Westward Ho! Or, The Voyages and Adventures of Sir Amyas Leigh, Knight, of Burrough, in the County of Devon, in the Reign of Her Most Glorious Majesty Queen ElizabethKingsley, Charles
History
Westward Ho! Or, The Voyages and Adventures of Sir Amyas Leigh, Knight, of Burrough, in the County of Devon, in the Reign of Her Most Glorious Majesty Queen Elizabeth
Kingsley, Charles
Great Britain -- History -- Elizabeth, 1558-1603 -- Fiction
Amyas's lip quivered, as he laid his hand on Adrian's shoulder.
“Your great and glorious brother, sir, is better bestowed than in
settling Newfoundland.”
“Dead?” shrieked Adrian.
“He is with the God whom he served!”
“He was always with Him, like Enoch: parable me no parables, if you love
me, sir!”
“And, like Enoch, he was not; for God took him.”
Adrian clasped his hands over his forehead, and leaned against the
table.
“Go on, sir, go on. God will give me strength to hear all.”
And gradually Amyas opened to Adrian that tragic story, which Mr. Hayes
has long ago told far too well to allow a second edition of it from me:
of the unruliness of the men, ruffians, as I said before, caught up at
hap-hazard; of conspiracies to carry off the ships, plunder of fishing
vessels, desertions multiplying daily; licenses from the general to the
lazy and fearful to return home: till Adrian broke out with a groan--
“From him? Conspired against him? Deserted from him? Dotards, buzzards!
Where would they have found such another leader?”
“Your illustrious brother, sir,” said Amyas, “if you will pardon me, was
a very great philosopher, but not so much of a general.”
“General, sir? Where was braver man?”
“Not on God's earth, but that does not make a general, sir. If Cortez
had been brave and no more, Mexico would have been Mexico still. The
truth is, sir, Cortez, like my Captain Drake, knew when to hang a man;
and your great brother did not.”
Amyas, as I suppose, was right. Gilbert was a man who could be angry
enough at baseness or neglect, but who was too kindly to punish it; he
was one who could form the wisest and best-digested plans, but who could
not stoop to that hail-fellow-well-met drudgery among his subordinates
which has been the talisman of great captains.
Then Amyas went on to tell the rest of his story; the setting sail from
St. John's to discover the southward coast; Sir Humphrey's chivalrous
determination to go in the little Squirrel of only ten tons, and
“overcharged with nettings, fights, and small ordnance,” not only
because she was more fit to examine the creeks, but because he had heard
of some taunt against him among the men, that he was afraid of the sea.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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