“Only for the present,” Ned replied. “You know I am Dutch on my mother's side. All her family have been murdered by the Spaniards, and what with that and my father being attacked and wounded, I made up my mind to give up the sea for a time, and to help the good cause as much as I could. I have been carrying a message to Brussels and want now to get back to Rotterdam or some other sea port town. How had I best do it?”
“It is not easy,” the landlord replied. “Our trade is stopped here now. The rivers swarm with craft, manned, some by the beggars of the sea, and others by fishermen; and the Spanish ships cannot come up save in great force. We have two or three of their warships here which go out and skirmish with our men, and do not always get the best of it.
“Our people did badly the other night when they let the Spaniards wade across to Tergoes. That was a bad business. But about your getting away. Let me see how it can be managed.”
“I have got a horse here.”
“That is bad,” the landlord said. “You could put on sailor's clothes, and in the morning when I send in my guest list to the magistrate, I could put down that you had gone, but the horse would betray me. Is it a good beast?”
“Yes, it is a very good horse. It was a present to me, and I don't like parting with it. But of course I cannot take it away.”
“I will send round word to a man I know who deals in horses. He is one who will hold his tongue, especially when he sees an advantage in it. I will tell him it belonged to a man who has been here and gone away suddenly, and ask him what he will give for it, and take it quietly away after it gets dark to his own stables, and ask no questions about it. He will guess it belonged to somebody who has left secretly. Of course he won't give more than half the value of the animal; but I suppose you will not be particular about terms. Anyhow, I will do the best I can for you. When he is once out of the stables they may come and question as much as they like, but they will get nothing out of me beyond the fact that a young man came here, put up his horse, stayed the night, and left in the morning. I suppose they have no special interest in you so as to lead them to make a close inquiry?”
“None at all,” Ned replied.
“That is settled then,” the landlord said. “Now, as to yourself. Two of my sons are at sea, you know, and I can rig you up with some of their clothes so that you can stroll about on the wharves, and no one will suspect you of being anything but a fisherman. Then I will try and arrange with some of the sailors to take you down in a boat at night, and either put you on board the first of our craft they come upon, or land you at Flushing. Now I will take you in to my wife, and she will see about getting you a meal and making you comfortable.”
Later on the landlord came in and said that he had made a bargain for the horse.
“The beast is worth thirty crowns,” he said, “but he will not give more than fifteen, and it required a good deal of bargaining to raise him to that. Of course he suspected that there was something out of the way about the affair, and took advantage of it.”
“That will do very well indeed,” Ned said. “I did not expect to get anything for it.”
“I have been having a talk too with some sailors belonging to a small craft lying at the wharf. They are most anxious to be off, for they are idle. The order that no boats were to leave was issued just after they came in. They have been six days doing nothing, and may, for aught they see, be kept here for another six months. They have been afraid to try to get away; for there are sentries all along the wall to see that none try to put out, and some guard boats from the Spanish ships rowing backwards and forwards outside the port, both to see that no ships leave, and that none come up to harm the shipping. Still they say they have been making up their minds that they may as well stand the risk of being shot by the Spaniards as the certainty of being starved here; besides they are patriots, and know that their boats may be wanted at any time for the conveyance of troops. So when I told them that I doubted not that you would pay them well for landing you at Flushing, they agreed to make the attempt, and will try tonight. As soon as you have had your breakfast you had better join them in the tap room, go out with them through the watergate, and get on board their craft and lie snug there till night.”
“How many men are there?” Ned asked.
“There are six altogether, but only two will be up here presently. Here are the fifteen crowns for your horse. That will do well to pay your passage to Flushing.”
As soon as he had eaten his breakfast, Ned, now dressed as a young fisherman, went into the taproom with the landlord. Two sailors were sitting there.
“This is the young fellow that I was speaking to you about,” the landlord said. “He is one of us, and heart and soul in the cause, and young though he looks has done good service. He is ready to pay you fifteen crowns when you land him at Flushing.”
“That is a bargain,” one of the men said, “and will pay us for the week we have lost here. I should take you for a sailor, young sir.”
“I am a sailor,” Ned said, “and can lend a hand on board if need be.”
“Can you swim? Because if we are overhauled by the Spaniards we shall all take to the water rather than fall into their hands.”
“Yes, I can swim,” Ned said; “and agree with you that I would rather swim than be captured. But if it is only a boatload that overhauls us I would try to beat them off before giving up a craft in which I had a share.”
The sailors looked rather doubtfully at the lad, and their expression showed that they thought he was talking boastfully.
“He means what he says,” the landlord put in. “He is the son of the English captain who beat off the great Spanish ship Don Pedro in the Zuider Zee a few weeks ago.”
The men's faces changed, and both got up and shook hands cordially with Ned. “That was a brave affair, young sir; and there is not a town in Holland where your father's name is not spoken of in honour. We know the ship well, and have helped load her before now; and now we know who you are, recognize your face. No wonder you want to get out of Bergen op Zoom. Why, if I had known it had been you we would have been glad enough to take you to Flushing without charging you a penny, and will do so now — will we not, comrades — if it presses you in any way to pay us?”
“Not at all,” Ned said. “I am well supplied with money; and since you are risking your boat, as well as your lives, it is only fair that I should pay my share. I can afford the fifteen crowns well enough, and indeed it is but the price of a horse that was given me.”
“Well, if it will not hurt you we will not say any more about it,” the sailor replied; “seeing that we have had a bad time of it lately, and have scarce money enough left between us to victual us until we get home. But had it been otherwise, we would have starved for a week rather than had it said that we made hard terms with the son of the brave Captain Martin when he was trying to escape from the hands of the Spaniards.”
“Now, lads, you had better be off at once,” the landlord interrupted. “It is time I sent in my report to the town hall; and like enough men will be down here asking questions soon after, so it were best that Master Martin were on board your craft at once. Goodbye, young sir. Tell your worthy father that I am glad indeed to have been able to be of some slight service to his son, and I trust that it will not be very long before we see the last of the Spaniards, and that we shall then have his ship alongside the wharves again.”
Ned shook hands heartily with the landlord, who had refused to accept any payment whatever from him, and then started with the two sailors. They made their way down to the inner haven, and then went on board the boat, a craft of about ten tons burden which was lying alongside. The wharves had a strange and deserted appearance. When Ned had last been there some fifty or sixty vessels of different sizes had been lying alongside discharging or taking in cargo, while many others lay more out in the stream. Now there were only a dozen boats of about the same size as that on which they embarked, all, like it, arrested by the sudden order that no vessels should leave the port.
There were no large merchantmen among them, for trade had altogether ceased, save when a strong convoy of French, Spanish, or German ships arrived. For with Flushing in the hands of the patriots, and the sea swarming with the craft of the beggars, foreign vessels bound for ports in the hands of the Spaniards did not dare singly to approach the mouth of the Scheldt. Ned received a hearty welcome from the other sailors when they learned from their skipper and his companion who he was, and before he had been ten minutes on board they asked him to give them the full details of the fight off Enkhuizen, and how it was that the Spaniards thus interfered with an English ship.
Ned told them the story, and the sailors when he had finished had each some tale to tell of oppression and cruelty to friends or relatives on the part of the Spaniards. When they had finished their midday meal, which was
