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By England's Aid; Or, the Freeing of the Netherlands, 1585-1604

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Title: By England's Aid; Or, the Freeing of the Netherlands, 1585-1604

Author: G. A. Henty


        
Release date: August 1, 2005 [eBook #8679]
                Most recently updated: May 29, 2019

Language: English

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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BY ENGLAND'S AID; OR, THE FREEING OF THE NETHERLANDS, 1585-1604 ***




Produced by Charles Franks, Michelle Shephard, and the
Online Distributed Proofreading Team









By England's Aid

Or, the Freeing of the Netherlands, 1585-1604

BY

G. A. HENTY







[Illustration: GEOFFREY AND LIONEL SAVE FRANCIS VERE'S LIFE]




PREFACE.


In my preface to _By Pike and Dyke_ I promised in a future story to
deal with the closing events of the War of Independence in Holland. The
period over which that war extended was so long, and the incidents were
so numerous and varied, that it was impossible to include the whole
within the limit of a single book. The former volume brought the story
of the struggle down to the death of the Prince of Orange and the
capture of Antwerp; the present gives the second phase of the war, when
England, who had long unofficially assisted Holland, threw herself
openly into the struggle, and by her aid mainly contributed to the
successful issue of the war. In the first part of the struggle the
scene lay wholly among the low lands and cities of Holland and Zeeland,
and the war was strictly a defensive one, waged against overpowering
odds. After England threw herself into the strife it assumed far wider
proportions, and the independence of the Netherlands was mainly secured
by the defeat and destruction of the great Armada, by the capture of
Cadiz and the fatal blow thereby struck at the mercantile prosperity of
Spain, and by the defeat of the Holy League by Henry of Navarre, aided
by English soldiers and English gold. For the facts connected with the
doings of Sir Francis Vere and the British contingent in Holland, I
have depended much upon the excellent work by Mr. Clement Markham
entitled the _Fighting Veres_. In this full justice is done to the
great English general and his followers, and it is conclusively shown
that some statements to the disparagement of Sir Francis Vere by Mr.
Motley are founded upon a misconception of the facts. Sir Francis Vere
was, in the general opinion of the time, one of the greatest commanders
of the age, and more, perhaps, than any other man--with the exception
of the Prince of Orange--contributed to the successful issue of the
struggle of Holland to throw off the yoke of Spain.

                                   G. A. HENTY.




CONTENTS


CHAP.

    I. AN EXCURSION
   II. A MEETING IN CHEPE
  III. IN THE LOW COUNTRY
   IV. THE SIEGE OP SLUYS
    V. AN HEROIC DEFENCE
   VI. THE LOSS OF THE "SUSAN"
  VII. A POPISH PLOT
 VIII. THE SPANISH ARMADA
   IX. THE ROUT OF THE ARMADA
    X. THE WAR IN HOLLAND
   XI. IN SPAIN
  XII. RECRUITING THEIR FUNDS
 XIII. THE FESTA AT SEVILLE
  XIV. THE SURPRISE OF BREDA
   XV. A SLAVE IN BARBARY
  XVI. THE ESCAPE
 XVII. A SPANISH MERCHANT
XVIII. IVRY
  XIX. STEENWYK
   XX. CADIZ
  XXI. THE BATTLE OF NIEUPORT
 XXII. OLD FRIENDS
XXIII. THE SIEGE OF OSTEND




  ILLUSTRATIONS


  Geoffrey And Lionel Save Francis Vere's Life
  The Four Pages Carry Down The Wounded Soldier
  The Next Few Minutes It Was A Wild Struggle For Life
  Geoffrey Carried Overboard By The Falling Mast
  Geoffrey Gives Inez Her Lover's Note
  Geoffrey Falls Into The Hands Of The Corsairs
  Crossing The Bridge Of Boats Over The Haven
  Vere's Horse Shot Under Him At The Fight Before Ostend

       *       *       *       *       *

Plan of Sluys and the Castle, to illustrate the Siege of 1587

Plan of Breda and its Defences, illustrating its surprise and capture
in 1590

Map of Cadiz and Harbour at the time of its capture in 1596, showing
the position of the English and Spanish Ships

Plan of Ostend and its Defences, showing the lines of the attacking
forces during the siege of 1601-4




BY ENGLAND'S AID

CHAPTER I

AN EXCURSION


"And we beseech Thee, O Lord, to give help and succour to Thy servants
the people of Holland, and to deliver them from the cruelties and
persecutions of their wicked oppressors; and grant Thy blessing, we
pray Thee, upon the arms of our soldiers now embarking to aid them in
their extremity." These were the words with which the Rev. John
Vickars, rector of Hedingham, concluded the family prayers on the
morning of 6th December, 1585.

For twenty years the first portion of this prayer had been repeated
daily by him, as it had been in tens of thousands of English
households; for since the people of the Netherlands first rose against
the Spanish yoke the hearts of the Protestants of England had beat
warmly in their cause, and they had by turns been moved to admiration
at the indomitable courage with which the Dutch struggled for
independence against the might of the greatest power in Europe, and to
horror and indignation at the pitiless cruelty and wholesale massacres
by which the Spaniards had striven to stamp out resistance.

From the first the people of England would gladly have joined in the
fray, and made common cause with their co-religionists; but the queen
and her counsellors had been restrained by weighty considerations from
embarking in such a struggle. At the commencement of the war the power
of Spain overshadowed all Europe. Her infantry were regarded as
irresistible. Italy and Germany were virtually her dependencies, and
England was but a petty power beside her. Since Agincourt was fought we
had taken but little part in wars on the Continent. The feudal system
was extinct; we had neither army nor military system; and the only
Englishmen with the slightest experience of war were those who had gone
abroad to seek their fortunes, and had fought in the armies of one or
other of the continental powers. Nor were we yet aware of our naval
strength. Drake and Hawkins and the other bucaneers had not yet
commenced their private war with Spain, on what was known as the
Spanish main--the waters of the West Indian Islands--and no one dreamed
that the time was approaching when England would be able to hold her
own against the strength of Spain on the seas.

Thus, then, whatever the private sentiments of Elizabeth and her
counsellors, they shrank from engaging England in a life and death
struggle with the greatest power of the time; though as the struggle
went on the queen's sympathy with the people of the Netherlands was
more and more openly shown. In 1572 she was present at a parade of
three hundred volunteers who mustered at Greenwich under Thomas Morgan
and Roger Williams for service in the Netherlands. Sir Humphrey
Gilbert, half-brother of Sir Walter Raleigh, went out a few months
later with 1500 men, and from that time numbers of English volunteers
continued to cross the seas and join in the struggle against the
Spaniards. Nor were the sympathies of the queen confined to allowing
her subjects to take part in the fighting; for she sent out large sums
of money to the Dutch, and as far as she could, without openly joining
them, gave them her aid.

Spain remonstrated continually against these breaches of neutrality,
while the Dutch on their part constantly implored her to join them
openly; but she continued to give evasive answers to both parties until
the assassination of William of Orange on 10th July, 1584, sent a
thrill of horror through England, and determined the queen and her
advisers to take a more decisive part in the struggle. In the following
June envoys from the States arrived in London, and were received with
great honour, and a treaty between the two countries was agreed upon.
Three months later the queen published a declaration to her people and
to Europe at large, setting forth the terrible persecutions and
cruelties to which "our next neighbours, the people of the Low
Countries," the special allies and friends of England, had been
exposed, and stating her determination to aid them to recover their
liberty. The proclamation concluded: "We mean not hereby to make
particular profit to ourself and our people, only desiring to obtain,
by God's favour, for the Countries, a deliverance of them from war by
the Spaniards and foreigners, with a restitution of their ancient
liberties and government."

Sir Thomas Cecil was sent out at once as governor of Brill, and Sir
Philip Sidney as governor of Flushing, these towns being handed over to
England as guarantees by the Dutch. These two officers, with bodies of
troops to serve as garrisons, took charge of their respective
fortresses in November. Orders were issued for the raising of an army
for service in the Low Countries, and Dudley, Earl of Leicester, was
appointed by the queen to its command. The decision of the queen was
received with enthusiasm in England as well as in Holland, and although
the Earl of Leicester was not personally popular, volunteers flocked to
his standard.

Breakfast at Hedingham Rectory had been set at an earlier hour than
usual on the 6th of December, 1585. There was an unusual stir and
excitement in the village, for young Mr. Francis Vere, cousin of the
Earl of Oxford, lord of Hedingham and of all the surrounding country,
was to start that morning to ride to Colchester, there to join the Earl
of Leicester and his following as a volunteer. As soon as breakfast was
over young Geoffrey and Lionel Vickars, boys of fourteen and thirteen
years old, proceeded to the castle close by, and there mounted the
horses provided for them, and rode with Francis Vere to Colchester.

Francis, who was at this time twenty-five years old, was accompanied by
his elder brother, John, and his two younger brothers, Robert and
Horace, and by many other friends; and it was a gay train that cantered
down the valley of the Colne to Colchester. That ancient town was all
astir. Gentlemen had ridden in from all the country seats and manors
for many miles round, and the quiet streets were alive with people. At
two o'clock in the afternoon news arrived that the earl was
approaching, and, headed by the bailiffs of the town in scarlet gowns,
the multitude moved out to meet the earl on the Lexden road. Presently
a long train was seen approaching; for with Leicester were the Earl of
Essex, Lords North and Audley, Sir William Russell, Sir Thomas Shirley,
and other volunteers, to the number of five hundred horse. All were
gaily attired and caparisoned, and the cortège presented a most
brilliant appearance. The multitude cheered lustily, the bailiffs
presented an address, and followed by his own train and by the
gentlemen who had assembled to meet him, the earl rode into the town.
He himself took up his abode at the house of Sir Thomas Lucas, while
his followers were distributed among the houses of the townsfolk. Two
hours after the arrival of the earl, the party from Hedingham took
leave of Mr. Francis Vere.

"Good-bye, lads," he said to the young Vickars. "I will keep my
promise, never fear; and if the struggle goes on till you are old
enough to carry arms, I will, if I am still alive, take you under my
leading and teach you the art of war."

Upon the following day the Earl of Leicester and his following rode to
Manningtree, and took boat down the Stour to Harwich, where the fleet,
under Admiral William Borough, was lying. Here they embarked, and on
the 9th of December sailed for Flushing, where they were joined by
another fleet of sixty ships from the Thames.

More than a year passed. The English had fought sturdily in Holland.
Mr. Francis Vere had been with his cousin, Lord Willoughby, who was in
command of Bergen-op-Zoom, and had taken part in the first brush with
the enemy, when a party of the garrison marched out and attacked a
great convoy of four hundred and fifty waggons going to Antwerp, killed
three hundred of the enemy, took eighty prisoners, and destroyed all
their waggons except twenty-seven, which they carried into the town.
Leicester provisioned the town of Grave, which was besieged by the Duke
of Parma, the Spanish commander-in-chief. Axel was captured by
surprise, the volunteers swimming across the moat at night, and
throwing open the gates. Doesburg was captured, and Zutphen besieged.

Parma marched to its relief, and, under cover of a thick fog, succeeded
in getting close at hand before it was known that he was near. Then the
English knights and volunteers, 200 in number, mounted in hot haste and
charged a great Spanish column of 5000 horse and foot. They were led by
Sir William Russell, under whom were Lords Essex, North, Audley, and
Willoughby, behind the last of whom rode Francis Vere. For two hours
this little band of horse fought desperately in the midst of the
Spanish cavalry, and forced them at last to fall back, but were
themselves obliged to retreat when the Spanish infantry came up and
opened fire upon them. The English loss was 34 killed and wounded,
while 250 of the Spaniards were slain, and three of their colours
captured. Among the wounded on the English side was the very noble
knight Sir Philip Sidney, who was shot by a musket-ball, and died three
weeks afterwards.

The successes of the English during these two years were
counterbalanced by the cowardly surrender of Grave by its governor, and
by the treachery of Sir William Stanley, governor of Deventer, and of
Roland Yorke, who commanded the garrisons of the two forts known as the
Zutphen Sconces. Both these officers turned traitors and delivered up
the posts they commanded to the Spaniards. Their conduct not only
caused great material loss to the allies, but it gave rise to much bad
feeling between the English and Dutch, the latter complaining that they
received but half-hearted assistance from the English.

It was not surprising, however, that Leicester was unable to effect
more with the little force under his command, for it was necessary not
only to raise soldiers, but to invent regulations and discipline. The
Spanish system was adopted, and this, the first English regular army,
was trained and appointed precisely upon the system of the foe with
whom they were fighting. It was no easy task to convert a body of brave
knights and gentlemen and sturdy country men into regular troops, and
to give them the advantages conferred by discipline and order. But the
work was rendered the less difficult by the admixture of the volunteers
who had been bravely fighting for ten years under Morgan, Rowland
Williams, John Norris, and others. These had had a similar experience
on their first arrival in Holland. Several times in their early
encounters with the Spaniards the undisciplined young troops had
behaved badly; but they had gained experience from their reverses, and
had proved themselves fully capable of standing in line even against
the splendid pikemen of Spain.

While the English had been drilling and fighting in Holland things had
gone on quietly at Hedingham. The village stands near the head waters
of the Colne and Stour, in a rich and beautiful country. On a rising
ground behind it stood the castle of the Veres, which was approached
from the village by a drawbridge across the moat. There were few more
stately piles in England than the seat of the Earl of Oxford. On one
side of the great quadrangle was the gate-house and a lofty tower, on
another the great hall and chapel and the kitchens, on a third the
suites of apartments of the officials and retinue. In rear were the
stables and granaries, the butts and tennis-court, beyond which was the
court of the tournaments.

In the centre of the quadrangle rose the great keep, which still
stands, the finest relic of Norman civil architecture in England. It
possessed great strength, and at the same time was richly ornamented
with carving. The windows, arches, and fireplaces were decorated with
chevron carvings. A beautiful spiral pattern enriched the doorway and
pillars of the staircase leading to galleries cut in the thickness of
the wall, with arched openings looking into the hall below. The outlook
from the keep extended over the parishes of Castle Hedingham, Sybil
Hedingham, Kirby, and Tilbury, all belonging to the Veres--whose
property extended far down the pretty valley of the Stour--with the
stately Hall of Long Melford, the Priory of Clare, and the little town
of Lavenham; indeed the whole country was dotted with the farmhouses
and manors of the Veres. Seven miles down the valley of the Colne lies
the village of Earl's Colne, with the priory, where ten of the earls of
Oxford lie buried with their wives.

The parish church of Castle Hedingham stood at the end of the little
village street, and the rectory of Mr. Vickars was close by. The party
gathered at morning prayers consisted of Mr. Vickars and his wife,
their two sons, Geoffrey and Lionel, and the maid-servants, Ruth and
Alice. The boys, now fourteen and fifteen years old respectively, were
strong-grown and sturdy lads, and their father had long since owned
with a sigh that neither of them was likely to follow his profession
and fill the pulpit at Hedingham Church when he was gone. Nor was this
to be wondered at, for lying as it did at the entrance to the great
castle of the Veres, the street of the little village was constantly
full of armed men, and resounded with the tramp of the horses of
richly-dressed knights and gay ladies.

Here came great politicians, who sought the friendship and support of
the powerful earls of Oxford, nobles and knights, their kinsmen and
allies, gentlemen from the wide-spreading manors of the family, stout
fighting-men who wished to enlist under their banner. At night the
sound of music from the castle told of gay entertainments and festive
dances, while by day parties of knights and ladies with dogs and
falcons sallied out to seek sport over the wide domains. It could
hardly be expected, then, that lads of spirit, brought up in the midst
of sights and sounds like these, should entertain a thought of settling
down to the tranquil life of the church. As long as they could
remember, their minds had been fixed upon being soldiers, and fighting
some day under the banner of the Veres. They had been a good deal in
the castle; for Mr. Vickars had assisted Arthur Golding, the learned
instructor to young Edward Vere, the 17th earl, who was born in 1550,
and had succeeded to the title at the age of twelve, and he had
afterwards been tutor to the earl's cousins, John, Francis, Robert, and
Horace, the sons of Geoffrey, fourth son of the 15th earl. These boys
were born in 1558, 1560, 1562, and 1565, and lived with their mother at
Kirby Hall, a mile from the Castle of Hedingham.

The earl was much attached to his old instructor, and when he was at
the castle there was scarce a day but an invitation came down for Mr.
Vickars and his wife to be present either at banquet or entertainment.
The boys were free to come and go as they chose, and the earl's
men-at-arms had orders to afford them all necessary teaching in the use
of weapons.

Mr. Vickars considered it his duty to accept the invitations of his
friend and patron, but he sorely grudged the time so abstracted from
his favourite books. It was, indeed, a relief to him when the earl,
whose love of profusion and luxury made serious inroads even into the
splendid possessions of the Veres, went up to court, and peace and
quietness reigned in the castle. The rector was fonder of going to
Kirby, where John, Geoffrey's eldest son, lived quietly and soberly,
his three younger brothers having, when mere boys, embraced the
profession of arms, placing themselves under the care of the good
soldier Sir William Browne, who had served for many years in the Low
Countries. They occasionally returned home for a time, and were pleased
to take notice of the sons of their old tutor, although Geoffrey was
six years junior to Horace, the youngest of the brothers.

The young Vickars had much time to themselves, much more indeed than
their mother considered to be good for them. After their breakfast,
which was finished by eight o'clock, their father took them for an hour
and heard the lessons they had prepared the day before, and gave them
instruction in the Latin tongue. Then they were supposed to study till
the bell rang for dinner at twelve; but there was no one to see that
they did so, for their father seldom came outside his library door, and
their mother was busy with her domestic duties and in dispensing
simples to the poor people, who, now that the monasteries were closed,
had no medical aid save that which they got from the wives of the
gentry or ministers, or from the wise women, of whom there was
generally one in every village.

Therefore, after half an hour, or at most an hour, spent in getting up
their tasks, the books would be thrown aside, and the boys be off,
either to the river or up to the castle to practise sword-play with the
men-at-arms, or to the butts with their bows, or to the rabbit-warren,
where they had leave from the earl to go with their dogs whenever they
pleased. Their long excursions were, however, generally deferred until
after dinner, as they were then free until supper-time, and even if
they did not return after that hour Mrs. Vickars did not chide them
unduly, being an easy-going woman, and always ready to make excuses for
them.

There were plenty of fish in the river; and the boys knew the pools
they loved best, and often returned with their baskets well filled.
There were otters on its banks, too; but, though they sometimes chased
these pretty creatures, Tan and Turk, their two dogs, knew as well as
their masters that they had but small chance of catching them.
Sometimes they would take a boat at the bridge and drop down the stream
for miles, and once or twice had even gone down to Bricklesey
[Footnote: Now Brightlingsea.] at the mouth of the river. This,
however, was an expedition that they never performed alone, making it
each time in charge of Master Lirriper, who owned a flat barge, and
took produce down to Bricklesey, there to be transhipped into coasters
bound for London. He had a married daughter there, and it was at her
house the boys had slept when they went there; for the journey down and
up again was too long to be performed in a single day.

But this was not the only distant expedition they had made, for they
had once gone down the Stour as far as Harwich with their father when
he was called thither on business. To them Harwich with its old walls
and the houses crowded up within them, and its busy port with vessels
coming in and going out, was most delightful, and they always talked
about that expedition as one of the most pleasant recollections of
their lives.

After breakfast was over on 1st of May, 1587, and they had done their
lessons with their father, and had worked for an hour by themselves,
the boys put by their books and strolled down the village to the
bridge. There as usual stood their friend Master Lirriper with his
hands deep in his pockets, a place and position in which he was sure to
be found when not away in his barge.

"Good-morning, Master Lirriper."

"Good-morning, Master Geoffrey and Master Lionel."

"So you are not down the river to-day?"

"No, sir. I am going to-morrow, and this time I shall be away four or
five days--maybe even a week."

"Shall you?" the boys exclaimed in surprise. "Why, what are you going
to do?"

"I am going round to London in my nephew Joe Chambers' craft."

"Are you really?" Geoffrey exclaimed. "I wish we were going with you.
Don't you think you could take us, Master Lirriper?"

