“We gave her three pieces of ordnance only, and struck down her mizzenmast, and then boarded sword in hand, but never had need to strike a blow; and before we left her, one of her own boys had changed her name, and rechristened her the ‘Cacaplata.’”

“Glory, glory!  Cowards they are, as I told them.  I told them they never could stand the Devon mastiffs, and well they flogged me for saying it; but they could not stop my mouth.  O sir, tell me, did you get the ship that came up after her?”

“What was that?”

“A long race-ship, sir, from Guayaquil, with an old gentleman on board,—­Don Francisco de Xararte was his name, and by token, he had a gold falcon hanging to a chain round his neck, and a green stone in the breast of it.  I saw it as we rowed him aboard.  O tell me, sir, tell me for the love of God, did you take that ship?”

“We did take that ship, and the jewel too, and her majesty has it at this very hour.”

“Then tell me, sir,” said he slowly, as if he dreaded an answer; “tell me, sir, and oh, try and mind—­was there a little maid aboard with the old gentleman?”

“A little maid?  Let me think.  No; I saw none.”

The man settled his features again sadly.

“I thought not.  I never saw her come aboard.  Still I hoped, like; I hoped.  Alackaday!  God help me, Salvation Yeo!”

“What have you to do with this little maid, then, good fellow!” asked Grenville.

“Ah, sir, before I tell you that, I must go back and finish the story of Mr. Oxenham, if you will believe me enough to hear it.”

“I do believe thee, good fellow, and honor thee too.”

“Then, sir, I can speak with a free tongue.  Where was I?”

“Where was he, Amyas?”

“At the Isle of Pearls.”

“And yet, O gentles, tell me first, how Captain Drake came into the South Seas:—­over the neck, as we did?”

“Through the Straits, good fellow, like any Spaniard:  but go on with thy story, and thou shalt have Mr. Leigh’s after.”

“Through the Straits!  O glory!  But I’ll tell my tale.  Well, sirs both—­To the Island of Pearls we came, we and some of the negroes.  We found many huts, and Indians fishing for pearls, and also a fair house, with porches; but no Spaniard therein, save one man; at which Mr. Oxenham was like a man transported, and fell on that Spaniard, crying, ‘Perro, where is your mistress?  Where is the bark from Lima?’ To which he boldly enough, ‘What was his mistress to the Englishman?’ But Mr. O. threatened to twine a cord round his head till his eyes burst out; and the Spaniard, being terrified, said that the ship from Lima was expected in a fortnight’s time.  So for ten days we lay quiet, letting neither negro nor Spaniard leave the island, and took good store of pearls, feeding sumptuously on wild cattle and hogs until the tenth day, when there came by a small bark; her we took, and found her from Quito,