Part 15 (1/2)

”God forbid! But hoill you do it?”

”March one company in, and drive them forth, and let the other cut theht or wrong, it was done The shrieks and curses had died away, and the Fort del Oro was a red shaht of heaven and earth, by dragging the bodies into the ditch, and covering them with the ruins of the rampart; while the Irish, who had beheld fro into the deepest recesses of the forest It was done; and it never needed to be done again The hint was severe, but it was sufficient Many years passed before a Spaniard set foot again in Ireland

The Spanish and Italian officers were spared, and Adalena Sotoht of war He was, of course, ready enough to fight Sebastian of Modena: but Lord Grey forbade the duel: blood enough had been shed already The next question here to bestow Don Guzman till his ransoallant Don into the safe custody of Mrs Leigh at Burrough, and still less into that of Frank at Court, he was fain to write to Sir Richard Grenville, and ask his advice, and in the meanwhile keep the Spaniard with hi that as for running away, he had nowhere to run to; and as for joining the Irish he had no ; and Amyas found hih But one h, if you think it one I have talked St Leger into ht pleasant her bog, where ti wild Irish, snaring snipes, and drinking yourself drunk with usquebaugh over a turf fire”

”I'll go,” quoth A for work” So he went and took possession of his lieutenancy and his black robber tower, and there passed the rest of the winter, fighting or hunting all day, and chatting and reading all the evening, with Senor Don Guzhly at hoeneral favorite with the soldiers

At first, indeed, his Spanish pride and stateliness, and Alish taciturnity, kept the two apart soan, if not to trust, at least to like each other; and Don Guzman told Amyas, bit by bit, who he was, of what an ancient house, and of what a poor one; and laughed over the very s raised, and the certainty that, at least, it could not co that the only De Soto who had a penny to spare was a fat old dean at St Yago de Leon, in the Caracas, at which place Don Guzman had been born This of course led to much talk about the West Indies, and the Don was as much interested to find that Amyas had been one of Drake's world-farandson of none other than that most terrible of man-hunters, Don Ferdinando de Soto, the conqueror of Florida, of whom Amyas had read many a time in Las Casas, ”as the captain of tyrants, the notoriousest and st them that have done the most hurts, h his blood boiled, and he had uest, as Don Guzrandfather's hunts of innocent wouides, ”pour encourager les autres,” without, sees or subjects for hus, enemies of God, servants of the devil, to be used by the Christian when he needed, and when not needed killed down as cuentleood story of the Indies, and told it well; and over and above his stories, he had ae two books,--the one Antonio Galvano's ”Discoveries of the World,” aamusement to Amyas; and the other, a manuscript book, which, perhaps, it had been well for Amyas had he never seen For it was none other than a sort of rough journal which Don Guzman had kept as a lad, when he went doith the Adelantado Gonzales Ximenes de Casada, froolden country of El Dorado, and the city of Manoa, which stands in the lory even the palace of the Inca Huaynacapac; ”all the vessels of whose house and kitchen are of gold and silver, and in his wardrobe statues of gold which seeness of all the beasts, birds, trees, and herbs of the earth, and the fishes of the water; and ropes, budgets, chests, and troughs of gold: yea, and a garden of pleasure in an Island near Puna, where they went to recreate themselves when they would take the air of the sea, which had all kind of garden herbs, flowers, and trees of gold and silver of an invention and reater part of this treasure (and be it reerated, and that there were many s, ”with their corporal and mortal eyes”) was hidden by the Indians when Pizarro conquered Peru and slew Atahuallpa, son of Huaynacapac; at whose death, it was said, one of the Inca's younger brothers fled out of Peru, and taking with hireat arreat Rivers of Amazons and Baraquan, otherwise called Maranon and Orenoque

There he sits to this day, beside the golden lake, in the golden city, which is in breadth a three days' journey, covered, he and his court, with gold dust fro for the fulfilment of the ancient prophecy which ritten in the temple of Caxamarca, where his ancestors worshi+pped of old; that heroes shall come out of the West, and lead hidolory of his forefathers

