"Now, senors, every precaution that we could think of has been taken to insure the undisturbed discussion of the business which has brought me and my compatriots to San Juan de Ulua; with your permission, therefore, we will proceed."
CHAPTER EIGHT.
HOW GEORGE PROCEEDED TO DEAL WITH THE AUTHORITIES OF SAN JUAN.
An uneasy stir among his audience followed this brief introduction, showing clearly the highly-wrought condition of the Spaniards" nerves as they leaned forward in their seats and fixed their eyes intently upon the speaker"s face. To still further increase the tension betrayed in the faces and att.i.tudes of his audience, George paused impressively for a few seconds, and then resumed:
"A year ago," said he, "seven ships, storm torn and shattered, put into this harbour in order to refit. They were manned by Englishmen, fellow- countrymen of my own and those with me. They had been engaged in lawful and peaceful trade with various ports along the Main, and entered this harbour with the utmost confidence, secure in the conviction that, having committed no offence, they might implicitly rely upon Spanish honour. When they arrived, they found twelve defenceless plate ships, laden with gold and silver, in the harbour; and had they been so disposed my countrymen could have seized those ships, or as many of them as they chose to take, and sailed away in them, leaving their own damaged craft behind them; and n.o.body could have said them nay. But my countrymen were traders, not pirates; and great though the temptation must have been, they left those galleons alone, asking only the hospitality of your harbour and permission to refit their ships without molestation. Also when, upon the day after the arrival of the English ships, the remainder of your plate fleet and its convoy appeared off this port, my countrymen could have kept them outside, had they so chosen, with the result that every ship would have been lost in the next gale that might arise. _You_ knew, as well as did my own countrymen, the tremendous risk and peril to which those enormously rich ships would have been exposed, had they been prevented from entering the harbour; and you hastened to arrange a convention with the English whereby your own ships were to be permitted to enter the port, while the English were to be allowed to refit their vessels without hindrance or molestation.
Is all this true, senors, or have I misstated any part of the story, so far?"
George paused for a reply; but for a full minute or more there was no response. Then at last the alcalde slowly rose to his feet and stretching forth his right hand deprecatingly toward the young captain, said:
"Most ill.u.s.trious senor, all that you have said is absolutely true. But before--"
"Pardon, senor," interrupted George. "I have not yet finished. When I have done so I shall be quite prepared to listen courteously and with patience to whatever you may be pleased to say.
"In accordance with the terms of that convention the English were permitted to work for three days at the dismantling of their ships in preparation for the work of refitting--and then, senors, without a word or hint of warning, at the very instant when they were least able to defend themselves, you treacherously fell upon them; with the result that more than three hundred Englishmen were slain, four of their ships were either captured or destroyed, many Englishmen were taken prisoners, and the residue were driven to sea in their least dismantled ships, short of food and water, to sink or swim as the fates might decide. One of the ships which effected her escape afterward sank, and with her went the entire proceeds of the voyage, while the other two, riddled and torn by Spanish shot, treacherously fired, only reached England after a voyage of incredible difficulty, toil, and suffering. Now, senors, the object of my visit to San Juan de Ulua is to avenge that treacherous attack upon my fellow-countrymen, to exact ample compensation therefor and for all the loss and suffering attendant upon it, and to demand the release of those who fell into your hands upon that occasion. If you have aught to urge by way of excuse for, or justification of, your treachery, I am willing to hear it and give it my most careful consideration."
