Fair Margaret: Chapter 25

Chapter 25

HOW THE MARGARET WON OUT TO SEA

It was night. Peter, faint with loss of blood and stiff with bruises,
had bade his farewell to their Majesties of Spain, who spoke many soft
words to him, calling him the Flower of Knighthood, and offering him
high place and rank if he would abide in their service. But he thanked
them and said No, for in Spain he had suffered too much to dwell there.
So they kissed his bride, the fair Margaret, who clung to her wounded
husband like ivy to an oak, and would not be separated from him, even
for a moment, that husband whom living she had scarcely hoped to clasp
again. Yes, they kissed her, and the queen threw about her a chain from
her own neck as a parting gift, and wished her joy of so gallant a lord.

"Alas! your Majesty," said Margaret, her dark eyes filling with tears,
"how can I be joyous, who must think of to-morrow?"

Thereon Isabella set her face and answered:

"Dona Margaret Brome, be thankful for what to-day has brought you, and
forget to-morrow and that which it must justly take away. Go now, and
God be with you both!"

So they went, the little knot of English sailormen, who, wrapped in
Spanish cloaks, had sat together in the amphitheatre and groaned when
the Eagle struck, and cheered when the Falcon swooped, leading, or
rather carrying Peter under cover of the falling night to a boat not far
from this Place of Bulls. In this they embarked unobserved, for the
multitude, and even Peter's own squires believed that he had returned
with his wife to the palace, as he had given out that he would do. So
they were rowed to the _Margaret_, which straightway made as though she
were about to sail, and indeed dropped a little way down stream. Here
she anchored again, just round a bend of the river, and lay there for
the night.

It was a heavy night, and in it there was no place for love or lovers'
tenderness. How could there be between these two, who for so long had
been tormented by doubts and fears, and on this day had endured such
extremity of terror and such agony of joy? Peter's wound also was deep
and wide, though his shield had broken the weight of Morella's sword,
and its edge had caught upon his shoulder-piece, so that by good chance
it had not reached down to the arteries, or shorn into the bone; yet he
had lost much blood, and Smith, the captain, who was a better surgeon
than might have been guessed from his thick hands, found it needful to
wash out the cut with spirit that gave much pain, and to stitch it up
with silk. Also Peter had great bruises on his arms and thighs, and his
back was hurt by that fall from the white charger with Morella in
his arms.

So it came about that most of that night he lay outworn, half-sleeping
and half-waking, and when at sunrise he struggled from his berth, it was
but to kneel by the side of Margaret and join her in her prayers that
her father might be rescued from the hands of these cruel priests
of Spain.

Now during the night Smith had brought his ship back with the tide, and
laid her under the shelter of those hulks whereof Peter had spoken,
having first painted out her name of _Margaret_, and in its place set
that of the _Santa Maria_, a vessel of about the same build and tonnage,
which, as they had heard, was expected in port. For this reason, or
because there were at that time many ships in the river, it happened
that none in authority noted her return, or if they did, neglected to
report the matter as one of no moment. Therefore, so far all went well.

According to the tale of Henriques, confirmed by what they had learned
otherwise, the great procession of the Act of Faith would turn on to the
quay at about eight o'clock, and pass along it for a hundred yards or so
only, before it wound away down a street leading to the _plaza_ where
the theatre was prepared, the sermon would be preached, the Mass
celebrated, and the "relaxed" placed in cages to be carried to the
Quemadero.

At six in the morning Smith mustered those twelve men whom he had chosen
to help him in the enterprise, and Peter, with Margaret at his side,
addressed them in the cabin, telling them all the plan, and praying them
for the sake of their master and of the Lady Margaret, his daughter, to
do what men might to save one whom they loved and honoured from so
horrible a death.

