Jasper shook his head sadly.
"It is death, madam," said he; "I know full well that it is death. Nevertheless, I will go at once into Plymouth and bring Gilbert back with me; for, as you most truly say, he must not be permitted to quit the country while his grandsire lies dead. Think on't, my lady," he went on, "your son Gilbert is now the head of this noble house. He is Baron Champernoun—"
"Go—go at once!" implored Lady Betty, and her eyes followed him anxiously as he left the room. And as he went out Drusilla, Donna Lela, Christopher Pym, and others entered in alarm, only to find that Lord Champernoun had passed indeed beyond all hope.
Little did Gilbert Oglander dream of this calamity as he sat in the stern of the rowing-boat that was taking him out to the Revenge. His thoughts were only of the ships and of the men who were to be his future companions, and he listened with full interest to the talk that was going on beside him between Ambrose Pennington and old Jacob Hartop.
"Here we are, good my masters! There lieth our fleet!" cried Pennington, as the boat was brought round abreast of the outer wall of the harbour. "Dost know the ships by sight, Hartop?"
"Not I," answered Jacob, leaning forward and running his eyes with slow deliberation along the line of stately ships of war. "They be all new built since my time, and, as I have already said, I have been these many weeks past away from Plymouth, and only came into the town again early this morning. Prithee, which of them is the Revenge?"
"We can scarcely see her as yet," returned Pennington. "She doth lie out yonder beyond the point, half-hidden by the larger vessel that is moored this side of her. The larger ship is the Bonaventure, the greatest in the squadron by a good hundred tons. Sir Robert Cross is her commander—a right worthy seaman and a gallant. Next to her lies Captain Duffield's ship the Crane, and astern of her again the Foresight, with Captain Thomas Vavasour's pennant flying from her mast-head. These two great ships to the leeward are the Lion and the Defiance."
"Ay, and I judge that the Defiance is the one with the higher hull," remarked Hartop, "for I see she doth fly my Lord Thomas Howard's banner and an admiral's pennant. 'Tis a right goodly array truly, yet small enough, my masters, for the work we have in hand, as ye would surely agree an you knew how many great galleons of Spain do go to make up the treasure fleet that we have engaged to capture."
The boat was now being rowed along the line of the admiral's squadron, and Gilbert Oglander paid no farther regard to the conversation of his companions, but directed his attention to each of the great vessels in turn. There were six of Queen Elizabeth's ships; the largest being the Bonaventure of six hundred tons, and the smallest being the Crane of two hundred tons. But in addition to these there were some half a dozen other vessels which had been contributed to the expedition by certain patriotic English gentlemen and merchant adventurers, as the Bark Raleigh, which was Sir Walter Raleigh's share in the enterprise, the Prudence, the Pilgrim, and the George Noble. There were also several smaller ships, victuallers, as they were called, carrying stores and extra ammunition. The whole fleet numbered in all twenty sails, and the combined companies numbered something like two thousand five hundred men and boys. The larger ships mounted from thirty to fifty guns apiece. Of this squadron Lord Thomas Howard was the appointed admiral and general. His vice-admiral was Sir Richard Grenville.