Again silence, tense and electric, prevailed in the cabin at the conclusion of the young English captain"s indictment, the alcalde and his companions staring helplessly at one another as each groped for something, some sign or suggestion, upon which to frame a reply to the charges which they knew only too well to be true. At length one of the party, seemingly unable to any longer endure the tension, rose slowly to his feet and, addressing George, said:
"Senor Capitano, it is not possible for us to deny the truth of the charges which you have brought against us; to our shame and sorrow we are obliged to admit that all you have said is only too true. Yet, senor, in self-defence, I submit that, individually, none of us who are here a.s.sembled is to blame for the occurrence to which you have referred, and therefore I contend that you cannot, in justice, hold us, or any one of us, responsible for it. We, who now sit here in the cabin of your ship, were all present in San Juan de Ulua when the attack upon your countrymen took place, and I am confident that I am expressing the opinion of my fellow-citizens as well as of myself in saying that we one and all deplored and were ashamed of it, and would have prevented it, had it been possible. But, senor, the citizens of San Juan had no voice in the matter; we were not consulted; we were not even informed of what was about to happen; the whole affair was the conception of his Excellency the Viceroy, and the attack was organised and carried out at his instigation and order by the military and naval forces under his command; the citizens took no part in it, so far as I am aware; or, if any of them did so, it was only the comparatively few lawless ones who are to be found in every community. Therefore, senor, I contend that your quarrel, which I admit to be just, is not with the peaceful and law-abiding citizens of San Juan, but with his Excellency the Viceroy, who ordered the attack, and the military and naval officials who carried it out."
A low murmur of approval and agreement ran round the a.s.sembly as the speaker resumed his seat, and then there ensued a pause while George waited to see whether anyone else had anything to say. Presently, in response to the glance of inquiry with which he regarded the various members of the a.s.semblage, first one and then another arose and briefly remarked that he fully concurred in what his compatriot had so well said, until nearly, if not quite, all had expressed approval.
"Very well, senors," responded George, when at length he found that no one had anything to add, "I am willing to accept your collective a.s.surance that the citizens of San Juan as a whole are guiltless of all partic.i.p.ation in, or approval of, the treacherous and unjustifiable attack upon my countrymen of which I complain; therefore it follows that the local representatives of the Spanish Government are the responsible parties, and it is with them that I must settle the account. As I have already informed you, I am here to demand the fullest and most ample reparation for the outrage of which I complain, and for all loss and damage attendant upon it; and I ask you, do you think it in the least degree probable that the Viceroy will peaceably concede my demands? If he will not, I shall exact them by force of arms; and in that case I warn you all that it will be very difficult, if not indeed impossible, for me to discriminate between public and private property; it will therefore be for you, senor"--bowing to the alcalde--"to use your best efforts to induce the Viceroy and those under him to arrange an amicable settlement with me; for otherwise it may be necessary for me to, among other measures, bombard your town!"
"Nay, nay, senor; not that, not that, I pray you!" exclaimed the alcalde, starting to his feet in great agitation. "Think, most Ill.u.s.trious, think of the many innocent lives, of the women and children, who must inevitably perish if you resort to such a bar--such a--an--extreme measure as that which you threaten."
"I do think of it, senor alcalde," answered George; "but I think also of my fellow-countrymen who died here as a consequence of Spanish treachery, and also of those others who are at this moment lying captive and pining in your dungeons; and the latter thoughts render me inflexible. I will not fire a single shot at your town if I can help it; and it must be your task, senor, to so conduct matters and represent them to the Viceroy, that it shall be unnecessary for me to resort to such an extreme measure."
"I will gladly do my utmost, most n.o.ble senor, to carry out such instructions as you may be pleased to give me," answered the alcalde.
"That is well," said George. "I want you to convey to the Viceroy--by the way, where is the Viceroy? Are you here as his representative?"
"Nay, not so, senor," answered the alcalde. "His Excellency is at present in the city of Mexico. The Commandant of the military lies in his house, sick of a fever and quite unable to transact business; and that is why I am here."
"Um!" commented George. "That makes it rather awkward--for you, I am afraid, senor." He considered a little, and then asked: "How long would it take a well-mounted messenger to proceed to the city of Mexico with a message, and return with an answer?"
"Six days at the very least, senor; the roads are very bad," was the reply.
