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
After that, woe on woe; how, seven days after they left Cape Raz, their
largest ship, the Delight, after she had “most part of the night” (I
quote Hayes), “like the swan that singeth before her death, continued in
sounding of trumpets, drums, and fifes, also winding of the comets and
hautboys, and, in the end of their jollity, left off with the battle and
doleful knells,” struck the next day (the Golden Hind and the Squirrel
sheering off just in time) upon unknown shoals; where were lost all but
fourteen, and among them Frank's philosopher friend, poor Budaeus; and
those who escaped, after all horrors of cold and famine, were cast on
shore in Newfoundland. How, worn out with hunger and want of clothes,
the crews of the two remaining ships persuaded Sir Humphrey to sail
toward England on the 31st of August; and on “that very instant, even in
winding about,” beheld close alongside “a very lion in shape, hair, and
color, not swimming, but sliding on the water, with his whole body; who
passed along, turning his head to and fro, yawning and gaping wide,
with ugly demonstration of long teeth and glaring eyes; and to bid us
farewell (coming right against the Hind) he sent forth a horrible voice,
roaring or bellowing as doth a lion.” “What opinion others had thereof,
and chiefly the general himself, I forbear to deliver; but he took it
for bonum omen, rejoicing that he was to war against such an enemy, if
it were the devil.”
“And the devil it was, doubtless,” said Adrian, “the roaring lion who
goes about seeking whom he may devour.”
“He has not got your brother, at least,” quoth Amyas.
“No,” rejoined Mrs. Hawkins (smile not, reader, for those were days in
which men believed in the devil); “he roared for joy to think how many
poor souls would be left still in heathen darkness by Sir Humphrey's
death. God be with that good knight, and send all mariners where he is
now!”
Then Amyas told the last scene; how, when they were off the Azores, the
storms came on heavier than ever, with “terrible seas, breaking short
and pyramid-wise,” till, on the 9th September, the tiny Squirrel nearly
foundered and yet recovered; “and the general, sitting abaft with a
book in his hand, cried out to us in the Hind so oft as we did approach
within hearing, 'We are as near heaven by sea as by land,' reiterating
the same speech, well beseeming a soldier resolute in Jesus Christ, as I
can testify he was.
“The same Monday, about twelve of the clock, or not long after, the
frigate (the Squirrel) being ahead of us in the Golden Hind, suddenly
her lights were out; and withal our watch cried, the general was cast
away, which was true; for in that moment the frigate was devoured and
swallowed up of the sea.”
And so ended (I have used Hayes' own words) Amyas Leigh's story.
“Oh, my brother! my brother!” moaned poor Adrian; “the glory of his
house, the glory of Devon!”
“Ah! what will the queen say?” asked Mrs. Hawkins through her tears.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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