Part 41 (1/2)
”You, sir! She owes all to you; and so do I Let o below, sir My old wits are shaky Bless you, sir, and thank you for ever and ever!”
And Yeo grasped Amyas's hand, and went down to his cabin, from which he did not reappear for many hours
Froht that she was an Englishworeat white people whoenerating change: she regained all her former stateliness, and with it a self-restraint, a temperance, a softness which she had never shown before Her dislike to Cary and Jack vanished Modest and distant as ever, she now took delight in learning froe of our custoained ht good, for reasons of his own, to assuned her a handsome cabin to herself, always addressed her as madam, and told Cary, Brimblecombe, and the whole crew that as she was a lady and a Christian, he expected the and scraping on the poop as if it had been a prince's court: and Ayacanora, though sorely puzzled and chagrined at Amyas's new soleranted that it was the right thing); and having tolerable masters in the art of hly well-bred s, except in inti fellow, hit on this parade of goodthe distance between hih they were a little vexed at losing their pet, consoled theht that she was a ”real born lady,” and Mr Oxenhahter, too; and there was not a e if she approached him, or one ould not have, I verily believe, jumped overboard to do her a pleasure
Only Yeo kept sorrowfully apart He never looked at her, spoke to her, met her even, if he could His dream had vanished He had found her! and after all, she did not care for him? Why should she?
But it was hard to have hunted a bubble for years, and have it break in his hand at last ”Set not your affections on things on the earth,” murmured Yeo to hietting his little maid
But why did Amyas wish to increase the distance between hiiven: I deny none of them But the main one, fantastic as it may seem, was silishwoman, he had discovered her to be a Spaniard If her father were seven times John Oxenham (and even that the perverse felloas inclined to doubt), her mother was a Spaniard--Pah! one of the accursed race; kinswoman--perhaps, to his brother'sbut the Spanish ele else As Cary said to hi a cant phrase of Sidney's, which he had picked up from Frank, all heaven and earth were ”spaniolated,” to hi but that Heaven had ”made Spaniards to be killed, and him to kill them” If he had not been the most sensible of John Bulls, he would certainly have forestalled the hty years after hi of the Spanish cruelties, that he threw up all his prospects and turned captain of filibusters in the West Indies, for the express purpose of ridding them of their tyrants; and when a Spanish shi+p was taken, used to relinquish the whole booty to his crew, and reserve for hionies
But what had beco of Ayacanora's which had astonished them on the banks of the Meta, and cheered thedalena? Froe, it stopped She refused utterly to sing anything but the songs and psallish Whether it was that she despised it as a relic of her barbarisrew heavier and huale notes were heard nosouthwest breeze: but long ere they ithin sight of land, Lucy Passone to her rest beneath the Atlantic waves
CHAPTER XXVIII
HOW AMYAS CAME HOME THE THIRD TIME
”It fell about the Martin and ain, And their hats were o' the birk
”It did na graw by bush or brae, Nor yet in ony shough; But by the gates o' paradise That birk grew fair eneugh”
The Wife of Usher's Well
It is the evening of the 15th of February, 1587, and Mrs Leigh (for weslowly up and down the terrace-walk at Burrough, looking out over the winding river, and the hazy sand-hills, and the estern sea, as she has done every evening, be it fair weather or foul, for three weary years Three years and one, and yet no news of Frank and Aallant souls therein; and loving eyes in Bideford and Appledore, Clovelly and Ilfraco for those who have sailed away into the West, as John Oxenham sailed before them, and have vanished like a dream, as he did, into the infinite unknown Three weary years, and yet no word Once there was a flush of hope, and good Sir Richard (without Mrs Leigh's knowledge, had sent a horse across to Plymouth, when the news arrived that Drake, Frobisher, and Carlisle had returned with their squadron frolorious news; news of the sacking of Cartagena, San Doinian Colony: but no news of the Rose, and of those who had sailed in her And Mrs Leigh bowed her head, and worshi+pped, and said, ”The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the naray; her cheeks an; her step was feeble She seldo cottages She never mentioned her sons' naht betoken that she thought of the on the sandhills showed that there ater over the bar, she paced the terrace-walk, and devoured with greedy eyes the sea beyond in search of the sail which never came The stately shi+ps went in and out as of yore; and white sails hung off the bar for many an hour, day after day, month after month, year after year: but an instinct within told her that none of theht She knew that shi+p, every line of her, the cut of every cloth; she could have picked it outa whole fleet, but it never cah bowed her head and worshi+pped, and went to and fro a, and one whoht very near to Himself, in that mysterious heaven of sorrohich they too knew full well And lone women and bed-ridden men looked in her steadfast eyes, and loved theh she never spoke of her own grief) that she had gone down into the fiercest depths of the fiery furnace, and alking there unhurt by the side of One whose form was as of the Son of God And all the while she was blahtly to Heaven that weakness which she could not shake off, which drew her feet at each high tide to the terrace-walk beneath the roind-clipt trees
