Part 46 (1/2)
Let theh Lord Howard has had news froland, and Seymour and Winter have left their post of observation on the Flemish shores, to make up the nuhtly, than that of the Spanish fleet, but of not e, or one third the number of men The Spaniards are dispirited and battered, but unbroken still; and as they slide to their anchorage in Calais Roads on the Saturday evening of that land's hour is come, and that the bells which will call all Christendom to church upon the morrow morn, will be either the death-knell or the triuhout the world
A solemn day that Sabbath ht-hearted coward, doubtless, who had scoffed (as , because he dare not face the thought, gave himself up to abject fear, ”as he now plainly saw and heard that of which before he would not be persuaded” And hters, felt his heart sink to the very paveht be enduring a few short days hence, froate and fanatical soldiery, or from the more deliberate fiendishness of the Inquisition The massacre of St Bartholomew, the fires of Smithfield, the immolation of the Moors, the extermination of the West Indians, the fantastic horrors of the Piedmontese persecution, which es of Morland,--these were the spectres, which, not as now, dih thewounds, flitted before the eyes of every Englishman, and filled his brain and heart with fire
He knew full well the fate in store for him and his One false step, and the unspeakable dooenerations afterwards, befell the Lutherans of Magdeburg, would have befallen every town from London to Carlisle All knew the hazard, as they prayed that day, and land and the Netherlands And none knew it better than she as the guiding spirit of that devoted land, and the especial mark of the invaders' fury; and who, by some Divine inspiration (asstroke which was to anticipate the coh all this while? Day after day he has been seeking the Sta Catharina in the thickest of the press, and cannot come at her, cannot even hear of her: one ht, and balked hies, and will escape him after all He is moody, discontented, restless, even (for the first ti but Don Guzman; he can find no better e his sword out of the sheath, and handling it, fondling it, talking to it even, bidding it not to fail hieance At last, he has sent to Squire, the armorer, for a whetstone, and, half-ashamed of his own folly, whets and polishes it in bye-corners, eance has possessed his whole land's present need, her past triu but his brother's blood And yet this is the day for which he has been longing ever since he brought hoic horn as a fifteen years boy; the day when he should find himself face to face with an invader, and that invader Antichrist himself He has believed for years with Drake, Hawkins, Grenville, and Raleigh, that he was called and sent into the world only to fight the Spaniard: and he is fighting him now, in such a cause, for such a stake, within such battle-lists, as he will never see again: and yet he is not content, and while throughout that gallant fleet, whole crews are receiving the Co with cheerful faces to shake hands, and to rejoice that they are sharers in Britain's Salamis, Amyas turns away from the holy elements
”I cannot communicate, Sir John Charity with all men? I hate, if ever man hated on earth”
”You hate the Lord's foes only, Captain Leigh”
”No, Jack, I hate my own as well”
”But no one in the fleet, sir?”