"Then that rules the Viceroy out of the question," said George, "for I cannot spare the time to send messages backward and forward a six days"
journey. Now, as to the military Commandant: you say that he is too ill to transact business. Is there not a sub-commandant, or some such official, with whom I can deal?"
"There is, of course, the Captain of Soldiers, senor," answered the alcalde. "But I come next in rank to the Commandant."
"Then," said George, "it is clear that you, senor, are the official with whom I must deal; and if you are unwilling to bear the entire responsibility, you must e"en share it with the military captain. Now, these are my demands, which I will presently embody in a written doc.u.ment, in order that you may have something to show when the time comes for you to reckon with the Viceroy.
"First: I claim one million _pezos_ of gold to cover the loss of ships and treasure resulting to my countrymen through the Viceroy"s treacherous attack upon them. Stay a moment, senor, that is only the beginning of my demands,"--as the alcalde half rose to his feet, protestingly.
"Secondly: I will put down the number of Englishmen slain on that occasion at, let us say, three hundred and fifty. For the benefit of those who were dependent upon those men I demand one thousand gold _pezos_ each, or three hundred and fifty thousand in all.
"Thirdly: I demand the release of every Englishman now in your hands, with certain provisos concerning them, which I will make known when they have been delivered into my hands.
"And lastly: I will retain these twelve gentlemen, your companions, as hostages on board my ship, to guard against any further treachery; the understanding being that upon the first sign of anything of the kind, I hang them, one after the other, at my yard
As one man the unhappy thirteen sprang to their feet, and for a few minutes the cabin was vociferous with their protests. Saint Leger stood listening with perfect calmness to the storm as it raged around him, and his absolute imperturbability seemed at length to have a tranquillising effect upon his unwilling guests, for, finally, realising that what they said produced not the slightest visible effect upon him, they resumed their seats one after another, and eventually peace was restored, the party waiting eagerly to hear what reply might be forthcoming. Then George once more spoke.
"I think, senors," he said, "that you are alarming yourselves quite unnecessarily--unless indeed you feel that you are unable to rely upon the good faith of your fellow-countrymen. For your safety depends entirely upon that. So long as they can be content to deal straightforwardly with me, no harm shall happen to you; it is only in the event of treachery that you will have anything to fear, and surely you can trust to your friend the alcalde to take all the steps needful to prevent anything of that kind."
"I will do my very utmost in that direction," interposed the alcalde.
"It is only the injudicious activity of the soldiery that we really need fear; and I think it will be well, Senor Capitano, for you to permit my colleagues here to prepare a joint letter setting forth the fact of their detention by you as hostages for the good behaviour of all, and the unhappy consequences which must result to them from ill-advised action on the part of any one; so that I may have doc.u.mentary evidence to exhibit in confirmation of my own statement, if I find such confirmation needful. As to your demands, senor, it will, of course, be impossible for me to concede any of them upon my own unsupported authority; in the absence of his Excellency, the Viceroy, and in view of your refusal to afford time for communication with him, I must discuss the situation with such of the authorities as are immediately accessible, and abide by their decision, whatever it may be. There is one matter, however, to which I may as well refer at once, since it will have to be dealt with sooner or later, and that is, the release of the prisoners taken upon the occasion of the ill-advised attack upon your countrymen last year. I approach the subject with the utmost reluctance, for I fear that what I have to say will be very ill received by you. I must say it, however; and it is this: it will be quite impossible for us to comply with that condition in its entirety, for the best of all reasons, namely, that only a very small number of them still remain in our hands."
"What, then, has become of the others?" demanded George, in a low, tense voice, the significance of which caused a visible shudder to thrill through his audience.
"I very deeply regret to say, most ill.u.s.trious senor--and I beg you at the outset to understand that no one here is in the very remotest degree responsible for the deplorable fact which I have to state--that some of them are--dead, while others have been condemned to the galleys and are--I greatly fear--completely lost sight of by this time," replied the alcalde, in great trepidation, which was fully shared by his twelve companions.
