He had dropped the pike to raise his clasped hands to the blue heavens, but now he lifted it again, threw back his shoulders, and flung up his head. He laid his hand on the flagstaff, and looked up to the banner streaming in the breeze. "It looks well so high against the blue, doesn't it, friends?" he cried genially. "Suppose we keep it there forever and a day!"
A cheer arose, so loud that it silenced, if it did not convince, the craven few. As for Master Edward Sharpless, he disappeared behind the line of women.
The great ship came steadily on, her white sails growing larger and larger, moment by moment, her tiers of guns more distinct and menacing, her whole aspect more defiant. Her waist seemed packed with men. But no streamers, no flag.
A puff of smoke floated up from the deck of the _Tiger_, and a ball from one of her two tiny falcons passed through the stranger's rigging. A cheer for the brave little cockboat arose from the English.
"David and his pebble!" exclaimed Master Jeremy Sparrow. "Now for Goliath's twenty-pounders!"
But no flame and thunder issued from the guns aboard the stranger. Instead, from her deck there came to us what sounded mightily like a roar of laughter. Suddenly, from each masthead and yard shot out streamers of red and blue, up from the poop rose and flaunted in the wind the crosses of St. George and St. Andrew, and with a crash trumpet, drum, and fife rushed into
"By the Lord, she's English!" shouted the Governor.
On she came, banners flying, music playing, and inextinguishable laughter rising from her decks. The _Tiger_, the _Truelove_, and the _Due Return_ sent no more hailstones against her; they turned and resolved themselves into her consort. The watch, a grim old sea dog that had come in with Dale, swung himself down from his post, and came toward the Governor at a run.
"I know her now, sir!" he shouted. "I was at the winning of Cales, and she's the _Santa Teresa_, that we took and sent home to the Queen. She was Spanish once, sir, but she's English now."
The gates were flung open, and the excited people poured out again upon the river bank. I found myself beside the Governor, whose honest countenance wore an expression of profound bewilderment.