Carried Off: A Story of Pirate Times

Contents
Chapter XXI

A BAG OF GOLD. The Pitsea Manor Farm was a dull place enough now, even though the beautiful sunshine made Nature look at her best on this September afternoon; but Mr. Fenn and his wife seemed to have no longer any heart left for joy, and they had settled that there was to be no harvest-home on the farm, for ever since the disappearance of their son the worthy couple could do nothing but mourn. They had indeed gone through terrible sorrow, and their only comfort had been the long talks Mr. Aylett had had with them, and his firm belief that Harry had not run away, as the lad said he had once thought of doing, but that he had in truth been kidnapped. Mr. Aylett, being the brother of a rich squire, had powerful friends, and he had done all in his power to find out news of Harry; but in those days news travelled but slowly; and though much was guessed, the truth had never been exactly ascertained. At this moment Mr. Aylett was seen by the worthy Fenns to be walking towards the farm, and very soon he was sitting by the sad-looking yeoman in the great farm-hall, beginning as usual to talk of Harry. 'I've told the men I'll have naught to do with a harvest-home,' said Mr. Fenn, decidedly. 'I'll give them money for the feast, and they may go and dance their round reels on the green; but, now my poor boy is dead, I care not for sounds of music, and joy does but make me dizzy.' 'And yet the Bible tells us to "rejoice always," good neighbour,' said Mr. Aylett. 'Is it right to deprive others of joy when God has taken ours from us? Is not this somewhat selfish grief, and displeasing to God?' 'It is my whim, Mr. Aylett. I cannot feel like Job, for when I see the lads a-merrymaking I think of my poor Harry's goodly countenance, and my heart seems like to break.' 'The Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away,' said Mrs. Fenn gently--'so I tell Mr. Fenn; but such an ado I have to be a-comforting him that sometimes I forget my own sore grief. It's a wonder I ever lived through that time; and now when I sit in a quiet coigne I fancy I'm another woman and in truth not Harry's mother. At this harvest-time I think of the new doublet I had always ready for him, and how handsome he looked. Lack-a-day!' 'Tut, tut, woman!' said her husband, who liked to think his grief was the greatest, 'the lad was more to me than to thee. You know how he would follow me about when he could but just toddle. Ay, ay, Mr. Aylett, you too know what he was like. It was a sight to see him riding about the farm; and now there's no one of my name as will inherit this place. And as for my cousin who has an eye to the place, i' faith he's but a poor creature--ay, a paltry ass.' 'The Lord can bring back your boy,' said the clergyman, with a quiet assurance that appeared to be galling to the yeoman. 'I said naught to the contrary, Mr. Aylett; but there's a sight of things that the Lord could do as never happen in this world; and my boy's dead--I know it; and meseems, in truth, it's folly thinking on it longer.' ''Tis much lacking in faith, good Mr. Fenn, that you are. For my part, I believe Harry will come home, and----' But here the keener-witted mother started up and called out: 'Mr. Aylett's heard news of Harry! Speak out, sir, or this old heart will break; for my head feels dizzy. Speak out, sir, for God's sake!' And Mr. Aylett now saw that he had sufficiently prepared the old people for the joy that he had to tell them, and, standing up reverently, he said: 'Ay, ay, good friends, God's name be praised! Harry is safe and sound, and has a long and wonderful story to tell you.' 'But where is he--oh, my boy! my boy! You're not deceiving me, Mr. Aylett, else God have mercy on you!' 'God forbid! Harry is in my house--brought here by a Captain Carew himself; and with him is come an English maid who was a fellow-prisoner in the West Indies. But I must tell no tales, and I bade him follow me anon--and, ay, look you, there he is, so I'll leave you to hear his own story, and go back to the maid, to whom my wife has taken a huge fancy already, for there is as much sunlight in her eyes as there is gold in our autumn corn; and, indeed, hers is as strange a history as you could find even in tales of our Chaucer.' We must leave Harry to tell his own wonderful adventures, but Etta had already recounted to Mr. and Mrs. Aylett how Captain Carew had been kindness itself to the prisoners of Santa Teresa when he landed at St. Catherine, and how he had taken all the party on board, and, after landing the new Governor at Jamaica, had gone to the island where Carlo and Harry Fenn had been left, helped to find it by the rude chart which Andreas had drawn. It can be easily understood how happy was the meeting, and