half dozen can. 'T would take 
 more than that. Let me go, sweetheart." 
 
 And gently I disengaged her arms from
 
 426 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 my neck and went away amidst her prayers 
 and supplications for my safety; amidst 
 also the mutterings of the landlord to the 
 effect that the IngUs seemed to fear neither 
 devil nor man. 
 
 'T was not many moments to the border 
 'twixt the two countries, and I soon was 
 there seeing, however, as I hurried to- 
 ward it, to the priming- of my pistols, and 
 that my sword was loose enough in its scab- 
 bard for easy drawing forth and there I 
 perceived that a harangue was going on be- 
 tween the Spanish and Portuguese frontier- 
 men, while, on the side of the former, were 
 also the half-dozen Spaniards, of whom the 
 inn keeper had spoken. And amongst them 
 I recognised two or three of those who had 
 captured us in the inn garden at Lugo. 
 
 " Ha 1 " one of them called out as I ap- 
 proached. "Ha! See, there is one, the 
 second of the brigands, though not the 
 worst. Assassinator!" he shrieked at me, 
 " we must have you back at Lugo." 
 
 "Best take me, then," I replied, as I 
 drew close up, "yet 'twill cost you dear," 
 and as I spoke I whipped my sword from 
 out its scabbard. 
 
 There was to be neither fight nor at- 
 tempt to capture me, however ; in truth, as 
 you have now to see, my weapon had done
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 427 
 
 its last work in either Spain or Portugal, 
 since the men on this side meant not that 
 the Spaniards should have their way. 
 
 "Back, I tell you," shouted the Portu- 
 guese chief, "or advance at your peril. 
 We are at war ; 't is known over all our 
 land the IngUs are our allies. You have 
 come on a bootless errand." 
 
 Now this, as I learnt later, was not the 
 case in absolute fact, since Portugal joined 
 not with us till the next spring had come, 
 yet it served very well for my purpose; 
 for these Spaniards did doubtless think 
 that they would have got me and, I sup- 
 pose, Juana, too bloodlessly, and have 
 been able to hale us back to Lugo and its 
 accursed brasdro. But now they found out 
 their mistake ; they would have to fight 
 to get me, and as, I think, they feared my 
 sword as much as the four or five others of 
 my new-found Portuguese friends, they 
 very wisely desisted from any attempt. 
 And so, after many angry words ex- 
 changed on both sides, in which I took no 
 part, I went back to the inn, feeling sure 
 that, unless I ever ventured into Spain 
 
 again, I was free of its clutches. 
 
 ****##### 
 
 Once more, a few hours later, my love 
 and I were on the road as travelling com-
 
 428 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 panions, only now we were lovers instead of 
 friends, and the companionship was, by 
 God's mercy, to be for the length of our 
 lives. And sweet it was to me, beyond 
 all doubt, to have her by my side, to hear 
 her soft voice in my ears, and to listen to 
 the words of love that fell from her lips 
 sweet, too, to me to make reply to them. 
 
 For one thing also I was devoutly grate- 
 ful, namely, that I had not hesitated to tell 
 her that her father still lived; that he had 
 yet, by heaven's grace, many years before 
 him in which to expiate his past ; that he had 
 escaped the awful end to which he had been 
 doomed, and which, during some few hours, 
 she imagined he had suffered devoutly 
 grateful that I had done this, because, now, 
 the sorrow which she felt for the erring 
 man was chastened by the knowledge that 
 it was not too late for him to repent and 
 obtain pardon, and that his death, whatever 
 it might be, could scarce be one of such 
 horror as that from which he had escaped. 
 
