Prince Rupert, the Buccaneer

by Charles John Cutcliffe Wright Hyne

In the midst of this devil's confusion, with the night come down black about their ears and whistling with wind, and the few lanterns showing a very broken and threatening sea, Prince Rupert, with his whimsical mood, must needs set up a rollicking cavalier's song, to which the secretary (with more of loyalty than prudence) lent her more slender tones for a chorus. Three verses rolled out over the charging swells with as full a lilt and gusto as though they had been sung over the wine-cups in merry England, and some half-dozen others of the galley slaves picked up the rhythm. "To hell with the rebels and God save the King!" they sang, and presently the whips of the boatswains began to crack viciously on the backs of the singers.

But the chief boatswain stopped when he came to Rupert, and stood with whip uplifted. There was something in the Prince's face at the thought of this last indignity that would have daunted any creature living. "My man," he said, in a terrible voice, "if you touch me with that thong, I will kill you!"

"Pah!" said the fellow, "you are chained!"

"Happily for many on this galley. But desperate men have desperate strength. I tell you freely that if you thong me I'll break any irons you have in the ship like pack thread, and I'll tear the life from your throat with my teeth. Be not a fool, boatswain. You see me here doing all the work that is put on to this oar. Moreover, as you may see from the swirl of the water, and the buckling of the wood, it is an oar that's being shrewdly driven. I mislike the labour heartily enough, but, being a slave, it's my pride to be a good slave, and it seems to me I've earned promotion already. I should be captain of this oar instead of being set on as the middle slave of the five who man it."

"You shall be shifted when the watch is changed," said the boatswain, looking at him curiously. "But I'll give you a double set of irons as an extra present. You are too free with your threats and schemes, my man, for a healthy slave."

"I am as I am made," said Rupert. "No man can change his nature too suddenly. But being on this galley, I've her welfare at heart like yourself; as I tell you, even a slave can take pride in his work. And let me say to you, Señor boatswain, you've your rowers wastefully arranged. Your best men are next the rowlocks, or at a cleat in the middle of the loom, ay, or anywhere but where they should be, and that's at the oars' inner ends, next the gangway, where they could put government over the stroke. As a consequence there's no evenness. Your timekeeper with his gavel might be beating stroke for the seafowl for all the regularity he's causing. And so, although each slave may be working his utmost, no two are getting their weight on it together, and as a consequence the slaves are being strained and tired out, and the galley gathers no weigh. I speak as a seaman, Señor boatswain, and I tell you plain that if you don't alter the disposition of your slaves, it's a doubt if we weather the night. You can note for yourself that the breeze is hardening down and the sea's worsening."

The boatswain observed that others of the slaves were forgetting their misery in giving ear to Rupert's tirade, and he pulled himself together. "Silence there," he shouted. "Hold your saucy tongue, slave, or you'll be whipped yet." But what had been said went deeply home to him, for he began looking keenly amongst the benches to see which of the slaves put most skill into the dreadful toil, and when the gavel stopped beating, and the oars were pulled in and their ends tucked under the central gangway, so that the blades reared up clear of the waves, he went aft to the coach and held a close conversation with the captain of the soldiers.

Presently there was a resorting of posts. A gang of the slaves was told off to the pumps, for the galley shipped more seas than was healthy for her digestion, and these were chained there lest they might cheat the Spaniards of their usefulness by jumping overboard. Then there was more unchaining, as those whom the boatswain had marked for watermanship were unlinked from where they chanced to be, and set each to the inner end of a sweep to govern its strokes. The secretary, to her great surprise (having indeed only a maid's strength to throw into this dreadful labour), was one of those honoured by promotion, and Rupert, who sat on a row bank two behind her across the gangway, gaily cried out his congratulations.

It seemed that no circumstances could damp the Prince during this adventure: indeed one might almost say that his gaiety was unnatural. For presently when food was served round—wine of the sourest, sodden bread, and stinking dried fish that they call baccalhao—he not only ate his own portion with gusto, but took up also those of the seasick wretches on the bench beside him, and added these scraps also to his meal. "There's work to be done for you and me, Master Laughan," he cried cheerily, "and we need victual within our ribs to keep us lusty. Show me none of your daintiness here, Stephen. Eat soundly, keep up a good courage and a sturdy arm, and I promise you shall dine off sweeter victual when the time comes as your reward."

The boatswain, who was still busy making the exchanges, heard his speech, and understood it, although the words were English. "Now you talker," said he threateningly, "have a care, or you'll earn something more besides those double irons I've given you already."