For a few moments that seemed ages to the quaking Spaniards sitting there, George remained silent, his burning gaze searching face after face questioningly, and more than one present, knowing the nature of the revelation that must now very soon come, seemed to already feel a rope tightening about his neck.
At length, when the silence had become almost intolerable, George spoke again, still with ominous calmness and quietness. Leaning forward across the table, with his eyes steadfastly fixed upon those of the alcalde, he said:
"Your reply, senor, sounds curiously significant, and impels me to demand further information. Can you, by any chance, inform me how many of those men are dead, what were their names, and what was the cause and nature of their death?"
"No, senor, I cannot answer your question categorically at the present moment," replied the alcalde. "All that I can tell you, now, is that some of them died of the wounds which they received in the fight, some died of disease, and the rest--perished--in the--Inquisition--or linger still within its walls. But records, of course, exist from which it will no doubt be possible to furnish you with all details."
"So," commented George, after another terrible silence, "some perished in the Inquisition--or linger still within its walls. Can you tell me, senor, how they chanced to get into the power of the Inquisition?"
"Certainly, senor," answered the alcalde, with alacrity, believing that he saw his way to clear himself and his colleagues from blame. "Upon their capture, they were naturally at first confined in prison by order of the military authorities. From thence some of them--a few--were sent to the galleys, some--as I just now had the honour to mention to you, died in prison of their wounds, and the remainder were claimed by the Chief Inquisitor."
"I see," commented George. "Yes, I think I begin to understand, and see my way. Now, senor, I will furnish you with pens and paper, and you can proceed to draft the doc.u.ment to which you just now referred, while I place on record the nature and extent of my claims. When we have done that, I will go ash.o.r.e with you, taking with me a party of armed men, accompanied by whom I purpose to call at your Inquisition and remove from thence any Englishmen whom I may find within its walls. I have decided to take this step, not only to save time, but also because, having seen something of your fellow-countrymen in Old Spain, I know the extreme reluctance with which you would regard any suggestion of mine that you should bring pressure of any kind to bear upon your own clergy, therefore I will relieve you of all embarra.s.sment on that score by personally a.s.suming the responsibility. It will also probably be necessary that I should have an interview with the commander of your military forces, as I presume that he is the official who will be able to furnish me with the names of the Englishmen captured, with particulars of the manner in which they were disposed of. Indeed, upon second thoughts, I am inclined to believe that he is the man upon whom I ought first to call; and since I presume that it will be necessary for you also to call upon him--in the interests of your friends here--we will make the call together."
So saying George produced writing materials, and, handing a liberal supply to the alcalde, seated himself at the table and proceeded to enumerate in writing the several demands which he had already made by word of mouth, quite undisturbed by the excited discussion which was proceeding among the Spaniards as to the precise terms in which their own doc.u.ment should be worded so as to render it as impressive as possible to those to whom it might be necessary to exhibit it. His own work was soon done, and a copy taken for retention and reference, if needful; and then he sat patiently for nearly half-an-hour until the hostages" letter had been drafted to their satisfaction, and duly signed. Next, having formally handed his written demand to the alcalde, he invited the latter to follow him out on deck, where, summoning Ba.s.set, the captain of the soldiers, and Dyer, the pilot, he issued to them certain instructions. Then, turning to the alcalde, who had stood by, listening, but understanding nothing of what was being said, George remarked:
"Senor Alvarez, as you have just seen, I have issued certain instructions to two of my officers, and they are these. Don Ricardo Ba.s.set, my military commandant, I have instructed to muster ten of his soldiers, fully armed and equipped, to accompany me ash.o.r.e, under him, as a body guard. And to Don Roberto Dyer, my lieutenant, I have given instructions that the gentlemen whom I have considered it necessary to retain as hostages are to be treated with the utmost possible courtesy, so long as all matters go well, but that upon the slightest sign or indication of treachery upon the part of your countrymen, either ash.o.r.e or afloat, he is to hang them, one after the other, at those yard-arms, up there. Also, he is to keep his guns trained upon the town and, in the event of none of the landing party returning before sunset, open fire upon it forthwith. I have explained these matters to you in order that you may realise that upon you, and upon the success with which you are able to impress upon your compatriots the absolute necessity for complete submission, depends the lives of the hostages whom you are leaving behind you. Ah! here comes Senor Ba.s.set with his guard; and I see that the boat is also ready; therefore, as there may be much to be done between this and sunset, we will go as soon as you are ready, senor."
