The influence of the preacher with Cromwell was well known, and the officer ordered his men to ground arms, although they muttered and grumbled to themselves at the prospect of mercy being shown to men who had killed so many of their companions.  A quarter of a hour later the preacher returned with an order from the general for the prisoners to be placed in durance.

“I have obtained your life,” the preacher said, “but even to my prayers the general will grant no more.  You and your men are to be sent to the Bermudas.”

Although Harry felt that death itself would be almost preferable to a life of slavery in the plantations, he thanked the preacher for his efforts in his behalf.  A week later Harry, with the eight men who had taken with him, and twenty-seven others who been discovered in hiding-places, long after the capture of the place, were placed on board a ship bound for the Bermudas, the sole survivors of the garrison—­three thousand strong—­and of the inhabitants of Drogheda.

CHAPTER XVIII.

Slaves in the Bermudas.

The Good Intent, upon which Harry Furness with thirty-five other Royalist prisoners were embarked, was a bark of two hundred tons.  She carried, in addition to the prisoners, sixty soldiers, who were going out to strengthen the garrison of Barbadoes.  The prisoners were crowded below, and were only allowed to come on deck in batches of five or six for an hour at a time.  Four of them had died on the way, and the others were greatly reduced in strength when they landed.  As soon as they reached Bermuda the prisoners were assigned as slaves to some of the planters most in favor of the Commonwealth.  Four or five were allotted to each, and Harry having placed Mike next to him at the end of the line, when they were drawn up on landing, they were, together with two others of the soldiers who had defended the tower of Drogheda with him, assigned to the same master.

“He is an evil-looking scoundrel,” Harry said to the Irish boy.  “He looks even more sour and hypocritical than do the Puritans at home.  We have had a lesson of what their idea of mercy and Christianity is when they get the upper hand.  I fear we have a hard time before us, my lad.”

The four prisoners were marched to the center of the island, which seemed to Harry to be, as near as he could tell, about the size of the Isle of Wight.  Their new master rode in front of them, while behind rode his overseer, with pistols at his holsters, and a long whip in his hand.  Upon their way they passed several negroes working in the fields, a sight which mightily astonished Mike, who had never before seen these black creatures.  At that time the number of negroes in the island was comparatively small, as the slave trade was then in its infancy.  It was the want of labor which made the planters so glad to obtain the services of the white prisoners from England.  Many of the slaves in the island had been kidnaped as boys at the various ports in England and Scotland, the infamous traffic being especially carried on in Scotland.