Prince Rupert, the Buccaneer

by Charles John Cutcliffe Wright Hyne

"Fifty," said Rupert pleasantly.

"One cannot do the impossible. I have some very ingenious torture instruments in this castle, and some very patient tormentors who are skilled in their use. Between them they have brought about some marvellous changes of opinion, but even they could not make me say more than thirty thousand. If you doubt me, and carry this matter too far, perhaps presently you will be persuaded to go down into the torture chamber and test the perfection of my instruments for yourselves?"

"Ah, there," said Rupert, "I fear we must decline your invitation, Monsieur. Strange though it may seem in these seas of the New World, both Master Laughan and I have a certain niceness of nature which makes the sight of such things unpalatable. But I think, Stephen, that if you pressed your point a little further home, Monsieur D'Ogeron might still be brought to see things in our light."

Upon which the secretary in her nervousness thrust at the poniard so shrewdly, that the Governor with a bundle of oaths yelled out that he was beaten, and only prayed that the beastly dagger might be taken away from his shoulder.

"Young man," said he, "you had your iron far enough in for me to feel the chill. Do you know this is a very dangerous prank to play with one of my habit of life?"

There was still a difficulty remaining as to how the money was to be taken from the Castle treasury to the cabin of his flagship in the fleet where Rupert wished to see it stowed. The Prince distrusted Monsieur D'Ogeron implicitly, and (to own the bare truth) Monsieur D'Ogeron was indecently wary lest he should get himself too far into the Prince's hands. But in the end the pair of them left the castle arm-in-arm as though they had been the dearest of friends, and Master Laughan, as a dependent should, marched humbly behind them, though with a dagger very handy.

Chairs and a table were set upon the beach, and presently drink was brought (without which little business is done in the New World) and the pair of them toasted one another very handsomely. Even a creature like the Governor of Tortuga could not but admire the splendid parts of Rupert Palatine, and it seems that Rupert found points of excellence even in Monsieur D'Ogeron.

Meanwhile the money was brought down in sacks, and taken out in boats to the fleet, where a receipt was duly given, and the Governor saw his ill-got riches taken away from him for the service of the King without a frown or an angry word. He had the virtue of philosophy, this monarch of the buccaneers, and accepted the unavoidable like a man of sense. And moreover, as he said, the harvest of those seas was inexhaustible. The Spaniard, like the devil, was always with them, and it was an honest buccaneer's duty to get the better of both.

So the money was paid, and the parting was made, and Prince Rupert was rowed out across the still waters of the harbour to take his proper place once more as Admiral of the King's fleet. Master Laughan followed at his heels with a heart loaded with cheerful emotions. Alas, poor fond creature, little did she know that they were posting towards that lamentable quarrel which (soon after the horrid drowning of Prince Maurice) separated them eternally. Little did Rupert guess that he was so soon to be separated from one whose love and faithfulness towards him has been abundantly proved to all the world. Little did the secretary dream that she would lose as her patron that most noble, fearless and adorable man ever born since history began.

One weapon alone could the secretary have used that would have stilled the quarrel the moment it began; if she had declared her sex Rupert would have taken back the bitter word that drove her from his side. But she would have died sooner than make confession; and when she left her Prince, he was still ignorant that it was the maid Mary Laughan, and not Stephen the youth who had so lovingly and truly served him.