too could go with you, and share in your glory! Come, now," said she,
laying her head upon Amyas's breast, and looking up into his face with
one of her most winning smiles, "I have heard of heroic mothers ere
now who went forth with their sons to battle, and cheered them on to
victory. Why should I not go with you on a more peaceful errand? I could
nurse the sick, if there were any; I could perhaps have speech of that
poor girl, and win her back more easily than you. She might listen to
words from a woman--a woman, too, who has loved--which she could not
hear from men. At least I could mend and wash for you. I suppose it is
as easy to play the good housewife afloat as on shore? Come, now!"

Amyas looked from one to the other.

"God only knows which of the two is less fit to go. Mother! mother! you
know not what you ask. Frank! Frank! I do not want you with me. This
is a sterner matter than either of you fancy it to be; one that must be
worked out, not with kind words, but with sharp shot and cold steel."

"How?" cried both together, aghast.

"I must pay my men, and pay my fellow-adventurers; and I must pay them
with Spanish gold. And what is more, I cannot, as a loyal subject of
the queen's, go to the Spanish Main with a clear conscience on my own
private quarrel, unless I do all the harm that my hand finds to do, by
day and night, to her enemies, and the enemies of God."

"What nobler knight-errantry?" said Frank, cheerfully; but Mrs. Leigh
shuddered.

"What! Frank too?" she said, half to herself; but her sons knew what she
meant. Amyas's warlike life, honorable and righteous as she knew it
to be, she had borne as a sad necessity: but that Frank as well should
become "a man of blood," was more than her gentle heart could face at
first sight. That one youthful duel of his he had carefully concealed
from her, knowing her feeling on such matters. And it seemed too
dreadful to her to associate that gentle spirit with all the ferocities
and the carnage of a battlefield. "And yet," said she to herself, "is
this but another of the self-willed idols which I must renounce one by
one?" And then, catching at a last hope, she answered--

"Frank must at least ask the queen's leave to go; and if she permits,
how can I gainsay her wisdom?"

And so the conversation dropped, sadly enough.

But now began a fresh perplexity in Frank's soul, which amused Amyas at
first, when it seemed merely jest, but nettled him a good deal wh