



Produced by Al Haines








[Frontispiece: THEY MARCHED... LIKE MEN WHO HAD LOST ALL INTEREST IN
LIFE]




  PRINCE RUPERT

  THE BUCCANEER


  BY

  C. J. CUTCLIFFE HYNE



  WITH EIGHT ILLUSTRATIONS BY G. GRENVILLE MANTON



  THIRD EDITION



  METHUEN & CO.
  36 ESSEX STREET W.C.
  LONDON




  First Published... April 1901
  Second Edition ... June 1901
  Third Edition.... May 1907




  TO
  E. C. H.




CONTENTS

CHAPTER

I. The Pawning of the Fleet

II. The Admission to the Brotherhood

III. The Rape of the Spanish Pearls

IV. The Ransoming of Caraccas

V. The Passage-money

VI. The Mermaid and the Act of Faith

VII. The Galley

VIII. The Regaining of the Fleet




LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

They marched... like men who had lost all interest in life...
_Frontispiece_

Prince Rupert shone out like a very Paladin

Then one Watkin, a man of iron and a mighty shooter, took the lead

It would be a perpetual sunshine for me, Querida

Master Laughan endeavoured to outdo them all in desperation and valour

"Oh, I say what I think," retorted Watkin with a sour look

The secretary was occupied in leading her own.

There is no mistaking the manner of buccaneers returning well-laden




PRINCE RUPERT THE BUCCANEER



CHAPTER I

THE PAWNING OF THE FLEET

"Not slaves, your Highness," said the Governor.  "We call them
_engagés_ here: it's a genteeler style.  The Lord General keeps us
supplied."

"I'll be bound he gave them the plainer name," said Prince Rupert.

The Governor of Tortuga shrugged his shoulders.  "On the bills of
lading they are written as Malignants; but judging from the way he
packed the last cargo, Monsieur Cromwell regards them as cattle.  It is
evident that he cared only to be shut of them.  They were so packed
that one half were dead and over the side before the ship brought up to
her anchors in the harbour here.  And what were left fetched but poor
prices.  There was a strong market too.  The Spaniards had been making
their raids on the hunters, and many of the _engagés_ had been killed:
our hunters wanted others; they were hungry for others; but these poor
rags of seaworn, scurvy-bitten humanity which offered, were hardly
worth taking away to teach the craft--Your Highness neglects the
cordial."

"I am in but indifferent mood for drinking, Monsieur.  It hangs in my
memory that these poor rogues once fought most stoutly for me and the
King.  Cromwell was ever inclined to be iron-fisted with these Irish.
Even when we were fighting him on level terms he hanged all that came
into his hands, till he found us stringing up an equal number of his
saints by way of reprisal.  But now he has the kingdom all to himself,
I suppose he can ride his own gait.  But it is sad, Monsieur D'Ogeron,
detestably sad.  Irish though they were, these men fought well for the
Cause."

The Governor of Tortuga emptied his goblet and looked thoughtfully at
its silver rim.  "But I did not say they were Irish, _mon prince_.
Four Irish kernes there were on the ship's manifest, but the scurvy
took them, and they went overside before reaching here."

"Scots then?"

"There is one outlandish fellow who might be a Scot, or a Yorkshireman,
or a Russian, or something like that.  But no man could speak his
lingo, and none would bid for him at the sale.  You may have him as a
present if you care, and if perchance he can be found anywhere alive on
the island.  No, your Highness, this consignment is all English;
drafted from foot, horse, and guns: and a rarely sought-after lot they
would have been, if whole.  From accounts, they must have been all
tried fighting men, and many had the advantage of being under your own
distinguished command.--Your Highness, I beseech you shirk not the
cordial.  This climate creates a pleasing thirst, which we ought to be
thankful for.  The jack stands at your elbow."

Prince Rupert looked out over the harbour, and the black ships, at the
blue waters of the Carib sea beyond.  "My poor fellows," he said, "my
glorious soldiers, your loyalty has cost you dear."

"It is the fortune of war," said D'Ogeron, sipping his goblet.  "A
fighting man must be ready to take what befalls.  Our turn may come
to-morrow."

"I am ready, Monsieur, to take my chances.  It is not on my conscience
that I ever avoided them."

"Your Highness is a philosopher, and I take it your officers are the
same.  Yesterday they rode with you boot to boot in the field, ate with
you on the same lawn, spoke with you in council across the same
drum-head.  To-day they would be happy if they could be your lackeys.
But the chance is not open to them; they are lackeys to the buccaneers."

Prince Rupert started to his feet.  "Officers, did you say?"

"Just officers.  The great Monsieur Cromwell has but wasteful and
uncommercial ways of conducting a war.  He captures a gentle and
gallant officer; he does not ask if the poor man desires to be put up
to ransom, but just claps the irons on him, and writes him for the next
shipment to these West Indies, as though he were a common pikeman."
The Governor toyed with his goblet and sighed regretfully--"'Twas a
sheer waste of good hard money."

"And you?"

"We kept to the Lord General's classification, and sold gentle officer,
and rude common soldier on the same footing.  There was no other way.
We were too far off your England here to treat profitably for ransom.
Besides, the estates of most were wasted during the war, and what was
left lay in Monsieur Cromwell's hands."

"All the gentlemen of England are beggared.  They sent their plate to
the King's mint to be coined for the troops' pay; they pawned their
lands; and now they are sent to be butcher-boys to horny-handed
cow-killers.  I think you have dealt harshly, Monsieur D'Ogeron."

"It was your war," said the Governor good-humouredly, "not mine; and
the harshness of it was out of my hands.  The men were sent here, and I
dealt with them in the most profitable way.  If it would have paid me
to weed out the officers, I should have done it.  As it didn't, I e'en
let them stay herded in with the rest."

"But surely, Monsieur, you must have some regard for gentle blood?"

"Mighty little,  _mon prince_, mighty little.  I had it once in the old
days, in France; but I lost it out here.  It's not in fashion.  A quick
eye and a lusty arm we value in Tortuga and Hispaniola more than all
the titles a king could bestow.  Gentility will not fill the belly
here, neither will it ward off the Spaniards, neither will it despoil
them of their ill-got treasure to provide the wherewithal for an honest
carouse.  What we value most is a little coterie of Brethren of the
Coast sailing in with a deep fat ship, with their numbers few and their
appetites whetted.  To those we are ready to bow, as we did once in the
old countries to knights and belted earls--till, that is, they have
spent their gains."

"And then?"

"Why, then, _mon prince_, we are apt to grow uncivil till we see their
sterns again as they go off to search the seas for more.  Oh, I tell
you, it's a different life here from the old one at home; and a
rustling blade, if he can contrive to remain alive, soon makes his way
to the top, be he gentle, or be he mere whelp of a seaport drab."

"You state your policy with clearness.  This is not known in France,
and there, I make bold to say, Monsieur, it would not be liked."

The Governor drank deeply.  "Here's to France," quoth he, "and may she
always stay a long way off!  I'm my own master here, and have a strong
place and a lusty following."

"Stronger places have been