CHAPTER XII
PICTURESQUE PIRATES
“I’d like to read all about him,” said Jack. “I’ll bet he had an exciting life. I’ll never hear of Captain Kidd without thinking of Prince Rupert by contrast.”
“You’ll find the whole story in this book,” said his father. “But you’ll always find these old volumes dry reading in a way. They pass over the most exciting events very casually, as if they were matters of course, but you’ll be amused at the quaint language and naïve remarks.”
“Weren’t there any other old buccaneers who were as romantic and gallant as Prince Rupert?” asked Fred.
“He was not strictly a buccaneer,” his uncle corrected him. “Nor was he really a pirate. His deeds took place before the buccaneers were really organized, and ostensibly he was more of a privateer than a pirate. In a way he was in the same category as Drake and Hawkins, and the same is true of another most romantic figure who ravaged [[209]]the Caribbean and was a thorn in the side of the Spaniards. Perhaps he should not be included among stories of buccaneers, but he was such a picturesque figure that a brief account of him may interest you boys.”
“Yes, do tell us about him,” cried Jack. “Even if he wasn’t really a buccaneer.”
“He was also a member of the British nobility,” continued Mr. Bickford. “The Earl of Cumberland, a graduate of Oxford with the degree of M.A., a wealthy peer, romantic, picturesque, a courtier, a noted gambler and a man of tremendous personal strength and courage. In his youth he had taken part in the attack on the Spanish Armada under Drake and had been made a Knight of the Garter and was a great favorite with Queen Elizabeth. In fact, through some favor, the queen had presented the Earl with one of her gloves—a claret-colored, diamond-studded thing which the dashing adventurer invariably wore tucked through the band of his broad-brimmed plumed hat. It became his crest, his badge, and far and wide, to friends and enemies alike, he became famed as ‘the man with the glove in his hat.’
“Like Prince Rupert, Lord Cumberland found [[210]]too few opportunities for his love of adventure ashore and so turned to the sea and the Indies for excitement. No doubt he found it in plenty, for he became a terror to the Dons, took many prizes, accumulated vast wealth and seemed to bear a charmed life. Again and again he returned to England to settle down, but ever the life of the sea rover appealed too strongly to him, and donning his hat with its jeweled glove, he would up and away to some new daredevil adventure.