Golden phantoinations which were yet reeling before the actual and veritable prodigies of Peru, Mexico, and the East Indies Golden phantom! which has cost already the lives of thousands, and shall yet cost o de Ordas, and Juan Corteso, and many another, ent forth on the quest by the Andes, and by the Orinoco, and by the Ahastly caravan offleshed, assaulted the Spaniards;” Augustine Delgado, who ”caave hiold and slaves, three nymphs very beautiful, which bare the nauane, and Maiarare To requite which old, but all the Indians he could seize, and took theua, and sold theado was shot in the eye by an Indian, of which hurt he died;” Pedro d'Orsua, who found the cinnamon forests of Loxas, ”whom his men murdered, and afterwards beheaded Lady Anes his wife, who forsook not her lord in all his travels unto death,” and many another, who has vanished with valiant coulfs of the priain Golden phanto, whose maw is never satiate with souls of heroes; fatal to Spain, land upon that shameful day, when the last of Elizabeth's heroes shall lay down his head upon the block, no believed what all around him believed likewise till they found it expedient to deny it in order to curry favor with the crowned cur who betrayed him, really because he alone dared to make one last protest in behalf of liberty and Protestantisht of tyranny and superstition Little thought Aes of thata snare for the life of the man whom, next to Drake and Grenville, he most admired on earth

But Don Guzman, on the other hand, seeift to his captor; for one day ere A the Don about El Dorado Whereon Don Guzman replied with one of those smiles of his, which (as Amyas said afterwards) was so abominably like a sneer, that he had often hard work to keep his hands off theof the fruit of the tree of knowledge, senor? Well; if you have any ambition to follow many another brave captain to the pit, I know no shorter or easier path than is contained in that little book”

”I have never opened your book,” said Amyas; ”your private manuscripts are no concern of e read part of it, knowing no better; and now you are at liberty to tell me as little as you like”

The ”man,” it should be said, was none other than Salvation Yeo, who had attached hiuard: and, as was coh in those days, had turned soldier for the nonce, and taken under his patronage two or three rusty bases (swivels) and falconets (four-pounders), which grinned harh fro

Amyas once asked him, how he reconciled this Irish sojourn with his vow to find his little maid? Yeo shook his head

”I can't tell, sir, but there's so that makes me always to think of you when I think of her; and that's often enough, the Lord knows Whether it is that I ben't to find the dear without your help; or whether it is your pleasant face puts me in mind of hers; or what, I can't tell; but don't you part e I lodge; and where you go I go; and where you die--though I shall die many a year first--there I'll die, I hope and trust; for I can't abear you out of ht; and that's the truth thereof”

So Yeo remained with Aer, and the two friends met seldom for many months; so that Arew more familiar, and more careless about what he said and did in his captor's presence, often puzzled and scandalized him by his ardness Fits of deep melancholy alternated with bursts of Spanish boastfulness, utterly astonishi+ng to the lishh, had he not had ocular proof of his extreht in one of these fits ”And have I not a right to be in and all the saints, and die? I have not a friend, not a ducat on earth; not even a sword--hell and the furies! It was my all: the only bequest I ever had froo I had as pretty a suold as cavalier could wish--and now!”-- ”What is become of it, then? I cannot hear that our men plundered you of any”

”Your men? No, senor! What fifty men dared not have done, one woed, bolstered, Charybdis, cannibal, Megaera, Lao near that cursed Naples, the common sewer of Europe? whose women, I believe, would be sed up by Vesuvius to-or is afraid of theirthe pit itself too hot to hold hione in wine and dice, woodcocks' brains and ortolans' tongues, Iwith another h the dog fought well enough, to give hi across each other, and fled for , froan ere I had a hair on my chin--and this is the end!--No, it is not! I'll have that El Dorado yet! the Adelantado hter, swear that he would hunt for it, through life and death--We'll see who finds it first, he or I He's a bungler; Orsua was a bungler--Pooh! Cortes and Pizarro? we'll see whether there are not as good Castilians as they left still I can do it, senor I know a track, a plan; over the Llanos is the road; and I'll be Emperor of Manoa yet--possess the jewels of all the Incas; and gold, gold! Pizarro was a beggar to what I will be!”

