Amyas longed to ask more: but he knew that the well-bred Spaniard would tell him nothing which concerned another man's wife; and went on.
“What befell us after, I tell you frankly.”
And Amyas told his story, from the landing at Guayra to the passage down the Magdalena. The commandant lifted up his hands.
“Were it not forbidden to me, as a Catholic, most invincible senor, I should say that the Divine protection has indeed—”
“Ah,” said one of the friars, “that you could be brought, senors, to render thanks for your miraculous preservation to her to whom alone it is due, Mary, the fount of mercies!”
“We have done well enough without her as yet,” said Amyas, bluntly.
“The Lord raised up Nebuchadnezzar of old to punish the sins of the Jewish Church; and He has raised up these men to punish ours!” said Fray Gerundio.
“But Nebuchadnezzar fell, and so may they,” growled the other to himself. Jack overheard him.
“I say, my lord bishop,” called he from the other end of the table. “It is our English custom to let our guests be as rude as they like; but perhaps your lordship will hint to these two friars, that if they wish to keep whole skins, they will keep civil tongues.”
“Be silent, asses! mules!” shouted the bishop, whose spirits were improving over the wine, “who are you, that you cannot eat dirt as well as your betters?”