Robert Machray

“ We were now masters of the entire vessel, but its capture had cost us dear. Fifteen of the Irish were killed, and as many more wounded, several of them seriously; and when the sun rose across the dim outline of the hills away beyond Galway its rays fell upon decks that ran dark with blood, and upon a wearied band of men, whose gasping breath came and went in sobs of pain, now that the excitement was past, and who threw themselves down in sheer exhaustion. I myself was sore spent, but the day was only begun, and the rest of the wine fleet might come into view at any moment. ”

“ There by his couch was my dear, a presence soft, tender, and full of sweet womanly pity and of the delicate ministries that spring from it. There upon the couch lay the wreck of a man; so calm, so pale, so worn, that he looked like one dead.
“He still breathes,” said Eva, in a whisper.
Perhaps it was the result of the conversation I had just had with Grace O’Malley, or it may have been the subtle influence of that scene, with that quiet figure stretched upon the couch for its centre, but there was no bitterness in my breast when I saw Eva there. ”

“ It was in The Cross of Blood—Grace O’Malley’s last gift to me—that we made our journey, and that I returned to these isles of Scotland.
Many years have passed since, and in our life there has been winter as well as summer; but still there is the same light in Eva’s eyes, and the same love in her voice. It has been our happy lot to grow old together—to grow old in our love for each other, though that love itself is as fresh and new as the flowers of the first mornings of summer.
And so we await the inevitable end.
Printed by Cassell & Company, Limited, La Belle Sauvage, London, E.C. ”

“ Then I got into a boat, and in a trice was on the Spanish galleon’s deck.
Just as I reached it the clouds drifted from off the face of the moon, and as I looked up around me I could scarcely believe my eyes at what I saw. Pausing not to think, I placed my hand upon my sword, and had pulled it half-way out of its sheath, when a voice which I recognised as Tibbot the Pilot’s, sang out close to my ear, while there was a splutter of laughter in his throat, as he said—
“’Tis a wise man who sometimes doubts his seeing aright, Ruari Macdonald. Know you not your friends from your foes?” ”

“ Has that woman bewitched you too?” And he wrung his hands.
“Señor,” said I to de Vilela, “words have passed between Sir James Fitzmaurice and myself about my mistress that can only be wiped out in one way,” and I glanced at my sword.
De Vilela sighed.
“Señor Fitzmaurice will, I am sure, not refuse?” asked the Spaniard, courteous as ever.
“No, I will not refuse,” said Fitzmaurice. “All men know me; but it cannot be now.”
“Yes,” said de Vilela—Fitzmaurice had not taken the proffered sword—”no one will impugn your courage. ”

“ Either The Cross of Blood would be sunk by the enemy’s fire, and we would perish in the sea, or she would be captured, many of us being killed in the struggle, and the rest taken—what would be their fate?
But there was no need to ask that; for I was well assured that the people of the English ship knew who we were, or, at least, whose galley it was, for who in Ireland had such a vessel as The Cross of Blood, except Grace O’Malley?
Such were my thoughts when my mistress spoke in my ear, and said that as it was impossible to escape from the Englishman we must fight him. ”

“ Men were in two minds—ay, the same man was often in two minds—as to whether Grace O’Malley was beautiful or not; but they were never in any doubt, for there could be none, of Eva’s loveliness. Howbeit, I had said nothing of what was in my thoughts to Eva; that was a secret which I deemed was mine alone.
For myself, I had grown to man’s estate—a big fellow and a strong, who might be depended upon to look after ship or galley with some regard for seamanship, and not to turn my back in the day of battle, unless nothing else were possible. ”

“ But he had said enough.
“You know where she is,” cried I, wildly. “Tell me, and I will go and find Desmond.”
“Ay, and ruin all,” said he half to himself. “No, I will not tell you; that would be but to add to the mischief. No! Grace O’Malley must yield to Desmond, and then all will be well.”
“Yield to Desmond!” exclaimed I. “She will never do that.”
“Ay, but she will be forced to do so,” said he, with a horrible smile.
“Never!” said I. “I know her better than you do; she will die rather than submit.” ”

