"Ah! what will the queen say?" asked Mrs. Hawkins
through her tears.

"Tell me," asked Adrian, "had he the jewel on when he
died?"

"The queen's jewel? He always wore that, and his own
posy too, 'Mutare vel timere sperno.' He wore it; and he
lived it."

"Ay," said Adrian, "the same to the last!"

"Not quite that," said Amyas. "He was a meeker man
latterly than he used to be. As he said himself once, a better
refiner than any whom he had on board had followed him close
all the seas over, and purified him in the fire. And gold seven
times tried he was, when God, having done His work in him,
took him home at last."

And so the talk ended. There was no doubt that the
expedition had been an utter failure; Adrian was a ruined
man; and Amyas had lost his venture.

Adrian rose, and begged leave to retire; he must collect
himself.

"Poor gentleman!" said Mrs. Hawkins; "it is little else
he has left to collect."

"Or I either," said Amyas. "I was going to ask you to
lend me one of your son's shirts, and five pounds to get myself
and my men home."

"Five? Fifty, Mr. Leigh! God forbid that John Haw-
kins's wife should refuse her last penny to a distressed mariner,
and he a gentleman born. But you must eat and drink."

"It's more than I have done for many a day worth speak-
ing of."

And Amyas sat down in his rags to a good supper, while
Mrs. Hawkins told him all the news which she could of his
mother, whom Adrian Gilbert had seen a few months before in
London; and then went on, naturally enough, to the Bideford
news.

"And by the by, Captain Leigh, I've sad news for you from
your place; and I had it from one who was there at the time.
You must know a Spanish captain, a prisoner-----"

"What, the one I sent home from Smerwick?"

"You sent? Mercy on us! Then, perhaps, you've
heard-----"

"How can I have heard? What?"

"That he's gone off, the villain?"

"Without paying his ransom?"

-265-