low began wiping his eyes.

"Well, sir, on the seventh day we six were down by the pinnace clearing
her out, and the little maid with us gathering of flowers, and William
Penberthy fishing on the bank, about a hundred yards below, when on
a sudden he leaps up and runs toward us, crying, 'Here come our hens'
feathers back again with a vengeance!' and so bade catch up the little
maid, and run for the house, for the Spaniards were upon us.

"Which was too true; for before we could win the house, there were full
eighty shot at our heels, but could not overtake us; nevertheless, some
of them stopping, fixed their calivers and let fly, killing one of the
Plymouth men. The rest of us escaped to the house, and catching up the
lady, fled forth, not knowing whither we went, while the Spaniards,
finding the house and treasure, pursued us no farther.

"For all that day and the next we wandered in great misery, the lady
weeping continually, and calling for Mr. Oxenham most piteously, and
the little maid likewise, till with much ado we found the track of our
comrades, and went up that as best we might: but at nightfall, by good
hap, we met the whole crew coming back, and with them 200 negroes or
more, with bows and arrows. At which sight was great joy and embracing,
and it was a strange thing, sirs, to see the lady; for before that she
was altogether desperate: and yet she was now a very lioness, as soon
as she had got her love again; and prayed him earnestly not to care
for that gold, but to go forward to the North Sea, vowing to him in my
hearing that she cared no more for poverty than she had cared for her
good name, and then--they being a little apart from the rest--pointed
round to the green forest, and said in Spanish--which I suppose they
knew not that I understood,--'See, all round us is Paradise. Were it not
enough for you and me to stay here forever, and let them take the gold
or leave it as they will?'

"To which Mr. Oxenham--'Those who lived in Paradise had not sinned as we
have, and would never have grown old or sick, as we shall.'

"And she--'If we do that, there are poisons enough in these woods, by
which we may die in each other's arms, as would to Heaven we had died
seven years agone!'

"But he--'No, no, my life. It stands upon my honor both to fulfil my
bond with these men, whom I have brought hither, and to take home to
England at least something of my prize as a proof of my own valor.'

"Then she smiling--'