how Dona Elena landed to see her brother's grave, and heard how he had died in Carlo's arms. Then, last, Captain Carew had taken them all on board again, and had landed the Spaniards in Spain, and Etta had been comforted at the loss of Felipa by Carlo's saying that she must come some day as an honoured guest to his home; that when he was a man he would travel to England, as he meant to be a Spanish Ambassador at the Court of King Charles. Then how excited she had been when she first beheld the shores of England, and knew that she was indeed no longer a prisoner, but a free English girl. Captain Carew, having relations of his own near South Benfleet, had himself taken the young people to Mr. Aylett, as Harry, now thoughtful beyond his years, knew that his sudden reappearance at home might cause too great a shock to his parents; besides, he thought Mr. Aylett could best judge what was to be done about finding Etta Allison's relations. You can all imagine the joy of the homecoming; but I must add that there was a grand harvest-home that year at Pitsea Manor Farm, and such joy as never had been. What made it seem so wonderful to Harry was that Etta was there, dressed in a pretty gown of white seme; and that he led off the country dance with her; and that her sweet, brave face made the whole hall appear merry; for, as Mrs. Fenn said, 'all could see Etta was dancing a very Barley Bree o' mirth.' Her uncle had been found, and had come over to see her; but, being an old bachelor, he was glad enough to pay a yearly sum to Mrs. Aylett, and to let her stay with that excellent lady; saying he should leave her all his money, and stipulating that she was to pay him yearly visits. No wonder Etta was happy as she danced with Harry, or told stories of the past. ---- Will you like to hear something more, and can you guess that when Harry Fenn married, his bride was Etta Allison? And Carlo del Campo was, in truth, present, as he had really joined the Embassy--though he was not yet Ambassador--but he said at the wedding that he owed his success to Etta, who had taught him English. Poor Felipa died just before Carlo's journey. She had never recovered the effects of all the hardships and sorrows she had gone through; but before her death she sent some of her jewels to her dear Etta, and begged her not to forget her; which, as Etta's heart was big, she was not likely to do. You can imagine what talks they all had together; and perhaps the most wonderful piece of news that Harry told Don Carlo was that Captain Henry Morgan had now turned over a new leaf, and that the King had knighted him, and made him Governor of Jamaica; and that, wonderful to relate, he was now called Sir Henry Morgan, a brave and loyal gentleman. Truly it was a case of 'set a thief to catch a thief,' for the pirates were now no longer tolerated in Jamaica; and Sir Henry was said to be vastly clever at hunting them down. Some years later, when there were happy children running about the old Pitsea farmhouse, there came a mysterious visitor to Benfleet. He gave no name, but wished to see Harry Fenn, who was now the owner of the farm; and when he was gone, Harry called his pretty wife Etta, who was all curiosity to know what the visitor wanted; and then he showed her a large bag, full of gold pieces--such a sum and such a glittering mass as Etta and Harry had never seen all at once before in their lives; and on a piece of parchment was written: 'For my godson Harry Fenn: a marriage portion for him and the little witch, albeit they were so ungrateful and unmindful of their well-wisher, Sir Henry Morgan.' The gold pieces were of every nationality, and from every recognised mint; and some of them looked as if they had been kept many years in secret hiding-places known only to Sir Henry Morgan. 'This money,' said Harry, 'is, if I mistake not, gold that was stolen in Sir Henry Morgan's raids. What think you, sweetheart? I like not the colour of it; and these adventures brought me but one gold coin of true ring in it, and that was my own wee wife.' 'For shame, Harry,' laughed Etta, 'to liken me to gold, which the Bible calls the root of all evil! But why not give it to Mr. Aylett for the poor on Canvey Island? Thou knowest, dear Harry, that there are many in need there, round about the little Church of St. Catherine; and if it goes to the service of that church it will remind us of all our troubles on the other St. Catherine; and remind us, too, not to forget to be grateful to God for our past deliverance.' 'A right good thought, sweetheart! And what say you to putting up a stained glass window of St. Catherine herself? And beside the wheel we will place a cord in her hand, which will be in memory of the cruel knot of which you still bear the marks.' 