 After some consideration I had decided 
 that 'twould be best we should make our 
 way to Oporto, where I thought 'twas very 
 like we might find some ship for either 
 England or Holland perhaps, also, since 
 the trade of that town with England is of 
 such extreme importance, some vessel of
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 429 
 
 war acting as convoy for the merchants. 
 Moreover, the distance was not great in so 
 small a land as this, and by the chart I 
 carried seemed not to be more than thirty 
 or forty leagues, though to compass them 
 we should have to pass over mountains more 
 than once. Yet the horses were fresh I 
 rode now my own on which Gramont had 
 come and had then exchanged for the black 
 one on which I had escaped, it having been 
 prepared for me ere I took his place the 
 snow was hard as iron ; it was not much to 
 do. And, much or little, it had to be done. 
 And so we progressed, passing through 
 Mirandella and Murca, striking at last a 
 broad high road that ran straight for Oporto 
 scaling mountains sometimes, plunging 
 sometimes into deep valleys and crossing 
 streams over shaking wooden bridges that 
 by their appearance seemed scarce strong 
 enough to bear a child, yet over which we 
 got in safety. And, though neither she nor 
 I spoke our thoughts, I think, I know, that 
 the same idea was ever present to her mind 
 as to mine, the idea that we might ere long 
 come upon some sign of her father. For, 
 now and again, as she peered down upon the 
 white track we followed, losing more than 
 once the road, yet finding it again ere long, 
 she would rein in the jennet and look at the
 
 430 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 tracks frozen in the snow, then shake her 
 head mournfully as we went on once more. 
 
 But of Gramont we saw no sign nor 
 ever saw him again in this world. 
 
 Going on and on, however, we drew near 
 as I judged, to the coast, still climbing the 
 mountains and still passing at other times 
 through the valleys, over all of which there 
 lay the vast white pall burying everything 
 beneath it. 
 
 We heard also the great river that is 
 called the Douro, rolling and humming and 
 swirling beneath the roof of frozen snow 
 which, in some places, stretched across it 
 from bank to bank. In some places, too, 
 where the road we traversed approached 
 nearer to the stream, we saw it cleaving its 
 way through banks so narrowed by their 
 coating of ice that it o'erleapt and foamed 
 above the sides, while with a great swish, 
 such as a huge tide makes upon a shingly 
 beach, its waters spread out with a hissing 
 splash from their eddies and swept over 
 the borders on either side. Yet, because 
 the way this river rushed was likewise our 
 way to peace and happiness the road 
 toward the great sea we hoped so soon to 
 traverse we regarded it with interest. 
 
 "See," I said to Juana, as now we rode 
 close to it, so that at this time our horses'
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 431 
 
 feet were laved by its overflow, "see how it 
 bears down with it great trees from far in- 
 land, from where we have come; also 
 other things, the wooden roof of some peas- 
 ant's hut, some household goods too. I fear 
 it has swept over the country, has burst in 
 places from its narrow frost-bound sides." 
 
 'Twas true such must have happened 
 for even as I spoke, there went by the 
 body of a horse the creature's sides all 
 torn and lacerated, doubtless by some nar- 
 row passage in which the spears of ice 
 would be as sharp as swords' points; then, 
 next oh! piteous sight! a little dead 
 babe rolled over and over as the waves bore 
 it along in their swift flight. 
 
 "Look, look," she murmured, pointing 
 forward to where the river broadened, but 
 out into the breadth of which there pro- 
 jected a spur, or tongue of land; "look! 
 that catches much of what comes down 
 see ! the dead horse's progress is stopped 
 upon it and Mervan, the little babe is also 
 rolled on to that slip of land while there are 
 many other things besides; more bodies of 
 both men and animals." 
 
 There were, in solemn truth. As we rode 
 nearer to that jutting promontory, we saw 
 that much of what the Douro had brought 
 down was stopped by it; upon the frozen
 
 432 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 tongue of land protruding- were mixed in 
 confusion many thing's. The dead horse 
 and another which had preceded it; some 
 poor sheep, a dog, the little babe which had 
 just passed before our eyes, and two or 
 three dead men; some on their backs, their 
 arms extended on that frozen refuge one 
 on his face. 
 
 Mostly they were peasants ; their garb 
 told that, also their rough, coarse hands, 
 which showed black against the leper white- 
 ness of the ice and snow beneath them. But 
 he who lay upon his face was none such, his 
 scarlet coat, guarded with galloon, had never 
 graced a peasant's back, no more than any 
 peasant had worn that sword (with now 
 both blade and scabbard broken) that was 
 by his side. 
 
