or a year maybe--and then all the cost of unlading again--"

"My good sir," said Grenville, "what have private interests to do
with this day? Let us thank God if He only please to leave us the bare
fee-simple of this English soil, the honor of our wives and daughters,
and bodies safe from rack and fagot, to wield the swords of freemen in
defence of a free land, even though every town and homestead in England
were wasted with fire, and we left to rebuild over again all which our
ancestors have wrought for us in now six hundred years."

"Right, sir!" said Amyas. "For my part, let my Virginian goods rot
on the quay, if the worst comes to the worst. I begin unloading the
Vengeance to-morrow; and to sea as soon as I can fill up my crew to a
good fighting number."

And so the talk ran on; and ere two days were past, most of the
neighboring gentlemen, summoned by Sir Richard, had come in, and great
was the bidding against each other as to who should do most. Cary and
Brimblecombe, with thirty tall Clovelly men, came across the bay, and
without even asking leave of Amyas, took up their berths as a matter of
course on board the Vengeance. In the meanwhile, the matter was taken
up by families. The Fortescues (a numberless clan) offered to furnish
a ship; the Chichesters another, the Stukelys a third; while the
merchantmen were not backward. The Bucks, the Stranges, the Heards,
joyfully unloaded their Virginian goods, and replaced them with powder
and shot; and in a week's time the whole seven were ready once more for
sea, and dropped down into Appledore pool, with Amyas as their admiral
for the time being (for Sir Richard had gone by land to Plymouth to join
the deliberations there), and waited for the first favorable wind to
start for the rendezvous in the Sound.

At last, upon the twenty-first of June, the clank of the capstans rang
merrily across the flats, and amid prayers and blessings, forth sailed
that gallant squadron over the bar, to play their part in Britain's
Salamis; while Mrs. Leigh stood watching as she stood once before,
beside the churchyard wall: but not alone this time; for Ayacanora stood
by her side, and gazed and gazed, till her eyes seemed ready to burst
from their sockets. At last she turned away with a sob,--

"And he never bade me good-bye, mother!"

"God forgive him! Come home and pray, my child; there is no other rest
on earth than prayer for woman's heart!"

They were calling each other mother