The bargeman looked down into the water and frowned. He was slow of
speech, but as the minutes went on and he did not absolutely refuse the
boys exchanged glances of excitement and hope.

"I dunno how that might be, young sirs," John Lirriper said slowly,
after long cogitation. "I dus-say my nephew would have no objection,
but what would parson say about it?"

"Oh, I don't think he would object," Geoffrey said. "If you go up and
ask him, Master Lirriper, and say that you will take care of us, you
know, I don't see why he should say no."

"Like enough you would be ill," John Lirriper said after another long
pause. "It's pretty rough sometimes."

"Oh, we shouldn't mind that," Lionel protested. "We should like to see
the waves and to be in a real ship."

"It's nothing much of a ship," the boatman said. "She is a ketch of
about ten tons and carries three hands."

"Oh, we don't care how small she is if we can only go in her; and you
would be able to show us London, and we might even see the queen. Oh,
do come up with us and ask father, Master Lirriper."

"Perhaps parson wouldn't be pleased, young sirs, and might say I was
putting wandering thoughts into your heads; and Mistress Vickars might
think it a great liberty on my part."

"Oh, no, she wouldn't, Master Lirriper. Besides, we will say we asked
you."

"But suppose any harm comes to you, what would they say to me then?"

"Oh, there's no fear of any harm coming to us. Besides, in another year
or two we mean to go over to the Low Countries and fight the Spaniards,
and what's a voyage to London to that?"

"Well, I will think about it," John Lirriper said cautiously.

"No no, Master Lirriper; if you get thinking about it it will never be
done. Do come up with us at once," and each of them got hold of one of
the boatman's arms.

"Well, the parson can but say no," he said, as he suffered himself to
be dragged away. "And I don't say as it isn't reasonable that you
should like to see something of the world, young sirs; but I don't know
how the parson will take it."

Mr. Vickars looked up irritably from his books when the servant came in
and said that Master Lirriper wished to see him.

"What does he want at this hour?" he said. "You know, Ruth, I never see
people before dinner. Any time between that and supper I am at their
service, but it's too bad being disturbed now."

"I told him so, sir; but Master Geoffrey and Master Lionel were with
him, and they said he wanted particular to see you, and they wanted
particular too."

The clergyman sighed as he put his book down.

"If Geoffrey and Lionel have concerned themselves in the matter, Ruth,
I suppose I must see the man; but it's very hard being disturbed like
this. Well, Master Lirriper, what is it?" he asked, as the boatman
accompanied by Geoffrey and Lionel entered the room. Master Lirriper
twirled his hat in his hand. Words did not come easily to him at the
best of times, and this was a business that demanded thought and care.
Long before he had time to fix upon an appropriate form of words
Geoffrey broke in:

"This is what it is, father. Master Lirriper is going down the river to
Bricklesey to-morrow, and then he is going on board his nephew's ship.
She is a ketch, and she carries ten tons, though I don't know what it
is she carries; and she's going to London, and he is going in her, and
he says if you will let him he will take us with him, and will show us
London, and take great care of us. It will be glorious, father, if you
will only let us go."

Mr. Vickars looked blankly as Geoffrey poured out his torrent of words.
His mind was still full of the book he had been reading, and he hardly
took in the meaning of Geoffrey's words.

"Going in a ketch!" he repeated. "Going to catch something, I suppose
you mean? Do you mean he is going fishing?"

"No, father,--going in a ketch. A ketch is a sort of ship, father,
though I don't quite know what sort of ship. What sort of ship is a
ketch, Master Lirriper?"

"A ketch is a two-masted craft, Master Geoffrey," John Lirriper said.
"She carries a big mizzen sail."

"There, you see, father," Geoffrey said triumphantly; "she carries a
big mizzen sail. That's what she is, you see; and he is going to show
us London, and will take great care of us if you will let us go with
him."

"Do you mean, Master Lirriper," Mr. Vickars asked slowly, "that you are
going to London in some sort of ship, and want to take my sons with
you?"

"Well, sir, I am going to London, and the young masters seemed to think
that they would like to go with me, if so be you would have no
objection."

"I don't know," Mr. Vicars said. "It is a long passage, Master
Lirriper; and, as I have heard, often a stormy one. I don't think my
wife--"

"Oh, yes, father," Lionel broke in. "If you say yes, mother is sure to
say yes; she always does, you know. And, you see, it will be a great
thing for us to see London. Every one else seems to have seen London,
and I am sure that it would do us good. And we might even see the
queen."

"I think that they would be comfortable, sir," John Lirriper put in.
"You see, my nephew's wife is daughter of a citizen, one Master
Swindon, a ship's chandler, and he said there would be a room there for
me, and they would make me heartily welcome. Now, you see, sir, the
young masters could have that room, and I could very well sleep on
board the ketch; and they would be out of all sort of mischief there."

"That would be a very good plan certainly, Master Lirriper. Well, well,
I don't know what to say."

"Say yes, father," Geoffrey said as he saw Mr. Vickars glance anxiously
at the book he had left open. "If you say yes, you see it will be a
grand thing for you, our being away for a week with nothing to disturb
you."

"Well, well," Mr. Vickars said, "you must ask your mother. If she makes
no objection, then I suppose you can go," and Mr. Vickars hastily took
up his book again.

The boys ran off to the kitchen, where their mother was superintending
the brewing of some broth for a sick woman down the village.

"Mother!" Geoffrey exclaimed, "Master Lirriper's going to London in a
ketch--a ship with a big mizzen sail, you know--and he has offered to
take us with him and show us London. And father has said yes, and it's
all settled if you have no objection; and of course you haven't."

"Going to London, Geoffrey!" Mrs. Vicars exclaimed aghast. "I never
heard of such a thing. Why, like enough you will be drowned on the way
and never come back again. Your father must be mad to think of such a
thing."

"Oh, no, mother; I am sure it will do us a lot of good. And we may see
the queen, mother. And as for drowning, why, we can both swim ever so
far. Besides, people don't get drowned going to London. Do they Master
Lirriper?"

John was standing bashfully at the door of the kitchen. "Well, not as a
rule, Master Geoffrey," he replied. "They comes and they goes, them
that are used to it, maybe a hundred times without anything happening
to them."

"There! You hear that, mother? They come and go hundreds of times. Oh,
I am sure you are not going to say no. That would be too bad when
father has agreed to it. Now, mother, please tell Ruth to run away at
once and get a wallet packed with our things. Of course we shall want
our best clothes; because people dress finely in London, and it would
never do if we saw the queen and we hadn't our best doublets on, for
she would think that we didn't know what was seemly down at Hedingham."

"Well, my dears, of course if it is all settled--"

"Oh, yes, mother, it is quite all settled."

"Then it's no use my saying anything more about it, but I think your
father might have consulted me before he gave his consent to your going
on such a hazardous journey as this.

"He did want to consult you, mother. But then, you see, he wanted to
consult his books even more, and he knew very well that you would agree
with him; and you know you would too. So please don't say anything more
about it, but let Ruth run upstairs and see to our things at once.
There, you see, Master Lirriper, it is all settled. And what time do
you start to-morrow? We will be there half an hour before, anyhow."

"I shall go at seven from the bridge. Then I shall just catch the turn
of the tide and get to Bricklesey in good time."

"I never did see such boys," Mrs. Vickars said when John Lirriper had
gone on his way. "As for your father, I am surprised at him in
countenancing you. You will be running all sorts of risks. You may be
drowned on the way, or killed in a street brawl, or get mixed up in a
plot. There is no saying what may not happen. And here it is all
settled before I have even time to think about it, which is most
inconsiderate of your father."

"Oh, we shall get back again without any harm, mother. And as to
getting killed in a street brawl, Lionel and I can use our hangers as
well as most of them. Besides, nothing of that sort is going to happen
to us. Now, mother, please let Ruth go at once, and tell her to put up
our puce doublets that we had for the jousting at the castle, and our
red hose and our dark green cloth slashed trunks."

"There is plenty of time for that, Geoffrey, as you are not going until
to-morrow. Besides, I can't spare Ruth now, but she shall see about it
after dinner."

There was little sleep for the boys that night. A visit to London had
long been one of their wildest ambitions, and they could scarcely
believe that thus suddenly and without preparation it was about to take
place. Their father had some time before promised that he would some
day make request to one or other of the young Veres to allow them to
ride to London in his suite, but the present seemed to them an even
more delightful plan. There would be the pleasure of the voyage, and
moreover it would be much more lively for them to be able to see London
under the charge of John Lirriper than to be subject to the ceremonial
and restraint that would be enforced in the household of the Veres.
They were then at the appointed place a full hour before the time
named, with wallets containing their clothes, and a basket of
provisions that their mother had prepared for them. Having stowed these
away in the little cabin, they walked up and down impatiently until
Master Lirriper himself appeared.

"You are up betimes, my young masters," the boatman said. "The church
has not yet struck seven o'clock."

"We have been here ever so long, Master Lirriper. We could not sleep
much last night, and got up when it chimed five, being afraid that we
might drop off to sleep and be late."

"Well, we shall not be long before we are off. Here comes my man Dick,
and the tide is just on the turn. The sky looks bright, and the weather
promises well. I will just go round to the cottage and fetch up my
things, and then we shall be ready."

In ten minutes they pushed off from the shore. John and his man got out
long poles shod with iron, and with these set to work to punt the barge
along. Now that they were fairly on their way the boys quieted down,
and took their seats on the sacks of flour with which the boat was
laden, and watched the objects on the bank as the boat made her way
quietly along.

Halstead was the first place passed. This was the largest town near
Hedingham, and was a place of much importance in their eyes. Then they
passed Stanstead Hall and Earl's Colne on their right, Colne Wake on
their left, and Chapel Parish on their right. Then there was a long
stretch without any large villages, until they came in sight of the
bridge above Colchester. A few miles below the town the river began to
widen. The banks were low and flat, and they were now entering an arm
of the sea. Half an hour later the houses and church of Bricklesey came
in sight. Tide was almost low when they ran on to the mud abreast of
the village, but John put on a pair of high boots and carried the boys
ashore one after the other on his back, and then went up with them to
the house where they were to stop for the night.

Here, although not expected, they were heartily welcomed by John's
daughter.

"If father had told me that you had been coming, Masters Vickars, I
would have had a proper dinner for you; but though he sent word
yesterday morning that he should be over today, he did not say a word
about your coming with them."

"He did not know himself," Geoffrey said; "it was only settled at ten
o'clock yesterday. But do not trouble yourself about the dinner. In the
first place, we are so pleased at going that we don't care a bit what
we eat, and in the second place we had breakfast on board the boat, and
we were both so hungry that I am sure we could go till supper-time
without eating if necessary."

"Where are you going, father?" the young woman asked.

"I am going to set about unloading the flour."

"Why, it's only a quarter to twelve, and dinner just ready. The fish
went into the frying-pan as you came up from the boat. You know we
generally dine at half-past eleven, but we saw you coming at a distance
and put it off. It's no use your starting now."

"Well, I suppose it isn't. And I don't know what the young masters'
appetite may be, but mine is pretty good, I can tell you."

"I never knew it otherwise, father," the woman laughed, "Ah, here is my
Sam. Sam, here's father brought these two young gentlemen. They are the
sons of Mr. Vickars, the parson at Hedingham. They are going to stop
here to-night, and are going with him in the _Susan_ to-morrow to
London."

"Glad to see you, young masters," Sam said. "I have often heard Ann
talk of your good father. I have just been on board the _Susan_, for I
am sending up a couple of score sides of bacon in her, and have been
giving Joe Chambers, her master, a list of things he is to get there
and bring down for me. Now then, girl, bustle about and get dinner on
as soon as you can. We are half an hour late. I am sure the young
gentlemen here must be hungry. There's nothing like being on the water
for getting an appetite."

A few minutes later a great dish of fish, a loaf of bread and some
wooden platters, were placed on the table, and all set to at once.
Forks had not yet come into use, and table-cloths were unknown, except
among the upper classes. The boys found that in spite of their hearty
breakfast their appetites were excellent. The fish were delicious, the
bread was home-baked, and the beer from Colchester, which was already
famous for its brewing. When they had finished, John Lirriper asked
them if they would rather see what there was to be seen in the village,
or go off to the ketch. They at once chose the latter alternative. On
going down to the water's edge they found that the tide had risen
sufficiently to enable Dick to bring the barge alongside the jetty.
They were soon on board.

"Which is the _Susan_, Master Lirriper?"

"That's her lying out there with two others. She is the one lowest down
the stream. We shall just fetch her comfortably."




CHAPTER II.

A MEETING IN CHEPE.


A row of ten minutes took the boat with Master Lirriper and the two
boys alongside the ketch.

"How are you, Joe Chambers?" Master Lirriper hailed the skipper as he
appeared on the deck of the _Susan_. "I have brought you two more
passengers for London. They are going there under my charge."

"The more the merrier, Uncle John," the young skipper replied. "There
are none others going this journey, so though our accommodation is not
very extensive, we can put them up comfortably enough if they don't
mind roughing it."

"Oh, we don't mind that," Geoffrey said, as they climbed on board;
"besides, there seems lots of room."

"Not so much as you think," the skipper replied. "She is a roomy craft
is the _Susan_; but she is pretty nigh all hold, and we are cramped a
little in the fo'castle. Still we can sleep six, and that's just the
number we shall have, for we carry a man and a boy besides myself. I
think your flour will about fill her up, Master Lirriper. We have a
pretty full cargo this time."

"Well, we shall soon see," John Lirriper said. "Are you ready to take
the flour on board at once? Because, if so, we will begin to discharge."

"Yes, I am quite ready. You told me you were going to bring forty
sacks, and I have left the middle part of the hold empty for them. Sam
Hunter's bacon will stow in on the top of your sacks, and just fill her
up to the beams there, as I reckon. I'll go below and stow them away as
you hand them across."

In an hour the sacks of flour were transferred from the barge to the
hold of the _Susan_, and the sides of bacon then placed upon them.

"It's a pity we haven't all the rest of the things on board," the
skipper said, "and then we could have started by this evening's tide
instead of waiting till the morning. The wind is fair, and I hate
throwing away a fair wind. There is no saying where it may blow
to-morrow, but I shouldn't be at all surprised if it isn't round to the
south, and that will be foul for us till we get pretty nigh up into the
mouth of the river. However, I gave them till to-night for getting all
their things on board, and must therefore wait."

To the boys the _Susan_ appeared quite a large craft, for there was not
water up at Hedingham for vessels of her size; and though they had seen
ships at Harwich, they had never before put foot on anything larger
than Master Lirriper's barge. The _Susan_ was about forty feet long by
twelve feet beam, and drew, as her skipper informed them, near five
feet of water. She was entirely decked. The cabin in the bows occupied
some fourteen feet in length. The rest was devoted to cargo. They
descended into the cabin, which seemed to them very dark, there being
no light save what came down through the small hatchway. Still it
looked snug and comfortable. There was a fireplace on one side of the
ladder by which they had descended, and on this side there were two
bunks, one above the other. On the other side there were lockers
running along the entire length of the cabin. Two could sleep on these
and two on the bunks above them.

"Now, young masters, you will take those two bunks on the top there.
John Lirriper and I will sleep on the lockers underneath you. The man
and the boy have the two on the other side. I put you on the top
because there is a side board, and you can't fall out if she rolls, and
besides the bunks are rather wider than the lockers below. If the wind
is fair you won't have much of our company, because we shall hold on
till we moor alongside the wharves of London; but if it's foul, or
there is not enough of it to take us against tide, we have to anchor on
the ebb, and then of course we turn in."

"How long do you take getting from here to London?"

"Ah, that I can tell you more about when I see what the weather is like
in the morning. With a strong fair wind I have done it in twenty-four
hours, and again with the wind foul it has taken me nigh a week. Taking
one trip with another I should put it at three days."

"Well, now, we will be going ashore," John Lirriper said. "I will leave
my barge alongside till tide turns, for I could not get her back again
to the jetty so long as it is running in strong, so I will be off again
in a couple of hours."

So saying he hauled up the dingy that was towing behind the barge, and
he and Dick rowed the two boys ashore. Then he walked along with them
to a spot where several craft were hauled up, pointing out to them the
differences in their rig and build, and explained their purpose, and
gave them the names of the principal ropes and stays.

"Now," he said, "it's getting on for supper-time, and it won't do to
keep them waiting, for Ann is sure to have got some cakes made, and
there's nothing puts a woman out more than people not being in to meals
when they have got something special ready. After that I shall go out
with Dick and bring the barge ashore. He will load her up to-morrow,
and take her back single-handed; which can be done easy enough in such
weather as this, but it is too much for one man if there is a strong
wind blowing and driving her over to the one side or other of the
river."

As John Lirriper had expected, his daughter had prepared a pile of hot
cakes for supper, and her face brightened up when she saw the party
return punctually. The boys had been up early, and had slept but little
the night before, and were not sorry at eight o'clock to lie down on
the bed of freshly-cut rushes covered with home-spun sheets, for
regular beds of feathers were still but little used in England. At five
o'clock they were astir again, and their hostess insisted on their
eating a manchet of bread with some cheese, washed down by a stoup of
ale before starting. Dick had the boat at the jetty ready to row them
off, and as soon as they were on board the _Susan_ preparations were
made for a start.

The mainsail was first hoisted, its size greatly surprising the boys;
then the foresail and jib were got up, and lastly the mizzen. Then the
capstan was manned, and the anchor slowly brought on board, and the
sails being sheeted home, the craft began to steal through the water.
The tide was still draining up, and she had not as yet swung. The wind
was light, and, as the skipper had predicted, was nearly due south. As
the ketch made its way out from the mouth of the river, and the wide
expanse of water opened before them, the boys were filled with delight.
They had taken their seats, one on each side of the skipper, who was at
the tiller.

"I suppose you steer by the compass, Master Chambers?" Geoffrey said.
"Which is the compass? I have heard about it, always pointing to the
north."

"It's down below, young sir; I will show it you presently. We steer by
that at night, or when it's foggy; but on a fine day like this there is
no need for it. There are marks put up on all the sands, and we steer
by them. You see, the way the wind is now we can lay our course for the
Whittaker. That's a cruel sand, that is, and stretches out a long way
from a point lying away on the right there. Once past that we bear away
to the south-west, for we are then, so to speak, fairly in the course
of the river. There is many a ship has been cast away on the Whittaker.
Not that it is worse than other sands. There are scores of them lying
in the mouth of the river, and if it wasn't for the marks there would
be no sailing in or out."

"Who put up the marks?" Lionel asked.

"They are put up by men who make a business of it. There is one boat of
them sails backwards and forwards where the river begins to narrow
above Sheerness, and every ship that goes up or down pays them
something according to her size. Others cruise about with long poles,
putting them in the sands wherever one gets washed away. They have got
different marks on them. A single cross-piece, or two cross-pieces, or
a circle, or a diamond; so that each sand has got its own particular
mark. These are known to the masters of all ships that go up and down
the river, and so they can tell exactly where they are, and what course
to take. At night they anchor, for there would be no possibility of
finding the way up or down in the dark. I have heard tell from mariners
who have sailed abroad that there ain't a place anywhere with such
dangerous sands as those we have got here at the mouth of the Thames."

In the first three or four hours' sail Geoffrey and Lionel acquired
much nautical knowledge. They learned the difference between the
mainmast and the mizzen, found that all the strong ropes that kept the
masts erect and stiff were called stays, that the ropes that hoist
sails are called halliards, and that sheets is the name given to the
ropes that restrain the sails at the lower corner, and are used to haul
them in more tightly when sailing close to the wind, or to ease them
off when the wind is favourable. They also learned that the yards at
the head of the main and mizzen sails are called gaffs, and those at
the bottom, booms.

"I think that's about enough for you to remember in one day, young
masters," John Lirriper said. "You bear all that in your mind, and
remember that each halliard and sheet has the name of the sail to which
it is attached, and you will have learnt enough to make yourself
useful, and can lend a hand when the skipper calls out, 'Haul in the
jib-sheet,' or 'Let go the fore-halliards.' Now sit yourselves down
again and see what is doing. That beacon you can just see right ahead
marks the end of the Whittaker Spit. When we get there we shall drop
anchor till the tide turns. You see we are going across it now; but
when we round that beacon we shall have it dead against us, and the
wind would be too light to take us against it even if it were not from
the quarter it is. You see there are two or three other craft brought
up there."