 And halting upon the little ridge which 
 made the summit of that promontory and 
 gazing upon that man, I knew as well as if I 
 could see his down-turned face, whose body 
 it was stretched out there upon its icy bier. 
 
 Also I saw that she knew, too. Neither 
 scarlet coat nor battered weapon was 
 strange to her. 
 
 "I will descend," I said, speaking in a 
 low voice, such as those assume who stand 
 in presence of the dead. " I will descend 
 and make sure," whereupon she bowed her
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 433 
 
 head in reply, making- no demur. At 
 that moment she, perhaps, thought it best 
 to make sure that he who had sought her 
 soul's degradation would never traffic with 
 another woman's honour. 
 
 But as I went down on foot now to that 
 tongfue of land on which the drowned re- 
 posed, I had another reason besides this of 
 making- sure that the body was that of her 
 tempter, the Alcaide. I desired to discover 
 if 't was by the river alone that he had come 
 to his death (borne down and into it by some 
 streamlet nearer the Spanish border), and 
 not by the avenging 1 weapon of him who said 
 that I should never have spared him, have 
 never let -him quit my side with life. 
 For they might have met, I knew ; the one 
 who went first might have been belated on 
 his road snowbound ; the second might 
 have overtaken him, his vengeance have 
 been swift and sure. 
 
 Stepping across the bodies of the 
 drowned animals, avoiding those of the peas- 
 ants, and putting gently aside that of the 
 little babe, I reached him, recognising as I 
 did so the coal black hair flecked and 
 streaked with grey, the rings upon the 
 hands stretched out, backs upward. Then I 
 turned him over, seeing that the face was 
 torn and cut by the jagged ice through
 
 434 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 which he had been hurried, also bruised 
 and discoloured. But in all the body no 
 sign of rapier wound, nor pistol shot, nor of 
 avenging- finger marks upon the throat. 
 
 So I went back to her and took my reins 
 from her hands and once more we set out 
 upon our way. 
 
 But the dark, lustrous eyes .as they 
 gazed into mine asked silent and unworded 
 questions so that I guessed my thoughts 
 had been in her mind, too! and when I 
 answered with as equal a silence I knew 
 that I had brought comfort to her heart.
 
 CHAPTER XXXII. 
 
 THE END. 
 
 The early part of September, 1704, had 
 been stormy and wet and very dismal, so 
 that all in London feared that the great 
 spectacle, which had been arranged with 
 much pains and forethought for the seventh 
 of that month, must be impaired if not to tally 
 ruined by the inclemency of the weather. 
 And many there were who, during- the 
 night that passed away and when the 
 dawn came, rose from their beds to peer 
 out and see what the day promised. 
 
 Yet by great good fortune none were 
 doomed to disappointment. For from away 
 over the river, down by where the great 
 ships were all a-lying dressed with flags, 
 the sun came up in great magnificence and 
 splendour; the clouds turned from purple 
 to a fair pure daffodil; a sweeter autumn 
 morning none had ever seen nor could hope 
 to see. 
 
 And now from very early in the morn- 
 ing the crowd came in from far and wide, 
 from north and south and east and west, 
 
 435
 
 436 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 from the villages along the river as far 
 away as sylvan Richmond on one side, or 
 Hampstead on another; while the gentry 
 drove in from their country seats at Clap- 
 ham or Kensington and on the road that 
 leads to Fulham. Also those regiments at 
 Hounslow, and the foot guards at Kensing- 
 ton, as well as the city militia from the 
 east side, were all making their way into 
 the town, with drums a-beating and flags 
 streaming out to the fresh morning air and 
 trumpets braying, while in the city itself 
 my Lord Mayor was getting ready to pro- 
 ceed to Temple Bar, there to receive the 
 queen and court. 
 
 For this day, the seventh of September, 
 had been fixed for the thanksgiving for the 
 victory of Blenheim which the Duke of 
 Marlborough had recently won. The pity 
 only being that, of those who were to take 
 part in the great ceremony, my Lord Duke 
 could not be there, he being still engaged 
 on the Continent. 
 
