“And have I not done more for you, my husband?” returns Lady Chester—née Hermoine de Alva—in his ear.
Looking on her beauty, Guy’s glance is answer to this; there is no need of words.
Making the Dover Lass, Chester carries in his arms his bride, and bearing her to the cabin, Hermoine looks round and murmurs, startled: “Thy ship is fitted up as a State galley or sovereign’s ship of pomp, my lord,” [[269]]for Achille has, with French taste, made the cabins like a lady’s boudoir, with fresh flowers brought from the shore.
“Yes, it was for a honeymoon cruise I decorated these cabins. It was for thee.”
“And you felt so sure of winning me—with against you all the power of Spain? What indomitable determination, what intense assurance you English have!” The last is a slight laugh. Then her face grows serious and she falters: “What awful risks you took to win your bride, my Guy—my Englishman!”
But Chester has to tear himself from her and go on deck to forget the bridegroom in the sailor. The flag of England is run up on the Dover Lass, her sails are spread, and the vessel speeds down the Schelde estuary, and passes Flushing, for Guy will not stop there for fear of pursuing Spanish warships.
The next evening as they drop anchor they hear the merry church bells of Harwich steeple.
“Welcome to England,” cries Guy, and takes his bride on shore. Here it is given out that Chester has captured a galleon of most wondrous riches: and he pays thereon ten per cent., as is usual, to the crown of England, by Drake, Hawkins and other rovers of the sea.
The rest of the treasure, by the law of the land is his, and he makes division with Bodé Volcker, paying him his share. With this money in hand the commercial Fleming hies him to Holland, and some years after when Amsterdam is taken by Orange, settles there, to become one of its merchant princes.
When they are paid and the rewards are given unto them, there are no happier sailormen carousing in the ports of England than those of the Dover Lass; and for weeks afterwards when a Jack tar is seen in Plymouth or Portsmouth sporting two big watches, bought from excited Jews, the cry is: “That’s one of Chester’s men, no one but a Dover Lass could flash such elegance!”