“ It was the fifth day of our stay in Galway when The Lass of Carrick cast herself off from her moorings by the quay, and, towed out by her two boats into the bay, made ready for sea. I watched the rich prize slip out of our hands with dismay, but it was my only business at present to stay where I was. Yet, as I noticed how deep the Scottish ship lay in the water, I could not but regret that my hands were tied. ”

“ I had just parried the cunning thrust of a sword, as I was trying to reach Fitzmaurice, when I saw the flash of a pistol in Burke’s hand, and then Sir James swayed and fell forward from his horse. When the Geraldines knew what had taken place, they turned and fled, bearing Sanders and his banner along with them, into the thicknesses of the forest.
Having witnessed the defeat and flight of their Irish allies, the Spaniards could not but be aware that they had small chance of retrieving the fortunes of the day, and they now began to retreat. ”

“ But it must be remembered that Galway was not an Irish city, but an English—where it was not Spanish. The strong walls and towers which belted her in were not more for defence against an enemy who might attack her from the sea, than against the Irishry who dwelt beyond her gates. And keen and bitter as was the hatred between Englishman and Spaniard, that between the Englishman of Galway and the Irishman, whose home was in the country, was keener and more bitter still. ”

“ After all, she was a woman, as I have said.
“You are a brave man and a true,” said she, “and I will not plague you more. Let him die in peace,” cried she to me, “if die he must.”
As I was about to place him with his back against a mast so as to ease him, he made a snatch at the dagger which was in my belt; his fingers closed over it, but even as he grasped it his lips parted and his spirit fled.
“God rest thee, thou gallant mariner of Spain!” said Grace O’Malley, when she saw that the captain of the galleon was dead. ”

“ It so happened that I was talking and jesting with one of the Geraldines, when the conversation came round to Sir Nicholas Malby, and the iron rule he had imposed on Galway and a large part of Connaught.
“Grace O’Malley,” said he, “was more than a match for him.”
“Sir Nicholas,” said I, “is the best soldier the English have in Ireland, and if he did not prevail against my mistress, it was rather because he underrated her strength and her prowess, than from any other reason. He esteemed her as no more than a feeble woman, and so was deceived.” ”

“ Chiefly did she show this gracious side of her nature in her fond care of her foster-sister, Eva O’Malley, who had been entrusted when a child, a year or two after my arrival at Clare Island, to Owen O’Malley by a sub-chief who governed one of the islands lying off the coast of Iar-Connaught.
Never was there a greater contrast between two human beings of the same kin than there was between those two women: Grace—dark, tall, splendid, regal; Eva—fair, tiny, delicate, timid, and utterly unlike any of her own people. ”

“ In the meantime we had come close up to her, her sailors bending blanched, fear-stricken faces over her bulwarks upon us, and perhaps thinking that they saw before them the fabulous Ship of Death, upon which for ever sail the souls of those foully murdered on the sea, and which for the nonce had taken on the form of the Capitana to lure them to their doom, for never might human eyes behold that dreaded sight and live. ”

“ Some of my men, who had been ashore, now returned and informed me that they had learned that it was the annual custom to light a great fire on the headland of Arran, on which stand the ruins of the ancient castle called Dun Aengus, as soon as the vessels of the wine fleet hove into sight.
The smoke of this fire, if it were day, or the flame of it, if it were night, was a signal to the merchants of Galway, who, as soon as they saw it, made preparations for the reception of the ships—this being the chief event each year in the life of the town. ”

“ A woman’s wit is a wonderful thing, and well is it for us men that the loves and the hates of women do dim the brightness of it, else would we be dazzled and blind and dumb all our days, and our strength be but a vain thing.
“What think you of my plot?” said the young gentleman adventurer, this Spanish knight, who was my mistress.
“You are a great magician, señor!” said I, taking her humour. “And what would you with this Ruari Macdonald—once the sworn servant of an Irish princess, known as Grace O’Malley?” ”

“ It was at once a beautiful sight and a memorable, this great gathering, and the most beautiful and memorable thing of all was that men were content, and more than content, that a woman should, for the first time in their history, be called their chief.
When it was my turn to speak, I related what I had heard fall from Owen O’Malley as he was dying, and, without further words, dropping on my knee I took the hand of Grace O’Malley, and swore by the Five Wounds of God to be her servant so long as it might be her will. ”