Part 6 (2/2)
”Sir Thomas Stukely dead too?” said Aedy afterwards Well, where was I? Oh, Fitzmaurice and the Jesuits land at Smerwick, with three shi+ps, choose a place for a fort, bless it with their holy water, and their s, and the rest of it, to purify it from the stain of heretic dominion; but in the meanwhile one of the Courtenays,--a Courtenay of Haccombe, was it?--or a Courtenay of Boconnock? Silence, Will, I shall have it in aat anchor near by, in a shi+p of war of his, cuts out the three shi+ps, and cuts off the Dons froo over to the Spaniards Earl Desht the side; and then in coe Desmond and his brothers, in the queen's name, to assault the Spaniards Folks say it was rash of his lordshi+p: but I say, what could be better done? Every one knows that there never was a stouter or shrewder soldier than Davils; and the young Desmonds, I have heard him say many a time, used to look on hilishmen turned Irish Well, the Desmonds found out on a sudden that the Dons were such desperate Paladins, that it was h they were five to one; and poor Davils, seeing that there was no fight in theht at soer's lieutenant, as stout an old soldier as Davils himself, sleeps in the same bed with him; the lacquey-boy, who is noith Sir Richard at Stow, on the floor at their feet But in the dead of night, who should come in but James Desmond, sword in hand, with a dozen of his ruffians at his heels, each with his glib over his ugly face, and his skene in his hand Davils springs up in bed, and asks but this, 'What is the iving him ti, 'Thou shalt be er, nor I thy son! Thou shalt die!' and at that all the rest fall on him The poor little lad (so he says) leaps up to cover his ets three or four stabs of skenes, and so falls for dead; with his master and Captain Carter, ere dead indeed--God reward them! After that the ruffians ransacked the house, till they had lishman in it, the lacquey-boy only excepted, who crawled out, wounded as he was, through a hile Desmond, if you will believe it, went back, up to his elbows in blood, and vaunted his deeds to the Spaniards, and asked thee that I am faithful to you?' And that, my lad, was the end of Henry Davils, and will be of all who trust to the faith of wild savages”
”I would go a hundred reat tears ran down his face ”Poor Mr Davils! And nohat is the story of Sir Thomas?”
”Your brother must tell you that, lad; I aht to tell it,” said Frank, with a s of Allen, and one of the peers of the realory the Thirteenth?”
”No, surely!”
”As I aentleman When I was at Rome I saw poor Stukely often; and this and more he offered e hi reconciled to the Catholic Church, and joining the invasion of Ireland”
”Poor deluded heretic,” said Will Cary, ”to have lost an earldom for your family by such silly scruples of loyalty!”
”It is not a , after all,” said Frank; ”but I saw Sir Thomas often, and I cannot believe he was in his senses, so frantic was his vanity and his ambition; and all the while, in private entleman as ever However, he sailed at last for Ireland, with his eight hundred Spaniards and Italians; and what is es Marquis Vinola--Ja that Stukely should conquer his paternal heritage of Ireland for him while he took care of the bona robas at hoh his younger byhientleman and a man of Devon, to consider his faith to his queen and the honor of his country There were high words between us; God forgive ain”
”Too fiercely to an open traitor, Frank? Why not have run hih?”
”Nay, I had no clean life for Sundays, Amyas; so I could not throay land, I knew that it was little he would dae it, and told him so And at that he waxed utterly mad, for it touched his pride, and swore that if the wind had not been fair for sailing, he would have fought me there and then; to which I could only answer, that I was ready to , 'It is a pity, sir, I cannot fight you nohen next we nity to measure swords with you'
”I suppose he expected to come back a prince at least--Heaven knows; I owe him no ill-will, nor I hope does any ot his receipt for them”
”How did he die, then, after all?”