 Nevertheless, from St. James' there set 
 out so great a company for St. Paul's that 
 't is never likely any one then alive could 
 expect to witness a more noble and impos- 
 ing sight. For there were all the great 
 officers of state, with, amidst them, the 
 queen in a sumptuous coach drawn by eight
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 437 
 
 horses, Her Majesty being ablaze with 
 jewels. Alone she went in that coach ex- 
 cepting one companion, a lady dressed as 
 quietly and simply as could be any lady in 
 the land, there being neither at neck or 
 bosom or throat, or in her hair, any single 
 trinket to be seen. 
 
 Yet, I think, she was that day the 
 proudest woman in all England, not even 
 excepting great Anna, since she was the 
 wife of the conqueror who had trampled 
 Louis and his armies under foot ; was 
 Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough. Could 
 any female heart have desired to be more ! 
 
 In front of, as well as behind, and on 
 either side of that chariot of state, there 
 rode the Queen's Guards ; yet ahead of 
 those who rode behind he being nearest 
 to the back of the carriage was one who 
 yielded to none in thankfulness and grati- 
 tude for all which Providence had seen fit 
 to do for him. An officer this, one handed, 
 his left arm bound up it having been 
 nearly lopped off at Blenheim by one of the 
 Elector of Bavaria's huge dragoons, whom 
 that officer slew a moment later with his 
 right hand whose scarf, sword knot, 
 richly laced scarlet coat and gold cockade 
 proclaimed him a colonel of horse myself. 
 
 From where we entered the Strand
 
 438 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 by the cross set up here we saw that all 
 the shops were boarded up and scaffolded, 
 partly to resist the crowd and partly to 
 furnish benches on which sight-seers might 
 sit. On those benches, also in the shop 
 windows, on the bulks and at the windows 
 of the tradesmen's parlours above, was a 
 noble and splendid company, the ladies of 
 which had all adorned themselves with 
 their choicest dresses and ribbons and 
 laces, the more to do honour to those other 
 two ladies in the great coach. Then, be- 
 hind, came the lords of Parliament and 
 the gentlemen of the Commons, also the 
 Bishops in their wigs and lawn each and 
 all in coaches drawn by six horses as 
 well as many others of the nobility ; while 
 from the churches along the route, St. Mar- 
 tin's-in-the-Fields, St. Mary's in the Strand 
 and St. Clement's Danes, the bells clashed 
 and clanged, and, inside, the organs blew 
 and anthems pealed. 
 
 At Temple Bar there was a great halt, 
 since the gates were shut, yet opened as 
 the queen came to them, whereon my Lord 
 Mayor, surrounded by the aldermen and 
 sheriffs, in their red robes and on horses 
 richly caparisoned, received Her Majesty, 
 the former handing to her the sword of 
 the city, which she at once returned ; after
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 439 
 
 which we progressed once more toward St. 
 Paul's, where, later, the dean preached a 
 moving- sermon. 
 
 And now my eyes were fixed and 
 searching 1 for a face two faces at a 
 window beyond the Church of St. Dun- 
 stan's in Fleet street which was all hung 
 with banners and adornments stretched 
 across from side to side and presently 
 I saw that which I sought for a lady on 
 a balcony holding- up a little wee child in 
 her arms, a lady dark and beautiful and 
 dressed all in her best, her robe a rich bro- 
 cade, with, at her breast, a knot of ribbons, 
 the colours of the Fourth Horse the 
 woman who has ever been in my eyes the 
 fairest, most lovely of her sex, my loved 
 and honoured wife. And she stood there 
 seeking for me, leaning over the balcony to 
 wave and kiss her hand, took, also, our 
 babe's little one in her arms and caused it 
 to wave, too. 
 
 Riding by, I looked up and saw them, and 
 blessed God blessed God and praised His 
 name, because He had seen fit to bring us 
 safe through all the dangers we had en- 
 countered together, because He had seen fit 
 to give to me for wife the sweetest woman 
 the world held, and to bring us safe into 
 haven at last.
 