"Where have they come from do you think, Master Lirriper?"

"Well, they may have come out from Burnham, or they may have come down
from London and be going up to Burnham or to Bricklesey when the tide
turns. There is a large ship anchored in the channel beyond the
Whittaker. Of course she is going up when tide begins to flow. And
there are the masts of two vessels right over there. They are in
another channel. Between us and them there is a line of sands that you
will see will show above the water when it gets a bit lower. That is
the main channel, that is; and vessels coming from the south with a
large draught of water generally use that, while this is the one that
is handiest for ships from the north. Small vessels from the south come
in by a channel a good bit beyond those ships. That is the narrowest of
the three; and even light draught vessels don't use it much unless the
wind is favourable, for there is not much room for them to beat up if
the wind is against them."

"What is to beat up, Master Lirriper?"

"Well, you will see about that presently. I don't think we shall be
able to lay our course beyond the Whittaker. To lay our course means to
steer the way we want to go; and if we can't do that we shall have to
beat, and that is tedious work with a light wind like this."

They dropped anchor off the beacon, and the captain said that this was
the time to take breakfast. The lads already smelt an agreeable odour
arising from the cabin forward, where the boy had been for some time
busily engaged, and soon the whole party were seated on the lockers in
the cabin devouring fried fish.

"Master Chambers," Geoffrey said, "we have got two boiled pullets in
our basket. Had we not better have them for dinner? They were cooked
the evening before we came away, and I should think they had better be
eaten now."

"You had better keep them for yourselves, Master Geoffrey," the skipper
said. "We are accustomed to living on fish, but like enough you would
get tired of it before we got to London."

But this the boys would not hear of, and it was accordingly arranged
that the dinner should be furnished from the contents of the basket.

As soon as tide turned the anchor was hove up and the _Susan_ got under
way again. The boys soon learnt the meaning of the word beating, and
found that it meant sailing backwards and forwards across the channel,
with the wind sometimes on one side of the boat and sometimes on the
other. Geoffrey wanted very much to learn why, when the wind was so
nearly ahead, the boat advanced instead of drifting backwards or
sideways. But this was altogether beyond the power of either Master
Lirriper or Joe Chambers to explain. They said every one knew that when
the sails were full a vessel went in the direction in which her head
pointed. "It's just the same way with yourself, Master Geoffrey. You
see, when you look one way that's the way you go. When you turn your
head and point another way, of course you go off that way; and it's
just the same thing with the ship."

"I don't think it's the same thing, Master Lirriper," Geoffrey said
puzzled. "In one case the power that makes one go comes from the
inside, and so one can go in any direction one likes; in the other it
comes from outside, and you would think the ship would have to go any
way the wind pushes her. If you stand up and I give you a push, I push
you straight away from me. You don't go sideways or come forward in the
direction of my shoulder, which is what the ship does."

John Lirriper took off his cap and scratched his head.

"I suppose it is as you say, Master Geoffrey, though I never thought of
it before. There is some reason, no doubt, why the craft moves up
against the wind so long as the sails are full, instead of drifting
away to leeward; though I never heard tell of it, and never heard
anyone ask before. I daresay a learned man could tell why it is; and if
you ask your good father when you go back I would wager he can explain
it. It always seems to me as if a boat have got some sort of sense,
just like a human being or a horse, and when she knows which way you
wants her to go she goes. That's how it seems to me--ain't it, Joe?"

"Something like that, uncle. Every one knows that a boat's got her
humours, and sometimes she sails better than she does others; and each
boat's got her own fancies. Some does their best when they are beating,
and some are lively in a heavy sea, and seem as if they enjoy it; and
others get sulky, and don't seem to take the trouble to lift their bows
up when a wave meets them; and they groans and complains if the wind is
too hard for them, just like a human being. When you goes to a new
vessel you have got to learn her tricks and her ways and what she will
do, and what she won't do, and just to humour her as you would a child,
I don't say as I think she is actually alive; but every sailor will
tell you that there is something about her that her builders never put
there."

"That's so," John Lirriper agreed. "Look at a boat that is hove up when
her work's done and going to be broken up. Why, anyone can tell her
with half an eye. She looks that forlorn and melancholy that one's
inclined to blubber at the sight of her. She don't look like that at
any other time. When she is hove up she is going to die, and she knows
it."

"But perhaps that's because the paint's off her sides and the ropes all
worn and loose," Geoffrey suggested.

But Master Lirriper waved the suggestion aside as unworthy even of an
answer, and repeated, "She knows it. Anyone can see that with half an
eye."

Geoffrey and Lionel talked the matter over when they were sitting
together on deck apart from the others. It was an age when there were
still many superstitions current in the land. Even the upper classes
believed in witches and warlocks, in charms and spells, in lucky and
unlucky days, in the arts of magic, in the power of the evil eye; and
although to the boys it seemed absurd that a vessel should have life,
they were not prepared altogether to discredit an idea that was
evidently thoroughly believed by those who had been on board ships all
their lives. After talking it over for some time they determined to
submit the question to their father on their return.

It took them two more tides before they were off Sheerness. The wind
was now more favourable, and having increased somewhat in strength, the
_Susan_ made her way briskly along, heeling over till the water ran
along her scuppers. There was plenty to see now, for there were many
fishing-boats at work, some belonging, as Master Chambers told them, to
the Medway, others to the little village of Leigh, whose church they
saw at the top of the hill to their right. They met, too, several large
craft coming down the river, and passed more than one, for the _Susan_
was a fast boat.

"They would beat us," the skipper said when the boys expressed their
surprise at their passing such large vessels, "if the wind were
stronger or the water rough. We are doing our best, and if the wind
rises I shall have to take in sail; while they could carry all theirs
if it blew twice as hard. Then in a sea, weight and power tell; a wave
that would knock the way almost out of us would hardly affect them at
all."

So well did the _Susan_ go along, that before the tide was much more
than half done they passed the little village of Gravesend on their
left, with the strong fort of Tilbury on the opposite shore, with its
guns pointing on the river, and ready to give a good account of any
Spaniard who should venture to sail up the Thames. Then at the end of
the next reach the hamlet of Grays was passed on the right; a mile
further Greenhithe on the left. Tide was getting slack now, but the
_Susan_ managed to get as far as Purfleet, and then dropped her anchor.

"This is our last stopping-place," Joe Chambers said. "The morning tide
will carry us up to London Bridge."

"Then you will not go on with to-night's tide?" Geoffrey asked.

"No; the river gets narrower every mile, and I do not care to take the
risk of navigating it after dark, especially as there is always a great
deal of shipping moored above Greenwich. Tide will begin to run up at
about five o'clock, and by ten we ought to be safely moored alongside
near London Bridge. So we should not gain a great deal by going on this
evening instead of to-morrow morning, and I don't suppose you are in a
particular hurry."

"Oh, no," Lionel said. "We would much rather go on in the morning,
otherwise we should miss everything by the way; and there is the
Queen's Palace at Greenwich that I want to see above all things."

Within a few minutes of the hour the skipper had named for their
arrival, the _Susan_ was moored alongside some vessels lying off one of
the wharves above the Tower. The boys' astonishment had risen with
every mile of their approach to the city, and they were perfectly
astounded at the amount of shipping that they now beheld. The great
proportion were of course coasters, like themselves, but there were
many large vessels among them, and of these fully half were flying
foreign colours. Here were traders from the Netherlands, with the flag
that the Spaniards had in vain endeavoured to lower, flying at their
mast-heads. Here were caravels from Venice and Genoa, laden with goods
from the East. Among the rest Master Chambers pointed out to the lads
the ship in which Sir Francis Drake had circumnavigated the world, and
that in which Captain Stevens had sailed to India, round the Cape of
Good Hope. There were many French vessels also in the Pool, and indeed
almost every flag save that of Spain was represented. Innumerable
wherries darted about among the shipping, and heavier cargo boats
dropped along in more leisurely fashion. Across the river, a quarter of
a mile above the point at which they were lying, stretched London
Bridge, with its narrow arches and the houses projecting beyond it on
their supports of stout timbers. Beyond, on the right, rising high
above the crowded roofs, was the lofty spire of St. Paul's. The boys
were almost awed by this vast assemblage of buildings. That London was
a great city they had known, but they were not prepared for so immense
a difference between it and the place where they had lived all their
lives. Only with the Tower were they somewhat disappointed. It was very
grand and very extensive, but not so much grander than the stately
abode of the Veres as they had looked for.

"I wouldn't change, if I were the earl, with the queen's majesty,"
Geoffrey said. "Of course it is larger than Hedingham, but not so
beautiful, and it is crowded in by the houses, and has not like our
castle a fair look-out on all sides. Why, there can be no hunting or
hawking near here, and I can't think what the nobles can find to do all
day."

"Now, young sirs," Master Lirriper said, "if you will get your wallets
we will go ashore at once."

The boys were quite bewildered as they stepped ashore by the bustle and
confusion. Brawny porters carrying heavy packages on their backs pushed
along unceremoniously, saying from time to time in a mechanical sort of
way, "By your leave, sir!" but pushing on and shouldering passers-by
into the gutter without the smallest compunction. The narrowness and
dinginess of the streets greatly surprised and disappointed the boys,
who found that in these respects even Harwich compared favourably with
the region they were traversing. Presently, however, after passing
through several lanes and alleys, they emerged into a much broader
street, alive with shops. The people who were walking here were for the
most part well dressed and of quiet demeanour, and there was none of
the rough bustle that had prevailed in the river-side lanes.

"This is Eastchepe," their conductor said; "we have not far to go now.
The street in which my friend dwells lies to the right, between this
and Tower Street. I could have taken you a shorter way there, but I
thought that your impressions of London would not be favourable did I
take you all the way through those ill-smelling lanes."

In a quarter of an hour they arrived at their destination, and entered
the shop, which smelt strongly of tar; coils of rope of all sizes were
piled up one upon another by the walls, while on shelves above them
were blocks, lanterns, compasses, and a great variety of gear of whose
use the boys were ignorant. The chandler was standing at his door.

"I am right glad to see you, Master Lirriper," he said, "and have been
expecting you for the last two or three days. My wife would have it
that some evil must have befallen you; but you know what women are.
They make little allowance for time or tide or distance, but expect
that every one can so arrange his journeys as to arrive at the very
moment when they begin to expect him. But who have you here with you?"

"These are the sons of the worshipful Mr. Vickars, the rector of our
parish, and tutor to the Earl of Oxford and several of the young Veres,
his cousins--a wise gentleman and a kind one, and much loved among us.
He has entrusted his two sons to me that I might show them somewhat of
this city of yours. I said that I was right sure that you and your good
dame would let them occupy the chamber you intended for me, while I can
make good shift on board the _Susan_."

"Nay, nay, Master Lirriper; our house is big enough to take in you and
these two young masters, and Dorothy would deem it a slight indeed upon
her hospitality were you not to take up your abode here too. You will
be heartily welcome, young sirs, and though such accommodation as we
can give you will not be equal to that which you are accustomed to, I
warrant me that you will find it a pleasant change after that poky
little cabin on board the _Susan_. I know it well, for I supply her
with stores, and have often wondered how men could accustom themselves
to pass their lives in places where there is scarce room to turn, to
say nothing of the smell of fish that always hangs about it. But if you
will follow me I will take you up to my good dame, to whose care I must
commit you for the present, as my foreman, John Watkins, is down by the
riverside seeing to the proper delivery of divers stores on board a
ship which sails with the next tide for Holland. My apprentices, too,
are both out, as I must own is their wont. They always make excuses to
slip down to the river-side when there is aught doing, and I am far too
easy with the varlets. So at present, you see, I cannot long leave my
shop."

So saying the chandler preceded them up a wide staircase that led from
a passage behind the shop, and the boys perceived that the house was
far more roomy and comfortable than they had judged from its outward
appearance. Turning to the left when he reached the top of the stairs
the chandler opened a door.

"Dorothy," he said, "here is your kinsman, Master Lirriper, who has
suffered none of the misadventures you have been picturing to yourself
for the last two days, and he has brought with him these young
gentlemen, sons of the rector of Hedingham, to show them something of
London."

"You are welcome, young gentlemen," Dame Dorothy said, "though why
anyone should come to London when he can stay away from it I know not."

"Why, Dorothy, you are always running down our city, though I know
right well that were I to move down with you to your native Essex again
you would very soon cry out for the pleasures of the town."

"That would I not," she said. "I would be well contented to live in
fresh country air all the rest of my life, though I do not say that
London has not its share of pleasures also, though I care but little
for them."

"Ah, Master Lirriper," her husband said laughing, "you would not think,
to hear her talk, that there is not a feast or a show that Dorothy
would stay away from. She never misses an opportunity, I warrant you,
of showing herself off in her last new kirtle and gown. But I must be
going down; there is no one below, and if a customer comes and finds
the shop empty he will have but a poor idea of me, and will think that
I am away gossiping instead of attending to my business."

"Are you hungry, young sirs?" the dame asked. "Because if so the maid
shall bring up a manchet of bread and a cup of sack; if not, our
evening meal will be served in the course of an hour."

The boys both said that they were perfectly able to wait until the meal
came; and Geoffrey added, "If you will allow us, mistress, as doubtless
you have private matters to talk of with Master Lirriper, my brother
and I will walk out for an hour to see something of the town."

"Mind that you lose not your way," Master Lirriper said. "Do not go
beyond Eastchepe, I beg you. There are the shops to look at there, and
the fashions of dress and other matters that will occupy your attention
well enough for that short time. To-morrow morning I will myself go
with you, and we can then wander further abroad. I have promised your
good father to look after you, you know; and it will be but a bad
beginning if you meet with any untoward adventure upon this the first
day of your arrival here."

"We will not go beyond the limits of Eastchepe; and as to adventures, I
can't see very well how any can befall us."

"Oh, there are plenty of adventures to be met with in London, young
sir; and I shall be well content if on the day when we again embark on
board the _Susan_ none of them have fallen to your share."

The two lads accordingly sallied out and amused themselves greatly by
staring at the goods exhibited in the open shops. They were less
surprised at the richness and variety of the silver work, at the silks
from the East, the costly satins, and other stuffs, than most boys from
the country would have been, for they were accustomed to the splendour
and magnificence displayed by the various noble guests at the castle,
and saw nothing here that surpassed the brilliant shows made at the
jousting and entertainments at Hedingham.

It was the scene that was novel to them: the shouts of the apprentices
inviting attention to their employers' wares, the crowd that filled the
street, consisting for the most part of the citizens themselves, but
varied by nobles and knights of the court, by foreigners from many
lands, by soldiers and men-at-arms from the Tower, by countrymen and
sailors. Their amusement was sometimes turned into anger by the
flippant remarks of the apprentices; these varlets, perceiving easily
enough by the manner of their attire that they were from the country,
were not slow, if their master happened for the moment to be absent, in
indulging in remarks that set Geoffrey and Lionel into a fever to
commit a breach of the peace. The "What do you lack, masters?" with
which they generally addressed passers-by would be exchanged for
remarks such as, "Do not trouble the young gentlemen, Nat. Do you not
see they are up in the town looking for some of their master's calves?"
or, "Look you, Philip, here are two rustics who have come up to town to
learn manners."

"I quite see, Geoffrey," Lionel said, taking his brother by the arm and
half dragging him away as he saw that he was clenching his fist and
preparing to avenge summarily one of these insults even more pointed
than usual, "that Master Lirriper was not very far out, and there is no
difficulty in meeting with adventures in the streets of London.
However, we must not give him occasion on this our first stroll in the
streets to say that we cannot be trusted out of his sight. If we were
to try to punish these insolent varlets we should have them upon us
like a swarm of bees, and should doubtless get worsted in the
encounter, and might even find ourselves hauled off to the lock-up, and
that would be a nice tale for Master Lirriper to carry back to
Hedingham."

"That is true enough, Lionel; but it is not easy to keep one's temper
when one is thus tried. I know not how it is they see so readily that
we are strangers, for surely we have mixed enough with the earl's
family and friends to have rubbed off the awkwardness that they say is
common to country folk; and as to our dress, I do not see much
difference between its fashion and that of other people. I suppose it
is because we look interested in what is going on, instead of strolling
along like those two youths opposite with our noses in the air, as if
we regarded the city and its belongings as infinitely below our regard.
Well, I think we had best be turning back to Master Swindon's; it will
not do to be late for our meal."

"Well, young sirs, what do you think of our shops?" Dame Swindon asked
as they entered.

"The shops are well enough," Geoffrey replied; "but your apprentices
seem to me to be an insolent set of jackanapes, who take strange
liberties with passers-by, and who would be all the better for
chastisement. If it hadn't been that Lionel and I did not wish to
become engaged in a brawl, we should have given some of them lessons in
manners."

"They are free in speech," Dame Swindon said, "and are an impudent set
of varlets. They have quick eyes and ready tongues, and are no
respecters of persons save of their masters and of citizens in a
position to lay complaints against them and to secure them punishment.
They hold together greatly, and it is as well that you should not
become engaged in a quarrel with them. At times they have raised
serious tumults, and have even set not only the watch but the citizens
at large at defiance. Strong measures have been several times taken
against them; but they are a powerful body, seeing that in every shop
there are one or more of them, and they can turn out with their clubs
many thousand strong. They have what they call their privileges, and
are as ready to defend them as are the citizens of London to uphold
their liberties. Ordinances have been passed many times by the fathers
of the city, regulating their conduct and the hours at which they may
be abroad and the carrying of clubs and matters of this kind, but the
apprentices seldom regard them, and if the watch arrest one for a
breach of regulations, he raises a cry, and in two or three minutes a
swarm of them collect and rescue the offender from his hands. Therefore
it is seldom that the watch interferes with them."

"It would almost seem then that the apprentices are in fact the
masters," Geoffrey said.

"Not quite as bad as that," Master Swindon replied. "There are the
rules which they have to obey when at home, and if not they get a
whipping; but it is difficult to keep a hand over them when they are
abroad. After the shops are closed and the supper over they have from
time immemorial the right to go out for two hours' exercise. They are
supposed to go and shoot at the butts; but archery, I grieve to say, is
falling into disrepute, and although many still go to the butts the
practice is no longer universal. But here is supper."

Few words were spoken during the meal. The foreman and the two
apprentices came up and sat down with the family, and it was not until
these had retired that the conversation was again resumed.

"Where are you going to take them to-morrow, Master Lirriper?"

"To-morrow we will see the city, the shops in Chepe, the Guildhall, and
St. Paul's, then we shall issue out from Temple Bar and walk along the
Strand through the country to Westminster and see the great abbey, then
perhaps take a boat back. The next day, if the weather be fine, we will
row up to Richmond and see the palace there, and I hope you will go
with us, Mistress Dorothy; it is a pleasant promenade and a
fashionable, and methinks the river with its boats is after all the
prettiest sight in London."

"Ah, you think there can be nothing pretty without water. That is all
very well for one who is ever afloat, Master Lirriper; but give me
Chepe at high noon with all its bravery of dress, and the bright shops,
and the gallants of the court, and our own citizens too, who if not
quite so gay in colour are proper men, better looking to my mind than
some of the fops with their silver and satins."

"That's right, Dorothy," her husband said; "spoken like the wife of a
citizen."

All these plans were destined to be frustrated. As soon as breakfast
was over the next morning Master Lirriper started with the two boys,
and they had but just entered Chepe-side when they saw two young men
approaching.

"Why, Lionel, here is Francis Vere!" Geoffrey exclaimed. "I thought he
was across in Holland with the Earl of Leicester." They doffed their
caps. Captain Vere, for such was now his rank, looked at them in
surprise.

"Why!" he exclaimed, "here are Mr. Vickars' two sons. How came you
here, lads? Have you run away from home to see the wonders of London,
or to list as volunteers for the campaigns against the Dons?"

