“ ‘The sea, the sea is England’s, quo’ he again,
The sea, the sea is England’s, and England’s shall remain.’ ”
And he caroled the words in a fine deep bass voice, to a stirring air, and then added—“That, sir, is the cause we fight for, on the Line and beyond it—and that we will fight for, here and every where, when it shall be needful to fight for it. And now, young friend, to answer your question. I do carry guns, eighteen as lively brass twelve-pounders as ever spoke good English to a Don or a Monsieur, or a Mynheer either, for that matter; and then for crew, men and officers, I generally contrive to pack on board eighty or ninety as brisk boys as ever pulled upon a brace, or handled a cutlas.”
“Why you must reckon on high profits to venture such an outlay,” said Sir Miles, avoiding the question of his son’s participation in the cruise.
“Ay!” answered Durzil, “if no gold is to be had for picking up in Eldorado, there is some to be gained there yet by free-trading—and once in a while one may have the luck to pick up a handful on the sea.”
“On the sea, ay! how so?”
“Once I was going quietly along before the trades, with my goods under hatches as peaceable and lawful a trader, as need be, when we fell in with a tall galleon careering. Having no cause to shun or fear her, I lay my own course with English colors flying, when what does she but up helm and after us. In half an hour she was within range and opened with her bow guns, in ten minutes more she was alongside, and—”
“Alongside, in ten minutes, from long cannon range!” exclaimed Miles St. Aubyn—“what were you doing then, that she overhauled you so fast?”
“Running down to meet her, Sir Miles, with every stitch of canvas set that would draw, when I saw that she was bent on having it; and—as I was about to say when you interrupted me—in twenty more she had changed owners.”
“Indeed! indeed! that was a daring blow,” said the old soldier, rousing at the tale, like a superannuated war-horse to the trumpet, “and what was she?”