They swore that they would, every one of them, for their English blood
was up, nor did they so much as speak of the great rewards that had been
promised to those who lived through this adventure, and to the families
of those who fell. Then they breakfasted, girded their swords and knives
about them, and put on their Spanish cloaks, though, to speak truth,
these lads of Essex and of London made but poor Spaniards. Now, at
length the boat was ready, and Peter, although he could scarcely stand,
desired to be carried into it that he might accompany them. But the
captain, Smith, to whom perhaps Margaret had been speaking, set down his
flat foot on the deck and said that he, who commanded there, would
suffer no such thing. A wounded man, he declared, would but cumber them
who had little room to spare in that small boat, and could be of no
service, either on land or water. Moreover, Master Peter's face was
known to thousands who had watched it yesterday, and would certainly be
recognised, whereas none would take note at such a time of a dozen
common sailors landed from some ship to see the show. Lastly, he would
do best to stop on board the vessel, where, if anything went wrong, they
must be short-handed enough, who, if they could, ought to get her away
to sea and across it with all speed.

Still Peter would have gone, till Margaret, throwing her arms about him,
asked him if he thought that she would be the better if she lost both
her father and her husband, as, if things miscarried, well might happen.
Then, being in pain and very weak, he yielded, and Smith, having given
his last directions to the mate, and shaken Peter and Margaret by the
hand, asking their prayers for all of them, descended with his twelve
men into the boat, and dropping down under shelter of the hulks, rowed
to the shore as though they came from some other vessel. Now the quay
was not more than a bowshot from them, and from a certain spot upon the
_Margaret_ there was a good view of it between the stern of one hulk and
the bow of another. Here, then, Peter and Margaret sat themselves down
behind the bulwark, and watched with fears such as cannot be told, while
a sharp-eyed seaman climbed to the crow's-nest on the mast, whence he
could see over much of the city, and even the old Moorish castle that
was then the Holy House of the Inquisition. Presently this man reported
that the procession had started, for he saw its banners and the people
crowding to the windows and to the roof-tops; also the cathedral bell
began to toll slowly. Then came a long, long wait, during which their
little knot of sailors, wearing the Spanish cloaks, appeared upon the
quay and mingled with the few folk that were gathered there, since the
most of the people were collected by thousands on the great _plaza_ or
in the adjacent streets.

At length, just as the cathedral clock struck eight, the "triumphant"
march, as it was called, began to appear upon the quay. First came a
body of soldiers with lances; then a crucifix, borne by a priest and
veiled in black crape; then a number of other priests, clad in
snow-white robes to symbolise their perfect purity. Next followed men
carrying wood or leather images of some man or woman who, by flight to a
foreign land or into the realms of Death, had escaped the clutches of
the Inquisition. After these marched other men in fours, each four of
them bearing a coffin that contained the body or bones of some dead
heretic, which, in the absence of his living person, like the effigies,
were to be committed to the flames as a token of what the Inquisition
would have done to him if it could--to enable it also to seize
his property.

Then came many penitents, their heads shaven, their feet bare, and clad,
some in dark-coloured cloaks, some in yellow robes, called the
_sanbenito_, which were adorned with a red cross. These were followed by
a melancholy band of "relaxed" heretics, doomed to the fire or
strangulation at the stake, and clothed in _zamarras_ of sheepskin,
painted all over with devils and the portraits of their own faces
surrounded by flames. These poor creatures wore also flame-adorned caps
called _corozas_, shaped like bishops' mitres, and were gagged with
blocks of wood, lest they should contaminate the populace by some
declaration of their heresy, while in their hands they bore tapers,
which the monks who accompanied them relighted from time to time if they
became extinguished.

Now the hearts of Peter and Margaret leaped within them, for at the end
of this hideous troop rode a man mounted on an ass, clothed in a
_zamarra_ and _coroza_, but with a noose about his neck. So the Fray
Henriques had told the truth, for without doubt this was John Castell.
Like people in a dream, they saw him advance in his garb of shame, and
after him, gorgeously attired, civil officers, inquisitors, and
familiars of noble rank, members of the Council of Inquisition, behind
whom was borne a flaunting banner, called the Holy Standard of
the Faith.

Now Castell was opposite to the little group of seamen, and, or so it
seemed, something went wrong with the harness of the ass on which he
sat, for it stopped, and a man in the garb of a secretary stepped to it,
apparently to attend to a strap, thus bringing all the procession
behind to a halt, while that in front proceeded off the quay and round
the corner of a street. Whatever it might be that had happened, it
necessitated the dismounting of the heretic, who was pulled roughly off
the brute's back, which, as though in joy at this riddance of its
burden, lifted its head and brayed loudly.

