Part 30 (1/2)
The Spaniards, ere five minutes had passed, poured en masse into the Rose's waist, but only to their destruction Between the poop and forecastle (as was then the fashi+on) the upper-deck beams were left open and unplanked, with the exception of a narrow gangway on either side; and off that fatal ledge the boarders, thrust on by those behind, fell headlong between the beahtered helpless in that pit of destruction, by the double fire from the bulkheads fore and aft; while the feho kept their footing on the gangway, after vain attempts to force the stockades on poop and forecastle, leaped overboard again alish was as steady as it was quick; and though three-fourths of the crew had never smelt powder before, they proved well the truth of the old chronicler's saying (since proved again loriously than ever, at Alht better than in their first battle”
Thrice the Spaniards claed back before that deadly hail The decks on both sides were very sha as his conscience would allow hih to do in carrying poor wretches to the surgeon, without giving that spiritual consolation which he longed to give, and they to receive At last there was a lull in that wild storm No shot was heard from the Spaniard's upper-deck
Ah the s veil, rolled in heaps, laid flat; dead : but no man upon his feet The last volley had swept the deck clear; one by one had dropped below to escape that fiery shower: and alone at the hel up to his very eyes, stood the Spanish captain
Noas the moment for a counter-stroke Amyas shouted for the boarders, and in twoat the Spaniard's
What was this? The distance between hi off? Yes--and rising too, growing bodily higher every ic Amyas looked up in astonish fast over to leeward away fro forward, swifter and swifter--the end was come, then!
”Back! in God's na by the head!” And with ed back, some leaped back--all but old Michael Heard
With hair and beard floating in the wind, the bronzed naked figure, like some weird old Indian fakir, still climbed on steadfastly up the mizzen-chains of the Spaniard, hatchet in hand
”Come back, Michael! Leap while you may!” shouted a dozen voices Michael turned-- ”And what should I coo holish, he sprang in over the bulwarks, as the huge shi+p rolled upblack hulk aluns, as if in defiance, exploded upright into the air, hurling the ball to the very heavens
In an instant it was answered frohteen-pound ball crashed through the bottom of the defenceless Spaniard
”Who fired? Sha shi+p!”
”Gunner Yeo, sir,” shouted a voice up from the main-deck ”He's like a ain, I'll put hirapples aloft, s us over? Cut away, or we shall sink with her”
They cut away, and the Rose, released from the strain, shook her feathers on the wave-crest like a freed sea-gull, while all lorious creature righted herself, and rose again, as if in noble shale with her doom Her boere deep in the water, but her after-deck still dry Righted: but only for awildly up on deck, with cries and prayers, and rush aft to the poop, where, under the flag of Spain, stood the tall captain, his left hand on the standard-staff, his sword pointed in his right
”Back, men!” they heard him cry, ”and die like valiant mariners”
Some of them ran to the bulwarks, and shouted ”Mercy! We surrender!” and the English broke into a cheer and called to theside
”Silence!” shouted Amyas ”I take no surrender fro into the rigging and taking off his hat, ”for the love of God and these men, strike! and surrender a buena querra”
The Spaniard lifted his hat and bowed courteously, and answered, ”Iood which stains my honor”
”God havehie forward, and dived under the co but the point of her poop remained, and there stood the stern and steadfast Don, cap-a-pie in his glistening black ar, which claiold aloft and upwards in the glare of the tropic noon
”He shall not carry that flag to the devil with him; I will have it yet, if I die for it!” said Will Cary, and rushed to the side to leap overboard, but Amyas stopped him
”Let hi out of the led and shrieked amid the foam, and rushed upward at the Spaniard It was Michael Heard The Don, who stood above hied his sword into the old leah headpiece and through head; and as Heard sprang onward, bleeding, but alive, the steel-clad corpse rattled down the deck into the surge Twoh Old Michael collected all his strength, hurled the flag far fro shi+p, and then stood erect one lish answered with a ”Hurrah!” which rent the welkin
Another ulf had sed his victi re spars and struggling wretches, while a great awe fell upon all men, and a sole swi themselves, as allants, reckless of sharks and eddies, leaped overboard, swaside in triumph
”Ah!” said Salvation Yeo, as he helped the trophy up over the side; ”ah! it was not for nothing that we found poor Michael! He was always a good coood a one as Williarant I meet in bliss! And now, then, ain and burn La Guayra?”
