“Yes, so they say,” she replied; “and they relate that before the Capitana left Spain they made a bargain with its captain to convey them to Ireland for a certain sum of money, which they paid over to him before he put out from port. Their compact with him was that they were to be landed at some lonely point or secluded place on our western coasts, and not at any town, such as Limerick or Galway.”
“Why was that?” I asked. “Doubtless the captain of the galleon made a similar inquiry of them.”
“They say he asked them no questions whatever,” replied she; “but he must have understood that they had some business of a very private nature, probably concerned with State affairs. Evidently that business lay with the native Irish, and not with the English, from whom they wished their movements to be kept secret, else would there have been no need to have avoided any of the English towns in Ireland.”
“It may be,” said I, for I could not help seeing the drift of her words, “that they are the bearers of some message from the King of Spain to the Earl of Desmond, or some other chief of the Irish.”
“You do not fall very short of the mark,” said she.
“But,” asked I, “how came it about, or what happened to cause them to be thrust into chains, and that on board a Spanish ship? Those who brought a message from the Spanish King would surely have been well-treated, and even honoured, by the captain of a ship coming out of Spain. Plainly, there is something here which fits not in with their narration.”
“They say that it was because of the chest of gold,” she replied. “The captain is dead, so that we shall never hear his version of the affair, but they affirm he could not withstand the temptation of the gold. Brave, as we know he was, and an excellent sailor, as they say he was reputed to be, yet would he have sold his very soul for gold.”
“How did he know of it?”
“So heavy a chest could hardly have been brought on board without his knowledge, and to conjecture what it contained was no such difficult matter. They did not conceal from him their anxiety for its safe-keeping, and one or other of them was always on guard over it. Anyone would have known, therefore, that it held a treasure of some kind. All went well until they reached the coast of Kerry, when, reminding the captain of their agreement with him, they requested him to send them, the chest, and the rest of their belongings ashore in a boat. The sea was very rough, however, and he assured them the thing was impossible.