When I turned upon that shameless lord where he sat in his evil beauty, with his honour dead before him, men came hastily in between. I put them aside with a laugh. I had but wanted to look at him. I had no sword,—already he lay beneath my challenge,—and words are weak things.
At length he rose, as arrogant as ever in his port, as evilly superb in his towering pride, and as amazingly indifferent to the thoughts of men who lied not. “This case hath wearied me,” he said. “I will retire for a while to rest, and in dreams to live over a past sweetness. Give you good-day, gentles! Sir Francis Wyatt, you will remember that this gentleman did resist arrest, and that he lieth under the King’s displeasure!” So saying, he clapped his hat upon his head and walked out of the cabin. The Company’s officers drew a long breath, as if a fresher air had come in with his departure.
“I have no choice, Captain Percy, but to keep you still under restraint, both here and when we shall reach Jamestown,” said the Governor. “All that the Company, through me, can do, consistent with its duty to his Majesty, to lighten your confinement shall be done——”
“Then send him not again into the hold, Sir Francis!” exclaimed the Treasurer, with a wry face.
The Governor laughed. “Lighter and sweeter quarters shall be found. Your wife’s a brave lady, Captain Percy——”
“And a passing fair one,” said Clayborne under his breath.
“I left a friend below in the hold, your Honour,” I said. “He came with me from Jamestown because he was my friend. The King hath never heard of him. And he’s no more a pirate than I or you, your Honour. He is a minister,—a sober, meek, and godly man——”
From behind the Secretary rose the sing-song of my acquaintance of the hold, Dr. John Pott. “He is Jeremy, your Honour, Jeremy who made the town merry at Blackfriars. Your Honour remembers him? He had a sickness, and forsook the life and went into the country. He was known to the Dean of St. Paul’s. All the town laughed when it heard that he had taken orders.”
“Jeremy!” cried out the Treasurer. “Nick Bottom! Christopher Sly! Sir Toby Belch! Sir Francis, give me Jeremy to keep in my cabin!”
The Governor laughed. “He shall be bestowed with Captain Percy where he’ll not lack for company, I warrant! Jeremy! Ben Jonson loved him; they drank together at the Mermaid.”