This done, Guy speaks to Dalton. “Have you obtained as I directed, a chaplain of the Catholic Church from Zeeland?”
“Yes, and it was the devil’s own job,” says that blunt officer. “I got about the only one the Dutch had left alive on the islands. There was another, but Michael Krok had cut off his ears, and I didn’t know [[252]]whether he could splice a legal knot,” for Guy has been compelled to make confidant of his first officer in this business.
“Ask him to step here,” Chester says.
And the priest being brought to him, the captain remarks: “You have been kindly treated, holy father?”
“With every care. Your fare is so bounteous, I would it had not been a fast day. It is almost continual starvation for me now. The Dutch have dispersed my flock, both of parishioners and sheep.”
“You know the reason that I sent for you?”
“Yes, I was told it was to perform a sacrament of the church, which I am here to do; and have stayed on that island to do,” he points to Beveland, “in spite of persecutions, in spite of threats, in spite of blows and outrage. Ask any Beggar of the Sea whether Father Anastasius ever faltered before them, and there is only one of them who has ever treated Catholic priests as if they were men of God. ‘The First of the English,’ though he wars against Alva, is a true son of Rome. As such I come to do his bidding.”
“You know me?” mutters Guy.
“Yes, that is why I came so readily.”
“Then you’ll journey with me to perform a sacrament of the Church?”