Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: May 11, 2025
Don Diego mounted the ladder and stepped upon the deck, alone, and entirely unsuspicious. What should the poor man suspect? Before he could even look round, and survey this guard drawn up to receive him, a tap over the head with a capstan bar efficiently handled by Hagthorpe put him to sleep without the least fuss.
Let Wolverstone arrive, as presently he would, and all this hero-worship would turn to execration. His captains, Hagthorpe, Christian, and Yberville, were on the jetty to receive him, and with them were some hundreds of his buccaneers.
Every man aboard would have followed him but for his sharp command to some of them to remain on deck with Hagthorpe. In the ward-room the three stern chasers were in position, loaded, their muzzles thrusting through the open ports, precisely as the Spanish gunners had left them.
Hagthorpe, although he had been a fighting officer, untrained in navigation, knew how to handle a ship, and under his directions they set about getting under way. The anchor catted, and the mainsail unfurled, they stood out for the open before a gentle breeze, without interference from the fort.
By the aid of a telescope with which he had equipped himself he was able to verify that, as he had suspected and hoped, the fort's artillery was all mounted on the seaward side. Satisfied, he returned to Maracaybo, and laid before the six who composed his council Pitt, Hagthorpe, Yberville, Wolverstone, Dyke, and Ogle a proposal to storm the fort from the landward side.
This, after all, was not piracy that was being proposed. It was honourable employment in the service of the King of France. "I will consult my officers," he said; and he sent for them. They came and the matter was laid before them by M. de Cussy himself. Hagthorpe announced at once that the proposal was opportune.
One day as he sat with Hagthorpe and Wolverstone over a pipe and a bottle of rum in the stifling reek of tar and stale tobacco of a waterside tavern, he was accosted by a splendid ruffian in a gold-laced coat of dark-blue satin with a crimson sash, a foot wide, about the waist. "C'est vous qu'on appelle Le Sang?" the fellow hailed him.
There's Jeremy up there in the round-house with a back that's every colour of the rainbow; and the poor lad'll not be himself again for a month. And if it hadn't been for the Spaniards maybe it's dead he'd be by now, and maybe myself with him." Hagthorpe lounged forward. He was a fairly tall, vigorous man with a clear-cut, attractive face which in itself announced his breeding.
Came yet another broadside from the Elizabeth and then the Arabella's trumpeter sent a call across the water, which Hagthorpe perfectly understood. "On, now, Jeremy!" cried Blood. "Straight into them before they recover their wits. Stand by, there! Prepare to board! Hayton ... the grapnels! And pass the word to the gunner in the prow to fire as fast as he can load."
Aboard the Cinco Llagas some one it proved afterwards to be Hagthorpe had the wit to reply in the same fashion. The comedy was ended. Yet there was something else to follow as an epilogue, a thing that added a grim ironic flavour to the whole. As they stepped into the waist of the Cinco Llagas, Hagthorpe advanced to receive them. Blood observed the set, almost scared expression on his face.
Word Of The Day
Others Looking