re, I kept true
faith with him, and would have been a better friend to him, sir, what is
more, than ever he was to himself.

Sir Richard.--Alas! that might easily be.

Yeo.--I think, sir, and will make good against any man, that Mr. Oxenham
was a noble and valiant gentleman; true of his word, stout of his sword,
skilful by sea and land, and worthy to have been Lord High Admiral of
England (saving your worship's presence), but that through two great
sins, wrath and avarice, he was cast away miserably or ever his soul was
brought to the knowledge of the truth. Ah, sir, he was a captain worth
sailing under!

And Yeo heaved a deep sigh.

Sir Richard.--Steady, steady, good fellow! If thou wouldst quit
preaching, thou art no fool after all. But tell us the story without
more bush-beating.

So at last Yeo settled himself to his tale:--

"Well, sirs, I went, as Mr. Leigh knows, to Nombre de Dios, with Mr.
Drake and Mr. Oxenham, in 1572, where what we saw and did, your worship,
I suppose, knows as well as I; and there was, as you've heard maybe,
a covenant between Mr. Oxenham and Mr. Drake to sail the South Seas
together, which they made, your worship, in my hearing, under the tree
over Panama. For when Mr. Drake came down from the tree, after seeing
the sea afar off, Mr. Oxenham and I went up and saw it too; and when we
came down, Drake says, 'John, I have made a vow to God that I will sail
that water, if I live and God gives me grace;' which he had done, sir,
upon his bended knees, like a godly man as he always was, and would I
had taken after him! and Mr. O. says, 'I am with you, Drake, to live or
die, and I think I know some one there already, so we shall not be quite
among strangers;' and laughed withal. Well, sirs, that voyage, as you
know, never came off, because Captain Drake was fighting in Ireland; so
Mr. Oxenham, who must be up and doing, sailed for himself, and I, who
loved him, God knows, like a brother (saving the difference in our
ranks), helped him to get the crew together, and went as his gunner.
That was in 1575; as you know, he had a 140-ton ship, sir, and seventy
men out of Plymouth and Fowey and Dartmouth, and many of them old hands
of Drake's, beside a dozen or so from Bideford that I picked up when I
saw young Master here."

"Thank God that you did not pick me up too."

"Amen, amen!" said Yeo, clasping his hands on his breast. "Those seventy
men, sir,--seventy gallant men, sir, with every one of