'For shame, Harry! Nay, I was no saint. Why, if Captain Carew had not come in the nick of time, I should, perhaps, have told everything I knew. There, put up the gold pieces in their bag--I cannot abide the sight of them; but Mr. Aylett will say, I am sure, that God can, and He will, sanctify even stolen treasure.' And so out of evil they brought forth good, as all can do who set their minds to it. But that evening, when Mr. Aylett, with much surprise, received the gold, he asked Harry, laughingly, if he were of the same mind as of old, and if he would still like to wander forth. 'If Etta would come too, I would not mind seeing those beautiful lands again,' he said. 'But, what with mother and the children, I know right well she will not travel again for many a long year.' 'Prithee, then, go alone, Harry, an it please you,' said his wife; and as Harry shook his head in a very determined fashion, Etta Fenn fell a-laughing softly, knowing well that her husband would never leave her for all the gold of the West Indies. 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Concerning a certain ship's doctor who came to Weymouth in press-gang days, and, staying at King's Ferry, tempted Simon Lydgate, the ferryman, to do wrong; of the punishment that fell on Lydgate, and of the joy and peace that followed the home-coming of his boy, Wat. "Like its predecessors, this volume is full of picturesque pictures of old life and manners."--TIMES. JOAN'S VICTORY With Two Full-page Illustrations by J. F. WEEDON. Crown 8vo. bevelled boards, cloth gilt, price 1s. 6d. Descriptive of a young woman of quick, passionate temper and stubborn purpose, and of the means by which a young child unconsciously brought her back to her better self and helped to soften her heart. "Admirably detailed. Joan is really a very powerful psychological study."--SPECTATOR. PECKOVER'S MILL A Story of the Great Frost of 1739. With Five Full-page Illustrations by W. S. STACEY. Crown 8vo. bevelled boards, cloth gilt, price 3s. 6d. A story of a Jacobite conspiracy that was on foot in the time of the great frost of 1739, showing how Silas Peckover came home from abroad and took possession of the home of his forefathers, and how the sweet womanliness and honesty of Mistress Ruth influenced him for good. "Silas Peckover is a character quite worthy of Ainsworth."--ACADEMY. CHRIS DERRICK A Stormy Passage in a Boy's Life. With Two Full-page Illustrations by W. S. STACEY. Crown 8vo. bevelled boards, cloth gilt, price 2s. This story supplies some lively sketches of what a mutiny often led to at the beginning of the present century, and of the narrow shifts that smugglers ran in escaping from the revenue officers. "A spirited story of adventure."--SPECTATOR. STARWOOD HALL A Boy's Adventure. With Two Full-page Illustrations by C. J. STANILAND. Crown 8vo. bevelled boards, cloth gilt, price 2s. A stirring story of how an honest boy fell into the clutches of a band of highwaymen, or "gentlemen of fortune," in the middle of the last century. "The pictures of rural manners ... strike us as being extremely life-like."--TIMES. BY ESME STUART Author of "The Little Brown Girl," "The Belfry of St. Jude's," &c. THE SILVER MINE An Underground Story. With Four Full-page Illustrations by W. S. STACEY. Crown 8vo. bevelled boards, cloth gilt, price 3s. An account of life on the rocky Devonshire coast, an unsuccessful attempt to reopen a disused silver mine, and a long-standing family feud between the Redwoods and the Pennants, with the incidents that served to bring it to an end. "A very bright, attractive story. The children are natural, and the style is fresh and spirited."--JOURNAL OF EDUCATION. THE VICAR'S TRIO With Five Full-page Illustrations by C. J. STANILAND. Crown 8vo. bevelled boards, cloth gilt, price 3s. 6d. The story of how young Lord Faulconbridge, a peevish and irritable boy, is brought to see that the rank and wealth with which he has been endowed bring with them equally great responsibilities. CAST ASHORE With Four Full-page Illustrations by C. J. STANILAND. Crown 8vo. bevelled boards, cloth gilt, price 3s. It was little Mona, who was cast ashore on the North Lancashire coast, after the total wreck of the ship in which she was travelling under the care of her father's servant, Hanson. How the unprincipled Jephtha Toppin afterwards lures her away, with a view to earning a reward, and how she is eventually rescued--both are told with considerable power and vividness. "A most exciting and yet perfectly wholesome tale of adventure."