"I wish we were, Mr. Francis," Geoffrey said. "You promised when you
were at Hedingham a year and a half since that you would some day take
us to the wars with you, and our father, seeing that neither of us have
a mind to enter the church, has quite consented that we shall become
soldiers, the more so as there is a prospect of fighting for the
persecuted Protestants of Holland. And oh, Mr. Francis, could it be
now? You know we daily exercise with arms at the castle, and we are
both strong and sturdy for our age, and believe me you should not see
us flinch before the Spaniards however many of them there were."

"Tut, tut!" Captain Vere laughed. "Here are young cockerels, Allen;
what think you of these for soldiers to stand against the Spanish
pikemen?"

"There are many of the volunteers who are not very much older than they
are," Captain Allen replied. "There are two in my company who must be
between seventeen and eighteen."

"Ah! but these boys are three years younger than that."

"Would you not take us as your pages, Mr. Francis?" Lionel urged. "We
would do faithful service, and then when we come to the age that you
could enter us as volunteers we should already have learnt a little of
war."

"Well, well, I cannot stop to talk to you now, for I am on my way to
the Tower on business. I am only over from Holland for a day or two
with despatches from the Earl to Her Majesty's Council, and am lodging
at Westminster in a house that faces the abbey. It is one of my cousin
Edward's houses, and you will see the Vere cognizance over the door.
Call there at one hour after noon, and I will have a talk with you; but
do not buoy yourselves up with hopes as to your going with me." So
saying, with a friendly nod of his head Francis Vere continued his way
eastward.

"What think you, Allen?" he asked his comrade as they went along. "I
should like to take the lads with me if I could. Their father, who is
the rector of Hedingham, taught my cousin Edward as well as my brothers
and myself. I saw a good deal of the boys when I was at home. They are
sturdy young fellows, and used to practise daily, as we did at their
age, with the men-at-arms at the castle, and can use their weapons. A
couple of years of apprenticeship would be good schooling for them. One
cannot begin to learn the art of war too young, and it is because we
have all been so ignorant of it that our volunteers in Holland have not
done better."

"I think, Vere, that they are too young yet to be enlisted as
volunteers, although in another two years, perhaps, you might admit the
elder of the two. But I see no reason why, if you are so inclined, you
should not take them with you as pages. Each company has its pages and
boys, and you might take these two for the special service of yourself
and your officers. They would then be on pretty well the same footing
as the five gentlemen volunteers you have already with you, and would
be distinct from the lads who have entered as pages to the company. I
suppose that you have not yet your full number of boys?"

"No; there are fifteen boys allowed, one to each ten men, and I am
several short of this number, and have already written my brother John
to get six sturdy lads from among our own tenantry and to send them
over in the first ship from Harwich. Yes, I will take these lads with
me. I like their spirit, and we are all fond of their father, who is a
very kindly as well as learned man."

"I don't suppose he will thank you greatly, Francis," Captain Allen
laughed.

"His goodwife is more likely to be vexed than he is," Captain Vere
said, "for it will give him all the more time for the studies in which
he is wrapped up. Besides, it will be a real service to the boys. It
will shorten their probation as volunteers, and they may get
commissions much earlier than they otherwise would do. We are all mere
children in the art of war; for truly before Roger Morgan first took
out his volunteers to fight for the Dutch there was scarce a man in
England who knew how to range a company in order. You and I learned
somewhat of our business in Poland, and some of our leaders have also
had a few lessons in the art of war in foreign countries, but most of
our officers are altogether new to the work. However, we have good
masters, and I trust these Spaniards may teach us how to beat them in
time; but at present, as I said, we are all going to school, and the
earlier one begins at school the sooner one learns its lessons.
Besides, we must have pages, and it will be more pleasant for me having
lads who belong in a sort of way to our family, and to whom, if I am
disposed, I can talk of people at home. They are high-spirited and full
of fun, and I should like to have them about me. But here we are at the
Tower. We shall not be long, I hope, over the list of arms and
munitions that the earl has sent for. When we have done we will take
boat back to Westminster. Half an hour will take us there, as the tide
will be with us."




CHAPTER III.

IN THE LOW COUNTRY.


Master Lirriper had stood apart while the boys were conversing with
Francis Vere.

"What do you think, Master Lirriper?" Geoffrey exclaimed as they joined
him. "We have asked Mr. Vere to take us with him as pages to the war in
the Low Country, and though he said we were not to be hopeful about his
reply, I do think he will take us. We are to go round to Westminster at
one o'clock to see him again. What do you think of that?"

"I don't know what to think, Master Geoffrey. It takes me all by
surprise, and I don't know how I stand in the matter. You see, your
father gave you into my charge, and what could I say to him if I went
back empty-handed?"

"But, you see, it is with Francis Vere," Geoffrey said. "If it had been
with anyone else it would be different. But the Veres are his patrons,
and he looks upon the earl, and Mr. Francis and his brothers, almost as
he does on us; and, you know, he has already consented to our entering
the army some day. Besides, he can't blame you; because, of course, Mr.
Vere will write to him himself and say that he has taken us, and so you
can't be blamed in the matter. My father would know well enough that
you could not withstand the wishes of one of the Veres, who are lords
of Hedingham and all the country round."

"I should withstand them if I thought they were wrong," the boatman
said sturdily, "and if I were sure that your father would object to
your going; but that is what I am not sure. He may think it the best
thing for you to begin early under the protection of Master Francis,
and again he may think you a great deal too young for such wild work.
He has certainly always let you have pretty much your own way, and has
allowed you to come and go as you like, but this is a different
business altogether. I am sorely bested as to what I ought to do."

"Well, nothing is settled yet, Master Lirriper; and, besides, I don't
see that you can help yourself in the matter, and if Mr. Vere says he
will take us I suppose you can't carry us off by force."

"It is Mistress Vickars that I am thinking of more than your father.
The vicar is an easy-going gentleman, but Mistress Vickars speaks her
mind, and I expect she will be in a terrible taking over it, and will
rate me soundly; though, as you say, I do not see how I can help myself
in the matter. Well now, let us look at the shops and at the Guildhall,
and then we will make our way down to Westminster as we had proposed to
do and see the abbey; by that time it will be near the hour at which
you are to call upon Mr. Vere."

But the sights that the boys had been so longing to see had for the
time lost their interest in their eyes. The idea that it was possible
that Mr. Vere would take them with him to fight against the cruel
oppressors of the Low Country was so absorbing that they could think of
nothing else. Even the wonders of the Guildhall and St. Paul's received
but scant attention, and the armourers' shops, in which they had a new
and lively interest, alone sufficed to detain them. Even the gibes of
the apprentices fell dead upon their ears. These varlets might laugh,
but what would they say if they knew that they were going to fight the
Spaniards. The thought so altered them that they felt almost a feeling
of pity for these lads, condemned to stay at home and mind their
masters' shops.

As to John Lirriper, he was sorely troubled in his mind, and divided
between what he considered his duty to the vicar and his life-long
respect and reverence towards the lords of Hedingham. The feudal system
was extinct, but feudal ideas still lingered among the people. Their
lords could no longer summon them to take the field, had no longer
power almost of life and death over them, but they were still their
lords, and regarded with the highest respect and reverence. The earls
of Oxford were, in the eyes of the people of those parts of Essex where
their estates lay, personages of greater importance than the queen
herself, of whose power and attributes they had but a very dim notion.
It was not so very long since people had risen in rebellion against the
queen, but such an idea as that of rising against their lords had never
entered the mind of a single inhabitant of Hedingham.

However, Master Lirriper came to the conclusion that he was, as
Geoffrey had said, powerless to interfere. If Mr. Francis Vere decided
to take the boys with him, what could he do to prevent it? He could
hardly take them forcibly down to the boat against their will, and even
could he do so their father might not approve, and doubtless the earl,
when he came to hear of it, would be seriously angry at this act of
defiance of his kinsman. Still, he was sure that he should have a very
unpleasant time with Mistress Vickars. But, as he reassured himself, it
was, after all, better to put up with a woman's scolding than to bear
the displeasure of the Earl of Oxford, who could turn him out of his
house, ruin his business, and drive him from Hedingham. After all, it
was natural that these lads should like to embark on this adventure
with Mr. Francis Vere, and it would doubtless be to their interest to
be thus closely connected with him. At any rate, if it was to be it
was, and he, John Lirriper, could do nothing to prevent it. Having
arrived at this conclusion he decided to make the best of it, and began
to chat cheerfully with the boys.

Precisely at the appointed hour John Lirriper arrived with the two lads
at the entrance to the house facing the abbey. Two or three servitors,
whose doublets were embroidered with the cognizance of the Veres, were
standing in front of the door.

"Why, it is Master Lirriper!" one of them said. "Why, what has brought
you here? I did not know that your trips often extended to London."

"Nor do they," John Lirriper said. "It was the wind and my nephew's
craft the _Susan_ that brought me to London, and it is the will of Mr.
Francis that these two young gentlemen should meet him here at one
o'clock that has brought me to this door."

"Captain Francis is in; for, you know, he is a captain now, having been
lately appointed to a company in the Earl of Leicester's army. He
returned an hour since, and has but now finished his meal. Do you wish
to go up with these young masters, or shall I conduct them to him?"

"You had best do that," John Lirriper answered. "I will remain here
below if Captain Francis desires to see me or has any missive to
intrust to me."

The boys followed the servant upstairs, and were shown into a room
where Francis Vere, his cousin the Earl of Oxford, and Captain Allen
were seated at table.

"Well, lads," the earl said, "so you want to follow my cousin Francis
to the wars?"

"That is our wish, my lord, if Captain Francis will be so good as to
take us with him."

"And what will my good tutor your father say to it?" the earl asked
smiling.

"I think, my lord," Geoffrey said boldly, "that if you yourself will
tell my father you think it is for our good, he will say naught against
it."

"Oh, you want to throw the responsibility upon me, and to embroil me
with your father and Mistress Vickars as an abettor of my cousin
Francis in the kidnapping of children? Well, Francis, you had better
explain to them what their duties will be if they go with you."

"You will be my pages," Francis Vere said, "and will perform the usual
duties of pages in good families when in the field. It is the duty of
pages to aid in collecting firewood and forage, and in all other ways
to make themselves useful. You will bear the same sort of relation to
the gentlemen volunteers as they do towards the officers. They are
aspirants for commissions as officers as you will be to become
gentlemen volunteers. You must not think that your duties will be
light, for they will not, and you will have to bear many discomforts
and hardships. But you will be in an altogether different position from
that of the boys who are the pages of the company. You will, apart from
your duties, and bearing in mind the difference of your age, associate
with the officers and the gentlemen volunteers on terms of equality
when not engaged upon duty. On duty you will have to render the same
strict and unquestionable obedience that all soldiers pay to those of
superior rank. What say you? Are you still anxious to go? Because, if
so, I have decided to take you."

Geoffrey and Lionel both expressed their thanks in proper terms, and
their earnest desire to accompany Captain Vere, and to behave in all
ways conformably to his orders and instructions.

"Very well, that is settled," Francis Vere said. "The earl is
journeying down to Hedingham to-morrow, and has kindly promised to take
charge of a letter from me to your father, and personally to assure him
that this early embarkation upon military life would prove greatly to
your advantage."

"Supposing that you are not killed by the Spaniards or carried off by
fever," the earl put in; "for although possibly that might be an
advantage to humanity in general, it could scarcely be considered one
to you personally."

"We are ready to take our risk of that, my lord," Geoffrey said; "and
are indeed greatly beholden both to Captain Francis for his goodness in
taking us with him, and to yourself in kindly undertaking the mission
of reconciling our father to our departure."

"You have not told me yet how it is that I find you in London?" Francis
Vere said.

"We only came up for a week, sir, to see the town. We are in charge of
Master Lirriper, who owns a barge on the river, and plies between
Hedingham and Bricklesey, but who was coming up to London in a craft
belonging to his nephew, and who took charge of us. We are staying at
the house of Master Swindon, a citizen and ship-chandler."

"Is Master Lirriper below?"

"He is, sir."

"Then in that case he had better go back to the house and bring your
mails here. I shall sail from Deptford the day after to-morrow with the
turn of tide. You had best remain here now. There will be many things
necessary for you to get before you start. I will give instructions to
one of my men-at-arms to go with you to purchase them."

"I will take their outfit upon myself, Francis," the earl said. "My
steward shall go out with them and see to it. It is the least I can do
when I am abetting you in depriving my old tutor of his sons." He
touched a bell and a servitor entered. "See that these young gentlemen
are fed and attended to. They will remain here for the night. Tell
Master Dotterell to come hither to me."

The boys bowed deeply and retired.

"It is all settled, Master Lirriper," they said when they reached the
hall below. "We are to sail with Captain Francis the day after
to-morrow, and you will be pleased to hear that the earl himself has
taken charge of the matter, and will see our father and communicate the
news to him."

"That is a comfort indeed," John Lirriper said fervently; "for I would
most as soon have had to tell him that the _Susan_ had gone down and
that you were both drowned, as that I had let you both slip away to the
wars when he had given you into my charge. But if the earl takes the
matter in hand I do not think that even your lady mother can bear very
heavily on me. And now, what is going to be done?"

"We are to remain here in order that suitable clothes may be obtained
for us by the time we sail. Will you bring down to-morrow morning our
wallets from Master Swindon's, and thank him and his good dame for
their hospitality, and say that we are sorry to leave them thus
suddenly without having an opportunity of thanking them ourselves? We
will write letters to-night to our father and mother, and give them to
you to take with you when you return."

John Lirriper at once took his departure, greatly relieved in mind to
find that the earl himself had taken the responsibility upon his
shoulders, and would break the news long before he himself reached
Hedingham. A few minutes later a servitor conducted the boys to an
apartment where a meal was laid for them; and as soon as this was over
they were joined by the steward, who requested them to set out with him
at once, as there were many things to be done and but short time for
doing them. No difficulty in the way of time was, however, thrown in
the way by the various tradesmen they visited, these being all
perfectly ready to put themselves to inconvenience to do pleasure to so
valuable a patron as the powerful Earl of Oxford.

Three suits of clothes were ordered for each of them: the one such as
that worn by pages in noble families upon ordinary occasions, another
of a much richer kind for special ceremonies and gaieties, the third a
strong, serviceable suit for use when actually in the field. Then they
were taken to an armourer's where each was provided with a light morion
or headpiece, breast-plate and backpiece, sword and dagger. A
sufficient supply of under garments, boots, and other necessaries were
also purchased; and when all was complete they returned highly
delighted to the house. It was still scarce five o'clock, and they went
across to the abbey and wandered for some time through its aisles,
greatly impressed with its dignity and beauty now that their own
affairs were off their mind.

They returned to the house again, and after supper wrote their letters
to their father and mother, saying that they hoped they would not be
displeased at the step they had taken, and which they would not have
ventured upon had they not already obtained their father's consent to
their entering the army. They knew, of course, that he had not
contemplated their doing so for some little time; but as so excellent
an opportunity had offered, and above all, as they were going out to
fight against the Spaniards for the oppressed people of the Low
Countries, they hoped their parents would approve of the steps they had
taken, not having had time or opportunity to consult them.

At noon two days later Francis Vere with Captain Allen and the two boys
took their seats in the stern of a skiff manned by six rowers. In the
bow were the servitors of the two officers, and the luggage was stowed
in the extreme stern.

"The tide is getting slack, is it not?" Captain Vere asked the boatmen.

"Yes, sir; it will not run up much longer. It will be pretty well
slack-water by the time we get to the bridge."

Keeping close to the bank the boat proceeded at a rapid pace. Several
times the two young officers stood up and exchanged salutations with
ladies or gentlemen of their acquaintance. As the boatman had
anticipated, tide was slack by the time they arrived at London Bridge,
and they now steered out into the middle of the river.

"Give way, lads," Captain Allen said. "We told the captain we would not
keep him waiting long after high-water, and he will be getting
impatient if he does not see us before long."

As they shot past the _Susan_ the boys waved their hands to Master
Lirriper, who, after coming down in the morning and receiving their
letters for their parents, had returned at once to the city and had
taken his place on board the _Susan_, so as to be able to tell their
father that he had seen the last of them. The distance between London
Bridge and Deptford was traversed in a very short time. A vessel with
her flags flying and her canvas already loosened was hanging to a buoy
some distance out in the stream, and as the boat came near enough for
the captain to distinguish those on board, the mooring-rope was
slipped, the head sails flattened in, and the vessel began to swing
round. Before her head was down stream the boat was alongside. The two
officers followed by the boys ascended the ladder by the side. The
luggage was quickly handed up, and the servitors followed. The sails
were sheeted home, and the vessel began to move rapidly through the
water.

The boys had thought the _Susan_ an imposing craft, but they were
surprised, indeed, at the space on board the _Dover Castle_. In the
stern there was a lofty poop with spacious cabins. Six guns were ranged
along on each side of the deck, and when the sails were got up they
seemed so vast to the boys that they felt a sense of littleness on
board the great craft. They had been relieved to find that Captain Vere
had his own servitor with him; for in talking it over they had mutually
expressed their doubt as to their ability to render such service as
Captain Vere would be accustomed to.

The wind was from the south-west, and the vessel was off Sheerness
before the tide turned. There was, however, no occasion to anchor, for
the wind was strong enough to take them against the flood.

During the voyage they had no duties to perform. The ship's cook
prepared the meals, and the officers' servants waited on them, the lads
taking their meals with the two officers. Their destination was
Bergen-op-Zoom, a town at the mouth of the Scheldt, of the garrison of
which the companies of both Francis Vere and Captain Allen formed part.

As soon as the low coasts of Holland came in sight the boys watched
them with the most lively interest.

"We are passing Sluys now," Captain Vere said. "The land almost ahead
of us is Walcheren; and that spire belongs to Flushing. We could go
outside and up the channel between the island and Beveland, and then up
the Eastern Scheldt to Bergen-op-Zoom; but instead of that we shall
follow the western channel, which is more direct."

"It is as flat as our Essex coast," Geoffrey remarked.

"Aye, and flatter; for the greater part of the land lies below the
level of the sea, which is only kept out by great dams and dykes. At
times when the rivers are high and the wind keeps back their waters
they burst the dams and spread over a vast extent of country. The
Zuider-Zee was so formed in 1170 and 1395, and covers a tract as large
as the whole county of Essex. Twenty-six years later the river Maas
broke its banks and flooded a wide district. Seventy-two villages were
destroyed and 100,000 people lost their life. The lands have never been
recovered; and where a fertile country once stood is now a mere swamp."

"I shouldn't like living there," Lionel said. "It would be terrible,
every time the rivers are full and the wind blows, to think that at any
moment the banks may burst and the Hood come rushing over you."

"It is all habit," Captain Vere replied; "I don't suppose they trouble
themselves about it. But they are very particular in keeping their
dykes in good repair. The water is one of the great defences of their
country. In the first place there are innumerable streams to be crossed
by an invader, and in the second, they can as a last resource cut the
dykes and flood the country. These Dutchmen, as far as I have seen of
them, are hard-working and industrious people, steady and patient, and
resolved to defend their independence to the last. This they have
indeed proved by the wonderful resistance they have made against the
power of Spain. There, you see the ship's head has been turned and we
shall before long be in the channel. Sluys lies up that channel on the
right. It is an important place. Large vessels can go no further, but
are unloaded there and the cargoes taken to Bruges and thence
distributed to many other towns. They say that in 1468 as many as a
hundred and fifty ships a day arrived at Sluys. That gives you an idea
of the trade that the Netherlands carry on. The commerce of this one
town was as great as is that of London at the present time. But since
the troubles the trade of Sluys has fallen off a good deal."

The ship had to anchor here for two or three hours until the tide
turned, for the wind had fallen very light and they could not make head
against the ebb. As soon as it turned they again proceeded on their
way, dropping quietly up with the tide. The boys climbed up into the
tops, and thence could see a wide extent of country dotted with
villages stretching beyond the banks, which restricted their view from
the decks. In five hours Bergen-op-Zoom came in sight, and they
presently dropped anchor opposite the town. The boat was lowered, and
the two officers with the lads were rowed ashore. They were met as they
landed by several young officers.

"Welcome back, Vere; welcome, Allen. You have been lucky indeed in
having a few days in England, and getting a view of something besides
this dreary flat country and its sluggish rivers. What is the last news
from London?"