But this evening Northa far below, as it thundered years ago: but Northae The tower is rocking with the pealing bells: the people are all in the streets shouting and singing round bonfires They are burning the pope in effigy, drinking to the queen's health, and ”So perish all her enee; and far away, the bells of Bideford are answering the bells of Northao, when A round the world For this day has coay; and all England, like a dreahtmare, has leapt up in one treer of seventeen anxious years is lifted froone, to answer at a higher tribunal than that of the Estates of England, for all the noble English blood which has been poured out for her; for all the noble English hearts whom she has tempted into treachery, rebellion, and murder Elizabeth's oords have been fulfilled at last, after years of long-suffering,-- ”The daughter of debate, That discord aye doth sow, Hath reap'd no gain where forrow”
And now she can do evil no iveness, the tongue which could not speak truth even for its own interest, have past and are perhaps atoned for; and her fair face hangs a pitiful drealand,is left of her Now, but pure woh, Protestant as she is, breathes a prayer, that the Lord may have mercy on that soul, as ”clear as diamond, and as hard,” as she said of herself That last scene, too, before the fatal block--it could not be altogether acting Mrs Leigh had learned ht not Mary Stuart have learned soh had been a courtier, and knew, as far as a chaste Englishwoman could knohich even in those coarser days was not very acy in which poor Mary had had her youthful training, amid the Medicis, and the Guises, and Cardinal Lorraine; and she shuddered, and sighed to herself”-- To whoiven, of them shall little be required!” But still the bells pealed on and would not cease
What was that which answered theht? A flash, and then the thunder of a gun at sea
Mrs Leigh stopped The flash was right outside the bar A shi+p in distress it could not be The as light and westerly It was a high spring-tide, as evening floods are always there What could it be? Another flash, another gun The noisy folks of Northam were hushed at once, and all hurried into the churchyard which looks down on the broad flats and the river
There was a gallant shi+p outside the bar She was running in, too, with all sails set A large shi+p; nearly a thousand tons sheof it? A Spanish cruiser about tothe Cadiz shore! Not that, surely The Don had no fancy for such unscientific and dare-devil warfare If he came, he would come with admiral, rear-ad to the best-approved methods, articles, and science of war What could she be?
Easily, on the flowing tide and fair western wind, she has slipped up the channel between the two lines of sandhill She is almost off Appledore now She is no ene one, for she has never veiled her topsails,--and that, all know, every foreign shi+p lish port, or stand the chance of war; as the Spanish admiral found, who many a year since was sent in time of peace to fetch home from Flanders Anne of Austria, Philip the Second's last wife
For in his pride he sailed into Ply of Spain Whereon, like lion from his den, out rushed John Hawkins the port admiral, in his famous Jesus of Lubec (afterwards lost in the San Juan d'Ulloa fight), and without argument or parley, sent a shot between the adside ran bold Captain John, and with his next shot, so says his son, an eye- witness, ”lackt the ad flag; and due apologies were uardian of her majesty's honor And if John Hawkins did as much for a Spanish fleet in ti in Appledore ill do as le shi+p in time of war, if he can find even an iron pot to burn poithal
The strange sail passed out of sight behind the hill of Appledore; and then there rose into the quiet evening air a cheer, as froh stood still, and listened Another gun thundered aht have been twenty ain round the dark rocks of the Hubbastone, as she turned up the Bideford river Mrs Leigh had stood that whole ti statue, her eyes fixed upon the Viking's rock
Round the Hubbastone she came at last There was music on board, dru echoes from every knoll of wood and slab of slate And as she opened full on Burrough House, another cheer burst from her crew, and rolled up to the hills from off the silver waters far below, full a h walked quickly toward the house, and called herme my hood Master Amyas is come home!”
”No, surely? O joyful sound! Praised and blessed be the Lord, then; praised and blessed be the Lord! But, madam, however did you know that?”
”I heard his voice on the river; but I did not hear Mr Frank's with him, Grace!”
”Oh, be sure, madam, where the one is the other is They'd never part company Both come home or neither, I'll warrant Here's your hood, h, with Grace behind her, started with rapid steps towards Bideford
Was it true? Was it a dreanize her child's voice a all the rest, and at that enor effort of her supernatural calm?
Grace asked herself, in her oay, that sah and Bideford When they arrived on the quay the question answered itself
As they caeland Street (where afterwards the tobacco warehouses for the Virginia trade used to stand, but which then was but a row of rope-walks and saile shi+p already at anchor in the river They had just reached the lower end of the street, when round the corner swept a great , weeping, laughing: Mrs Leigh stopped; and behold, they stopped also
”Here she is!” shouted some one; ”here's his h to herself, and turned very pale; but that heart was long past breaking
The next iant head and shoulders of Amyas, far above the croept round the corner
”Make a way! Make rooh!”--And Amyas fell on his knees at her feet
She threw her arms round his neck, and bent her fair head over his, while sailors, 'prentices, and coarse harbor-wo round the h asked no question She saw that Amyas was alone
At last he whispered, ”I would have died to save him, mother, if I could”
”You need not tell h, my son”
Another silence
”How did he die?” whispered Mrs Leigh
”He is a martyr He died in the----”
Amyas could say noshudder passed through Mrs Leigh's frame, and then she lifted up her head