venture,
to sweep into his net more fortunes, or shares of fortunes, than a
single individual, however industrious, could hope to secure. As he had
expected, soon he found plenty of worthy companions, and the company was
floated. For a while, with the help of local agencies and spies, such as
Black Meg and the Butcher, with whom, forgetting past injuries, he had
secretly renewed his acquaintance, it did very well, the dividends being
large and regular. In such times handsome sums were realised, without
risk, out of the properties of unfortunates who were brought to the
stake, and still more was secured by a splendid system of blackmail
extracted from those who wished to avoid execution, and who, when they
had been sucked dry, could either be burnt or let go, as might prove
most convenient.

Also there were other methods of making money--by an intelligent method
of robbery, by contracts to collect fines and taxes and so forth. Thus
things went well, and, at length, after many years of suffering and
poverty, the Senor Ramiro, that experienced man of affairs, began
to grow rich, until, indeed, driven forward by a natural but unwise
ambition, a fault inherent to daring minds, he entered upon a dangerous
path.

The wealth of Hendrik Brant, the goldsmith, was a matter of common
report, and glorious would be the fortune of him who could secure its
reversion. This Ramiro wished to win; indeed, there was no ostensible
reason why he should not do so, since Brant was undoubtedly a heretic,
and, therefore, legitimate game for any honourable servant of the Church
and King. Yet there were lions in the path, two large and formidable
lions, or rather a lion and the ghost of a lion, for one was material
and the other spiritual. The material lion was that the Government,
or in other words, his august kingship Philip, desired the goldsmith's
thousands for himself, and was therefore likely to be irritated by an
interloper. The spiritual lion was that Brant was connected with Lysbeth
van Goorl, once known as Lysbeth de Montalvo, a lady who had brought
her reputed husband no luck. Often and often during dreary hours of
reflection beneath tropic suns, for which the profession of galley-slave
gave great leisure, the Senor Ramiro remembered that very energetic
curse which his new affianced wife had bestowed upon him, a curse in
which she prayed that through her he might live in heavy labour, that
through her and hers he might be haunted by f