Part 55 (1/2)
”Well, when off Cape Wrath (just as we sighted a few of our scattered consorts and hoped for food and comfort), a new storm overtook us from the north-east and drove us headlong, under bare poles, southward again.
We none of us, I think, cared if the next gust sent us to the bottom.
Many a weary young Don did I see fling himself in despair overboard; and but that we daily drew nearer to Ireland, I had been tempted to do the same.
”How long we drove I forget, or what wrecks we pa.s.sed; but one day we found ourselves flung into a great bay, where, for a while, we held on to our anchors against the storm. But the _Rata_ had lost her best thews and muscles at Calais, and, after two days, dragged towards the sh.o.r.e and fell miserably over, a wreck.
”We came to land in boats, or on floating spars, but only to meet worse hards.h.i.+ps than on sea; for the savages on the coast, aided by your gallant Englishmen, fell on us, defenceless as we were, stripped us of all we had, and drove us from the sh.o.r.e in an old crank of a galleon, which, if it carried us thus far, did so only by the grace of G.o.d and His saints.”
”And where be we now?” I asked.
”At Killybegs,” said he, ”and Heaven grant we may get out of it. For a while, Tyrone, the O'Neill in these parts, sheltered and fed us. But since the English came, he has left us to our fate, and the men lie rotting here as in a dungeon.”
”Why,” said I, ”'twas rumoured in England that the Spaniards had descended on Ireland to take it, and so strike across it at the Queen.”
He laughed.
”May your Queen ne'er have st.u.r.dier foes, Humphrey. Come and see them.”
As we turned the corner of the hill, we came suddenly on three men, standing with their faces seaward and engaged in earnest talk. The oldest of them was white-haired and slight of build. But the n.o.bleman shone through his ragged raiment and battered breastplate, and I knew him in a moment to be Don Alonzo da Leyva himself.
He greeted Ludar kindly, and looked enquiringly at me.
”Do the spirits of English printers walk on earth?” asked he.
”No, Sir Don, not till their bodies be dead,” said I, saluting; ”I am here to warn your Excellency that the English soldiers are drawing a cord around this place, and will fall speedily upon you in force.”
”'Tis well they come only to slay and not to eat us,” said he, with a grim smile.
And I perceived that both he and his companions were half-starved.
”Yet they should not delay, for if they haste not, they will find us gone. Sir Ludar, the _Gerona_,”--here he pointed to a large gallia.s.s that lay at anchor in the bay--”is ready, and sails to-night for the Scotch coast. I claim your services yet, as you claim those of your squire.”
Ludar looked at me. I knew what pa.s.sed in his mind, for 'twas in mine also. How could we leave Ireland thus, on a desperate venture, while those two fair maids--
But before we could even exchange our doubts, there sprang out upon us from behind a rock half-a-dozen fellows with a horseman at their head, who waved his sword and called loudly on us, in the name of the Queen, to yield.
I groaned inwardly as I pulled out my sword. Once more I was about wickedly and grievously to wage war on her Majesty, and break my vows of allegiance. Yet, how could I otherwise now?
The Don deigned no reply, but waited calmly for the attack. We were but five to six, and the two Spaniards were so lean and ill-fed as scarce to count as a man betwixt them. At the first onset one of them dropped dead, and the other, after scornfully running his adversary through, fell back himself in a swoon of exhaustion.
Meanwhile, the Don was struggling with the horseman. I can remember, occupied as I was with the st.u.r.dy rogue who flew at me, how n.o.ble he looked, as, with head erect and visage calm, he parried blow after blow, stepping back slowly towards the rock.
'Twas a sharp fight while it lasted; for, though Ludar made short work of his first man, the other three were stubborn villains, and, being well-fed and well-armed, put us hard to it.
Presently, he on the horse, enraged that, for all his advantage, he got no closer to his foe, pulled out a pistol from his holster and levelled it full at the Don's head.
With a shout like a lion's, Ludar flung away his own a.s.sailant, and rushed between the two, dealing the horseman a blow which sent him headlong from his saddle and echoed among the rocks like a crack of thunder.
He was none too soon, for the shot had flashed before ever the blow fell, and, only half diverted, rattled on the Don's breastplate, hard enough to fell and draw blood, though, happily, not hard enough to kill.
After that, Ludar and I had a merry time of it, with our backs against the rock, and four swords hacking at our two. I know not how it was; but as I found myself thus foot to foot again with my dearest friend, listening to his short, sharp battle snort, and seeing ever and anon the flash of his trusty steel at my side, I felt happy, and could have wished the battle to last an hour. I forgot all about my Queen, and, but for sundry knocks and cuts, had half forgotten my adversaries themselves. Nor were they any the better off for my daydream; for the four swords against us presently became but two, and these ere long were in the hands of flying men.