登陆注册
19471600000221

第221章

But it is not this time among the baptisms.The free forest wanderer has pined in vain for his old deer-hunts amid the fragrant cedar woods, and lazy paddlings through the still lagoons, where water-lilies sleep beneath the shade of great magnolias, wreathed with clustered vines; and now he is away to "happier hunting-grounds," and all that is left of him below sleeps in the narrow town churchyard, blocked in with dingy houses, whose tenants will never waste a sigh upon the Indian's grave.There the two entries stand, unto this day; and most pathetic they have seemed to me; a sort of emblem and first-fruits of the sad fate of that worn-out Red race, to whom civilization came too late to save, but not too late to hasten their decay.

But though Amyas lay idle, England did not.That spring saw another and a larger colony sent out by Raleigh to Virginia, under the charge of one John White.Raleigh had written more than once, entreating Amyas to take the command, which if he had done, perhaps the United States had begun to exist twenty years sooner than they actually did.But his mother had bound him by a solemn promise (and who can wonder at her for asking, or at him for giving it?) to wait at home with her twelve months at least.So, instead of himself, he sent five hundred pounds, which I suppose are in Virginia (virtually at least) until this day; for they never came back again to him.

But soon came a sharper trial of Amyas's promise to his mother; and one which made him, for the first time in his life, moody, peevish, and restless, at the thought that others were fighting Spaniards, while he was sitting idle at home.For his whole soul was filling fast with sullen malice against Don Guzman.He was losing the "single eye," and his whole body was no longer full of light.He had entered into the darkness in which every man walks who hates his brother; and it lay upon him like a black shadow day and night.

No company, too, could be more fit to darken that shadow than Salvation Yeo's.The old man grew more stern in his fanaticism day by day, and found a too willing listener in his master; and Mrs.

Leigh was (perhaps for the first and last time in her life)seriously angry, when she heard the two coolly debating whether they had not committed a grievous sin in not killing the Spanish prisoners on board the galleon.

It must be said, however (as the plain facts set down in this book testify), that if such was the temper of Englishmen at that day, the Spaniards had done a good deal to provoke it; and were just then attempting to do still more.

For now we are approaching the year 1588, "which an astronomer of Konigsberg, above a hundred years before, foretold would be an admirable year, and the German chronologers presaged would be the climacterical year of the world."The prophecies may stand for what they are worth; but they were at least fulfilled.That year was, indeed, the climacterical year of the world; and decided once and for all the fortunes of the European nations, and of the whole continent of America.

No wonder, then, if (as has happened in each great crisis of the human race) some awful instinct that The Day of the Lord was at hand, some dim feeling that there was war in heaven, and that the fiends of darkness and the angels of light were arrayed against each other in some mighty struggle for the possession of the souls of men, should have tried to express itself in astrologic dreams, and, as was the fashion then, attributed to the "rulers of the planetary houses" some sympathy with the coming world-tragedy.

But, for the wise, there needed no conjunction of planets to tell them that the day was near at hand, when the long desultory duel between Spain and England would end, once and for all, in some great death-grapple.The war, as yet, had been confined to the Netherlands, to the West Indies, and the coasts and isles of Africa; to the quarters, in fact, where Spain was held either to have no rights, or to have forfeited them by tyranny.But Spain itself had been respected by England, as England had by Spain; and trade to Spanish ports went on as usual, till, in the year 1585, the Spaniard, without warning, laid an embargo on all English ships coming to his European shores.They were to be seized, it seemed, to form part of an enormous armament, which was to attack and crush, once and for all--whom? The rebellious Netherlanders, said the Spaniards: but the queen, the ministry, and, when it was just not too late, the people of England, thought otherwise.England was the destined victim; so, instead of negotiating, in order to avoid fighting, they fought in order to produce negotiation.

Drake, Frobisher, and Carlisle, as we have seen, swept the Spanish Main with fire and sword, stopping the Indian supplies; while Walsingham (craftiest, and yet most honest of mortals) prevented, by some mysterious financial operation, the Venetian merchants from repairing the Spaniards' loss by a loan; and no Armada came that year.

In the meanwhile, the Jesuits, here and abroad, made no secret, among their own dupes, of the real objects of the Spanish armament.