Conceive, sir, he broke forth during another of these peacock fits, as A the hill-side; ”conceive! with forty chosen cavaliers (what need ofauards at the new miracle of the , I approach his throne, lift the crucifix which hangs aroundit to ive him his alternative; that which Gayferos and the Cid, my ancestors, offered the Soldan and the Moor--baptism or death! He hesitates; perhaps smiles scornfully upon my little band; I answer hirandfather, answered Atahuallpa at Peru, in sight of all his court and camp”

”With your lance-point, as Gayferos did the Soldan?” asked Amyas, amused

”No, sir; persuasion first, for the salvation of a soul is at stake Not with the lance-point, but the spur, sir, thus!”-- And striking his heels into his horse's flanks, he darted off at full speed

”The Spanish traitor!” shouted Yeo ”He's going to escape! Shall we shoot, sir? Shall we shoot?”

”For Heaven's sake, no!” said A somewhat blank, nevertheless, for he much doubted whether the whole was not a ruse on the part of the Spaniard, and he kne iive chase to the Spaniard's twelve But he was soon reassured; the Spaniard wheeled round towards hih all the paces of the race and skill which won applause fro his hand to Amyas, between his curvets and caracoles, ”did randfather exhibit to the Paynim emperor the prowess of a Castilian cavalier! Thus!--and thus!--and thus, at last, he dashed up to his very feet, as I to yours, and bespattering that unbaptized visage with his Christian bridle foaer on his haunches, thus!”

And (as was to be expected froarron on a peaty Irish hill-side) doent the hapless hackney on his tail, aent his heels a yard in front of him, and ere Don Guzman could ”avoid his selle,” horse and - hole

”After pride coed him out

”And ould you do with the emperor at last?” asked Amyas when the Don had been scrubbed sorandfather did Atahuallpa?”

”My grandfather,” answered the Spaniard, indignantly, ”was one of those who, to their eternal honor, protested to the last against that htly massacre He could be terrible to the heathen; but he kept his plighted word, sir, and taught me to keep mine, as you have seen to-day”

”I have, senor,” said Ah just now, and did not Pardon me, if I have offended you”

The Spaniard (who, after all, was cross principally with himself and the ”unlucky mare's son,” as the old romances have it, which had played hiain forthwith; and A him next-- ”I wonder why you are so frank about your own intentions to an enemy like me, ill surely forestall you if he can”

”Sir, a Spaniard needs no concealment, and fears no rivalry He is the soldier of the Cross, and in it he conquers, like Constantine of old Not that you English are not very heroes; but you have not, sir, and you cannot have, who have forsworn our Lady and the choir of saints, the same divine protection, the sale-handed to chase a thousand Paynims”

And Don Guzman crossed himself devoutly, and muttered half-a-dozen Ave Marias in succession, while Ae co with a boastfulness which in an Englisharity

At last ca A and courtly e to Don Guzman (whom Grenville had knohen he was in the Mediterranean, at the battle of Lepanto), and offering to receive hiuest at Bideford, till his ransom should arrive; a proposition which the Spaniard (who of course was getting sufficiently tired of the Irish bogs) could not but gladly accept; and one of Winter's shi+ps, returning to England in the spring of 1581, delivered duly at the quay of Bideford the body of Don Guz for that suoverned after Orland and the Court; and Amyas was left alone with the snipes and yellow mantles for two more weary years

CHAPTER X

HOW THE MAYOR OF BIDEFORD BAITED HIS HOOK WITH HIS OWN FLESH

”And therewith he blent, and cried ha! As though he had been stricken to the harte”

Palaht in prison; and so it befell also to Don Guzman; and it befell on this wise

He settled down quietly enough at Bideford on his parole, in better quarters than he had occupied for s as they came, like a true soldier of fortune; till, after he had been with Grenville hardly a month, old Salterne the Mayor caht be puzzled at first at our strange English ways of asking burghers and such low-bred folk to eat and drink above the salt, in the coh to know that Richard Grenville was gentle to the custo the shoulders of his spirit, he submitted to eat and drink at the saers, and took apprentices; and hearing hiar fashi+on, actually before the evening was out condescended to exchange words with him himself Whereon he found him a very prudent and courteous person, quite aware of the Spaniard's superior rank, andhim feel in every sentence that he are thereof; and yet holding his own opinion, and asserting his own rights as a wise elder in a fashi+on which the Spaniard had only seen before a the merchant princes of Genoa and Venice

At the end of supper, Salterne asked Grenville to do his hu with hi to the Don, said quite frankly, that he kne great a condescension it would be on the part of a nobleman of Spain to sit at the board of a sined to do hih for any rank, whatsoever the co on the whole glad enough of anything to aained thereby an excellent supper, and, if he had chosen to drink it, ood wine

