"Look through mine, then," I answered, pointing to it, and he, with many courteous excuses for venturing to intrude--he was much changed now, I thought--went over to my window, and gazed at the queen's vessels.
"True," he said. "True. They are English--our--ships. Where could they come from, do you suppose?"
"From the Cadiz fleet. And they are going into Lagos, as we are."
"And then--do you know where to, then--afterward--noble sir?"
"Then they will go north."
He drew a long breath at this--I guessed it to be a sigh of satisfaction at the thought that the English fleet should be going north, while the galleons, in which he had seemed to be so concerned, should either be going into, or gone into, Cadiz--as he supposed. Then he said:
"Oh, sir, this is, indeed, good news. For--for--I have business at Cadiz--very serious business, and--if they had remained here in the south they might have done much harm to honest traders, might they not? Do you not think so?"
"They may do harm elsewhere," I answered, again curtly. And my brevity caused him to look at me enquiringly.
"What harm? What can they do?"
"Oh! as for that," I said, unable to resist the temptation of repaying him somewhat for all the discomfort he had caused in the ship, and also because I so much despised him, "as for that, they might do much. They say there are some galleons about. Supposing they should meet them. 'Tis a great fleet; it could be fateful to a weaker one."