”Don't try to put me off with the same Jesuit's quibble which that false knave Parson Fletcher invented for one of Doughty's ainst his own admiral No, Jack, I hate one of whom you know; and so I am in love and charity with no man, Sir John Brimblecombe--not even with you! Go your ways in God's naether, or you'll find h, and while the creere receiving the Co his sword, and after it, called for a boat and went on board Drake's shi+p to ask news of the Sta Catharina, and listened scowling to the loud chants and tinkling bells, which came across the water from the Spanish fleet At last, Drake was summoned by the lord adht to bear fruit that night; and Ahtfall, and then returned to his own shi+p as Sir Alory of every soul on board, except hissuh- walled town and the long range of yellow sandhills, lie those two unshot Messenger after es to the Duke of Parlish so castles; and, above all, entreating him to put to sea at once with all his force The duke is not with his forces at Dunkirk, but on the future field of Waterloo, paying his devotions to St Mary of Halle in Hainault, in order to make all sure in his Pantheon, and already sees in visions of the night that gentle-souled and pure-lipped saint, Cardinal Allen, placing the crown of England on his head He returns for answer, first, that his victual is not ready; next, that his Dutch sailors, who have been kept at their post for many a week at the sword's point, have run away like water; and thirdly, that over and above all, he cannot coreat ordnance and musketeers are those five-and-thirty Dutch shi+ps, in which round-sterned and stubborn-hearted heretics watch, like terriers at a rat's hole, the entrance of Nieuwport and Dunkirk Having ensured the private patronage of St Mary of Halle, he will return to-morrow to make experience of its effects: but only hear across the flats of Dixmude the thunder of the fleets, and at Dunkirk the open curses of his officers For while he has been praying and nothinga few purveyors, as peace offerings to his sulking army, and then ”chafe,” as Drake says of him, ”like a bear robbed of her whelps”
For Lord Henry Seyht Lord Howard a letter of co it out so busily all that Sunday long, that by two o'clock on the Monday ht fire-shi+ps ”besmeared ild-fire, bried with bullets and with stones,” are stealing down the wind straight for the Spanish fleet, guided by two valiantin the land!) The shi+ps are fired, the men of Devon steal back, and in a lare froian boors far away inland, plundered and dragooned for many a hideous year, leap froly either) that the day of judgeance on their tyrants
And then breaks forth one of those disgraceful panics, which so often follow overweening presuht hideous There are those too on board who recollect well enough Jenebelli's fire-shi+ps at Antwerp three years before, and the wreck which they e across the Scheldt If these should be like the any sails, the Invincible Ar wildly out to sea, every shi+p foul of her neighbor
The largest of the four galliasses loses her rudder, and drifts helpless to and fro, hindering and confusing The duke, having (so the Spaniards say) weighed his anchor deliberately instead of leaving it behind hinal for return: but his truant sheep are deaf to the shepherd's pipe, and swearing and praying by turns, he runs up Channel towards Gravelines picking up stragglers on his ho are struggling as they best can a the flats and shallows: but Drake and Fenner have arrived as soon as he When Monday's sun rises on the quaint old castle and muddy dykes of Gravelines town, the thunder of the cannon reco coolly enough in the rear to plunder when he thinks fit; but when the battle needs it, none can fightthe foremost; and there is need now, if ever That Armadaht drives off the blockading Hollanders from Dunkirk port, and sets Parma and his flotilla free to join theth across to the hed anchor, and away up Channel with all his squadron, the moment that he saw the Spanish fleet co to redeem the honor which, indeed, he had never lost; and ere Fenton, Beeston, Crosse, Ryman, and Lord Southwell can join the the Spaniards for two full hours into confusion worse confounded
But what is that heavy firing behind thee stranded whale, upon the sands where now stands Calais pier; and A her into submission, while a fleet of hoys and druht the lion
Soon, on the south-west horizon, loohty shi+ps, and behind thereets the Triulides stately into the thickest of the fight
True, we have still but some three-and-twenty shi+ps which can cope at all with so, and the inspiration of utter need Now, or never, le be ended We worried them off Portland; we must rend them in pieces now; and in rushes shi+p after shi+p, to sh the wooden castles, ”soain to re-load, and give placewith all sails set; the few larger, who, once in, are careless about coht with top-sails loose, and theirboarded The duke, Oquenda, and Recalde, having with ht to seaward; but in vain The day goes against them more and reat San Philip into a wreck; her one by the board; Pimentelli in the San Matthew co bull, and finds theh smaller, is stouter than the Deacon, and of all the shot poured into hi; but sink or strike he will not
”Go ahead, and pound his tough hide, Leigh,” roars Drake off the poop of his shi+p, while he haht has he to keep us all waiting?”
Amyas slips in as best he can between Drake and Winter; as he passes he shouts to his ancient ene round Winter's bows, he pours his broadside into those of the San Matthew, and then glides on to re-load; but not to return For not a pistol shot to leeward, worried by three or four salleon; and on her poop--can he believe his eyes for joy?--the !
