Near to that spot was a path cut in the cliff, and coming to the top we found ourselves in a fine level country, stretching away to the hills behind which rose the mountains. This champaign was cultivated with a kind of corn and divers other crops of strange plants, which comforted us with the hope of getting Christian entertainment. A fairly good path lay between the fields and the edge of the cliff, and this we followed in an easterly direction, passing that part where the barbarians had thrust down the rock upon us, as also a little village of huts hard by where the canoes were stranded. Pointing down at these huts our guides gave us to understand in dumb show that the savages were slaves, and would surely be punished for their attempt upon our lives; indeed, on our way we saw above a score of armed men amidst the corn following the furrows, to see if any of those wretches lay hid there, and heard many a yell as they were dragged to light and carried off to be whipped.
These cries did pierce Lady Biddy's tender and forgiving heart, and she urged many good reasons for their excuse: as that we must not expect mercy from those whom we treat without pity; that they must look upon all white people as their enemies and oppressors, since, but for us, they would still be free and happy in their native woods; that as it is our instinct to destroy the reptile or brute that would do us harm, so was it natural to them for their own preservation to take the lives of such as might one day become their tyrants, and sunder the wife from her husband, the child from its parent, for their own mercenary ends, etc., which gentle arguments did greatly soften that evil spirit of vengeance that stirred within me.
CHAPTER XXXIV.
IN WHICH PROVIDENCE, NOT TO BE ALWAYS SCOURGING OF US, PROVIDES US WITH GOOD ENTERTAINMENT.
After marching best part of an hour we came to a storehouse and farm, where our guide procured mules (to Lady Biddy's great relief and my contentment), and with this help we came about eleven o'clock to a small town, build on the side of a hill, at the mouth of a fair river, and covered by a stout fortress; and here were we conducted at once to the house of the governor, which stood in the midst of a fine garden, as pretty a seat as one could hope to see in such an outlandish part. After waiting in the courtyard, where we dismounted, some little while, the servant who had carried a message from our two friends (as I may call those fellows to whom we owed our lives) came back, and led us through a gateway into the midst of the garden, where on a fair green lawn, under the shade of a striped sheet of silk, fastened with colored cords (very fine) to high palmettos at the four corners of the green, sat half a dozen gentlemen and a lady about a table, on which was spread a repast that set my mouth watering. The gentlemen were all very handsomely dressed in the Spanish mode, and the lady (who was the governor's wife) was also very richly arrayed in a lace farthingale, but as ugly a woman of fifty or thereabouts as ever I did see; and particularly insolent, for ere we had got near her by five yards she held up her hand to bid us stay; and, clapping a scent-bottle to her hooky nose, put on an expression of loathing and disgust, as though we had been dirty dogs.
This disdain, however, was by no means obvious in the rest of the company, who, taking but slight notice of me, did gaze at Lady Biddy as though they would stare her out of countenance; so that I know not if I was better pleased with their impudence than with the old tabby's insolence.
The governor, who was as handsome as his wife was ordinary, with a snow-white beard and mustaches, but jet black eyebrows over his soft dark eyes, made a slight inclination of his head to Lady Biddy (as much as he dared in his wife's presence), and, turning to our friends, spoke to them, asking (as I guess) how we had fallen into their hands: whereupon the fellows, with their hats in their hands, very humbly laid the whole matter before him, the gentlemen listening with growing astonishment, glancing from the speakers to me, and then to Lady Biddy, while the governor's wife, fanning herself with a tuft of marabout, from time to time put in a word to our disadvantage, as I conceived by her gestures. When the men had made an end of their history, the governor, turning to me spoke a word or two in Portuguese—for I learnt afterwards that all the company were Portugals—to which I answered in English till he stopped me with a shrug of his shoulders, when I tried him in low Dutch; but he only shook his head at that. Then Lady Biddy, in her sweet, clear voice, ventured a word or two in Italian, as being something like the language he spoke. Upon which the governor, with a very amiable smile, replied in the same tongue, and my lady proceeded in telling our story.
And now was I heartily glad I had not made myself understood; for I must have made a sad bungling business of it in comparison with her performance. I knew not a word of what she said, yet could I not sufficiently admire her noble calm, her easy self-command, her graceful tone and gestures, and fearless mien.
I might have pleaded for compassion; she did nothing of the kind. She told of the wrong we had suffered with no mournful note, but with a tone of contempt for those who were so base as to abandon the respect due to her. She spoke in another key of the attack made by the barbarians, for they were rather to be pitied for a savage cruelty sprung from their misfortunes: she turned with a gracious inclination of her head to the two men in acknowledging their courtesy, and then, facing the governor's wife, she seemed to be demanding of her the courtesy of one lady towards another; and in conclusion, with a deep curtsey, thanked the governor in advance for the hospitality which the representative of a proud king would undoubtedly extend to the unfortunate subjects of a brother-sovereign thrown upon his coast.