"There is little news enough," Vere replied. "We were only four days in
London, and were busy all the time. And how are things here? Now that
summer is at hand and the country drying the Dons ought to be
bestirring themselves."

"They say that they are doing so," the officer replied. "We have news
that the Duke of Parma is assembling his army at Bruges, where he is
collecting the pick of the Spanish infantry with a number of Italian
regiments which have joined him. He sent off the Marquess Del Vasto
with the Sieur De Hautepenne towards Bois-le-Duc. General Count
Hohenlohe, who, as you know, we English always call Count Holland, went
off with a large force to meet him, and we heard only this morning that
a battle has been fought, Hautepenne killed, and the fort of Crevecoeur
on the Maas captured. From what I hear, some of our leaders think that
it was a mistake so to scatter our forces, and if Parma moves forward
from Bruges against Sluys, which is likely enough, we shall be sorely
put to it to save the place."

As they were talking they proceeded into the town, and presently
reached the house where Francis Vere had his quarters. The officers and
gentlemen volunteers of his company soon assembled, and Captain Vere
introduced the two boys to them.

"They are young gentlemen of good family," he said, "who will act as my
pages until they are old enough to be enrolled as gentlemen volunteers.
I commend them to your good offices. Their father is a learned and
reverend gentleman who was my tutor, and also tutor to my cousin, the
Earl of Oxford, by whom he is greatly valued. They are lads of spirit,
and have been instructed in the use of arms at Hedingham as if they had
been members of our family, I am sure, gentlemen volunteers, that you
will receive them as friends. I propose that they shall take their
meals with you, but of course they will lodge here with me and my
officers; but as you are in the next house this will cause no
inconvenience. I trust that we shall not remain here long, but shall
soon be on the move. We have now been here seven months, and it is high
time we were doing something. We didn't bargain to come over here and
settle down for life in a dull Dutch town."

In a few hours the boys found themselves quite at home in their new
quarters. The gentlemen volunteers received them cordially, and they
found that for the present their duties would be extremely light,
consisting chiefly in carrying messages and orders; for as the officers
had all servants of their own, Captain Vere dispensed with their
attendance at meals. There was much to amuse and interest them in
Bergen-op-Zoom. It reminded them to some extent of Harwich, with its
narrow streets and quaint houses; but the fortifications were far
stronger, and the number of churches struck them as prodigious. The
population differed in no very large degree in dress from that of
England, but the people struck them as being slower and more deliberate
in their motions. The women's costumes differed much more widely from
those to which they were accustomed, and their strange and varied
head-dresses, their bright-coloured handkerchiefs, and the amount of
gold necklaces and bracelets that they wore, struck them with surprise.

Their stay in Bergen-op-Zoom was even shorter than they had
anticipated, for three days after their arrival a boat came with a
letter from Sir William Russell, the governor at Flushing. He said that
he had just received an urgent letter from the Dutch governor of Sluys,
saying that Parma's army was advancing from Bruges towards the city,
and had seized and garrisoned the fort of Blankenburg on the sea-coast
to prevent reinforcements arriving from Ostend; he therefore prayed the
governor of Flushing to send off troops and provisions with all haste
to enable him to resist the attack. Sir William requested that the
governor of Bergen-op-Zoom would at once embark the greater portion of
his force on board ship and send them to Sluys. He himself was having a
vessel filled with grain for the use of the inhabitants, and was also
sending every man he could spare from Flushing.

In a few minutes all was bustle in the town. The trumpets of the
various companies called the soldiers to arms, and in a very short time
the troops were on their way towards the river. Here several ships had
been requisitioned for the service; and as the companies marched down
they were conducted to the ships to which they were allotted by the
quarter-masters. Geoffrey and Lionel felt no small pride as they
marched down with their troop. They had for the first time donned their
steel-caps, breast and back pieces; but this was rather for convenience
of carriage than for any present utility. They had at Captain Vere's
orders left their ordinary clothes behind them, and were now attired in
thick serviceable jerkins, with skirts coming down nearly to the knee,
like those worn by the troops. They marched at the rear of the company,
the other pages, similarly attired, following them.

As soon as the troops were on board ship, sail was made, and the
vessels dropped down the stream. The wind was very light, and it was
not until thirty hours after starting that the little fleet arrived off
Sluys. The town, which was nearly egg-shaped, lay close to the river,
which was called the Zwin. At the eastern end, in the centre of a
detached piece of water, stood the castle, connected with the town by a
bridge of boats.

The Zwin formed the defence on the north side, while the south and west
were covered by a very wide moat along the centre of which ran a dyke,
dividing it into two channels. On the west side this moat extended to
the Zwin, and was crossed at the point of junction by the bridge
leading to the west gate. The walls inclosed a considerable space,
containing fields and gardens. Seven windmills stood on the ramparts.
The tower of the town-hall, and those of the churches of Our Lady, St.
John, and the Grey Friars rose high above the town.

The ships from Flushing and Bergen-op-Zoom sailed up together, and the
800 men who landed were received with immense enthusiasm by the
inhabitants, who were Protestants, and devoted to the cause of
independence. The English were under the command of Sir Roger Williams,
who had already seen so many years of service in the Low Countries; and
under him were Morgan, Thomas Baskerville, and Huntley, who had long
served with him.

Roger Williams was an admirable man for service of this kind. He had
distinguished himself by many deeds of reckless bravery. He possessed
an inexhaustible fund of confidence and high spirits, and in his
company it was impossible to feel despondent, however desperate the
situation.

The citizens placed their houses at the disposal of their new allies,
handsome quarters were allotted to the officers, and the soldiers were
all housed in private dwellings or the warehouses of the merchants. The
inhabitants had already for some days been working hard at their
defences, and the English at once joined them in their labours,
strengthening the weak portions of the walls, mounting cannon upon the
towers, and preparing in all ways to give a warm reception to the
Spaniards.

Captain Vere, his lieutenant and ensign and his two pages, were
quartered in the house of a wealthy merchant, whose family did all in
their power to make them comfortable. It was a grand old house, and the
boys, accustomed as they were to the splendours of Hedingham Castle,
agreed that the simple merchants of the Low Countries were far in
advance of English nobles in the comforts and conveniences of their
dwellings. The walls of the rooms were all heavily panelled; rich
curtains hung before the casements. The furniture was not only richly
carved, but comfortable. Heavy hangings before the doors excluded
draughts, and in the principal apartments Eastern carpets covered the
floors. The meals were served on spotless white linen. Rich plate stood
on the sideboard, and gold and silver vessels of rare carved work from
Italy glittered in the armoires.

Above all, from top to bottom, the house was scrupulously clean. Not a
particle of dust dimmed the brightness of the furniture, and even now,
when the city was threatened with siege, the merchant's wife never
relaxed her vigilance over the doings of her maids, who seemed to the
boys to be perpetually engaged in scrubbing, dusting, and polishing.

"Our mother prides herself on the neatness of her house," Geoffrey
said; "but what would she say, I wonder, were she to see one of these
Dutch households? I fear that the maids would have a hard time of it
afterwards, and our father would be fairly driven out of his library."

"It is all very well to be clean," Lionel said; "but I think they carry
it too far here. Peace and quietness count for something, and it
doesn't seem to me that Dutchmen, fond of it as they say they are, know
even the meaning of the words as far as their homes are concerned. Why,
it always seems to be cleaning day, and they must be afraid of going
into their own houses with their boots on!"

"Yes, I felt quite like a criminal to-day," Geoffrey laughed, "when I
came in muddy up to the waist, after working down there by the sluices.
I believe when the Spaniards open fire these people will be more
distracted by the dust caused by falling tiles and chimneys than by any
danger of their lives."

Great difficulties beset the Duke of Parma at the commencement of the
siege. Sluys was built upon the only piece of solid ground in the
district, and it was surrounded by such a labyrinth of canals, ditches,
and swamps, that it was said that it was almost as difficult to find
Sluys as it was to capture it. Consequently, it was impossible to find
ground solid enough for a camp to be pitched upon, and the first labour
was the erection of wooden huts for the troops upon piles driven into
the ground. These huts were protected from the fire of the defenders by
bags of earth brought in boats from a long distance. The main point
selected for the attack was the western gate; but batteries were also
placed to play upon the castle and the bridge of boats connecting it
with the town.

"There is one advantage in their determining to attack us at the
western extremity of the town," John Menyn, the merchant at whose house
Captain Vere and his party were lodging, remarked when his guest
informed him there was no longer any doubt as to the point at which the
Spaniards intended to attack, "for they will not be able to blow up our
walls with mines in that quarter."

"How is that?" Francis Vere asked.

"If you can spare half an hour of your time I will show you," the
merchant said.

"I can spare it now, Von Menyn," Vere replied; "for the information is
important, whatever it may be."

"I will conduct you there at once. There is no time like the present."

"Shall we follow you, sir?" Geoffrey asked his captain.

"Yes, come along," Vere replied. "The matter is of interest, and for
the life of me I cannot make out what this obstacle can be of which our
host speaks."

They at once set out.

John Menyn led them to a warehouse close to the western wall, and spoke
a few words to its owner, who at once took three lanterns from the wall
and lighted them, handing one to Vere, another to John Menyn, and
taking the other himself; he then unlocked a massive door. A flight of
steps leading apparently to a cellar were visible. He led the way down,
the two men following, and the boys bringing up the rear. The descent
was far deeper than they had expected, and when they reached the bottom
they found themselves in a vast arched cellar filled with barrels. From
this they proceeded into another, and again into a third.

"What are these great magazines?" Francis Vere asked in surprise.

"They are wine-cellars, and there are scores similar to those you see.
Sluys is the centre of the wine trade of Flanders and Holland, and
cellars like these extend right under the wall. All the warehouses
along here have similar cellars. This end of the town was the driest,
and the soil most easily excavated. That is why the magazines for wines
are all clustered here. There is not a foot of ground behind and under
the walls at this end that is not similarly occupied, and if the
Spaniards try to drive mines to blow up the walls, they will simply
break their way into these cellars, where we can meet them and drive
them back again."

"Excellent!" Francis Vere said. "This will relieve us of the work of
countermining, which is always tiresome and dangerous, and would be
specially so here, where we should have to dive under that deep moat
outside your walls. Now we shall only have to keep a few men on watch
in these cellars. They would hear the sound of the Spanish approaching,
and we shall be ready to give them a warm reception by the time they
break in. Are there communications between these cellars?"

"Yes, for the most part," the wine merchant said. "The cellars are not
entirely the property of us dealers in wine. They are constructed by
men who let them, just as they would let houses. A merchant in a small
way would need but one cellar, while some of us occupy twenty or more;
therefore, there are for the most part communications, with doors,
between the various cellars, so that they can be let off in accordance
with the needs of the hirers."

"Well, I am much obliged to you for telling me of this," Captain Vere
said. "Williams and Morgan will be glad enough to hear that there is no
fear of their being blown suddenly into the air while defending the
walls, and they will see the importance of keeping a few trusty men on
watch in the cellars nearest to the Spaniards. I shall report the
matter to them at once. The difficulty," he added smiling, "will be to
keep the men wakeful, for it seems to me that the very air is heavy
with the fumes of wine."




CHAPTER IV.

THE SIEGE OF SLUYS.


Until the Spaniards had established their camp, and planted some of
their batteries, there was but little firing. Occasionally the
wall-pieces opened upon parties of officers reconnoitring, and a few
shots were fired from time to time to harass the workmen in the enemy's
batteries; but this was done rather to animate the townsmen, and as a
signal to distant friends that so far matters were going on quietly,
than with any hopes of arresting the progress of the enemy's works.
Many sorties were made by the garrison, and fierce fighting took place,
but only a score or two of men from each company were taken upon these
occasions, and the boys were compelled to remain inactive spectators of
the fight.

In these sorties the Spanish works were frequently held for a few
minutes, gabions thrown down, and guns overturned, but after doing as
much damage as they could the assailants had to fall back again to the
town, being unable to resist the masses of pikemen brought up against
them. The boldness of these sorties, and the bravery displayed by their
English allies, greatly raised the spirits of the townsfolk, who now
organized themselves into companies, and undertook the work of guarding
the less exposed portion of the wall, thus enabling the garrison to
keep their whole strength at the points attacked.

The townsmen also laboured steadily in adding to the defences; and two
companies of women were formed, under female captains, who took the
names of May in the Heart and Catherine the Rose. These did good
service by building a strong fort at one of the threatened points, and
this work was in their honour christened Fort Venus.

"It is scarcely a compliment to Venus," Geoffrey laughed to his
brother. "These square-shouldered and heavily-built women do not at all
correspond with my idea of the goddess of love."

"They are strong enough for men," Lionel said. "I shouldn't like one of
those big fat arms to come down upon my head. No, they are not pretty;
but they look jolly and good-tempered, and if they were to fight as
hard as they work they ought to do good service."

"There is a good deal of difference between them," Geoffrey said. "Look
at those three dark-haired women with neat trim figures. They do not
look as if they belonged to the same race as the others."

"They are not of the same race, lad," Captain Vere, who was standing
close by, said. "The big heavy women are Flemish, the others come, no
doubt, from the Walloon provinces bordering on France. The Walloons
broke off from the rest of the states and joined the Spanish almost
from the first. They were for the most part Catholics, and had little
in common with the people of the Low Country; but there were, of
course, many Protestants among them, and these were forced to emigrate,
for the Spanish allow no Protestants in the country under their rule.
Alva adopted the short and easy plan of murdering all the Protestants
in the towns he took; but the war is now conducted on rather more
humane principles, and the Protestants have the option given them of
changing their faith or leaving the country.

"In this way, without intending it, the Spaniards have done good
service to Holland, for hundreds of thousands of industrious people
have flocked there for shelter from Antwerp, Ghent, Bruges, and other
cities that have fallen into the hands of the Spaniards, thus greatly
raising the population of Holland, and adding to its power of defence.
Besides this, the presence of these exiles, and the knowledge that a
similar fate awaits themselves if they fall again under the yoke of
Spain, nerves the people to resist to the utmost. Had it not been for
the bigotry of the Spanish, and the abominable cruelties practised by
the Inquisition, the States would never have rebelled; and even after
they did so, terms might easily have been made with them had they not
been maddened by the wholesale massacres perpetrated by Alva. There, do
you hear those women speaking? Their language is French rather than
Flemish."

Just as they were speaking a heavy roar of cannon broke out from the
eastern end of the town.

"They have opened fire on the castle!" Vere exclaimed. "Run, lads,
quick! and summon the company to form in the market-place in front of
our house. We are told off to reinforce the garrison of the castle in
case of attack."

The boys hurried away at the top of their speed. They had the list of
all the houses in which the men of the company were quartered; and as
the heavy roar of cannon had brought every one to their doors to hear
what was going on, the company were in a very short time assembled.

Francis Vere placed himself at their head, and marched them through the
long streets of the town and out through the wall on to the bridge of
boats. It was the first time the boys had been under fire; and although
they kept a good countenance, they acknowledged to each other
afterwards that they had felt extremely uncomfortable as they traversed
the bridge with the balls whistling over their heads, and sometimes
striking the water close by and sending a shower of spray over the
troops.

[Illustration: THE FOUR PAGES CARRY DOWN THE WOUNDED SOLDIER]

They felt easier when they entered the castle and were protected by its
walls. Upon these the men took their station. Those with guns
discharged their pieces against the Spanish artillerymen, the pikemen
assisted the bombardiers to work the cannon, and the officers went to
and fro encouraging the men. The pages of the company had little to do
beyond from time to time carrying cans of wine and water to the men
engaged. Geoffrey and Lionel, finding that their services were not
required by Captain Vere, mounted on to the wall, and sheltering
themselves as well as they could behind the battlements, looked out at
what was going on.

"It doesn't seem to me," Geoffrey said, "that these walls will long
withstand the balls of the Spanish. The battlements are already knocked
down in several places, and I can hear after each shot strikes the
walls the splashing of the brickwork as it falls into the water. See!
there is Tom Carroll struck down with a ball. It's our duty to carry
him away."

They ran along the wall to the fallen soldier. Two other pages came up,
and the four carried him to the top of the steps and then down into the
court-yard, where a Dutch surgeon took charge of him. His shoulder had
been struck by the ball, and the arm hung only by a shred of flesh. The
surgeon shook his head.

"I can do nothing for him," he said. "He cannot live many hours."

Lionel had done his share in carrying the man down, but he now turned
sick and faint.

Geoffrey caught him by the arm. "Steady, old boy," he said; "it is
trying at first, but we shall soon get accustomed to it. Here, take a
draught of wine from this flask."

"I am better now," Lionel said, after taking a draught of wine. "I felt
as if I was going to faint, Geoffrey. I don't know why I should, for I
did not feel frightened when we were on the wall."

"Oh, it has nothing to do with fear; it is just the sight of that poor
fellow's blood. There is nothing to be ashamed of in that. Why, I saw
Will Atkins, who was one of the best fighters and single-stick players
in Hedingham, go off in a dead swoon because a man he was working with
crushed his thumb between two heavy stones. Look, Lionel, what cracks
there are in the wall here. I don't think it will stand long. We had
better run up and tell Captain Vere, for it may come toppling down with
some of the men on it."

Captain Vere on hearing the news ran down and examined the wall.

"Yes," he said, "it is evidently going. A good earthwork is worth a
dozen of these walls. They will soon have the castle about our ears.
However, it is of no great importance to us. I saw you lads just now on
the wall; I did not care about ordering you down at the time; but don't
go up again except to help to carry down the wounded. Make it a rule,
my boys, never to shirk your duty, however great the risk to life may
be; but, on the other hand, never risk your lives unless it is your
duty to do so. What is gallantry in the one case is foolishness in the
other. Although you are but pages, yet it may well be that in such a
siege as this you will have many opportunities of showing that you are
of good English stock; but while I would have you shrink from no danger
when there is a need for you to expose yourselves, I say also that you
should in no way run into danger wantonly."

Several times in the course of the afternoon the boys took their turn
in going up and helping to bring down wounded men. As the time went on
several yawning gaps appeared in the walls. The court-yard was strewn
with fragments of masonry, and the pages were ordered to keep under
shelter of the wall of the castle unless summoned on duty. Indeed, the
court-yard had now become a more dangerous station than the wall
itself; for not only did the cannon-shot fly through the breaches, but
fragments of bricks, mortar, and rubbish flew along with a force that
would have been fatal to anything struck.

Some of the pages were big fellows of seventeen or eighteen years old,
who had been serving for some years under Morgan and Williams, and
would soon be transferred into the ranks.

"I like not this sort of fighting," one of them said. "It is all very
well when it comes to push of pike with the Spaniards, but to remain
here like chickens in a coop while they batter away at us is a game for
which I have no fancy. What say you, Master Vickars?"

"Well, it is my first experience, Somers, and I cannot say that it is
agreeable. I do not know whether I should like hand-to-hand fighting
better; but it seems to me at present that it would be certainly more
agreeable to be doing something than to be sitting here and listening
to the falls of the pieces of masonry and the whistling of the balls. I
don't see that they will be any nearer when they have knocked this
place to pieces. They have no boats, and if they had, the guns on the
city wall would prevent their using them; besides, when the bridge of
boats is removed they could do nothing if they got here."

Towards evening a council was held, all the principal officers being
present, and it was decided to evacuate the castle. It could indeed
have been held for some days longer, but it was plain it would at
length become untenable; the bridge of boats had already been struck in
several places, and some of the barges composing it had sunk level with
the water. Were it destroyed, the garrison of the castle would be
completely cut off, and as no great advantage was to be gained by
holding the position, for it was evident that it was upon the other end
of the town the main attack was to be made, it was decided to evacuate
it under cover of night. As soon as it became dark this decision was
carried into effect, and for hours the troops worked steadily,
transporting the guns, ammunition, and stores of all kinds across from
the castle to the town.

Already communication with their friends outside had almost ceased, for
the first operation of the enemy had been to block the approach to
Sluys from the sea. Boats had been moored head and stern right across
Zwin, and a battery erected upon each shore to protect them; but
Captains Hart and Allen twice swam down to communicate with friendly
vessels below the obstacle, carrying despatches with them from the
governor to the States-General, and from Roger Williams to the English
commanders, urging that no time should be lost in assembling an army to
march to the relief of the town.