”Art thou never glutted with Spanish blood, thou old wolf?” asked Will Cary
”Never, sir,” answered Yeo
”To St Jago be it,” said Aet there; but--God help us!”
And he looked round sadly enough; while no one needed that he should finish his sentence, or explain his ”but”
The fore in elf-locks, the hull shot through and through in twenty places, the deck streith the bodies of nine good men, beside sixteen wounded down belohile the pitiless sun, right above their heads, poured down a flood of fire upon a sea of glass
And it would have been well if faintness and weariness had been all that was the matter; but now that the excitement was over, the collapse came; and the men sat down listlessly and sulkily by twos and threes upon the deck, starting and wincing when they heard soeon's knife; orto each other that all was lost Drew tried in vain to rouse the a jury-rowls; and at last broke into open reproaches Even Will Cary's volatile nature, which had kept hiave hen Yeo and the carpenter came aft, and told Amyas in a low voice-- ”We are hit somewhere forward, below the water-line, sir She leaks a terrible deal, and the Lord will not vouchsafe to us to lay our hands on the place, for all our searching”
”What are we to do now, Amyas, in the devil's name?” asked Cary, peevishly
”What are we to do, in God's name, rather,” answered Aentleman for, but to know better than those poor fickle fellows forward, who blow hot and cold at every change of weather!”
”I wish you'd come forward and speak to them, sir,” said Yeo, who had overheard the last words, ”or we shall get naught done”
Amyas went forward instantly
”Now then, my brave lads, what's theon your tails like runts one ”Don't you think our day's work has been long enough yet, captain?”
”You don't want us to go in to La Guayra again, sir? There are enough of us throay already, I reckon, about that wench there”
”Best sit here, and sink quietly There's no getting hoht out here to be killed?”
”For shame, men!” cries Yeo; ”you're no better than a set of stiff- necked Hebres, ainst Moses the very yptians”
Now I do not wish to set Amyas up as a perfect man; for he had his faults, like every one else; nor as better, thank God, than many and many a brave and virtuous captain in her majesty's service at this very day: but certainly he behaved admirably under that trial Drake had trained him, as he trained many another excellent officer, to be as stout in discipline, and as dogged of purpose, as he himself was: but he had trained him also to feel with and for his men, to make allowances for them, and to keep his temper with thee; he had seen hi one man for athirty more; but Amyas re, as Drake said publicly hio through with; it passeth my capacity; it hath even bereaved ether by the ears three al,” he found his whole voyage ready to coht, ”by entleentlemen and sailors” ”But, ot his words), ”I entlemen to haul and draith the entlemen I would like to know him that would refuse to set his hand to a rope!”
And now Amyas's conscience smote him (and his simple and pious soul took the loss of his brother as God's verdict on his conduct), because he had set his own private affection, even his own private revenge, before the safety of his shi+p's coood of his country
”Ah,” said he to himself, as he listened to his , like a loyal soldier, of servingthe Spaniard, I should have taken that great bark three days ago, and in it the verydown his old man,” as Yeo used to say, he made answer cheerfully-- ”Pooh! pooh! brave lads! For shao; you are not surely turned sheep already! Why, but yesterday evening you were gruht those three shi+ps under the batteries of La Guayra, and now you think it too ht them fairly out at sea? What has happened but the chances of hichwin; and nobody goes bird- nesting without a fall at times If any one wants to be safe in this life, he'd best stay at hoh even there, who knows but the roof h on him?”
”Ah, it's all very well for you, captain,” said soue notion that Aentleman Amyas's blood rose
”Yes, sirrah! it is very well foras God is with me: but He is with every man in this shi+p, I would have you to know, asto lose? I who have adventured in this voyage all I aary and scorn? And if I have ventured rashly, sinfully, if you will, the lives of any of you in my own private quarrel, am I not punished? Have I not lost--?”