“The Island of Sark, joining to Guernzey, and of that Government, was in Queen Mary’s time surprized by the French, and could never have been recovered again by strong hand, having Cattle and Corn enough upon the Place to feed so many Men as will serve to defend it, and being every way so inaccessible that it might be held against the Great Turk. Yet by the industry of a Gentleman of the Netherlands, it was in this Sort regained. He anchored in the Road with one Ship, and, pretending the Death of his Merchant, besought the French that they might bury their Merchant in hallowed Ground, and in the Chapel of that Isle; offering a Present to the French of such Commodities as they had aboard. Whereto (with Condition that they should not come ashore with any Weapon, not so much as with a Knife), the French yielded. Then did the Flemings put a Coffin into their Boat, not filled with a Dead Carcass, but with Swords, Targets and Harquebuzes. The French received them at their Landing, and, searching every one of them so narrowly as they could not hide a Penknife, gave them leave to draw their Coffin up the Rocks with great difficulty. Some part of the French took the Flemish Boat, and rowed aboard their Ship to fetch the Commodities promised, and what else they pleased, but, being entered, they were taken and bound. The Flemings on the Land, when they had carried their Coffin into the Chapel, shut the Door to them, and, taking their Weapons out of the Coffin, set upon the French. They run to the Cliff, and cry to their Companions aboard the Fleming to come to their Succour. But, finding the Boat charged with Flemings, yielded themselves and the Place.”
Falle, the historian of Jersey, in citing this anecdote says:—“I have seen Memoirs which confirm the taking of this Island by such a Stratagem; but the other Circumstances of Time and Persons do not agree with the foregoing Story.”
He then quotes, in a footnote, a passage from a MS. chronicle in Latin, which appears to have been in the possession of the de Carteret family, Seigneurs of St. Ouen, in Jersey, giving an account of the recapture of Sark by a vessel from Rye, by means of the stratagem related above, but he does not assign any date to the transaction.
It would be rash to assert that no such event ever occurred in the history of Sark, but it is curious to note that similar stories are told of Harold Hardráda, a Scandinavian adventurer who was in the service of the Byzantine Emperors, and of the famous sea-king, Hastings. The former fell dangerously ill while besieging a town in Sicily. His men requested permission to bury him with due solemnity, and, on bringing the coffin to the gates of the town, were received by the clergy. No sooner, however, were they within the gates than they set down the coffin across the entrance, drew their swords, made themselves masters of the place, and massacred all the male inhabitants.
Hastings, about the year 857, entered the Mediterranean with a large fleet, appeared before the ancient Etruscan city of Luna, professed to be desirous of becoming a Christian, and was baptised by the Bishop. After a time he pretended to be dangerously ill, and gave out that he would leave the rich booty he had amassed to the Church, if, in the event of his death, the Bishop would allow him to be interred in one of the churches of the city. This was conceded, and, shortly afterwards, his followers appeared, bearing a coffin, which they pretended contained his dead body. No sooner had they entered the church and set it down, than Hastings started up, sword in hand, and slew the Bishop. His followers drew their swords, and, in the confusion, soon made themselves masters of the city.
Old Mill, Talbot.
These particulars are taken from Bohn’s editions of Mallet’s Northern Antiquities, pages 169 and 170. Perhaps the earliest known germ of this story is to be found in the famous Trojan horse; but it is curious to note that a tale, similar in all its incidents to that related of Sark, is told as having happened in the reign of William and Mary at Lundy, a small isle in the Bristol Channel. It will be found in Murray’s Handbook for Travellers in Devon and Cornwall; and as the date assigned to it is long subsequent to the publication of Sir Walter Raleigh’s History, the natural conclusion is that the incidents in the alleged taking of Lundy, have been borrowed from those of the recapture of Sark, as narrated by Sir Walter. In confirmation of this view of the case we would draw attention to the circumstance that the “Gentleman of the Netherlands,” with his crew of Flemings, of the earlier narrative, becomes in the later edition of this story “A ship of war under Dutch colours.”