Both contained assurances that the garrison would defend the place to
the last extremity, but pointed out that it was only a question of
time, and that the town must fall unless relieved. The Dutch garrison
were 800 strong, and had been joined by as many English. Parma had at
first marched with but 6000 men against the city, but had very speedily
drawn much larger bodies of men towards him, and had, as Roger Williams
states in a letter to the queen sent from Sluys at an early period of
the siege, four regiments of Walloons, four of Germans, one of
Italians, one of Burgundians, fifty-two companies of Spaniards,
twenty-four troops of horse, and forty-eight guns. This would give a
total of at least 17,000 men, and further reinforcements afterwards
arrived.

Against so overwhelming a force as this, it could not be hoped that the
garrison, outnumbered by more than ten to one, could long maintain
themselves, and the Duke of Parma looked for an easy conquest of the
place. By both parties the possession of Sluys was regarded as a matter
of importance out of all proportion to the size and population of the
town; for at that time it was known in England that the King of Spain
was preparing a vast fleet for the invasion of Britain, and Sluys was
the nearest point to our shores at which a fleet could gather and the
forces of Parma embark to join those coming direct from, Spain. The
English, therefore, were determined to maintain the place to the last
extremity, and while Parma had considered its capture as an affair of a
few days only, the little garrison were determined that for weeks at
any rate they would be able to prolong the resistance, feeling sure
that before that time could elapse both the States and England, knowing
the importance of the struggle, would send forces to their relief.

The view taken as to the uselessness of defending the castle was fully
justified, as the Spaniards on the following day removed the guns that
they had employed in battering it, to their works facing the western
gate, and fire was opened next morning. Under cover of this the Spanish
engineers pushed their trenches up to the very edge of the moat, in
spite of several desperate sorties by the garrison. The boys had been
forbidden by Captain Vere to take their place with the company on the
walls.

"In time," he said, "as our force decreases, we shall want every one
capable of handling arms to man the breaches, but at present we are not
in any extremity; and none save those whom duty compels to be there
must come under the fire of the Spaniards, for to do so would be
risking life without gain."

They had, however, made friends with the wine merchant whose cellars
they had visited, and obtained permission from him to visit the upper
storey of his warehouse whenever they chose. From a window here they
were enabled to watch all that was taking place, for the warehouse was
much higher than the walls. It was not in the direct line of fire of
the Spanish batteries, for these were chiefly concentrated against the
wall a little to their right. After heavy fighting the Spaniards one
night, by means of boats from the Zwin, landed upon the dyke which
divided the moat into two channels, and thus established themselves so
close under the ramparts that the guns could not be brought to bear
upon them. They proceeded to intrench themselves at once upon the dyke.

The governor, Arnold Groenvelt, consulted with the English leaders, and
decided that the enemy must be driven off this dyke immediately, or
that the safety of the city would be gravely imperilled. They therefore
assembled a force of four hundred men, sallied out of the south gate,
where two bastions were erected on the dyke itself, and then advanced
along it to the assault of the Spaniards. The battle was a desperate
one, the English and Dutch were aided by their comrades on the wall,
who shot with guns and arquebuses against the Spaniards, while the
latter were similarly assisted by their friends along the outer edge of
the moat, and received constant reinforcements by boats from their
ships.

The odds were too great for the assailants, who were forced at last to
fall back along the dyke to the south gate and to re-enter the town. It
was already five weeks since the English had arrived to take part in
the defence, and the struggle now began upon a great scale--thirty
cannon and eight culverins opening fire upon the walls. The heaviest
fire was on St. James' day, the 25th of July, when 4000 shots were
fired between three in the morning and five in the afternoon. While
this tremendous cannonade was going on, the boys could not but admire
the calmness shown by the population. Many of the shots, flying over
the top of the walls, struck the houses in the city, and the chimneys,
tiles, and masses of masonry fell in the streets. Nevertheless the
people continued their usual avocations. The shops were all open,
though the men employed served their customers with breast and back
pieces buckled on, and their arms close at hand, so that they could run
to the walls at once to take part in their defence did the Spaniards
attempt an assault upon them. The women stood knitting at their doors,
Frau Menyn looked as sharply after her maids as ever, and washing and
scouring went on without interruption.

"I believe that woman will keep those girls at work after the Spaniards
have entered the city, and until they are thundering at the door,"
Lionel said. "Who but a Dutch woman would give a thought to a few
particles of dust on her furniture when an enemy was cannonading the
town?"

"I think she acts wisely after all, Lionel. The fact that everything
goes on as usual here and in other houses takes people's thoughts off
the dangers of the position, and prevents anything like panic being
felt."

The lads spent the greater part of the day at their look-out, and could
see that the wall against which the Spanish fire was directed was fast
crumbling. Looking down upon it, it seemed deserted of troops, for it
would be needlessly exposing the soldiers to death to place them there
while the cannonade continued; but behind the wall, and in the street
leading to it, companies of English and Dutch soldiers could be seen
seated or lying on the ground.

They were leaning out of the dormer-window in the high roof watching
the Spanish soldiers in the batteries working their guns, when,
happening to look round, they saw a crossbow protruded from a window of
the warehouse to their right, and a moment afterwards the sharp twang
of the bow was heard. There was nothing unusual in this; for although
firearms were now generally in use the long-bow and the cross-bow had
not been entirely abandoned, and there were still archers in the
English army, and many still held that the bow was a far better weapon
than the arquebus, sending its shafts well nigh as far and with a truer
aim.

"If that fellow is noticed," Geoffrey said, "we shall have the Spanish
musketeers sending their balls in this direction. The governor has, I
heard Captain Vere say, forbidden shooting from the warehouses, because
he does not wish to attract the Spanish fire against them. Of course
when the wall yields and the breach has to be defended the warehouses
will be held, and as the windows will command the breach they will be
great aids to us then, and it would be a great disadvantage to us if
the Spaniards now were to throw shells and fire-balls into these
houses, and so to destroy them before they make their attack. Nor can
much good be gained, for at this distance a cross-bow would scarce
carry its bolts beyond the moat."

"Most likely the man is using the cross-bow on purpose to avoid
attracting the attention of the Spaniards, Geoffrey. At this distance
they could not see the cross-bow, while a puff of smoke would be sure
to catch their eye."

"There, he has shot again. I did not see the quarrell fall in the moat.
See, one of the Spanish soldiers from that battery is coming forward.
There, he has stooped and picked something up. Hallo! do you see that?
He has just raised his arm; that is a signal, surely."

"It certainly looked like it," Lionel agreed. "It was a sort of half
wave of the hand. That is very strange!"

"Very, Lionel; it looks to me very suspicious. It is quite possible
that a piece of paper may have been tied round the bolt, and that
someone is sending information to the enemy. This ought to be looked
to."

"But what are we to do, Geoffrey? Merely seeing a Spanish soldier wave
his arm is scarcely reason enough for bringing an accusation against
anyone. We are not even sure that he picked up the bolt; and even if he
did, the action might have been a sort of mocking wave of the hand at
the failure of the shooter to send it as far as the battery."

"It might be, of course, Lionel. No, we have certainly nothing to go
upon that would justify our making a report on the subject, but quite
enough to induce us to keep a watch on this fellow, whoever he may be.
Let us see, to begin with, if he shoots again."

They waited for an hour, but the head of the cross-bow was not again
thrust out of the window.

"He may have ceased shooting for either of two reasons," Geoffrey said.
"If he is a true man, because he sees that his bolts do not carry far
enough to be of any use. If he is a traitor, because he has gained his
object, and knows that his communication has reached his friends
outside. We will go down now and inquire who is the occupier of the
next warehouse."

The merchant himself was not below, for as he did business with other
towns he had had nothing to do since Sluys was cut off from the
surrounded country; but one of his clerks was at work, making out bills
and accounts in his office as if the thunder of the guns outside was
unheard by him. The boys had often spoken to him as they passed in and
out.

"Who occupies the warehouse on the right?" Geoffrey asked him
carelessly.

"William Arnig," he replied. "He is a leading citizen, and one of the
greatest merchants in our trade. His cellars are the most extensive we
have, and he does a great trade in times of peace with Bruges, Ghent,
Antwerp, and other towns."

"I suppose he is a Protestant like most of the towns-people?" Geoffrey
remarked.

"No, he is a Catholic; but he is not one who pushes his opinions
strongly, and he is well disposed to the cause, and a captain in one of
the city bands. The Catholics and Protestants always dwell quietly
together throughout the Low Countries, and would have no animosities
against each other were it not for the Spaniards. Formerly, at least,
this was the case; but since the persecutions we have Protestant towns
and Catholic towns, the one holding to the States cause, the other
siding with the Spaniards. Why do you ask?"

"Oh, I hadn't heard the name of your next neighbour, and was wondering
who he might be."

The boys had now been nearly two months in Holland, and were beginning
to understand the language, which is not difficult to acquire, and
differed then even less than now from the dialect spoken in the eastern
counties of England, between whom and Holland there had been for many
generations much trade and intimate relations.

"What had we better do next, Geoffrey?" Lionel asked as they left the
warehouse.

"I think that in the first place, Lionel, we will take our post at the
window to-morrow, and keep a close watch all day to see whether this
shooting is repeated. If it is, we had better report the matter to
Captain Vere, and leave him to decide what should be done. I do not see
that we could undertake anything alone, and in any case, you see, it
would be a serious matter to lay an accusation against a prominent
citizen who is actually a captain of one of the bands."

Upon the following day they took their post again at the window, and
after some hours watching saw three bolts fired from the next window.
Watching intently, they saw the two first fall into the moat. They
could not see where the other fell; but as there was no splash in the
water, they concluded that it had fallen beyond it, and in a minute
they saw a soldier again advance from the battery, pick up something at
the edge of the water, raise his arm, and retire. That evening when
Captain Vere returned from the ramparts they informed him of what they
had observed.

"Doubtless it is an act of treachery," he said, "and this merchant is
communicating with the enemy. At the same time what you have seen,
although convincing evidence to me, is scarce enough for me to denounce
him. Doubtless he does not write these letters until he is ready to
fire them off, and were he arrested in his house or on his way to the
warehouse we might fail to find proofs of his guilt, and naught but
ill-feeling would be caused among his friends. No, whatever we do we
must do cautiously. Have you thought of any plan by which we might
catch him in the act?"

"If two or three men could be introduced into his warehouse, and
concealed in the room from which he fires, they might succeed in
catching him in the act, Captain Vere; but the room may be an empty one
without any place whatever where they could be hidden, and unless they
were actually in the room they would be of little good, for he would
have time, if he heard footsteps, to thrust any letter he may have
written into his mouth, and so destroy it before it could be seized."

"That is so," Captain Vere agreed. "The matter seems a difficult one,
and yet it is of the greatest importance to hinder communications with
the Spaniards. To-night all the soldiers who can be spared, aided by
all the citizens able to use matlock and pick, are to set to work to
begin to raise a half-moon round the windmill behind the point they are
attacking, so as to have a second line to fall back upon when the wall
gives way, which it will do ere long, for it is sorely shaken and
battered. It is most important to keep this from the knowledge of the
Spaniards. Now, lads, you have shown your keenness by taking notice of
what is going on, see if you cannot go further, and hit upon some plan
of catching this traitor at his work. If before night we can think of
no scheme, I must go to the governor and tell him frankly that we have
suspicions of treachery, though we cannot prove them, and ask him, in
order to prevent the possibility of our plans being communicated to the
enemy, to place some troops in all the warehouses along that line, so
that none can shoot therefrom any message to the Spaniards."

Just as Captain Vere finished his supper, the boys came into the room
again.

"We have thought of a plan, sir, that might succeed, although it would
be somewhat difficult. The dormer-window from which these bolts have
been fired lies thirty or forty feet away from that from which we were
looking. The roof is so steep that no one could hold a footing upon it
for a moment, nor could a plank be placed upon which he could walk. The
window is about twelve feet from the top of the roof. We think that one
standing on the ledge of our window might climb on to its top, and once
there swing a rope with a stout grapnel attached to catch on the ridge
of the roof; then two or three men might climb up there and work
themselves along, and then lower themselves down with a rope on to the
top of the next window. They would need to have ropes fastened round
their bodies, for the height is great, and a slip would mean death.

"The one farthest out on the window could lean over when he hears a
noise below him, and when he saw the cross-bow thrust from the window,
could by a sudden blow knock it from the fellow's hand, when it would
slide down the roof and fall into the narrow yard between the warehouse
and the walls. Of course some men would be placed there in readiness to
seize it, and others at the door of the warehouse to arrest the traitor
if he ran down."

"I think the plan is a good one, though somewhat difficult of
execution," Captain Vere said. "But this enterprise on the roof would
be a difficult one and dangerous, since as you say a slip would mean
death."

"Lionel and myself, sir, would undertake that with the aid of two
active men to hold the ropes for us. We have both done plenty of
bird-nesting in the woods of Hedingham, and are not likely to turn
giddy."

"I don't think it is necessary for more than one to get down on to that
window," Captain Vere said. "Only one could so place himself as to look
down upon the cross-bow. However, you shall divide the honour of the
enterprise between you. You, as the eldest and strongest, Geoffrey,
shall carry out your plan on the roof, while you, Lionel, shall take
post at the door with four men to arrest the traitor when he leaves. I
will select two strong and active men to accompany you, Geoffrey, and
aid you in your attempt; but mind, before you try to get out of the
window and to climb on to its roof, have a strong rope fastened round
your body and held by the others; then in case of a slip, they can haul
you in again. I will see that the ropes and grapnels are in readiness."

The next morning early Geoffrey proceeded with the two men who had been
selected to accompany him to his usual look-out. Both were active, wiry
men, and entered fully into the spirit of the undertaking when Geoffrey
explained its nature to them. They looked out of the dormer-window at
the sharp roof slanting away in front of them and up to the ridge above.

"I think, Master Vickars," one of them, Roger Browne by name, said,
"that I had best go up first. I served for some years at sea, and am
used to climbing about in dizzy places. It is no easy matter to get
from this window-sill astride the roof above us, and moreover I am more
like to heave the grapnel so that it will hook firmly on to the ridge
than you are."

"Very well, Roger. I should be willing to try, but doubtless you would
manage it far better than I should. But before you start we will fasten
the other rope round your body, as Captain Vere directed me to do. Then
in case you slip, or anything gives way with your weight, we can check
you before you slide far down below us."

A rope was accordingly tied round the man's body under his arms. Taking
the grapnel, to which the other rope was attached, he got out on to the
sill. It was not an easy task to climb up on to the ridge of the
dormer-window, and it needed all his strength and activity to
accomplish the feat. Once astride of the ridge the rest was easy. At
the first cast he threw the grapnel so that it caught securely on the
top of the roof. After testing it with two or three pulls he clambered
up, leaving the lower end of the rope hanging by the side of the
window. As soon as he had gained this position Geoffrey, who was to
follow him, prepared to start.

According to the instructions Browne had given him he fastened the end
of the rope which was round Browne's body under his own shoulders, then
leaning over and taking a firm hold of the rope to which the grapnel
was attached, he let himself out of the window. Browne hauled from
above at the rope round his body, and he pulled himself with his hands
by that attached to the grapnel, and presently reached the top.

"I am glad you came first, Roger," he said. "I do not think I could
have ever pulled myself up if you had not assisted me."

He unfastened the rope, and the end was thrown down to the window, and
Job Tredgold, the other man, fastened it round him and was hauled up as
Geoffrey had been.

"We will move along now to that stack of chimneys coming through the
roof four feet below the ridge on the town side," Geoffrey said. "We
can stand down there out of sight of the Spaniards. We shall be sure to
attract attention sitting up here, and might have some bullets flying
round our ears, besides which this fellow's friends might suspect our
object and signal to him in some way. It is two hours yet to the time
when we have twice seen him send his bolts across the moat."

This was accordingly done, and for an hour and a half they sat down on
the roof with their feet against the stack of chimneys.

"It is time to be moving now," Geoffrey said at last. "I think the best
way will be for me to get by the side of the dormer-window instead of
above it. It would be very awkward leaning over there, and I should not
have strength to strike a blow; whereas with the rope under my arms and
my foot on the edge of the sill, which projects a few inches beyond the
side of the window, I could stand upright and strike a downright blow
on the cross-bow."

"That would be the best way, I think," Roger Browne agreed; "and I will
come down on to the top of the window and lean over. In the first place
your foot might slip, and as you dangle there by the rope he might cut
it and let you shoot over, or he might lean out and shoot you as you
climb up the roof again; but if I am above with my pistol in readiness
there will be no fear of accidents."




CHAPTER V.

AN HEROIC DEFENCE.


The plan Roger Browne suggested was carried out. Geoffrey was first
lowered to his place by the side of the window, and bracing himself
against its side with a foot on the sill he managed to stand upright,
leaning against the rope that Job Tredgold held from above. Job had
instructions when Geoffrey lifted his arm to ease the rope a few inches
so as to enable the lad to lean forward. After two or three attempts
Geoffrey got the rope to the exact length which would enable him to
look round the corner and to strike a blow with his right hand, in
which he held a stout club. Roger Browne then descended by the aid of
the other rope, and fastening it round his body lay down astride of the
roof of the window with his head and shoulders over the end, and his
pistol held in readiness.

It seemed an age to Geoffrey before he heard the sound of a footstep in
the loft beside him. He grasped his cudgel firmly and leaned slightly
forward. For ten minutes there was quiet within, and Geoffrey guessed
that the traitor was writing the missive he was about to send to the
enemy; then the footstep approached the window, and a moment later a
cross-bow was thrust out. A glance at it sufficed to show that the bolt
was enveloped in a piece of paper wound round it and secured with a
string. Steadying himself as well as he could Geoffrey struck with all
his force down upon the cross-bow. The weapon, loosely held, went
clattering down the tiles. There was an exclamation of surprise and
fury from within the window, and at the same moment Job Tredgold,
seeing that Geoffrey's attempt had been successful, hauled away at the
rope and began to drag him backward up the tiles.

The lad saw a man lean out of the window and look up at him, then a
pistol was levelled; but the report came from above the window, and not
from the threatening weapon. A sharp cry of pain was heard, as the
pistol fell from the man's hand and followed the cross-bow down the
roof. A few seconds later Geoffrey was hauled up to the ridge, where he
was at once joined by Roger Browne. Shifting the ropes they moved along
till above the window from which they had issued. Geoffrey was first
lowered down. As soon as he had got in at the window he undid the rope
and Job Tredgold followed him, while Roger Browne slid down by the rope
attached to the grapnel; then they ran downstairs.

As soon as they sallied out below they saw that Lionel and the men with
him had captured a prisoner; and just as they joined the party the
guard came round from the other side of the warehouse, bringing with
them the cross-bow, its bolt, and the pistol. The prisoner, whose
shoulder was broken by Roger Browne's shot, was at once taken to
Captain Vere's quarters. That officer had just arrived from the walls,
knowing the time at which the capture would probably be made.

"So you have succeeded," he said. "Well done, lads; you have earned the
thanks of all. We will take this man at once to the governor, who is at
present at the town-hall."

By the time they issued out quite a crowd had assembled, for the news
that William von Arnig had been brought a prisoner and wounded to
Captain Vere's quarters had spread rapidly. The crowd increased as they
went along, and Captain Vere and his party had difficulty in making
their way to the town-hall, many of the people exclaiming loudly
against this treatment of one of the leading citizens. The governor
was, when they entered, holding council with the English leader, Sir
Roger Williams.

"Why, what is this, Captain Vere?" he asked in surprise as that
officer, accompanied by the two boys and followed by Roger Browne and
Job Tredgold guarding the prisoner, entered.

"I have to accuse this man of treacherously communicating with the
enemy," Francis Vere said.

"What?" Arnold de Groenvelt exclaimed in surprise. "Why, this is
Mynheer von Arnig, one of our most worshipful citizens! Surely, Captain
Vere, there must be some error here?"

"I will place my evidence before you," Captain Vere said; "and it will
be for you to decide upon it. Master Geoffrey Vickars, please to inform
the governor what you know about this matter."