”There he is!” shouts A to the starboard side of the shi+p The n; a cheer of fury bursts from every throat
”Steady, men!” says Amyas, in a suppressed voice ”Not a shot! Re-load, and be ready; I rave, alides up to the Spaniard's quarter
”Don Guzdalena Soto, loud and clear araceful as ever, the tall, , twenty feet above Ah his vizor,-- ”At your service, sir whosoever you may be”
A dozen muskets and arrows are levelled at him; but Amyas frowns them down ”No man strikes him but I Spare him, if you kill every other soul on board Don Guzh; I proclaie you once le combat, when and where you will”
”You are welcome to come on board ing with you this answer, that you lie in your throat;” and lingering a e his scarf, he steps slowly down again behind the bulwarks
”Coward!” shouts Amyas at the top of his voice
The Spaniard re-appears instantly ”Why that name, senor, of all others?” asks he in a cool, stern voice
”Because we call land, who leave their wives to be burnt alive by priests”
The moment the words had passed Amyas's lips, he felt that they were cruel and unjust But it was too late to recall them The Spaniard started, clutched his sword-hilt, and then hissed back through his closed vizor,-- ”For that word, sirrah, you hang at race”
”See that your halter be a silken one, then,” laughed Aht” And he stepped down as a stor round his head; the Spaniards are not as punctilious as he
”Fire!” His ordnance crash through the stern-works of the Spaniard; and then he sails onward, while her balls go hu
Half-an-hour has passed of wild noise and fury; three tiht, sailed clean round and round the Sta Catharina, pouring in broadside after broadside, till the guns are leaping to the deck-beams with their own heat, and the Spaniard's sides are slit and spotted in a hundred places And yet, so high has been his fire in return, and so strong the deck defences of the Vengeance, that a few spars broken, and two or three men wounded by musketry, are all her loss But still the Spaniard endures, nificent as ever; it is the battle of the thresher and the whale; the end is certain, but the work is long
”Can I help you, Captain Leigh?” asked Lord Henry Seyth of him, to attack a shi+p ahead ”The San Matthew has had his dinner, and is gone on to Medina to ask for a digestive to it”
”I thank your lordshi+p: but this is my private quarrel, of which I spoke But if your lordshi+p could lend me powder--”
”Would that I could! But so, I fear, says every other gentleman in the fleet”
A puff of wind clears away the sulphurous veil for a moment; the sea is clear of shi+ps towards the land; the Spanish fleet areup the rear; only soht hand, the vast hull of the San Philip is drifting up the shore with the tide, and somewhat nearer the San Matthew is hard at work at her pu down her side
”Go in, my lord, and have the pair,” shouts Amyas
”No, sir! Forward is a Seyers' expenses And on went Lord Henry, and on shore went the San Philip at Ostend, to be plundered by the Flushi+ngers; while the San Matthehose captain, ”on a hault courage,” had refused to save hientle ry mouths of Captain Peter Vanderduess and four other valiant Dutchalleon afloat till they had ereat church of Leyden, being of such a length, that being fastened to the roof, it reached unto the very ground”
But in theere the sun had set, comes down the darkness of the thunderstorm, attracted, as to a volcano's mouth, to that vast mass of sulphur-smoke which cloaks the sea for many a mile; and heaven's artillery above h ss to his prey She too has seen the northward movement of the Spanish fleet, and sets her topsails; A: but in vain: for three or four belated galleys, having forced their way at last over the shallows, co up to the corinds his teeth, and would fain hustle into the thick of the press once alleys' beaks
”Most heroical captain,” says cary, pulling a long face, ”if we do, we are stove and sunk in five minutes; not to reat cartridge left”
So, surely and silent, the Vengeance sheers off, but keeps as near as she can to the little squadron, all through the night of rain and thunder which follows Nextwest-north-west breeze, and all hearts are asking what the day will bring forth
They are long past Dunkirk now; the Ger before them The Spaniards, sorely battered, and lessened in nuained so on their skirts a mile or two behind They have no aust, the Sta Catharina has rejoined her fellows during the night