 440 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 For that, as well as all else, I blessed and 
 praised His name, even as from roofs of 
 houses and taverns the salvos roared forth, 
 the bells pealed from the steeples, and we 
 progressed through the city ; companies 
 ranged 'neath their banners, and, between 
 the lines kept by the militia, the queen 
 bowing from her side of the coach, the 
 great, stately duchess from hers, the people 
 shouting all the time, and crying but two 
 names, "Anne" and " Maryborough," and 
 women holding up their children, so that, 
 in the days to come, when those chil- 
 dren were old, they might say they had 
 gazed on the wife of the greatest soldier 
 in the world. And thus, at last, we came 
 to St. Paul's and gave thanksgiving. 
 
 It was when night had fallen after Blen- 
 heim that my Lord Duke sent for me to his 
 room in the inn, where he and the Marshal 
 Tallard who had led the French, and been 
 defeated that day, and was now an honoured 
 and well-cared-for prisoner of his Grace 
 were quartered, and spoke to me as follows : 
 
 "Colonel Crespin for such you will be 
 when the next gazette is published if it 
 were not that others have a prior claim, it 
 should be you to whom I would confide my 
 message to the queen and lords. For," 
 and he smiled sweetly, as usual, though,
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 441 
 
 tonight, a little wearily, "I have a recol- 
 lection of your value as a bearer of des- 
 patches ; yet, all the same, you shall go to 
 England. You have a wife and child there, 
 I know." 
 
 And again he smiled as I bowed before 
 him. 
 
 " For which you have to thank me. By 
 St. George, I never thought when I sent 
 you on that journey you were going sweet- 
 heart hunting, too." 
 
 Whereby you will perceive that his 
 Grace knew very well all that had befallen 
 me two years before, when I set out for 
 Spain to find, if might be, the English fleet. 
 It would be strange, indeed, if he had not 
 known it, for my story had been told all over 
 the forces from the moment I returned and 
 joined my regiment ; nay, more than once, 
 I had told it to Marlborough himself. 
 
 " I shall not be far behind you," he con- 
 tinued, "the New Year should see me home, 
 too. Yet I have messages for the queen 
 and my own wife. You shall bear them. 
 It will give you an opportunity of seeing 
 your own wife. She is, I hear, vastly beau- 
 tiful." 
 
 "In my eyes, my lord Duke, the most 
 beautiful woman in the world." 
 
 " That is as it shpuld be. So," he con-
 
 442 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 tinued simply, " I think of mine. But, also, 
 you must see the queen. She has heard of 
 your adventures, wishes she had seen you 
 when you were on leave in England. Tell 
 her all tell her as bravely in words as you 
 can be brave in action and you will not 
 stop at the command of a regiment of horse. 
 See also my wife ; her influence is ex- 
 treme our enemies say 't is a bad influence 
 yet she will help you." 
 
 And I did see the queen on my arrival in 
 England, also the great duchess, Sarah, on 
 the night before we went to St. Paul's; 
 after which I wondered no more how every 
 one loved the former, spoke of her, indeed, 
 as the "Good " Queen a title, I think, as 
 dear and precious as that of " Great, " which 
 Elizabeth had worn. She was very ruddy, 
 I noticed when I stood before her, her beau- 
 tiful red-brown hair bound most matronly 
 above her brow, while her arms which 
 were bare, to show, as I have heard, their 
 extreme beauty were most marvellous to 
 behold, as well as her hands. Yet, queen 
 as she was, and a well favoured one, too, it 
 was more on the other lady who stood be- 
 hind her that my eyes rested ; for she was 
 beautiful beyond all I had imagined, so that 
 I wondered not that report said the duke 
 loved her as fondly as when they were boy
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 443 
 
 and girl together, she only a maid of honour, 
 and he an ensign. Yet, also, I thought that 
 beauty marred by an imperious haughtiness 
 which made her seem the queen and the 
 real queen seem her subject. 
 
 "So, Colonel Crespin," Her Majesty said 
 to me, "I set eyes on you at last you of 
 whom I have heard so much. Well, I am 
 vastly proud to know so brave a gentleman. 
 Later, I must also know your wife whom 
 I hear you wooed and won in a strange 
 fashion." Then changing- the subject 
 swiftly, while her kindly eyes rested on 
 me, she said: "Your father must be very 
 proud of you." 
 
