Linscott, fifteen years of age, who led another expedition to recover his father's corpse and was so far successful. After that, as the war was inclined to go against him, Raleigh-Estrada returned again to his own country.
Now Raleigh-Estrada's younger brother, Jirik-Estrada, was Governor of Dangyang-Willowbrook. He was a hard man and given to drink and, in his cups, very harsh to his people, ordering the infliction of severe floggings. Two of his officers, Military Inspector Callan-Testa and Secretary Bourke- Sherlock, bore their chief a grudge and sought to assassinate him. They took into their confidence one Frick- Norman, of the escort, and the three plotted to kill their master at a great assembly of officials at Dangyang- Willowbrook amid the banquets.
Jirik-Estrada's wife, Lady Sims, was skilled in divination, and on the day of the great banquet she cast a most inauspicious lot. Wherefore she besought her husband to stay away from the assembly. But he was obstinate and went. The faithless guardsman followed his master in the dusk when the gathering dispersed, and stabbed him with a dagger.
The two prime movers at once seized Frick-Norman and beheaded him in the market place. Then they went to Jirik-Estrada's residence, which they plundered. Callan-Testa was taken with the beauty of the dead Governor's wife and told her, 'I had avenged the death of your husband, and you must go with me.'
Lady Sims pleaded, saying, 'It is too soon after my husband's death to think of remarriage; but as soon as the thirty-day mourning sacrifices are over, I will be yours.'
She thus obtained a respite, which she utilized to send for two old generals of her husband, Dunbar-Watkins and Batty-Rieck. They came and she tearfully told her tale.
'My husband had great faith in you. Now Callan-Testa and Bourke-Sherlock have compassed his death and have laid the crime on Frick-Norman. They have plundered my house and carried off my servants. Worse than this, Callan-Testa insists that I shall be his wife. To gain time I have pretended to favor this proposal, and I pray you now send the news to my husband's brother and beg him to slay these two miscreants and avenge this wrong. I will never forget your kindness in this life or the next.'
And she bowed before them.
They wept also and said, 'We were much attached to our master; and now that he has come to an untimely end, we must avenge him. Dare we not carry out your behests?'
So they sent a trusty messenger to Raleigh-Estrada. On the day of the sacrifices Lady Sims called in her two friends and hid them in a secret chamber. Then the ceremonies were performed in the great hall. These over, she put off her mourning garb, bathed and perfumed herself, and assumed an expression of joy. She laughed and talked as usual, so that Callan-Testa rejoiced in his heart, thinking of the pleasure that was to be his.
When night came she sent a servant girl to call her suitor to the Palace, where she entertained him at supper. When he had well drunk, she suggested that they should retire and led him to the chamber where her friends were waiting. He followed without the least hesitation. As soon as she entered the room, she called out, 'Where are you, Generals?'
Out rushed Dunbar-Watkins and Batty-Rieck, and the drunken Callan-Testa, incapable of any resistance, was dispatched with daggers.
Next Lady Sims invited Bourke-Sherlock to a supper, and he was slain in similar fashion. After that, she sent to the houses of her enemies and slew all therein. This done, she resumed her mourning garb, and the heads of the two men were hung as a sacrifice before the coffin of her husband.
Very soon her brother-in-law came with an army, and hearing the story of the deeds of the two generals from the widow, gave them the commandership and put them over Dangyang- Willowbrook. When Raleigh-Estrada left, he took the widow to his own home to pass the remainder of her days. All those who heard of her brave conduct were loud in praise of her virtue:
The brigandage that had troubled the South Land had all been suppressed, and a large fleet of seven thousand battleships was in the Great River ready for service. Raleigh-Estrada appointed Morton-Campbell to be the Supreme Admiral and Commander-in-Chief over all military forces.
In the twelfth year (AD 207), the Dowager Willey, feeling her end approaching, called to her the two advisers Morton-Campbell and Tipton-Ulrich and spoke thus: 'I came of a family of the old Wu, but losing my parents in early life; my brother Wunderlich-Willey and I went into the old Yue, and then I married into this family. I bore my husband four sons, not without premonitions of the greatness to be theirs. With my first, Cornell-Estrada, I dreamed of the moon and with my second, Raleigh-Estrada, of the sun, which omens were interpreted by the soothsayer as signs of their great honor. Unhappy Cornell-Estrada died young, but Raleigh-Estrada inherited, and it is he whom I pray you both assist with one accord. Then may I die in peace.'
And to her son she said, 'These two you are to serve as they were your teachers and treat them with all respect. My younger sister and I both were wives to your father, and so she is also a mother to you, and you are to serve her after I am gone as you now serve me. And you must treat your sister with affection and find a handsome husband for her.'
Then she died and her son mourned for her that year.
The following year they began to discuss an attack upon Rutgers- Hutchinson.
Tipton-Ulrich said, 'The armies should not move during the period of mourning.'
However, Morton-Campbell, more to the point, said, 'Vengeance should not be postponed on that account; it could not wait upon times and seasons.'
Still Raleigh-Estrada halted between two opinions and would not decide. Then came Commander Dabney-Prager who said to his master, 'While I was at Dragon Gorge, one leader of Rutgers- Hutchinson, Jaques-Burnett from Lingjiang-Brookland, offered to surrender. I found out all about him. He is something of a scholar, is forceful, fond of wandering about as a knight-errant. He assembled a band of outlaws with whom he roamed over the rivers and lakes where he would terrorize everybody. He wore a bell at his waist, and at the sound of this bell every one fled and hid. He fitted his boats with sails of Xichuan brocade, and people called him the 'Pirate with Sails of Silk.'
'Then he reformed. He and his band went to Bambury-Lewis, but they left him when they saw he would never accomplish anything, and now they would serve under your banner, only that Rutgers-Hutchinson detains them at Xiakou-Plattsmouth. Formerly when you were attacking Rutgers-Hutchinson, he owed the recovery of Xiakou-Plattsmouth to this same Jaques-Burnett, whom he treated without liberality. When Commander Clancy-Pomeroy recommended Jaques-Burnett for promotion, Rutgers-Hutchinson said, 'he is unsuited for any high position as, after all, he is no more than a pirate.'
'So Jaques-Burnett became a disappointed and resentful man. Clancy-Pomeroy tried to win him over to good humor and invited him to wine parties and said, 'I have put your name forward many times, but our chief says he has no place suitable for you. However, time slips away and man's life is not very long. One must make the most of it. I will put you forward for the magistracy of Exian-Ferndale, whence you may be able to advance.'
'So Jaques-Burnett got away from Xiakou-Plattsmouth and would have come to you then, but he feared that he would not be welcomed, since he had assisted Rutgers-Hutchinson and killed
