"Your holiness will breakfast with us, of course; and these two frocked gentlemen likewise.I see no reason for refusing them all hospitality, as yet."There was a marked emphasis on the last two words, which made both monks wince.
"Our chaplain will attend to you, gentlemen.His lordship the bishop will do me the honor of sitting next to me."The bishop seemed to revive slowly as he snuffed the savory steam;and at last, rising mechanically, subsided into the chair which Amyas offered him on his left, while the commandant sat on his right.
"A little of this kid, my lord? No--ah--Friday, I recollect.Some of that turtle-fin, then.Will, serve his lordship; pass the cassava-bread up, Jack! Senor commandant! a glass of wine? You need it after your valiant toils.To the health of all brave soldiers--and a toast from your own Spanish proverb, 'To-day to me, tomorrow to thee!'""I drink it, brave senor.Your courtesy shows you the worthy countryman of General Drake, and his brave lieutenant.""Drake! Did you know him, senor?" asked all the Englishmen at once.
"Too well, too well--" and he would have continued; but the bishop burst out--"Ah, senor commandant! that name again! Have you no mercy? To sit between another pair of--, and my own wine, too! Ugh, ugh!"The old gentleman, whose mouth had been full of turtle the whole time, burst into a violent fit of coughing, and was only saved from apoplexy by Cary's patting him on the back.
"Ugh, ugh! The tender mercies of the wicked are cruel, and their precious balms.Ah, senor lieutenant Englishman! May I ask you to pass those limes?--Ah! what is turtle without lime?--Even as a fat old man without money! Nudus intravi, nudus exeo--ah!""But what of Drake?"
"Do you not know, sir, that he and his fleet, only last year, swept the whole of this coast, and took, with shame I confess it, Cartagena, San Domingo, St.Augustine, and--I see you are too courteous, senors, to express before me what you have a right to feel.But whence come you, sir? From the skies, or the depth of the sea?""Art-magic, art-magic!" moaned the bishop.
"Your holiness! It is scarcely prudent to speak thus here," said the commandant, who was nevertheless much of the same opinion.
"Why, you said so yourself, last night, senor, about the taking of Cartagena."The commandant blushed, and stammered out somewhat--"That it was excusable in him, if he had said, in jest, that so prodigious and curious a valor had not sprung from mortal source.""No more it did, senor," said Jack Brimblecombe, stoutly: "but from Him who taught our 'hands to war, and our fingers to fight.'"The commandant bowed stiffly."You will excuse me, sir preacher:
but I am a Catholic, and hold the cause of my king to be alone the cause of Heaven.But, senor captain, how came you thither, if Imay ask? That you needed no art-magic after you came on board, I, alas! can testify but too well: but what spirit--whether good or evil, I ask not--brought you on board, and whence? Where is your ship? I thought that all Drake's squadron had left six months ago.""Our ship, senor, has lain this three years rotting on the coast near Cape Codera.""Ah! we heard of that bold adventure--but we thought you all lost in the interior.""You did? Can you tell me, then, where the senor governor of La Guayra may be now?""The Senor Don Guzman de Soto," said the commandant, in a somewhat constrained tone, "is said to be at present in Spain, having thrown up his office in consequence of domestic matters, of which I have not the honor of knowing anything."Amyas longed to ask more: but he knew that the well-bred Spaniard would tell him nothing which concerned another man's wife; and went on.
"What befell us after, I tell you frankly."And Amyas told his story, from the landing at Guayra to the passage down the Magdalena.The commandant lifted up his hands.
"Were it not forbidden to me, as a Catholic, most invincible senor, I should say that the Divine protection has indeed--""Ah," said one of the friars, "that you could be brought, senors, to render thanks for your miraculous preservation to her to whom alone it is due, Mary, the fount of mercies!""We have done well enough without her as yet," said Amyas, bluntly.
"The Lord raised up Nebuchadnezzar of old to punish the sins of the Jewish Church; and He has raised up these men to punish ours!" said Fray Gerundio.
"But Nebuchadnezzar fell, and so may they," growled the other to himself.Jack overheard him.
"I say, my lord bishop," called he from the other end of the table.
"It is our English custom to let our guests be as rude as they like; but perhaps your lordship will hint to these two friars, that if they wish to keep whole skins, they will keep civil tongues.""Be silent, asses! mules!" shouted the bishop, whose spirits were improving over the wine, who are you, that you cannot eat dirt as well as your betters?""Well spoken, my lord.Here's the health of our saintly and venerable guest," said Cary: while the commandant whispered to Amyas, "Fat old tyrant! I hope you have found his money--for I am sure he has some on board, and I should be loath that you lost the advantage of it.""I shall have to say a few words to you about that money this morning, commandant: by the by, they had better be said now.My lord bishop, do you know that had we not taken this ship when we did, you had lost not merely money, as you have now, but life itself?""Money? I had none to lose! Life?--what do you mean?" asked the bishop, turning very pale.