COBHAM. Well, Harry, you who have spent such a peaceful life—you who never sunk a Spaniard or overhauled a wine brig, and ran the contents on the sands of Lowestoft, you can do what you like with your share (_They laugh at the sarcasm_). HAWKINS. I say, Killigrew, that’s a broadside! Tom carries too many guns for you! Ha! ha! ha! (_laughter in which all join_). COBHAM. But you see I have spent my life fighting for religion and vengeance, and, with the help of God, will so continue to the end (_with firm resolution_) I can’t forgot the times of Wyatt! KILLIGREW. Well, it helps the work, Tom, when there is good plunder as well as vengeance.—Somehow, I cannot help thinking that if they carried corn instead of gold and silver, they might have continued their voyage. COBHAM. That is as it may be. If they hailed from a Protestant country—England or Holland—or carried a neutral flag, Moor, Greek, or Turk.—But Spain and her Inquisition sets my blood a boiling, I would sink one of her ships with all hands; even if freighted with manure or sand. Do you think our blood is to cry to Heaven in vain for vengeance? Not while Thomas Cobham has one shot in the locker—a Rover’s deck, manned with fifty free, daring boys, that can fight five hundred or a thousand Spaniards wherever we meet them on the ocean. But with respect to these Spaniards I cannot see any good reason, why we should not spoil, as well as slay, the Philistines. _Enter_ SIR EDWARD HORSEY _from behind_. HORSEY. Praise the Lord! England has still one of her saints left—spoken like a true son of a Puritan! You have chapter and verse for that—go-a-head, Tom,—slay and take possession, and when your hand is in the throat of the common foe, Edward Horsey is not the man to baulk you in your purpose. _They all shake hands with the new-comer_, _laughing_. COBHAM. Ned! I am glad to see you. I beg your pardon! (_bowing low_). Sir Edward Horsey! Why man, I understand the Queen has knighted you and made you Governor of the Isle of Wight. She is coming to her senses, and recognizing her true friends at last—a Rover of the genuine stamp (_laughing exultingly_) Governor of the Isle of Wight! No Frenchman or Spaniard will land there I trow. She sees that the real defence of the coast, as well as the ultimate overthrow of Spain and the possession of the Trident, lies with the free flag, and must pass to England through her Freebooters.