--BANNER. FOR HALF-A-CROWN With Four Full-page Illustrations. Crown 8vo. bevelled boards, cloth gilt, price 3s. Half-a-crown is the price that Mrs. Chemmo, a retired housekeeper living in the cathedral city of Hedderstone on an annuity from her former mistress, pays for a little waif, Natalia, to an Italian colony in a squalid Portsmouth alley. "There is a freshness and brightness about the book which too many of the books for girls in which religious sentiments are at all introduced lack very wofully."--PALL MALL GAZETTE. CARRIED OFF A Story of Pirate Times. With Four Full-page Illustrations by J. F. WEEDON. Crown 8vo. bevelled boards, cloth gilt, price 3s. It was fearless Harry Perm, the son of an Essex yeoman farmer, who was "carried off" by Captain Henry Morgan, the famous buccaneer, and his men, to the West Indies, where the Spanish settlements are attacked, and adventures in plenty follow. "Miss Stuart has gone with the times, and has given us a vigorous and well-told story of the days of the buccaneers."--STANDARD. BY M. E. PALGRAVE Author of "Under the Blue Flag," "Miles Lambert's Three Chances," &c. IN CHARGE A Story of Rough Times. With Five Full-page Illustrations by W. S. STACEY. Crown 8vo. bevelled boards, cloth gilt, price 3s. A stirring story of the days when smugglers were in plenty and free-trading (as it was called) was in full swing. "Full of incident and interest, very pleasantly told, and breathes an excellent spirit throughout."--WESTERN MORNING NEWS. A PROMISE KEPT With Four Full-page Illustrations. Crown 8vo. bevelled boards, cloth gilt, price 2s. 6d. A story with a lofty purpose, showing the amount of self-denial that is necessary in those who leave their home and kindred to engage in missionary work in far-off lands. "Its tone is elevated and serious. Its purpose is to show the need of aiming at a high standard of life, and the failure of those who only dream noble things."--NATIONAL CHURCH. LOST ON THE MOOR By "TAFFY." With Frontispiece. Cloth boards, gilt, price 1s. The story of Little Jack, how he was lost on the moor in a thick fog through his brother's disobedience, and how he was found and finally restored to his home. "An evening will be very pleasantly spent and attended with much good in reading this interesting story."--SCHOOLMASTER. NATIONAL SOCIETY'S RECENT PUBLICATIONS THE LIFE OF OUR LORD AND SAVIOUR JESUS CHRIST Illustrated from the Italian Painters of the Fourteenth, Fifteenth, and Sixteenth Centuries. A Preface has been furnished to this volume, on the Growth of Religious Art in Italy, by Mr. F. T. PALGRAVE, who has also added Critical and Explanatory Notes on the Pictures and their Painters. Richly bound in cloth boards, bevelled, gilt edges, price 15s. The Church Quarterly Review says: "This book is a perfect gem.... It is, indeed, a relief to turn to such matchless designs as these. It would be impossible to speak too highly of the knowledge of the history of art, the elevation of thought, and the elegance of style which Mr. Palgrave displays." The Spectator says:--"The drawings are executed with much skill; and the chromo-lithographic process is here employed with delicacy and success. Mr. Palgrave's notes are pertinent and instructive. His Introduction is able and eloquent." The Academy says:--"This is a very beautiful book, and the chromolithographs with which it is adorned, or rather, which are illustrated by the text, reflect great credit on the care and skill of all concerned in their production." The Athenaeum says--"Byway of preface, a highly intelligent and critical essay on the growth, aims, and developments of religious art in Italy by Mr. F. T. Palgrave. Each well-weighed and thoughtful sentence is worth reading. The general purport of the book is well represented by the title. Mr. Palgrave vouches for the beauty of the drawings made by Mr. Goodall, from which the chromolithographs were taken.... A very ambitious effort has been extremely successful." The Portfolio says:--"The eloquent and informing preface and the critical notes on the pictures by Mr. F. T. Palgrave, are addressed to an adult and cultured audience.... The literary part of the volume deserves more careful consideration than is usually accorded to letterpress penned to accompany even high-class illustrations." The Art Journal says:--"A work which should be the most popular, as it must be the handsomest, of Christmas books bearing a religious character.... Twenty-four wonderful little chromo-lithographs from drawings made on the spot.... The volume is in every way a beautiful one." THE STORY OF THE CHILDHOOD OF CHRIST. By R. E. H. 2s. 6d. THE STORY OF THE MINISTRY OF CHRIST. By R. E. H. 2s. 6d. THE STORY OF THE PASSION OF CHRIST. By R. E. H. 2s. 6d. THE STORY OF THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST. By R. E. H. 2s. 6d. Each of the above four Volumes is illustrated by Six Pictures from the Italian Painters of the Fourteenth, Fifteenth, and Sixteenth Centuries. NATIONAL SOCIETY'S DEPOSITORY, SANCTUARY, WESTMINSTER.