Men from the thin line of crowd that edged the quay came forward as
though to help, and among them were several in capes, such as were worn
by the sailors of the _Margaret_. The officers and grandees behind
shouted, "Forward!--forward!" whereon those attending to the ass hustled
it and its rider a little nearer to the water's edge, while the guards
ran back to explain what had happened. Then suddenly a confusion arose,
of which it was impossible to distinguish the cause, and next instant
Margaret and Peter, still gripping each other, saw the man who had been
seated on the ass being dragged rapidly down the steps of the quay, at
the foot of which lay the boat of the _Margaret_.

The mate at the helm saw also, for he blew his whistle, a sign at which
the anchor was slipped--there was no time to lift it--and men who were
waiting on the yards loosed the lashings of certain sails, so that
almost immediately the ship began to move.

Now they were fighting on the quay. The heretic was in the boat, and
most of the sailors; but others held back the crowd of priests and armed
familiars who strove to get at him. One, a priest with a sword in his
hand, slipped past them and tumbled into the boat also. At last all were
in save a single man, who was attacked by three adversaries--John Smith,
the captain. The oars were out, but his mates waited for him. He struck
with his sword, and some one fell. Then he turned to run. Two masked
familiars sprang at him, one landing on his back, one clinging to his
neck. With a desperate effort he cast himself into the water, dragging
them with him. One they saw no more, for Smith had stabbed him, the
other floated up near the boat, which already was some yards from the
quay, and a sailor battered him on the head with an oar, so that
he sank.

Smith had vanished also, and they thought he must be drowned. The
sailors thought it too, for they began to give way, when suddenly a
great brown hand appeared and clasped the stern-sheets, while a
bull-voice roared:

"Row on, lads, I'm right enough."

Row they did indeed, till the ashen oars bent like bows, only two of
them seized the officer who had sprung into the boat and flung him
screaming into the river, where he struggled a while, for he could not
swim, gripping at the air with his hands, then disappeared. The boat was
in mid-stream now, and shaping her course round the bow of the first
hulk beyond which the prow of the _Margaret_ began to appear, for the
wind was fresh, and she gathered way every moment.

"Let down the ladder, and make ready ropes," shouted Peter.

It was done, but not too soon, for next instant the boat was bumping on
their side. The sailors in her caught the ropes and hung on, while the
captain, Smith, half-drowned, clung to the stern-sheets, for the water
washed over his head.

"Save him first," cried Peter. A man, running down the ladder, threw a
noose to him, which Smith seized with one hand and by degrees worked
beneath his arms. Then they tackled on to it, and dragged him bodily
from the river to the deck, where he lay gasping and spitting out foam
and water. By now the ship was travelling swiftly, so swiftly that
Margaret was in an agony of fear lest the boat should be towed under
and sink.

But these sailor men knew their trade. By degrees they let the boat drop
back till her bow was abreast of the ladder. Then they helped Castell
forward. He gripped its rungs, and eager hands gripped him. Up he
staggered, step by step, till at length his hideous, fiend-painted cap,
his white face, whence the beard had been shaved, and his open mouth, in
which still was fixed the wooden gag, appeared above the bulwarks, as
the mate said afterwards, like that of a devil escaped from hell. They
lifted him over, and he sank fainting in his daughter's arms. Then one
by one the sailors came up after him--none were missing, though two had
been wounded, and were covered with blood. No, none were missing--God
had brought them, every one, safe back to the deck of the _Margaret_.

Smith, the captain, spat up the last of his river water and called for a
cup of wine, which he drank; while Peter and Margaret drew the accursed
gag from her father's mouth, and poured spirit down his throat. Shaking
the water from him like a great dog, but saying never a word, Smith
rolled to the helm and took it from the mate, for the navigation of the
river was difficult, and none knew it so well as he. Now they were
abreast the famous Golden Tower, and a big gun was fired at them; but
the shot went wide. "Look!" said Margaret, pointing to horsemen
galloping southwards along the river's bank.

