2nd SPANIARD. I have been a merchant, accustomed to the wealth of Spain, in the East, and in the West, and can say the world has never seen such a mass of treasure. That single pile of silver bars is seventy feet long, ten wide, and twelve feet deep; I have measured it.
DRAKE, _who has been badly wounded in the action_, _is seized with weakness and staggers for support_, _leaning on his sword_.
DRAKE. Oxenham, you and Moon will see to all this. I am faint with loss of blood. (_He falls down fainting_, _alarm about him and running to his assistance_.)
OXENHAM. Look to the General, men. Give him some wine; bear a hand. Come on with your flasks! Has no one a flask?
MOON. All’s right, he revives. Here comes a supply?
_Enter_ JOHN DRAKE _helping along_ BILL SAUNDERS _loaded with wine_, _almost drunk and brandishing a great silver tankard_.
Good wines the stuff Just drink enough, You’ll never, never die.
Holy Neptune! The General’s down. Here’s the drug to revive him. Here General’s the genuine sherries, the true philosophers stone (_laughter_). No that’s not it—the elixir of life. Why it would raise the dead. See how it has revived me. (_He staggers_. _Laughter_. MOON, _interrupting him_, _seizes the bottle_.)
MOON. Now we have neither corkscrew nor drinking cup, what is to be done?
SAUNDERS. Do you think you lubber, Bill Saunders would forget that, and the General so bad? Here’s a bit of pewter will do what’s wanted, if handsomely used. Show me the bottle, (_he seizes the bottle_, _knocks off the neck with the tankard_, _and filing it presents it to the General with much applause_). Drink, General! (DRAKE _takes the cup_, _drinks and laughs_). That’s the medicine—the true agua vitæ, as a murdering Spaniard would call it. Damn them! The thieves know what’s good, it has the strength of Samson in it. Look at me that was killed dead, and am alive again, and all from that blessed liquor.
SAILOR. If you were dead Bill, you were dead drunk.
SAUNDERS. You lie like a doctor or a lawyer. I was only looking after something to revive the General. (_Laughter_. _He is dragged aside by the __sailors_, _who make fun with him_. DRAKE _sitting up with some gathered round him assisting and persuading him to go aboard_).