Prince Rupert, the Buccaneer

by Charles John Cutcliffe Wright Hyne

"No use," said the Prince. "They would hang me all the same if they knew my quality, only they would hang me higher. I have my miserable pride in the matter, you see. Let me be written down in Europe as "Missing" or "Vanished," if they choose; but I should die very uneasy if I thought the world was to know how squalid and obscure a noose it was that ended me."

Still the secretary urged the point, saying that all men knew Rupert Palatine, and that even these dreadful Spaniards would not dare to do him violence, but would offer exchange, or honourable enlargement upon ransom. But Rupert closed the talk with sudden heat. "I forbid it and that's enough," he cried. "You grow insufferable with your advisings upon this occasion. And if you want a threat, I'll deny it if you do tell 'em my name, and curse you with my last dying breath into the bargain. So stick that in your mind, Master Laughan."—With which harsh words he lapsed into a dark, brooding silence, and the secretary, with her heart near to breaking with love for him, was constrained to ride the mule without further speech.

It was the first time that Stephen Laughan had ever seen the Prince thoroughly cast down, and so evidently out of all spirit for the future, and of a certainty their case seemed absolutely devoid of any ray of hope. Truly the finger of the mermaiden was showing itself to any one who was not wilfully blind.

Of that dismal progress to Coro, however, no more need be told. They arrived outside the city's walls on the fourth day at nightfall, and the commandant of the soldiers was torn with indecision. He wanted much to wait outside so as to make triumphant exhibition of his prisoners by next morning's light, and at the same time he feared the Indians who were constantly raiding up to the very walls of the city. And in the end dread of these Indians took the mastery, and the troop gained admittance through the gates, and they had to be content with what drums and a multitude of flaring torches could do to call attention to their show.

There was no limit to the appetite of these Spaniards for triumph. It might have been an army they had captured instead of two fever-stricken weaklings. But no one of those who thrust their heads out from the windows and doorways of the houses cried shame on them for the paltriness of their exploit, and indeed all the town roused to acclaim these vainglorious captors by the name of hero, and to spit their nasty spite at the prisoners. Great mobs turned out into the streets, and jostled at the soldiers' heels. Here were a brace of these hated buccaneers, and they lusted to have their will on them. The smug citizen men would have smashed them to a pulp with their boot heels if they could have snatched them into reach, and the horrid women would have torn them like vultures with their nails.

The Captain of the soldiers, however, was not minded that his credit should end with this popular triumph: he was a man with a keen eye to his own promotion, and he was wise enough to know that favour comes chiefly from their idolatrous Church in these Spanish cities. So with laughing blows he and his men drove the civilians back from their catch, and shouted out that they were foolish to hurry matters unduly. "The Holy Office may move slower than your own honoured progress," he cried, "but, Señores, believe me, it is very sure. It will take a vengeance out of these accursed heretics that you may lick your lips to think about, and there is a good chance that the city will be treated to an auto da fé. Ho! there, make way! Why do you want to claw a prisoner when presently you will see his skin crackling like a pig's as he roasts on the faggots? Stand back there, I say, or you'll have an arquebuse butt dropped on your honoured toes."

The officer swelled with his triumph and made it linger by passage through many streets, and from out of the darkness beyond the glare of the torches came peltings of stone and garbage which made the procession for the prisoners a very martyrdom. But worse lay beyond. They drew up at last before a building whose horrid taint caused even the callous Spaniards to moderate their shouts and jeers. The officer too changed his bluster to a tone that was half-defiant, half-cowed as he faced the shrouded nameless creature that answered his summons at the gate, and the soldiers of the guard redoubled their watchfulness, knowing full well the desperation of any poor wretch that came within grip of the Inquisition.

Indeed, had a chance been offered, the secretary, through sheer horror of her sex being discovered when handled by the torturers, would have thrown herself upon the weapons of the guard, and so earned a quick death, even with the dreadful knowledge that to do so would take her away from this princely patron whom she had so faithfully guarded, and whom she so madly adored. But the soldiers were ready for all such desperate attempts, and kept firm grip on the fetters, and when the cowled familiars of the Inquisition took over ward of them, and the doors closed, equal care was shown by these new guardians.

"By my faith," said Rupert, "you do us high honour, Señores, with all this heavy escort. Buccaneers must be very lusty blades, or you Spaniards must be nervous by constitution. Why, Señores, it hardly stands to your dignity that it should take a round dozen of you to handle a couple of poor wretches that are chained at both wrist and leg."

But the echoes of the cold stone passages gave the only answer to his words. The cowled, soulless familiars uttered no word of a sound.