"Yes," said Peter, "they go to warn the ports. God send that the wind
holds, for we must fight our way to sea."

The wind did hold, indeed it blew ever more strongly from the north; but
oh! that was a long, evil day. Hour after hour they sped forward down
the widening river; now past villages, where knots of people waved
weapons at them as they went; now by desolate marshes, plains, and banks
clothed with pine.

When they reached Bonanza the sun was low, and when they were off San
Lucar it had begun to sink. Out into the wide river mouth, where the
white waters tumbled on the narrow bar, rowed two great galleys to cut
them off, very swift galleys, which it seemed impossible to escape.

Margaret and Castell were sent below, the crew went to quarters, and
Peter crept stiffly aft to where the sturdy Smith stood at the helm,
which he would suffer no other man to touch. Smith looked at the sky, he
looked at the shore, and the safe, open sea beyond. Then he bade them
hoist more sail, all that she could carry, and looked grimly at the two
galleys lurking like deerhounds in a pass, that hung on their oars in
the strait channel, with the tumbling breakers on either side, through
which no ship could sail. "What will you do?" asked Peter. "Master
Peter," he answered between his teeth, "when you fought the Spaniard
yesterday I did not ask you what _you_ were going to do. Hold your
tongue, and leave me to my own trade."

The _Margaret_ was a swift ship, but never yet had she moved so
swiftly. Behind her shrilled the gale, for now it was no less. Her stout
masts bent like fishing poles, her rigging creaked and groaned beneath
the weight of the bellying canvas, her port bulwarks slipped along
almost level with the water, so that Peter must lie down on the deck,
for stand he could not, and watch it running by within three feet
of him.

The galleys drew up right across her path. Half a mile away they lay bow
by bow, knowing well that no ship could pass the foaming shallows; lay
bow by bow, waiting to board and cut down this little English crew when
the _Margaret_ shortened sail, as shorten sail she must. Smith yelled an
order to the mate, and presently, red in the setting sun, out burst the
flag of England upon the mainmast top, a sight at which the sailors
cheered. He shouted another order, and up ran the last jib, so that now
from time to time the port bulwarks dipped beneath the sea, and Peter
felt salt water stinging his sore back.

Thus did the _Margaret_ shorten sail, and thus did she yield her to the
great galleys of Spain.

The captains of the galleys hung on. Was this foreigner mad, or ignorant
of the river channel, they wondered, that he would sink with every soul
there upon the bar? They hung on, waiting for that leopard flag and
those bursting sails to come down; but they never stirred; only straight
at them rushed the _Margaret_ like a bull. She was not two furlongs
away, and she held dead upon her course, till at last those galleys saw
_that she would not sink alone_. Like a bull with shut eyes she held
dead upon her furious course!

Confusion arose upon the Spanish ships, whistles were blown, men
shouted, overseers ran down the planks flogging the slaves, lifted oars
shone red in the light of the dying sun as they beat the water wildly.
The prows began to back and separate, five feet, ten feet, a dozen feet
perhaps; then straight into that tiny streak of open water, like a stone
from the hand of the slinger, like an arrow from a bow, rushed the
wind-flung _Margaret_.

What happened? Go ask it of the fishers of San Lucar and the pirates of
Bonanza, where the tale has been told for generations. The great oars
snapped like reeds, the slaves were thrown in crushed and mangled heaps,
the tall deck of the port galley was ripped out of her like rent paper
by the stout yards of the stooping _Margaret_, the side of the starboard
galley rolled up like a shaving before a plane, and the _Margaret_
rushed through.

Smith, the captain, looked aft to where, ere they sank, the two great
ships, like wounded swans, rolled and fluttered on the foaming bar. Then
he put his helm about, called the carpenter, and asked what water
she made.

"None, Sir," he answered; "but she will want new tarring. It was oak
against eggshells, and we had the speed."

"Good!" said Smith, "shallows on either side; life or death, and I
thought I could make room. Send the mate to the helm. I'll have
a sleep."

Then the sun vanished beneath the roaring open sea, and, escaped from
all the power of Spain, the _Margaret_ turned her scarred and splintered
bow for Ushant and for England.

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