Chapter LIII

Trial and execution of two of the principal personages in our history.

We left Sir Robert Barclay on the deck of the cutter, the ladies and women sent down below, and Mr Vanslyperken on the point of being dragged aft by two of Sir Robert’s men.  The crew of the Yungfrau, at the time, were on the lower deck, some assisting the wounded men, others talking with Jemmy Salisbury and his wife, whom they were astonished to find among the assailants.

“Why, Jemmy, how did you get a berth among those chaps?”

“I’ll tell you,” said Moggy, interrupting:  “when he was last at Portsmouth, they heard him playing his fiddle and singing, and they took such a fancy to him, that they were determined to have him to amuse them in the cave.  So one evening, they kidnapped him, took him away by main force, and kept him a prisoner ever since.”

“That’s carrying the joke rather too far,” observed one of the men.

“Mein Gott! yes,” replied the corporal.

“But I am at liberty again now at all events,” replied Jemmy, taking the cue from his wife; “and if that chap, Vanslyperken, don’t command the cutter any more, which I’ve a notion he will not, I shall enter as boatswain—­heh, Dick.”

“Yes,” replied Short, who was swinging in his hammock.

“Well—­when I found that Jemmy couldn’t be found, that my dear darling duck of a husband—­my jewel, a box of diamonds (arn’t you my Jemmy), didn’t I tear my hair, and run about the streets, like a mad woman,” continued Moggy.  “At last I met with Nancy Corbett, whose husband is one of the gang, and she told me where he was, fiddle and all, and I persuaded her to let me go to him, and that’s why we both are here.”

This was a good invention of Moggy’s, and as there was nobody who took the trouble to disprove it, it was received as not the least apocryphal.  But now Mr Vanslyperken was dragged past them by two of the conspirators, and all the men of the Yungfrau followed on deck, to see what was to take place.

When Mr Vanslyperken had been brought aft, his legs tottered, and he could hardly stand.  His face was livid, and his lips white with fear, and he knew too well that he had little mercy to expect.

“Now, sir,” said Sir Robert, with a stern air, “hear the accusation against you, for although we may be lawless, we will still be just.  You voluntarily entered into our service, and received our pay.  You were one of us, with only this difference, that we have taken up the cause from principle and loyalty, and you joined us from mercenary motives.  Still we kept our faith with you; for every service performed, you were well and honourably paid.  But you received our money and turned against us; revealed our secrets, and gave information to your government, by which that gentleman” (pointing to Ramsay) “and many others, had not they fortunately received timely notice, would have perished by the gibbet.  Now, sir, I wish to know, what you can bring forward in your defence, what have you to urge that you should not die the death which you so traitorously prepared for others.”