Geoffrey then stated how he and his brother, being at the upper window
of the warehouse, had on two days in succession seen a cross-bow
discharged from a neighbouring window, and had noticed a Spanish
soldier come out of a battery and pick up something which they believed
to be the bolt, and how he and his brother had reported the
circumstances to Captain Vere. That officer then took up the story, and
stated that seeing the evidence was not conclusive, and it was probable
that if an attempt was made to arrest the person, whomsoever he might
be, who had used the cross-bow, any evidence of treasonable design
might be destroyed before he was seized, he had accepted the offer of
Master Vickars to climb the roof, lower himself to the window from
which the bolt would be shot, and, if possible, strike it from the
man's hands, so that it would fall down the roof to the court-yard
below, where men were placed to seize it.

Geoffrey then related how he, with the two soldiers guarding the
prisoner, had scaled the roof and taken a position by the window; how
he had seen the cross-bow thrust out, and had struck it from the hands
of the man holding it; how the latter had leaned out, and would have
shot him had not Roger Browne from his post above the window shot him
in the shoulder.

"Here are the cross-bow and pistol," Captain Vere said; "and this is
the bolt as it was picked up by my men. You see, sir, there is a paper
fastened round it. I know not its contents, for I judged it best to
leave it as it was found until I placed it in your hands."

The governor cut the string, unrolled the paper and examined it. It
contained a statement as to the state of the wall, with remarks where
it was yielding, and where the enemy had best shoot against it. It said
that the defenders had in the night begun to form a half-moon behind
it, and contained a sketch showing the exact position of the new work.

"Gentlemen, what think you of this?" the governor asked the English
officers.

"There can be no doubt that it is a foul act of treachery," Williams
said, "and the traitor merits death."

"We will not decide upon it ourselves," the governor said. "I will
summon six of the leading citizens, who shall sit as a jury with us.
This is a grave matter, and touches the honour of the citizens as well
as the safety of the town."

In a few minutes the six citizens summoned arrived. The evidence was
again given, and then the prisoner was asked what he had to say in his
defence.

"It is useless for me to deny it," he replied. "I am caught in the act,
and must suffer for it. I have done my duty to the King of Spain, my
sovereign; and I warn you he will take vengeance for my blood."

"That we must risk," the governor said. "Now, gentlemen, you citizens
of this town now attacked by the Spaniards, and you, sir, who are in
command of the soldiers of the Queen of England, have heard the
evidence and the answer the prisoner has made. What is your opinion
thereon? Do you, Sir Roger Williams, being highest in rank and
authority, first give your opinion."

"I find that he is guilty of an act of gross treason and treachery. For
such there is but one punishment--death." And the six citizens all gave
the same decision.

"You are found guilty of this foul crime," the governor said, "and are
sentenced to death. In half an hour you will be hung in the
market-place, as a punishment to yourself and a warning to other
traitors, if such there be in this town of Sluys. As to you, young
sirs, you have rendered a great service to the town, and have shown a
discernment beyond your years. I thank you in the name of the city and
of its garrison, and also in that of the States, whose servant I am."

A guard of armed citizens were now called in, the prisoner was handed
to them, and orders given to their officer to carry the sentence into
effect. A statement of the crime of the prisoner, with the names of
those who had acted as his judges, and the sentence, was then drawn
out, signed by the governor, and ordered by him to be affixed to the
door of the town-hall. The two lads, finding that they were no longer
required, hastened back to their quarters, having no wish to be present
at the execution of the unhappy wretch whose crime they had been the
means of detecting.

A few days later considerable portions of the battered wall fell, and
shortly afterwards a breach of two hundred and fifty paces long was
effected, and a bridge of large boats constructed by the enemy from the
dyke to the foot of the rampart.

This was not effected without terrible loss. Hundreds of the bravest
Spanish soldiers and sailors were killed, and three officers who
succeeded each other in command of the attack were badly wounded. The
Spanish had laboured under great difficulties owing to the lack of
earth to push their trenches forward to the edge of the moat, arising
from the surrounding country being flooded. They only succeeded at last
by building wooden machines of bullet-proof planks on wheels, behind
each of which four men could work. When all was prepared the Spaniards
advanced to the attack, rushing up the breach with splendid valour,
headed by three of their bravest leaders; but they were met by the
English and Dutch, and again and again hurled back.

Day and night the fighting continued, the Spaniards occasionally
retiring to allow their artillery to open fire again upon the shattered
ruins. But stoutly as the defenders fought, step by step the Spaniards
won their way forward until they had captured the breach and the west
gate adjoining it, there being nothing now beyond the
hastily-constructed inner work between them and the town. The finest
regiment of the whole of the Spanish infantry now advanced to the
assault, but they were met by the defenders--already sadly diminished
in numbers, but firm and undaunted as ever,--and their pikes and their
axes well supplied the place of the fallen walls.

Assault after assault was met and repulsed, Sir Roger Williams, Thomas
Baskerville, and Francis Vere being always in the thick of the fight.
Baskerville was distinguished by the white plumes of his helmet, Vere
by his crimson mantle; and the valour of these leaders attracted the
admiration of the Duke of Parma himself, who watched the fight from the
summit of the tower of the western gate. Francis Vere was twice
wounded, but not disabled. Sir Roger Williams urged him to retire, but
he replied that he would rather be killed ten times in a breach than
once in a house.

Day by day the terrible struggle continued. The Spaniards were able
constantly to bring up fresh troops, but the defenders had no relief.
They were reduced in numbers from 1600 to 700 men, and yet for eighteen
days they maintained the struggle, never once leaving the breach.

The pages brought their food to them, and when the attacks were
fiercest joined in the defence, fighting as boldly and manfully as the
soldiers themselves. Geoffrey and Lionel kept in close attendance upon
Francis Vere, only leaving him to run back to their quarters and bring
up the meals cooked for him and his two officers by Frau Menyn and her
handmaids. Both kept close to him during the fighting. They knew that
they were no match in strength for the Spanish pikemen; but they had
obtained pistols from the armoury, and with these they did good
service, several times freeing him from some of his assailants when he
was sorely pressed. On one occasion when Francis Vere was smitten down
by a blow from an axe, the boys rushed forward and kept back his
assailants until some of the men of the company came to his aid.

"You have done me brave service indeed," Captain Vere said to them when
he recovered; for his helmet had defended him from serious injury,
though the force of the blow had felled him. "It was a happy thought of
mine when I decided to bring you with me. This is not the first time
that you have rendered me good service, and I am sure you will turn out
brave and valiant soldiers of the queen."

When each assault ceased the weary soldiers threw themselves down
behind the earthen embankment, and obtained such sleep as they could
before the Spaniards mustered for fresh attack. When, after eighteen
days' terrible fighting, the Duke of Parma saw that even his best
troops were unable to break through the wall of steel, he desisted from
the assault and began the slower process of mining. The garrison from
their look-out beheld the soldiers crossing the bridge with picks and
shovels, and prepared to meet them in this new style of warfare.
Captain Uvedale was appointed to command the men told off for this
duty, and galleries were run from several of the cellars to meet those
of the enemy.

As every man was employed either on the rampart or in mining, many of
the pages were told off to act as watchers in the cellars, and to
listen for the faint sounds that told of the approach of the enemy's
miners. As the young Vickars were in attendance on the officers, they
were exempted from this work; but they frequently went down into the
cellars, both to watch the process of mining by their own men and to
listen to the faint sounds made by the enemy's workmen. One day they
were sitting on two wine-kegs, watching four soldiers at work at the
end of a short gallery that had been driven towards the Spaniards.
Suddenly there was an explosion, the miners were blown backwards, the
end of the gallery disappeared, and a crowd of Walloon soldiers almost
immediately afterwards rushed in.

The boys sprang to their feet and were about to fly, when an idea
occurred to Geoffrey. He seized a torch, and, standing by the side of a
barrel placed on end by a large tier, shouted in Dutch, "Another step
forward and I fire the magazine!" The men in front paused. Through the
fumes of smoke they saw dimly the pile of barrels and a figure standing
with a lighted torch close to one of them. A panic seized them, and
believing they had made their way into a powder-magazine, and that in
another instant there would be a terrible explosion, they turned with
shouts of "A magazine! a magazine! Fly, or we are all dead men!"

"Run, Lionel, and get help," Geoffrey said, and in two or three minutes
a number of soldiers ran down into the cellar.

The Walloons were not long before they recovered from their panic.
Their officers knew that the wine-cellars of the city were in front of
them, and reassured them as to the character of the barrels they had
seen. They were, however, too late, and a furious conflict took place
at the entrance into the cellar, but the enemy, able only to advance
two or three abreast, failed to force their way in.

Captain Uvedale and Francis Vere were soon on the spot, and when at
last the enemy, unable to force an entrance, fell back, the former
said, "This is just as I feared. You see, the Spaniards drove this
gallery, and ceased to work immediately they heard us approaching them.
We had no idea that they were in front of us, and so they only had to
put a barrel of powder there and fire it as soon as there was but a
foot or two of earth between us and them."

"But how was it," Francis Vere asked, "that when they fired it they did
not at once rush forward? They could have captured the whole building
before we knew what had happened."

"That I cannot tell," Captain Uvedale replied. "The four men at work
must have been either killed or knocked senseless. We shall know better
another time, and will have a strong guard in each cellar from which
our mines are being driven."

"If it please you, Captain Uvedale," Lionel said, "it was my brother
Geoffrey who prevented them from advancing; for indeed several of them
had already entered the cellar, and the gallery behind was full of
them."

"But how did he do that?" Captain Uvedale asked in surprise.

Lionel related the ruse by which Geoffrey had created a panic in the
minds of the Spaniards.

"That was well thought of indeed, and promptly carried out!" Captain
Uvedale exclaimed. "Francis, these pages of yours are truly promising
young fellows. They detected that rascally Dutchman who was betraying
us. I noticed them several times in the thick of the fray at the
breach; and now they have saved the city by their quickness and
presence of mind; for had these Spaniards once got possession of this
warehouse they would have speedily broken a way along through the whole
tier, and could then have poured in upon us with all their strength."

"That is so, indeed," Francis Vere agreed. "They have assuredly saved
the town, and there is the greatest credit due to them. I shall be
glad, Uvedale, if you will report the matter to our leader. You are in
command of the mining works, and it will come better from you than from
me who am their captain."

Captain Uvedale made his report, and both Sir Roger Williams and the
governor thanked the boys, and especially Geoffrey, for the great
service they had rendered.

Very shortly the galleries were broken into in several other places,
and the battle became now as fierce and continuous down in the cellars
as it had before been on the breach. By the light of torches, in an
atmosphere heavy with the fumes of gunpowder, surrounded by piled-up
barrels of wine, the defenders and assailants maintained a terrible
conflict, men staggering up exhausted by their exertion and by the
stifling atmosphere while others took their places below, and so, night
and day, the desperate struggle continued.

All these weeks no serious effort had been made for the relief of the
hardly beleaguered town. Captains Hall and Allen had several times swum
down at night through the bridge of boats with letters from the
governor entreating a speedy succour. The States had sent a fleet which
sailed some distance up the Zwin, but returned without making the
slightest effort to break through the bridge of boats. The Earl of
Leicester had advanced with a considerable force from Ostend against
the fortress of Blankenburg, but had retreated hastily as soon as Parma
despatched a portion of his army against him; and so the town was left
to its fate.

The last letter that the governor despatched said that longer
resistance was impossible. The garrison were reduced to a mere remnant,
and these utterly worn out by constant fighting and the want of rest.
He should ask for fair and honourable terms, but if these were refused
the garrison and the whole male inhabitants in the city, putting the
women and children in the centre, would sally out and cut their way
through, or die fighting in the midst of the Spaniards. The swimmer who
took the letter was drowned, but his body was washed ashore and the
letter taken to the Duke of Parma.

Three days afterwards a fresh force of the enemy embarked in forty
large boats, and were about to land on an unprotected wharf by the
river-side when Arnold de Groenvelt hung out the white flag. His powder
was exhausted and his guns disabled, and the garrison so reduced that
the greater portion of the walls were left wholly undefended. The Duke
of Parma, who was full of admiration at the extraordinary gallantry of
the defenders, and was doubtless also influenced by the resolution
expressed in his letter by the governor, granted them most honourable
terms. The garrison were to march out with all their baggage and arms,
with matches lighted and colours displayed. They were to proceed to
Breskans, and there to embark for Flushing. The life and property of
the inhabitants were to be respected, and all who did not choose to
embrace the Catholic faith were to be allowed to leave the town
peaceably, taking with them their belongings, and to go wheresoever
they pleased.

When the gates were opened the garrison sallied out. The Duke of Parma
had an interview with several of the leaders, and expressed his high
admiration of the valour with which they had fought, and said that the
siege of Sluys had cost him more men than he had lost in the four
principal sieges he had undertaken in the Low Country put together. On
the 4th of August the duke entered Sluys in triumph, and at once began
to make preparations to take part in the great invasion of England for
which Spain was preparing.

After their arrival at Flushing Captains Vere, Uvedale, and others, who
had brought their companies from Bergen-op-Zoom to aid in the defence
of Sluys, returned to that town.

The Earl of Leicester shortly afterwards resigned his appointment as
general of the army. He had got on but badly with the States-General,
and there was from the first no cordial cooperation between the two
armies. The force at his disposal was never strong enough to do
anything against the vastly superior armies of the Duke of Parma, who
was one of the most brilliant generals of his age, while he was
hampered and thwarted by the intrigues and duplicity of Elizabeth, who
was constantly engaged in half-hearted negotiations now with France and
now with Spain, and whose capricious temper was continually
overthrowing the best-laid plans of her councillors and paralysing the
actions of her commanders. It was not until she saw her kingdom
threatened by invasion that she placed herself fairly at the head of
the national movement, and inspired her subjects with her energy and
determination.

Geoffrey Vickars had been somewhat severely wounded upon the last day
of the struggle in the cellar, a Spanish officer having beaten down his
guard and cleft through his morion. Lionel was unwounded, but the
fatigue and excitement had told upon him greatly, and soon after they
arrived at Bergen Captain Vere advised both of them to return home for
a few months.

"There is nothing likely to be doing here until the spring. Parma has
more serious matter in hand. They talk, you know, of invading England,
and after his experience at Sluys I do not think he will be wasting his
force by knocking their heads against stone walls. I should be glad if
I could return too, but I have my company to look after and must remain
where I am ordered; but as you are but volunteers and giving your
service at your pleasure, and are not regularly upon the list of the
pages of the company, I can undertake to grant you leave, and indeed I
can see that you both greatly need rest. You have begun well and have
both done good service, and have been twice thanked by the governor of
Sluys and Sir Roger Williams.

"You will do yourselves no good by being shut up through the winter in
this dull town, and as there is a vessel lying by the quay which is to
set sail to-morrow, I think you cannot do better than go in her. I will
give you letters to my cousin and your father saying how well you have
borne yourselves, and how mightily Sir Roger Williams was pleased with
you. In the spring you can rejoin, unless indeed the Spaniards should
land in England, which Heaven forfend, in which case you will probably
prefer to ride under my cousin's banner at home."

The boys gladly accepted Francis Vere's proposal. It was but three
months since they had set foot in Holland, but they had gone through a
tremendous experience, and the thought of being shut up for eight or
nine months at Bergen-op-Zoom was by no means a pleasant one. Both felt
worn-out and exhausted, and longed for the fresh keen air of the
eastern coast. Therefore the next morning they embarked on board ship.
Captain Vere presented them each with a handsome brace of pistols in
token of his regard, and Captains Uvedale, Baskerville, and other
officers who were intimate friends of Vere's, and had met them at his
quarters, gave them handsome presents in recognition of the services
they had rendered at Sluys.

The ship was bound for Harwich, which was the nearest English port.
Landing there, they took passage by boat to Manningtree and thence by
horse home, where they astounded their father and mother by their
sudden appearance.

"And this is what comes of your soldiering," Mrs. Vickars said when the
first greeting was over. "Here is Geoffrey with plasters all over the
side of his head, and you, Lionel, looking as pale and thin as if you
had gone through a long illness. I told your father when we heard of
your going that you ought to be brought back and whipped; but the earl
talked him over into writing to Captain Francis to tell him that he
approved of this mad-brained business, and a nice affair it has turned
out."

"You will not have to complain of our looks, mother, at the end of a
week or two," Geoffrey said. "My wound is healing fast, and Lionel only
needs an extra amount of sleep for a time. You see, for nearly a month
we were never in bed, but just lay down to sleep by the side of Captain
Vere on the top of the ramparts, where we had been fighting all day."

"It was a gallant defence," Mr. Vickars said, "and all England is
talking of it. It was wonderful that 800 English and as many Dutchmen
should hold a weak place for two months against full twelve times their
number of Spaniards, led by the Duke of Parma himself, and there is
great honour for all who took part in the defence. The governor and Sir
Roger Williams especially mentioned Francis Vere as among the bravest
and best of their captains, and although you as pages can have had
nought to do with the fighting, you will have credit as serving under
his banner."

"I think, father," Geoffrey said, touching the plasters on his head,
"this looks somewhat as if we had had something to do with the
fighting, and here is a letter for you from Captain Vere which will
give you some information about it."

Mr. Vickars adjusted his horn spectacles on his face and opened the
letter. It began:

"My dear Master and Friend,--I have had no means of writing to you
since your letter came to me, having had other matters in hand, and
being cut off from all communication with England. I was glad to find
that you did not take amiss my carrying off of your sons. Indeed that
action has turned out more happily than might have been expected, for I
own that they were but young for such rough service.

"However, they have proved themselves valiant young gentlemen. They
fought stoutly by my side during our long tussle with the Spaniards,
and more than once saved my life by ridding me of foes who would have
taken me at a disadvantage. Once, indeed, when I was down from a blow
on the pate from a Spanish axe, they rushed forward and kept my
assailants at bay until rescue came. They discovered a plot between a
traitor in the town and the Spaniards, and succeeded in defeating his
plans and bringing him to justice.

"They were also the means of preventing the Spaniards from breaking
into the great wine-cellars and capturing the warehouses, and for each
of these services they received the thanks of the Dutch governor and of
Sir Roger Williams, our leader. Thus, you see, although so young they
have distinguished themselves mightily, and should aught befall me,
there are many among my friends who will gladly take them under their
protection and push them forward. I have sent them home for a time to
have quiet and rest, which they need after their exertions, and have
done this the more willingly since there is no chance of fighting for
many months to come. I hope that before the Spaniards again advance
against us I may have them by my side."

"Well, well, this is wonderful," Mrs. Vickars said when her husband had
finished reading the letter. "If they had told me themselves I should
not have believed them, although they have never been given to the sin
of lying; but since it is writ in Master Vere's own hand it cannot be
doubted. And now tell us all about it, boys."

"We will tell you when we have had dinner, mother. This brisk Essex air
has given us both an appetite, and until that is satisfied you must
excuse us telling a long story. Is the earl at the castle, father
because we have two letters to him from Captain Francis--one, I
believe, touching our affairs, and the other on private matters. We
have also letters from him to his mother and his brother John, and
those we had better send off at once by a messenger, as also the
private letters to the earl."

"That I will take myself," Mr. Vickars said. "I was just going up to
him to speak about my parish affairs when you arrived."

"You had better have your dinner first," Mrs. Vickars said decidedly.
"When you once get with the earl and begin talking you lose all account
of the time, and only last week kept dinner waiting for two hours. It
is half-past eleven now, and I will hurry it on so that it will be
ready a few minutes before noon."

"Very well, my dear; but I will go out into the village at once and
find a messenger to despatch to Cropping Hall with the letters to Dame
Elizabeth and John Vere."

The boys' story was not told until after supper, for as soon as dinner
was over Mr. Vickars went up to the castle with the letters for the
earl. The latter, after reading them, told him that his cousin spoke
most highly of his two sons, and said they had been of great service,
even as far as the saving of his life. The earl told Mr. Vickars to
bring the boys up next day to see him in order that he might learn a
full account of the fighting at Sluys, and that he hoped they would
very often come in, and would, while they were at home, practise daily
with his master of arms at the castle. "I know, Mr. Vickars, that you
had hoped that one of them would enter the church; but you see that
their tastes lie not in that direction, and it is evident that, as in
the case of my cousin Francis, they are cut out for soldiers."

