Part 44 (2/2)
”No, sir, not Mr Richard, sir; Ad rizzled beard and the face scarred and tanned with fifty years of fight and store
”Mercy on ,” says the old hero in his broadest Devon, waddles off to the old ot ot mun, man alive; but his Lordshi+p keept et so lusty of late, Martin, I can't get to , a bundle of papers, a thi-tobacco, and last of all, a little paper of Muscovado sugar--then as great a delicacy as any French bonbons would be nohich he thrusts into the old ins dipping his finger into it, and rubbing it on his toothless gu master; while the little maid at his knee, unrebuked, takes her share also
”There, Adramfers and babies! You and I shall be like to that one day, young Saood many Philistines first, I hope”
”Amen! so be it; but look to reedy after a hit of sweet trade! 'tis piteous like; but I bring mun a hit whenever I come, and he looks for it He's one of my own flesh like, is old Martin He sailed with my father Captain Will, when they was both two little cracks aboard of a trawler; and my father went up, and here I am--he didn't, and there he is We'ain some day”
”Never, I trust,” said Ao and do I do hear too much of that there from my lad Let they ministers preach till they'e in Amyas's ribs ”Faith can't save, nor charity nether There, you tell with hiht of stories You ask hi Hal, now, just--”
And off waddled the Port Ad Henry, then, father?” said Ahted at once, and he stopped ar
”Seed mun? Iss, I reckon I ith Captain Will when he went to meet the Frenchman there to Calais--at the Field, the Field--”
”The Field of the Cloth of Gold, graested the da! The face o'sun, and the back o' mun so broad as that there” (and he held out his palsied arms), ”and the voice of mun! Oh, to hear s! And I've seed mun do what few has; I've seed mun christle like any child”
”What--cry?” said Aht there was much cry in hirao on,” said Amyas
”I seed mun christle; and, oh dear, how he did put hands on entleallant men!' Them was his very words”
”But when?”
”Why, Captain Will had just come to the Hard--that's to Portsain the Hard--so; and our boot alongside--so; and the king he standth as it e, and she co most royal to behold, poor dear! and went to cast about And Captain Will, saith he, 'Them lower ports is cruel near the water;' for she had not more than a sixteen inches to spare in the nether overloop, as I heard after And saith he, 'That won't do for going to ard in a say, Martin' And as the words came out of mun's mouth, your worshi+p, there was a bit of a flaw frooeth ainst the wall, and as I stooped to pick it up, I heard a cry, and it was all over!”
”He is telling of the Mary Rose, sir”
”I guessed so”
”All over: and the cry of mun, and the screech ofhe screeched right out like any allant men!' and as she lay on her bea, the very last souls I seen was that man's father, and that man's I knowed e Carew and Sir Richard Grenville
”Iss! Iss! Drowned like rattens Drowned like rattens!”
”Now; you mustn't trouble his worshi+p any ht, I shall be well pleased,” said A down on the bench by him ”Drawer! ale--and a parcel of tobacco”
And Amyas settled himself to listen, while the old man purred to himself-- ”Iss They likes to hear old Martin All the captains look upon old Martin”
”Hillo, Amyas!” said Cary, ”who's your friend? Here's a o thither for luck there next time”
”River Plate?” said old Martin ”It's I knows about the River Plate; none so well Who'd ever been there, nor heard of it nether, before Captain Will and es a whole year; and audacious civil I found 'em if they 'd had but shi+rts to their backs; and so was the prince o'Henry; leastwise he died on the voyage; but the wild folk took it cruel well, for you see, as always as civil with them as Christians, and if we hadn't been, I should not have been here now”
”What year was that?”
”In the fifteen thirty: but I was there afore, and learnt the speech o' e, when he tuked their prince”
”Before that?” said Cary; ”why, the country was hardly known before that”
The old man's eyes flashed up in triumph
”Knowed? Iss, and you may well say that! Look ye here! Look to mun!” and he waved his hand round--”There's captains! and I'loory; I, Martin cockree I oolden idols, and sich noxious trade, as ever was a wheat-rick of rats I ht off Brest in the French wars--Oh, that was a fight, surely!--when the Regent and the French Carack were burnt side by side, being fast grappled, you see, because of Sir Tho as he ran a-past us, saying, says he--”
”But,” said A away, ”what do you mind about A to tell you of the Regent--and seven hundred Englishmen burnt and drowned in her, and nine hundred French in the Brest shi+p, besides e picked up Oh dear! But about America”
”Yes, about America How are you the father of all the captains?”
”How? you askmaster! Why, before the fifteen thirty, I was up the Plate with Cabot (and a cruel fractious ontrustful felloas, like all they Portingals), and bid there a year andno end; whereby, gentles, I was the first Englishman, I hold, that ever sot a foot on the New World, I was!”
”Then here's your health, and long life, sir!” said A enough a'ready! Why, Iof it all, I do I mind when there wasn't a ht west of the Land's End except herrings Why, they held theh, you'd surely coe, and fall over cleve Iss--'Twas dark parts round here, till Captain Will arose; and the first of it I mind was inside the bar of San Lucar, and he and I were boys about a ten year old, aboord of a Dartmouth shi+p, and went for wine, and there co of it all”
”Columbus?”