”On his voyage he touched in Portugal King Sebastian was just sailing for Africa with his new ally, Moha Abdallah, and conquer what he could He persuaded Stukely to go with hiht that he, as well as the Spaniards, had no sto of Ireland Others used to say that he thought an island too small for his ambition, and must needs conquer a continent--I know not why it was, but he went They had heavy weather in the passage; and when they landed, many of their soldiers were sea- sick Stukely, reasonably enough, counselled that they should wait two or three days and recruit; but Don Sebastian was so mad for the assault that he must needs have his veni, vidi, vici; and so ended with a veni, vidi, perii; for he Abdallah, and his son Mohammed, all perished in the first battle at Alcasar; and Stukely, surrounded and overpowered, fought till he could fight no more, and then died like a hero with all his wounds in front; and may God have mercy on his soul!”
”Ah!” said A about poor Stukely”
”That last was a Popish prayer, Master Frank,” said old Mr Cary
”Most worshi+pful sir, you surely would not wish God not to have mercy on his soul?”
”No--eh? Of course not: but that's all settled by now, for he is dead, poor fellow”
”Certainly,a little fond of him still”
”Eh? why, I should be a brute if I were not He and I were schoolfellows, though he was soiven hi a tenderness for a ether in Exhts afterward into Ilfraco blades Fond of hier than that he should have gone to the dogs thus”
”Then, my dear sir, if you feel for him still, in spite of all his faults, how do you know that God may not feel for him still, in spite of all his faults? Forin that Popish Purgatory, I cannot help holding with Plato, that such heroical souls, who have wanted but little of true greatness, are hereafter by soht to a better mind; perhaps, as many ancients have held with the Indian Gyration into the bodies of those animals whom they have resembled in their passions; and indeed, if Sir Thomas Stukely's soul should now animate the body of a lion, all I can say is that he would be a very valiant and royal lion; and also doubtless beco been nothing better than a lion”
”What now, Master Frank? I don't trouble ood-hearted fellow at bottoue my head with any of your dialectics, and propositions, and college quips and quiddities, you sha'n't have any more sack, sir But here come the knaves, and I hear the cook knock to dinner”
After aof Master Frank's, all which went sweetly enough, the ladies rose, and went Whereon Will Cary, drawing his chair close to Frank's, put quietly into his hand a dirty letter
”This was the letter left forLook at it and tell me what I am to do”
Whereon Frank opened, and read-- ”Mister Cary, be you wary By deer park end to-night Yf Irish ffoxe coht”
”I would have showed it my father,” said Will, ”but--”
”I verily believe it to be a blind See now, this is the handwriting of ato write vilely, and yet cannot Look at that B, and that G; their fore-school And what is more, this is no Devon man's handiwork We say 'to' and not 'by,' Will, eh? in the West country?”
”Of course”
”And 'man,' instead of 'hi therefore?”
”On thatUlysses here; perhaps he has not sailed round the world without bringing home a device or two”
Whereon Amyas was called to counsel, as soon as Mr Cary could be stopped in a long cross-exahty's famous trial and execution
A curls; and then-- ”Will,at the Deer Park End of late?”
”Never”
”Where, then?”
”At the town-beach”
”Where else?
”At the town-head”
”Where else?”
”Why, the fellow is turned lawyer! Above Freshwater”
”Where is Freshwater?”
”Why, where the water-fall comes over the cliff, half-a-mile from the town There is a path there up into the forest”
”I know I'll watch there to-night Do you keep all your old haunts safe, of course, and send a couple of stout knaves to the mill, to watch the beach at the Deer Park End, on the chance; for your poet may be a true man, after all But my heart's faith is, that this comes just to draw you off frooose chase If they shoot the miller by mistake, I suppose it don't much matter?”
”Marry, no”
”'When a miller's knock'd on the head, The less of flour ain,” chimed in old Mr Cary, ”as they say in the North-- ”'Find a miller that will not steal, Or a webster that is leal, Or a priest that is not greedy, And lay them three a dead corpse by; And by the virtue of them three, The said dead corpse shall quicken'd be'”