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
They brought away the Spanish officer's sword (a very good blade), and
also a great chain of gold which he wore about his neck; both of which
were allotted to Brimblecombe as his fair prize; but he, accepting the
sword, steadfastly refused the chain, entreating Amyas to put it into
the common stock; and when Amyas refused, he cut it into links and
distributed it among those of the boat's crew who had succored him,
winning thereby much good-will. “And indeed” (says the chronicler),
“I never saw in that worthy man, from the first day of our
school-fellowship till he was laid in his parish church of Hartland
(where he now sleeps in peace), any touch of that sin of covetousness
which has in all ages, and in ours no less than others, beset especially
(I know not why) them who minister about the sanctuary. But this man,
though he was ugly and lowly in person, and in understanding simple, and
of breeding but a poor parson's son, had yet in him a spirit so loving
and cheerful, so lifted from base and selfish purposes to the worship
of duty, and to a generosity rather knightly than sacerdotal, that all
through his life he seemed to think only that it was more blessed to
give than to receive. And all that wealth which he gained in the wars he
dispersed among his sisters and the poor of his parish, living unmarried
till his death like a true lover and constant mourner (as shall be said
in place), and leaving hardly wherewith to bring his body to the
grave. At whom if we often laughed once, we should now rather envy him,
desiring to be here what he was, that we may be hereafter where he is.
Amen.”
CHAPTER XIX
WHAT BEFELL AT LA GUAYRA
“Great was the crying, the running and riding,
Which at that season was made in the place;
The beacons were fired, as need then required,
To save their great treasure they had little space.”
Winning of Cales.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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