for them, and to keep his temper with them, as he did this day. True, he
had seen Drake in a rage; he had seen him hang one man for a mutiny
(and that man his dearest friend), and threaten to hang thirty more;
but Amyas remembered well that that explosion took place when having, as
Drake said publicly himself, "taken in hand that I know not in the world
how to go through with; it passeth my capacity; it hath even bereaved
me of my wits to think of it," . . . and having "now set together by
the ears three mighty princes, her majesty and the kings of Spain
and Portugal," he found his whole voyage ready to come to naught, "by
mutinies and discords, controversy between the sailors and gentlemen,
and stomaching between the gentlemen and sailors." "But, my masters"
(quoth the self-trained hero, and Amyas never forgot his words), "I must
have it left; for I must have the gentlemen to haul and draw with the
mariner, and the mariner with the gentlemen. I would like to know him
that would refuse to set his hand to a rope!"

And now Amyas's conscience smote him (and his simple and pious soul took
the loss of his brother as God's verdict on his conduct), because he had
set his own private affection, even his own private revenge, before the
safety of his ship's company, and the good of his country.

"Ah," said he to himself, as he listened to his men's reproaches, "if
I had been thinking, like a loyal soldier, of serving my queen, and
crippling the Spaniard, I should have taken that great bark three days
ago, and in it the very man I sought!"

So "choking down his old man," as Yeo used to say, he made answer
cheerfully--

"Pooh! pooh! brave lads! For shame, for shame! You were lions
half-an-hour ago; you are not surely turned sheep already! Why, but
yesterday evening you were grumbling because I would not run in and
fight those three ships under the batteries of La Guayra, and now
you think it too much to have fought them fairly out at sea? What has
happened but the chances of war, which might have happened anywhere?
Nothing venture, nothing win; and nobody goes bird-nesting without a
fall at times. If any one wants to be safe in this life, he'd best stay
at home and keep his bed; though even there, who knows but the roof
might fall through on him?"

"Ah, it's all very well for you, captain," said some grumbling younker,
with a vague notion that Amyas must be better off than he, because he
was a gentleman. Amyas's blood rose.