Now Mr Salterne was, of course, as a wise n parts, as was afterwards proved by his great exertions in the settleinia; and he was, therefore, equally ready to rack the brains of any guest whoe lands; and so he thought no shaood sack, and next, to ask hi the Spanish Main, Peru, the Moluccas, China, the Indies, and all parts

The first of which schemes failed; for the Spaniard was as abstemious as any monk, and drank little but water; the second succeeded not over well, for the Spaniard was as cunning as any fox, and answered little but wind

In the e, looking as beautiful as usual; and hearing what they were upon, added, artlessly enough, her questions to her father's: to her Don Guz any very ihter a very ah spirits like Frank Leigh's may choose to call him (as, perhaps, he really is to them) the eldest of the Gods, and the son of Jove and Venus, yet is reported by other equally good authorities, as Burton has set forth in his ”Anatomy of Melancholy,” to be after all only the child of idleness and fulness of bread To which scandalous caluave at least a certain color; for he being idle (as captives needs must be), and also full of bread (for Sir Richard kept a very good table), had already looked round for mere amusement's sake after some one hom to fall in love Lady Grenville, as nearest, was, I blush to say, thought of first; but the Spaniard was a man of honor, and Sir Richard his host; so he put away from his mind (with a self-denial on which he plu to his pride and his love of danger As for the sinfulness of the said chase, he of course thought no more of that than other Southern Europeans did then, or than (I blush again to have to say it) the English did afterwards in the days of the Stuarts Nevertheless, he had put Lady Grenville out of his mind; and so left room to take Rose Salterne into it, not with any distinct purpose of wronging her: but, as I said before, half to amuse himself, and half, too, because he could not help it For there was an innocent freshness about the Rose of Torridge, fond as she was of being admired, which was new to him and most attractive ”The train of the peacock,” as he said to hi a combination, that if he could have persuaded her to love no one but hih to love no one but her And at that thought he was seized with a very panic of prudence, and resolved to keep out of her way; and yet the days ran slowly, and Lady Grenville when at ho but her husband; and when she went to Stow, and left the Don alone in one corner of the great house at Bideford, what could he do but lounge down to the butt-gardens to show off his fine black cloak and fine black feather, see the shooting, have a gaaet himself invited home to supper by Mr Salterne?

And there, of course, he had it all his oay, and ruled the roast (which he was fond enough of doing) right royally, not only on account of his rank, but because he had so, as a travelled lish coland, but had his iination all on fire with projects of discoveries, coallant rivalry of the brave adventures of Sir Edward Osborne and his new London Coranted by the Sultan Murad Khan to the English; with the worthy Levant voyages of Roger Bodenhareat bark Aucher, and of John Fox, and Lawrence Aldersey, and John Rule; and with hopes from the vast door for Mediterranean trade, which the crushi+ng of the Venetian power at Fausta in Cyprus, and the alliance made between Elizabeth and the Grand Turk, had just thrown open So not a word could fall from the Spaniard about the Mediterranean but took root at once in right fertile soil Besides, Master Edan had been on a successful ee Fenner had been to Guinea (and with the latter Mr Walter Wren, a Bideford rain; and African neas beco almost as valuable as West Indian Moreover, but two one from London Captain Hare in the bark Minion, for Brazil, and a company of adventurers with him, with Sheffield hardware, and ”Devonshi+re and Northern kersies,” hollands and ”Manchester cottons,” for there was a great opening for English goods by the help of one John Whithall, who had enio and slaves in Santos (Don't ss, and those who sowed the seed whereof you reap the hty harvest) In the meanwhile, Drake had proved notthe A an East Indian trade; Frobisher and Davis, worthy forefathers of our Parrys and Franklins, had begun to bore their way upward through the Northern ice, in search of a passage to China which should avoid the dangers of the Spanish seas; and Anthony Jenkinson, not the least of English travellers, had, in six-and-twenty years of travel in behalf of the Muscovite Company, penetrated into not merely Russia and the Levant, but Persia and Armenia, Bokhara, Tartary, Siberia, and those waste Arctic shores where, thirty years before, the brave Sir Hugh Willoughby, ”In Arzina caught, Perished with all his crew”