In the Days of DrakeFletcher, J. S. (Joseph Smith)
General
In the Days of Drake
Fletcher, J. S. (Joseph Smith)
Drake, Francis, approximately 1540-1596 -- Fiction
But I had no time to talk with him then, for I was anxious to find Frey
Bartolomeo. Therefore Pharaoh and I left Nunez with the officer and
began searching the ship high and low. Because on first coming aboard
her we had been straightway conducted to the oars we knew next to
nothing of the Santa Filomena, and were accordingly some time in getting
our bearings. Nevertheless we could find no trace of the monk, who
seemed to have vanished into thin air, or to have gone overboard during
the fight. He was not to be found either in cockpit or cabin, forecastle
or lazaretto, and at last we stared blankly in each other's faces and
wondered what had become of him.
"There is one place we have not yet tried," said Pharaoh, "and that is
the powder magazine. Maybe he has retreated there."
We fetched a Spaniard from the upper deck and obliged him to conduct us
to the magazine, and there, sure enough, was Frey Bartolomeo, calm and
impassive as ever. He had stove in the head of one barrel of gunpowder,
and now stood over the powder holding a lighted candle in his hand. As
we burst in the door and confronted him, he raised his pale face and
regarded us with calmness and scorn.
"Lay but a finger on me, ye Lutheran dogs," he said, "and I will drop
this light into the powder and send your souls to perdition!"
The men with us started back, dismayed and affrighted by his grim looks
and determined words. But Pharaoh Nanjulian laughed.
"Your own soul will go with ours, friar," said he.
Frey Bartolomeo shot a fierce glance at him from under his cowl.
"Fool!" he said. "Thinkest thou that I value life? What hinders me from
destroying every one of you and myself as well?"
"This!" said Pharaoh, suddenly knocking the candle out of his hand. It
flew across the powder, and striking a bulkhead opposite, went out
harmlessly. So we seized Frey Bartolomeo, who now bitterly reproached
himself for not having blown up the ship before we reached him, and
conducted him to the upper deck, from whence he and Captain Nunez were
presently conveyed to the Golden Hinde, where they were safely stowed in
irons.
And now, the fight being over, Drake and his men made haste to see what
treasure the galleon contained. In this quest, however, those of us who
had been rescued from the oars took no part, for now that the excitement
was dying away our feverish strength went with it, so that we presently
began to exhibit signs of terrible distress and exhaustion, and many of
us swooned away. Here, however, our rescuers came to our further relief,
and the ship's doctor was soon busily engaged in seeing to us, dressing
our wounds, giving us oils and unguents for our bloody stripes, and
ordering wine and food for all of us. So we were much refreshed; but
none of these things, comforting as they were, seemed so good to us as
the words of kindness, which we heard with wonder and astonishment, our
ears having become accustomed to naught but threatenings and revilings.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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