同类推荐
热门推荐
  • 惊天药妻

    惊天药妻

    现代天才女军医,穿越到以医毒为尊的朝代。毁了容,变得奇丑无比。成了可怜的古代小白鼠。亲妹妹陷害,未婚夫背叛。醒来后据说得了蛇精病,不但性子变了,还有了诡异的武功,医术精湛。传说没有她治不了的病,解不了的毒!=====有朝一日药在手,毒尽天下负我狗!
  • 衿心动魄

    衿心动魄

    她是生活无忧无路的小半仙,自从送上门来一个帅哥管家后,生活大转变,开始寻身世,一路跌跌撞撞,竟没想到自己身世竟是如此彪悍。“你说喜欢一个人的最高境界是什么?”“那就是你追的人,倒追回来,那才叫厉害!”“这,,,,,”
  • 吴师入郢

    吴师入郢

    那闪烁着恒古文化的高高汉冠,永远矗立在那飞扬的黑发之间。那蓬勃着变图精神的铮铮汉剑,恒常渗透在那沸腾的热血之中。残阳已经褪色,回望过去的路上,有理想的人曾驰骋在这里。那些消逝的年华,刹那顿成永恒。残云消隐在征途中,血红色的曙光在地平线上跳动,所有生命如雪般消融。这是一段非凡的历史,留给我们的是不朽的精神!楚昭王熊珍,十岁即位,站在权利巅峰却面临着无岁不有吴师的窘镜。少年失国,十月颠沛流离的日子磨砺他的性格。刚毅,仁慈,谦卑,明智。励精图治终成一代中兴之主。
  • 逆天修仙作弊器

    逆天修仙作弊器

    仙门小杂役,无意间获得逆天修仙作弊器:玄门宝鉴。从此,他平步青云,扶摇直上,踏上了一段漫长的逆天修仙之旅……——————————没有灵石?亲,玄门宝鉴中可以做任务哦。没有丹药?亲,玄门宝鉴可以自动炼丹哦。没有时间?亲,玄门宝鉴中时间是逆转的哦。没有妹子?亲,都这么流弊了会木有妹子吗???——————————一切都是浮云,好故事才是王道,写出我心中精彩绝伦的仙侠世界!
  • 宠溺绝色城主夫人

    宠溺绝色城主夫人

    蓝天洛,绝世皇朝的洛王爷,同时也是江湖中神秘的情报杀手组织默帮的帮主,他心狠,冷酷,有着让无数女人痴迷的魅惑外表,但是却在看到她的那一瞬间迷失了自己。绝尘彻,是江湖中人望而生畏的天无城城主,温和儒雅,武功深不可测却又不乏柔情。对她百般呵护,总是静静的在她身后,静静的守在她身边,不需要过多的言语却总是能轻而易举的看透她。苏小月,只想在普通的周末好好休息一下,却也能阴差阳错穿越到了古代,沉沦于他的柔情;被他一次次的伤害,却无法忘记他那深邃的眼眸。
  • 死后

    死后

    由基因深处所觉醒的异能,火焰,心灵,磁力……“门”带给人类的究竟是毁灭还是强大。当你人生最后一次闭上你的双眼,再次醒来看到的又是什么?一切尽在死后!——慢手求精流新人作家死劫作品!
  • 异世见闻

    异世见闻

    一个普通大学生老套的穿越到了异世界,这里人魔争战,他又会遇到什么了?爱恨情仇,武功文采。虐虐虐虐死你们。一直单机下去了。。早知道去写点小白文,不把情节弄这么复杂了,这开头估计没人看。单机真无聊
  • 大尊严

    大尊严

    一寸江山一寸土,寸土江山寸尊严!谨以此文献给所有的抗战先辈,向所有抗战先辈致敬!!!也想用文字告诉那些崇洋媚外的人,你们脚下每一寸土地都是咱们先辈用鲜血用生命换来的,别对祖国有那么多不满!
  • 女儿是爸爸上辈子的情人

    女儿是爸爸上辈子的情人

    20年我把女儿从小带大,事情的点点滴滴全是回忆。
  • 致命异能

    致命异能

    一个被判关押三百年记忆的华夏国人沈同,在关押期的第三年,就被意外传输至一具具有异能的身体,从此展开了一段成神的旅程。而他这个过程中了解到异能之所以爆发,是因为宇宙大爆炸时期产生的能量碎片的周期性辐射开始了。它的上一个阶段是人类的上古时期,那个时期产生了很多伟大的神话,其实都是真实的。而此时,人类正在经历一个新的成神爆发时期。