Whereupon Don Juan Alvarez, the alcalde of San Juan de Ulua, hurried back to the great state cabin to rea.s.sure and bid farewell to the hostages, and then, returning to the deck, accompanied George to the boat, where Ba.s.set and his men had already taken their places; and the party pushed off and headed for the landing place.
Although it was a city, San Juan was, at this period of its history, but a very small place, of little more than a square mile in area, with only two streets at all worthy of the name, these two streets traversing each other at right angles and crossing in the centre of the city, the junction of the two being at the Grand Plaza, or Square, one side of which was occupied by the Cathedral, while the other three sides were given up to the Government and Munic.i.p.al Buildings. It was to one of these last, a large and imposing building with the arms of Spain boldly sculptured upon its pediment, that the alcalde conducted the little party of Englishmen, and which he entered alone, after apologising elaborately for doing so, upon the plea that it would greatly facilitate matters if he were permitted to first see Don Manuel Rebiera, the acting Commandant, and explain to him the situation. George agreed with him that this might be so, and patiently took up his stand outside, waiting, in company with Ba.s.set and his squad of soldiers, in the shadow of the building until he should be summoned to enter. And meanwhile the party became objects of curiosity and by no means friendly comment to a rapidly increasing crowd, chiefly of men of the labouring cla.s.s, who came to gaze curiously upon the little knot of resolute-looking Englishmen who returned their gaze so fearlessly, blowing their lighted matches occasionally and handling their muskets in significant fashion when the mob showed signs of becoming rather too demonstrative.
At length, after an absence of nearly twenty minutes, the alcalde re- appeared and, with further apologies, this time for his prolonged absence, invited George to accompany him into the building for the purpose of being presented to Don Manuel Rebiera, the acting Commandant.
This gentleman was found installed in a room which partook, in about equal proportions, of the characteristics of an office and a barrack- room, with a sentry outside the door, who stolidly saluted the pair as they pa.s.sed in.
Captain Rebiera proved to be a typical Spanish soldier of the period, bluff and hearty, but exceedingly courteous in manner, with, according to his own account, a profound respect and admiration for the English, so far as his knowledge of them extended, yet George quickly came to the conclusion that the good man was suffering from a certain feeling of soreness at the idea of the city, for the safety of which he was responsible, being to all intents and purposes in the power and at the mercy of the exceedingly young man to whom he was introduced. He greeted George courteously, yet with a certain suggestion of restrained antagonism, and then said:
"Senor, my friend, Don Juan Alvarez, has very briefly acquainted me with the extraordinary circ.u.mstances of your visit to our port, and of the still more extraordinary demands which you have seen fit to make. Now, I may as well mention that, so far as those demands are concerned, it will be quite impossible for me to concede them without first consulting--"
"Pardon me, Don Manuel," interrupted George, who was already beginning to suspect a disposition on the part of this individual at least to set up a system of delay and r.e.t.a.r.dation of proceedings, "I do not think we need enter upon a discussion of my demands as a whole just now. The object of my visit to you is to obtain a list of the names of the Englishmen who fell into your hands last year as a result of your unprovoked attack upon the squadron of my countryman, Admiral Hawkins, and a statement of what has become of them. I presume you can furnish me with this information, can you not?"