The brigantine still hung where she had first lodged, with her foremast rigging fouled on the carrack's spritsail yard; and the Prince and his men, having the pearls at their belts, and knowing of nothing else that was not too hot or too heavy to carry off, struck up a jaunty song and made retreat by the way they had come. None molested them; not a gun was fired with purpose to do them harm: the Spaniards were all too busy in trying to quell the flames and save their ship.
But the flames had an unbreakable hold, and by the time the little brigantine had got herself clear, and was slipping away from this prickly neighbourhood as fast as sail and sweep could drive her, the Spaniards had got their boats into the water, and were thinking more of saving their lives than of saving the proud ship of which they had made their boast. And what more happened to them the present writer cannot tell, for after the fire reached her powder, and the carrack blew up, all was darkness till the dawn rose and the brigantine found herself alone on a lonely sea. But from the desperate nature of the foray it is sure that they must have lost a great number killed, for of the buccaneers themselves only thirteen live men sailed back to sea again, including the Prince, and Master Laughan, and the wounded.
Much excellent booty was wasted in the carrying off, as is always inevitable in these matters; and although the carrack had, before she was touched, the pearls of a whole season's fishing stored in her lazaret, only one-half of these found their way into the brigantine to offer themselves for division.
Over this division too, when they came to the rendezvous, and found the pink in waiting for them, there was like to have been another turmoil; for it is the custom of the buccaneers, when sharing up their spoil, that each should strip naked to show that he has no wealth concealed—the which was an ordeal to which poor Master Laughan (who could have wept at the thought) strenuously refused to submit. Where all conformed, this very refusal seemed in itself suspicious, as even the Prince himself was forced to admit. But at last, after offering to fight all who challenged his honesty, and forthwith being told that it was impossible to fight the lot of them, Master Laughan compounded by being allowed to keep his decency in exchange for all his share of the plunder. Which compounding the secretary accepted with much mortification, having as large an appetite for pearls as other people, and having laboured very keenly and bravely in the getting of them.
But there was no other way of evading this law of the buccaneers, and so all that could be set aside from this venture for the maintenance of his gracious Majesty's court at The Hague were the five shares given to Prince Rupert as captain. Verily, a maid who undertakes to act a man's part for the sake of being always near one she loves, meets with more trials and disappointments than ever she could dream of at the outset. But Master Laughan did not repine, and all who know Prince Rupert will understand how natural it was to feel devotion for him.
"IT WOULD BE PERPETUAL SUNSHINE FOR ME, QUERIDA"