"I can believe it of you. You are a very nasty fellow, Monsieur."
The Governor of Tortuga shrugged his shoulders and blew a long mouthful of tobacco smoke from his pipe. But he took no offence. "You didn't come up here to quarrel with me in words, I'll be bound, mon Prince. Neither did you call with the intention of putting your sword through me, as you know well by this how cunningly I can defend myself, and how unpleasant it is for callers to annoy me. Your Highness is a man of observation. You'll have noted the heads above the gateway?"
"They are all new since I was here last. Your Excellency is right. I did not come to exchange courtesies, civil or otherwise. I came for business: in a word, I am here to receive an account of my fleet's performance."
"Oh, they served me passing well, thanks to my own officers who were on board to keep tally and give directions. They caught five ships on the sea, and skimmed one a nice fat town. They brought no women back with them, having some foolish scruple, which even my officers could not get over—indeed, come to think of it, their obedience at times was none of the best—and, thirsty dogs that they were, they drank up all the wine they captured long before they sailed back into harbour here. But I'll not complain. They brought me a most appetising cargo of gold bars and plate."
"Which should have gone to the King."
Monsieur D'Ogeron reached out for the smouldering lintstock which stood on the table, and relit his pipe. "What, you still toy with that old fable of loyalty? Well, I've accounted myself no small judge of men, but it's a strange world, this. Why, by this, they'll have forgotten you in Europe."
"I flatter myself they'll keep me longer in memory."
The Governor shook his head and his pipe. "And your King will have written off your ships from his accounts as a speculation that's failed. Now, if I were your Highness, I'd not surprise him. I'd keep those ships. And I'd found myself a pretty little kingdom out here, and be absolute, and not go home to be servant again to an unstable Stuart. Why, Prince, you've got all the materials for a kingdom ready and waiting: the men are in your own ships; the women you can gather from any city of the Main you like to fetch them from, and there you are with the essentials complete. You choose your site, you build your town and fort, you catch your Indians, or you import Guinea blacks for slaves, and for occupation and revenue you raid the Spanish, when indeed you are not enjoying domestic joys at home. And, let me tell you, that domestic joys out here are not things to be valued lightly. They grow upon a man."
"Sir," said Rupert, "have done. By now you might have known that such talk disgusts me. You appear to find enjoyment in living over that swinish village, which you miscall a town, on the beach yonder; but other men are built different, and, for myself, it would make me sick."
Monsieur D'Ogeron remained unruffled. "I see what you're at," he said with a wink. "You want to make me lose my temper and consent to fight you. Why should I? For honour? I haven't any. For chivalry? I've forgotten what it is. To please your whim? Why, there my own disinclination comes first. I haven't a particle of quarrel with you, mon Prince, and I really do not see how you can scratch one up. I've got the best of the bargain over the fleet, I've got the best of the bargain all through, and I quite see you've your sore. But I refuse to let you heal it by carving holes in me.—Here's to your speedy mending," said he, and swigged deeply at the sangoree.—"I do wish your Highness would drink. This abstinence is a slur on my hospitality."