"I am afraid so," Mr. Vickars said; "and I must let them have their own
way, for I hold that none should be forced to follow the ministry save
those whose natural bent lies that way."

"I don't think they have chosen badly," the earl said. "My cousin
Francis bids fair to make a great soldier, and as they start in life as
his pages they will have every chance of getting on, and I warrant me
that Francis will push their fortunes. Perhaps I may be able to aid
them somewhat myself. If aught comes of this vapouring of the
Spaniards, before the boys return to Holland, they shall ride with me.
I am already arming all the tenantry and having them practised in
warlike exercises, and in the spring I shall fit out two ships at
Harwich to join the fleet that will put to sea should the Spaniards
carry out their threats of invading us."




CHAPTER VI.

THE LOSS OF THE "SUSAN."


There were few people in Hedingham more pleased to see the two lads on
their return than John Lirriper, to whom they paid a visit on the first
day they went out.

"I am glad to see you back, young masters; though, to say the truth,
you are not looking nigh so strong and well as you did when I last
parted from you."

"We shall soon be all right again, John. We have had rather a rough
time of it over there in Sluys."

"Ah, so I have heard tell, Master Geoffrey. Your father read out from
the pulpit a letter the earl had received from Captain Francis telling
about the fighting, and it mentioned that you were both alive and well
and had done good service; but it was only a short letter sent off in
haste the day after he and the others had got out of the town. I was
right glad when I heard it, I can tell you, for there had been nought
talked of here but the siege; and though your lady mother has not said
much to me, I always held myself ready to slip round the corner or into
a house when I saw her come down the street, for I knew well enough
what was in her mind. She was just saying to herself, 'John Lirriper,
if it hadn't been for you my two boys would not be in peril now. If
aught comes to them, it will be your doing.' And though it was not my
fault, as far as I could see, for Captain Francis took you off my
hands, as it were, and I had no more to say in the matter than a child,
still, there it was, and right glad was I when I heard that the siege
was over and you were both alive.

"I had a bad time of it, I can tell you, when I first got back, young
sirs, for your mother rated me finely; and though your father said it
was not my fault in any way, she would not listen to him, but said she
had given you into my charge, and that I had no right to hand you over
to any others save with your father's permission--not if it were to the
earl himself,--and for a long time after she would make as if she
didn't see me if she met me in the street. When my wife was ill about
that time she sent down broths and simples to her, but she sent them by
one of the maids, and never came herself save when she knew I was away
in my boat.

"However, the day after the reading of that letter she came in and said
she was sorry she had treated me hardly, and that she had known at
heart all along that it was not altogether my fault, and asked my
pardon as nice as if I had been the earl. Of course I said there was
nothing to ask pardon for, and indeed that I thought it was only
natural she should have blamed me, for that I had often blamed myself,
though not seeing how I could have done otherwise. However, I was right
glad when the matter was made up, for it is not pleasant for a man when
the parson's wife sets herself against him."

"It was certainly hard upon you, John," Geoffrey said; "but I am sure
our mother does not in any way blame you now. You see, we brought home
letters from Captain Vere, or rather Sir Francis, for he has been
knighted now, and he was good enough to speak very kindly of what we
were able to do in the siege. Mother did not say much, but I am sure
that at heart she is very grateful, for the earl himself came down to
the Rectory and spoke warmly about us, and said that he should always
be our fast friend, because we had given his cousin some help when he
was roughly pressed by the Spaniards. I hope we shall have another sail
with you in a short time, for we are not going back to the Netherlands
at present, as things are likely to be quiet there now. Although he did
not say so, I think Sir Francis thought that we were over-young for
such rough work, and would be more useful in a year's time; for, you
see, in these sieges even pages have to take their share in the
fighting, and when it comes to push of pike with the Spaniards more
strength and vigour are needed than we possess at present. So we are to
continue our practice at arms at the castle, and to take part in the
drilling of the companies the earl is raising in case the Spaniards
carry out their threat of invading England."

Mrs. Vickars offered no objection whatever the first time Geoffrey
asked permission to go down to Bricklesey with John Lirriper.

"I have no objection, Geoffrey; and, indeed, now that you have chosen
your own lives and are pages to Sir Francis Vere, it seems to me that
in matters of this kind you can judge for yourself. Now that you have
taken to soldiering and have borne your part in a great siege, and have
even yourselves fought with the Spaniards, I deem it that you have got
beyond my wing, and must now act in all small matters as it pleases
you; and that since you have already run great danger of your lives,
and may do so again ere long, it would be folly of me to try to keep
you at my apron-strings and to treat you as if you were still children."

So the two lads often accompanied John Lirriper to Bricklesey, and
twice sailed up the river to London and back in Joe Chambers' smack,
these jaunts furnishing a pleasant change to their work of practising
with pike and sword with the men-at-arms at the castle, or learning the
words of command and the work of officers in drilling the newly-raised
corps. One day John Lirriper told them that his nephew was this time
going to sail up the Medway to Rochester, and would be glad to take
them with him if they liked it; for they were by this time prime
favourites with the master of the _Susan_. Although their mother had
told them that they were at liberty to go as they pleased, they
nevertheless always made a point of asking permission before they went
away.

"If the wind is fair we shall not be long away on this trip, mother.
Two days will take us up to Rochester; we shall be a day loading there,
and shall therefore be back on Saturday if the wind serves, and may
even be sooner if the weather is fine and we sail with the night tides,
as likely enough we shall, for the moon is nearly full, and there will
be plenty of light to keep our course free of the sands."

The permission was readily given. Mrs. Vickars had come to see that it
was useless to worry over small matters, and therefore nodded
cheerfully, and said she would give orders at once for a couple of
chickens to be killed and other provision prepared for their voyage.

"I doubt you are going to have a rougher voyage than usual this time,
young masters," John Lirriper said when the boat was approaching
Bricklesey, "The sky looks wild, and I think there is going to be a
break in the weather. However, the _Susan_ is a stout boat, and my
nephew a careful navigator."

"I should like a rough voyage for a change, John," Geoffrey said. "We
have always had still water and light winds on our trips, and I should
like a good blow."

"Well, I think you will have one; though may be it will only come on
thick and wet. Still I think there is wind in those clouds, and that if
it does come it will be from the south-east, in which case you will
have a sharp buffeting. But you will make good passage enough down to
the Nore once you are fairly round the Whittaker."

"Glad to see you, young masters," Joe Chambers said as the boat came
alongside his craft. "You often grumbled at the light winds, but unless
I am mistaken we shall be carrying double reefs this journey. What do
you think, Uncle John?"

"I have been saying the same, lad; still there is no saying. You will
know more about it in a few hours' time."

It was evening when the boys went on board the _Susan_, and as soon as
supper was over they lay down, as she was to start at daybreak the next
morning. As soon as they were roused by the creaking of the blocks and
the sound of trampling of feet overhead they went up on deck. Day had
just broken; the sky was overspread by dark clouds.

"There is not much wind after all," Geoffrey said as he looked round.

"No, it has fallen light during the last two hours," the skipper
replied, "but I expect we shall have plenty before long. However, we
could do with a little more now."

Tide was half out when they started. Joe Chambers had said the night
before that he intended to drop down to the edge of the sands and there
anchor, and to make across them past the Whittaker Beacon into the
channel as soon as there was sufficient water to enable him to do so.
The wind was light, sometimes scarcely sufficient to belly out the
sails and give the boat steerage way, at others coming in short puffs
which heeled her over and made her spring forward merrily.

Before long the wind fell lighter and lighter, and at last Joe Chambers
ordered the oars to be got out.

"We must get down to the edge of the Buxey," he said, "before the tide
turns, or we shall have it against us, and with this wind we should
never be able to stem it, but should be swept up the Crouch. At present
it is helping us, and with a couple of hours' rowing we may save it to
the Buxey."

The boys helped at the sweeps, and for two hours the creaking of the
oars and the dull flapping of the sail alone broke the silence of the
calm; and the lads were by no means sorry when the skipper gave the
order for the anchor to be dropped.

"I should like to have got about half a mile further," he said; "but I
can see by the landmarks that we are making no way now. The tide is
beginning to suck in."

"How long will it be before we have water enough to cross the Spit?"
Lionel asked as they laid in the oars.

"Well nigh four hours, Master Lionel. Then, even if it keeps a stark
calm like this, we shall be able to get across the sands and a mile or
two up the channel before we meet the tide. There we must anchor again
till the first strength is past, and then if the wind springs up we can
work along at the edge of the sands against it. There is no tide close
in to the sands after the first two hours. But I still think this is
going to turn into wind presently; and if it does it will be sharp and
heavy, I warrant. It's either that or rain."

The sky grew darker and darker until the water looked almost black
under a leaden canopy.

"I wish we were back into Bricklesey," Joe Chambers said. "I have been
well-nigh fifteen years going backwards and forwards here, and I do not
know that ever I saw an awkwarder look about the sky. It reminds me of
what I have heard men who have sailed to the Indies say they have seen
there before a hurricane breaks. If it was not that we saw the clouds
flying fast overhead when we started, I should have said it was a thick
sea fog that had rolled in upon us. Ah, there is the first drop. I
don't care how hard it comes down so that there is not wind at the tail
of it. A squall of wind before rain is soon over; but when it follows
rain you will soon have your sails close-reefed. You had best go below
or you will be wet through in a minute."

The great drops were pattering down on the deck and causing splashes as
of ink on the surface of the oily-looking water. Another half minute it
was pouring with such a mighty roar on the deck that the boys below
needed to shout to make each other heard. It lasted but five minutes,
and then stopped as suddenly as it began. The lads at once returned to
the deck.

"So it is all over, Master Chambers."

"Well the first part is over, but that is only a sort of a beginning.
Look at that light under the clouds away to the south of east. That is
where it is coming from, unless I am mistaken. Turn to and get the
mainsail down, lads," for although after dropping anchor the head sails
had been lowered, the main and mizzen were still on her.

The men set to work, and the boys helped to stow the sail and fasten it
with the tiers. Suddenly there was a sharp puff of wind. It lasted a
few seconds only, then Joe Chambers pointed towards the spot whence a
hazy light seemed to come.

"Here it comes," he said. "Do you see that line of white water. That is
a squall and no mistake. I am glad we are not under sail."

There was a sharp, hissing sound as the line of white water approached
them, and then the squall struck them with such force and fury that the
lads instinctively grasped at the shrouds. The mizzen had brought the
craft in a moment head-to-wind, and Joe Chambers and the two sailors at
once lowered it and stowed it away.

"Only put a couple of tiers on," the skipper shouted. "We may have to
upsail again if this goes on."

The sea got up with great rapidity, and a few minutes after the squall
had struck them the _Susan_ was beginning to pitch heavily. The wind
increased in force, and seemed to scream rather than whistle in the
rigging.

"The sea is getting up fast!" Geoffrey shouted in the skipper's ear as
he took his place close to him.

"It won't be very heavy yet," Joe Chambers replied; "the sands break
its force. But the tide has turned now, and as it makes over the sand
there will be a tremendous sea here in no time; that is if this wind
holds, and it seems to me that it is going to be an unusual gale
altogether."

"How long will it be before we can cross the Spit?"

"We are not going to cross to-day, that's certain," the skipper said.
"There will be a sea over those sands that would knock the life out of
the strongest craft that ever floated. No, I shall wait here for
another hour or two if I can, and then slip my cable and run for the
Crouch. It is a narrow channel, and I never care about going into it
after dark until there is water enough for a craft of our draught over
the sands. It ain't night now, but it is well nigh as dark. There is no
making out the bearings of the land, and we have got to trust to the
perches the fishermen put up at the bends of the channel. However, we
have got to try it. Our anchors would never hold here when the sea gets
over the sands, and if they did they would pull her head under water."

In half an hour a sea had got up that seemed to the boys tremendous.
Dark as it was they could see in various directions tracts of white
water where the waves broke wildly over the sands. The second anchor
had been let go some time before. The two cables were as taut as iron
bars, and the boat was pulling her bows under every sea. Joe Chambers
dropped a lead-line overboard and watched it closely.

"We are dragging our anchors," he said. "There is nothing for it but to
run."

He went to the bow, fastened two logs of wood by long lines to the
cables outside the bow, so that he could find and recover the anchors
on his return, then a very small jib was hoisted, and as it filled two
blows with an axe severed the cables inboard. The logs attached to them
were thrown over, and the skipper ran aft and put up the helm as the
boat's head payed off before the wind. As she did so a wave struck her
and threw tons of water on board, filling her deck nearly up to the
rails. It was well Joe had shouted to the boys to hold on, for had they
not done so they would have been swept overboard.

Another wave struck them before they were fairly round, smashing in the
bulwark and sweeping everything before it, and the boys both thought
that the _Susan_ was sinking under their feet. However she recovered
herself. The water poured out through the broken bulwark, and the boat
rose again on the waves as they swept one after another down upon her
stern. The channel was well marked now, for the sands on either side
were covered with breaking water. Joe Chambers shouted to the sailors
to close-reef the mizzen and hoist it, so that he might have the boat
better under control. The wind was not directly astern but somewhat on
the quarter; and small as was the amount of sail shown, the boat lay
over till her lee-rail was at times under water; the following waves
yawing her about so much that it needed the most careful steering to
prevent her from broaching to.

"It seems to me as the wind is northering!" one of the men shouted.

The skipper nodded and slackened out the sheet a bit as the wind came
more astern. He kept his eyes fixed ahead of him, and the men kept
gazing through the gloom.

"There is the perch," one of them shouted presently, "just on her
weather-bow!"

The skipper nodded and held on the same course until abreast of the
perch, which was only a forked stick. The men came aft and hauled in
the mizzen sheet. Chambers put up the helm. The mizzen came across with
a jerk, and the sheet was again allowed to run out. The jib came over
with a report like the shot of a cannon, and at the same moment split
into streamers.

"Hoist the foresail!" the skipper shouted, and the men sprang forward
and seized the halliards; but at this moment the wind seemed to blow
with a double fury, and the moment the sail was set it too split into
ribbons.

"Get up another jib!" Joe Chambers shouted, and one of the men sprang
below. In half a minute he reappeared with another sail.

"Up with it quick, Bill. We are drifting bodily down on the sand."

Bill hurried forward. The other hand had hauled in the traveller, to
which the bolt-rope of the jib was still attached, and hauling on this
had got the block down and in readiness for fastening on the new jib.
The sheets were hooked on, and then while one hand ran the sail out
with the out-haul to the bowsprit end, the other hoisted with the
halliards. By this time the boat was close to the broken water. As the
sail filled her head payed off towards it. The wind lay her right over,
and before she could gather way there was a tremendous crash. The
_Susan_ had struck on the sands. The next wave lifted her, but as it
passed on she came down with a crash that seemed to shake her in
pieces. Joe Chambers relaxed his grasp of the now useless tiller.

"It is all over," he said to the boys. "Nothing can save her now. If
she had been her own length farther off the sands she would have
gathered way in time. As it is another ten minutes and she will be in
splinters."

She was now lying over until her masthead was but a few feet above
water. The seas were striking her with tremendous force, pouring a
deluge of water over her.

"There is but one chance for you," he went on. "The wind is dead on the
shore, and Foulness lies scarce three miles to leeward."

[Illustration: "THE NEXT FEW MINUTES IT WAS A WILD STRUGGLE FOR LIFE"]

He went into the cabin and fetched out a small axe fastened in the
companion where it was within reach of the helmsman. Two blows cut the
shrouds of the mizzen, a few vigorous strokes were given to the foot of
the mast, and, as the boat lifted and crashed down again on the sand,
it broke off a few inches above the deck.

"Now, lads, I will lash you loosely to this. You can both swim, and
with what aid it will give you may well reach the shore. There are
scarce three feet of water here, and except where one or two deeps pass
across it there is no more anywhere between this and the land. It will
not be rough very far. Now, be off at once; the boat will go to pieces
before many minutes. I and the two men will take to the mainmast, but I
want to see you off first."

Without hesitation the boys pushed off with the mast. As they did so a
cataract of water poured over the smack upon them, knocking them for a
moment under the surface with its force.

For the next few minutes it was a wild struggle for life. They found at
once that they were powerless to swim in the broken water, which, as it
rushed across the sand, impelled alike by the rising tide behind it and
the force of the wind, hurried them along at a rapid pace, breaking in
short steep waves. They could only cling to the mast and snatch a
breath of air from time to time as it rolled over and over. Had they
not been able to swim they would very speedily have been drowned; but,
accustomed as they were to diving, they kept their presence of mind,
holding their breath when under water and breathing whenever they were
above it with their faces to the land. It was only so that they could
breathe, for the air was thick with spray, which was swept along with
such force by the wind that it would have drowned the best swimmer who
tried to face it as speedily as if he had been under water.

After what seemed to them an age the waves became somewhat less
violent, though still breaking in a mass of foam. Geoffrey loosed his
hold of the spar and tried to get to his feet. He was knocked down
several times before he succeeded, but when he did so found that the
water was little more than two feet deep, although the waves rose to
his shoulders. The soft mud under his feet rendered it extremely
difficult to stand, and the rope which attached him to the spar, which
was driving before him, added to the difficulty. He could not overtake
the mast, and threw himself down again and swam to it.

"Get up, Lionel!" he shouted; "we can stand here." But Lionel was too
exhausted to be capable of making the effort. With the greatest
difficulty Geoffrey raised him to his feet and supported him with his
back to the wind.

"Get your breath again!" he shouted. "We are over the worse now and
shall soon be in calmer water. Get your feet well out in front of you,
if you can, and dig your heels into the mud, then you will act as a
buttress to me and help me to keep my feet."

It was two or three minutes before Lionel was able to speak. Even
during this short time they had been carried some distance forward, for
the ground on which they stood seemed to be moving, and the force of
the waves carried them constantly forward.

"Feel better, old fellow?" Geoffrey asked, as he felt Lionel making an
effort to resist the pressure of the water.

"Yes, I am better now," Lionel said.

"Well, we will go on as we are as long as we can; let us just try to
keep our feet and give way to the sea as it takes us along. The quicker
we go the sooner we shall be in shallower water; but the tide is rising
fast, and unless we go on it will speedily be as bad here as it was
where we started."

As soon as Lionel had sufficiently recovered they again took to the
spar; but now, instead of clasping it with their arms and legs, they
lay with their chest upon it, and used their efforts only to keep it
going before the wind and tide. Once they came to a point where the
sand was but a few inches under water. Here they stood up for some
minutes, and then again proceeded on foot until the water deepened to
their waists.

Their progress was now much more easy, for the high bank had broken the
run of the surf. The water beyond it was much smoother, and they were
able to swim, pushing the spar before them.

"We are in deep water," Geoffrey said presently, dropping his feet. "It
is out of my depth. Chambers said there was a deep channel across the
sands not far from the island; so in that case the shore cannot be far
away."

In another quarter of an hour the water was again waist-deep. Geoffrey
stood up.

"I think I see a dark line ahead, Lionel; we shall soon be there."

Another ten minutes and the water was not above their knees. They could
see the low shore now at a distance of but a few hundred yards ahead,
and untying the ropes under their arms they let the spar drift on, and
waded forward until they reached the land. There was a long mud bank
yet to cross, and exhausted as they were it took them a long time to do
this; but at last they came to a sandy bank rising sharply some ten
feet above the flat. They threw themselves down on this and lay for
half an hour without a word being spoken.

"Now, Lionel," Geoffrey said at last, raising himself to a sitting
position, "we must make an effort to get on and find a shelter. There
are people living in the island. I have heard that they are a wild set,
making their living by the wrecks on these sands and by smuggling goods
without paying dues to the queen. Still, they will not refuse us
shelter and food, and assuredly there is nothing on us to tempt them to
plunder us."

He rose to his feet and helped Lionel up. Once on the top of the bank a
level country stretched before them. The wind aided their footsteps,
sweeping along with such tremendous force that at times they had
difficulty in keeping their feet. As they went on they came upon
patches of cultivated land, with hedgerows and deep ditches. Half a
mile further they perceived a house. On approaching it they saw that it
was a low structure of some size with several ou

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