He listened very attentively to us and, when Phips said he did in truth believe there was three hundred thousand pounds under the water, he sighed and said he would he could have some of it, for he wanted money badly. This we could well believe; for though his father left him so vast a fortune, he was a heavy gambler, and his Duchess--a half-witted creature, granddaughter of the Duke of Newcastle, to whom he was married before his dying father, as he lay on his bed--had ravaged him with her extravagance and debts. So says Phips to him: "Then, your Grace, if you will have it you shall. Find me but a ship well fitted and this very year--no other--it shall be yours. It is there, I know; I have much evidence it is; and though I have fished in the wrong place hitherto, yet now will I find it. And, as I say, it is my year." "Why, sir," said the Duke, "why this year more than any other?" Yet this Phips would not tell him--confiding in me afterwards that, though he believed in the astrologer, he was ashamed of his belief. So, then, next says the Duke: "But why seek not the Spanish, or the French, who have now gotten possession of the North of Hispaniola, if not all of the island, for this plate? 'Tis worth their while, if 'tis worth mine." "Your Grace," says Phips, "it is not possible they should seek for it. Ever and always are they fighting together for possession, when not massacring of the natives--of whom three millions have been slain since Columbus's day--and truly they have neither time nor inclination, even if they believe, which all do not. Then, for private adventurers, there are none among them who can or will risk the money; so that if any find it it must be an Englishman." In this way, and with many other arguments and proofs, did Phips press it on the Duke--particularly leaning on the boat that came ashore, after the wreck of the carrack, full of plate; so that, at last, he said he would think well upon it, and bade us come again in a week's time. "For," says he, "of myself I cannot now do it, though I could very well once"--and here he sighed--"when I had my father's fortune. But now I am no longer rich and am even petitioning the King for employment, and have the promise of Jamaica. Still I will see among my friends, and I will ask the King's permission. He, you know, must have a tenth and adventure nothing." "Let his Majesty have it," says Phips, "and then I'll warrant your Grace there shall be enough to satisfy all." "Sir, you are very sanguine," says the Duke. "But there, come in a week and you shall hear." So we made our bow and left him. Now, I have so much yet to write of the finding of the plate and then all that followed, as well as to tell you, who may read, how you shall also find a fortune if you will seek, that I must waste no space, but crowd on with my story.