Will you like to hear something more, and can you guess that when Harry
Fenn married, his bride was Etta Allison? And Carlo del Campo was, in
truth, present, as he had really joined the Embassy--though he was not
yet Ambassador--but he said at the wedding that he owed his success to
Etta, who had taught him English. Poor Felipa died just before Carlo’s
journey. She had never recovered the effects of all the hardships and
sorrows she had gone through; but before her death she sent some of her
jewels to her dear Etta, and begged her not to forget her; which, as
Etta’s heart was big, she was not likely to do. You can imagine what
talks they all had together; and perhaps the most wonderful piece of
news that Harry told Don Carlo was that Captain Henry Morgan had now
turned over a new leaf, and that the King had knighted him, and made him
Governor of Jamaica; and that, wonderful to relate, he was now called
Sir Henry Morgan, a brave and loyal gentleman. Truly it was a case of
’set a thief to catch a thief,’ for the pirates were now no longer
tolerated in Jamaica; and Sir Henry was said to be vastly clever at
hunting them down.
Some years later, when there were happy children running about the old
Pitsea farmhouse, there came a mysterious visitor to Benfleet. He gave
no name, but wished to see Harry Fenn, who was now the owner of the
farm; and when he was gone, Harry called his pretty wife Etta, who was
all curiosity to know what the visitor wanted; and then he showed her a
large bag, full of gold pieces--such a sum and such a glittering mass as
Etta and Harry had never seen all at once before in their lives; and on
a piece of parchment was written:
’For my godson Harry Fenn: a marriage portion for him and the little
witch, albeit they were so ungrateful and unmindful of their
well-wisher, Sir Henry Morgan.’
The gold pieces were of every nationality, and from every recognised
mint; and some of them looked as if they had been kept many years in
secret hiding-places known only to Sir Henry Morgan.
’This money,’ said Harry, ’is, if I mistake not, gold that was stolen in
Sir Henry Morgan’s raids. What think you, sweetheart? I like not the
colour of it; and these adventures brought me but one gold coin of true
ring in it, and that was my own wee wife.’
’For shame, Harry,’ laughed Etta, ’to liken me to gold, which the Bible
calls the root of all evil! But why not give it to Mr. Aylett for the
poor on Canvey Island? Thou knowest, dear Harry, that there are many in
need there, round about the little Church of St. Catherine; and if it
goes to the service of that church it will remind us of all our troubles
on the other St. Catherine; and remind us, too, not to forget to be
grateful to God for our past deliverance.’
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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