east again; he was either swooning or sleeping, and
they had much ado to get him home. There he lay for eight-and-forty
hours, in a quiet doze; then arose suddenly, called for food, ate
heartily, and seemed, saving his eyesight, as whole and sound as ever.
The surgeon bade them get him home to Northam as soon as possible,
and he was willing enough to go. So the next day the Vengeance sailed,
leaving behind a dozen men to seize and keep in the queen's name any
goods which should be washed up from the wreck.

CHAPTER XXXIII

HOW AMYAS LET THE APPLE FALL

"Would you hear a Spanish lady,
How she woo'd an Englishman?
Garments gay and rich as may be,
Deck'd with jewels had she on."

Elizabethan Ballad.

It was the first of October. The morning was bright and still; the skies
were dappled modestly from east to west with soft gray autumn cloud, as
if all heaven and earth were resting after those fearful summer months
of battle and of storm. Silently, as if ashamed and sad, the Vengeance
slid over the bar, and passed the sleeping sand-hills and dropped her
anchor off Appledore, with her flag floating half-mast high; for the
corpse of Salvation Yeo was on board.

A boat pulled off from the ship, and away to the western end of the
strand; and Cary and Brimblecombe helped out Amyas Leigh, and led him
slowly up the hill toward his home.

The crowd clustered round him, with cheers and blessings, and sobs of
pity from kind-hearted women; for all in Appledore and Bideford knew
well by this time what had befallen him.

"Spare me, my good friends," said Amyas, "I have landed here that I
might go quietly home, without passing through the town, and being made
a gazing-stock. Think not of me, good folks, nor talk of me; but come
behind me decently, as Christian men, and follow to the grave the body
of a better man than I."

And, as he spoke, another boat came off, and in it, covered with the
flag of England, the body of Salvation Yeo.

The people took Amyas at his word; and a man was sent on to Burrough, to
tell Mrs. Leigh that her son was coming. When the coffin was landed
and lifted, Amyas and his friends took their places behind it as chief
mourners, and the crew followed in order, while the crowd fell in behind
them, and gathered every moment; till ere they were halfway to Northam
town, the funeral train might number full five hundred souls.

They had sent over by a fishing-