 Not knowing what reply to make to 
 such a compliment, I could but bow again, 
 whereon she continued : 
 
 "Your arm is bound up, I see I hear 
 you got the wound at Blenheim. 'T is 
 very well. In after years it will be as great 
 a distinction to have had that wound as any 
 honours or titles that may come to you. It 
 does not prevent your riding? " 
 
 I murmured that it inconvenienced me 
 but very little, whereon Her Majesty said: 
 
 " That is also well. To-morrow I desire 
 you follow my coach to St. Paul's. I love 
 my people to see those who have served me 
 bravely," whereon, with a gracious inclina.-
 
 444 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 tion of her head, accompanied by a sweet 
 smile upon her honest, kindly face, she 
 turned and left the apartment, the duchess 
 bowing too, though somewhat more haugh- 
 tily than the queen had done. Yet she 
 whispered a word in my ear as she passed 
 out ; a word appropriate enough to one as 
 proud as she. 
 
 " You have served him well," she said. 
 " Those who do that .are my friends for- 
 ever." 
 
 And now the rejoicings for our victory 
 at Blenheim were over the siege and 
 taking- of Gibraltar three weeks before, 
 by my other friend, Sir George Rooke, 
 being not forgotten the crowds had dis- 
 persed, the great banquet to be given by 
 the city was near at hand and the illumina- 
 tions of London were beginning. 
 
 Yet I had no desire to be feasting in the 
 midst of that great company instead, I 
 was seated in the room from the balcony of 
 which I had seen my wife that morning; 
 her head upon my shoulder, her lips mur- 
 muring words of love inexpressible in my 
 ear; words in which, amongst the rest, I 
 caught those that told me how proud she 
 was to have won me from all other women, 
 how proud and happy in knowing that we 
 
 were each other's forever in this world. 
 **********
 
 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 445 
 
 What need to set down more what 
 more have I to say? 
 
 Only this. That never would she hear 
 of redeeming- any of that second fortune 
 which her unhappy father had left in the 
 custody of the priest in the Indies who had 
 once been as he himself was; and conse- 
 quently, that from the time we became man 
 and wife no further intercourse was ever 
 held between us and those far-off islands 
 from which she came. Nor was that for- 
 tune wanted God has ever been good to 
 us; -I have prospered exceedingly in my 
 soldier's calling ; all is very well. 
 
 Of him, Gramont, we have never heard 
 more. Yet that, somewhere, he is, if still 
 alive, expiating his past I have never 
 doubted. The truth was in the man's eyes 
 as he spoke to me on that morning when he 
 went forth broken-hearted from the house 
 which held his child ; the truth, and a firm 
 determination to atone by suffering and 
 hardship for all that he had done. And 
 what stronger or more stern resolve could 
 any sinner have taken than that of his? 
 The determination to tear himself away for- 
 ever from the companionship of his newly 
 found daughter, and to remove thereby 
 from her forever the shame of his presence. 
 " Come, Mervan," she said to me, as now
 
 446 ACROSS THE SALT SEAS. 
 
 the autumn evening turned to night, and 
 from every house in Fleet street the illumi- 
 nations began to glisten. " Come, you must 
 prepare for the city banquet." 
 
 "Nay," I said, "nay. I need no ban- 
 quets, would prefer to stay here by your 
 side." 
 
 "And so I would you should do. Yet 
 you must go. I will not have you absent 
 from so great a thing. You ! my hero my 
 king. And while you are gone I will watch 
 over our child, or solace myself with this." 
 
 And as she spoke she went over to where 
 the spinet was, and touched a smaller in- 
 strument that lay upon it the little viol 
 d'amore from which we have never parted, 
 and never will. 
 
 THE END.
 
 PRINTED BY STROM BERG, ALLEN ft CO 
 
 FOR 
 
 HERBERT S. STONE & COMPANY 
 
 PUBLISHERS 
 
 CHICAGO 
 
 187