Читать книгу Captain Blood: His Odyssey / Одиссея капитана Блада - Рафаэль Сабатини - Страница 5

Mr. Pollexfen was right and wrong at the same time.

He was right that a man who could frighten such a lord of terror as Jefrf eys should go far. He was wrong that Peter Blood would be hanged.

I have said that there were two reasons why Peter Blood could be grateful in this situation: one that he was tried at all; the other that his trial took place on the 19th of September. Until the 18th, the sentences of the court of the Lords Commissioners had been carried out quickly. But on the morning of the 19th a courier from Lord Sunderland, the Secretary of State[16], arrived at Taunton with a letter for Lord Jeffreys. In the letter, it was said that eleven hundred rebels should be sent to some of His Majesty’s southern plantations, Jamaica, Barbados, or any of the Leeward Islands[17].

He did not do it out of mercy. It was true that the King’s heart was like a stone. The King had realised that he could use the men instead of hanging them. In the plantations, they needed slaves and they would buy a healthy man for at least ten to fifteen pounds. Then, there were many gentlemen who had some interest in His Majesty’s money. Here was an easy way to pay them. Some rebels might be given to those gentlemen, so that they might use them to their own profit.

Gentlemen of the court should get a thousand prisoners, and the Queen should get a further hundred. These prisoners should be sent at once to His Majesty’s southern plantations. They should spend ten years there before they are free again.

We know from Lord Jefrf eys’s secretary that the Chief Justice got drunk that night and loudly protested against His Majesty’s decision. We also know that he wrote a letter to the King and asked him to change his decision. But James did not. The King knew that he had saved the rebels from hanging, but turned their lives into living deaths.

Peter Blood, Jeremy Pitt, and Andrew Baynes were not hanged, but sent to Bristol[18] and then with some fifty others to West India on Captain Gardner’s Jamaica Merchant. On the way there, eleven of the prisoners died from a sickness. Among them was the unfortunate Andrew Baynes. He had been forced to leave his quiet homestead and the orchards, only because he had tried to help a wounded man.

More than eleven people might have died, but Peter Blood insisted that he should help the sick. Captain Gardner felt that he might get in trouble if he lost more men, so he was glad that he could leave the sick to the skill of Peter Blood. The doctor worked hard and stopped the disease.

In the middle of December the Jamaica Merchant with the forty-two rebels arrived at Carlisle Bay[19].

Some of them had imagined that they were coming into some wild country. When they looked at the town from the ship, they saw houses built in European style. They could see a church among the red roofs and the wide facade of Government House on a gentle hill above the town. This hill was green like an English hill in April, and the day was like an April day in England, when heavy rains finally end.

On the shore they saw the guards, who had come to receive them, and a crowd of people. They looked exactly like the people in England, only there were fewer women and more negroes.

Governor Steed, a short gentleman with a red face, also came to receive them. With him came the tall colonel of the Barbados Militia, and a young lady with red-brown curly hair and brown eyes.

Peter Blood looked at her face, which seemed so out of place here. The lady looked back at him, and he moved uncomfortably. He had not washed himself, his hair was dirty, and he had a black beard on his face. His clothes had turned to rags. She should not be looking at him, but she was. She touched Colonel Bishop’s sleeve and he turned to face her. He looked annoyed.

She was speaking to him, but the Colonel did not pay much attention to her. His little eyes had moved away from her and were looking at the fair-haired young Pitt, who was standing beside Mr. Blood.

The Governor had also stopped, and for a moment now they stood there and talked. What the lady said, Peter could not hear at all, because she spoke quietly. He could only hear the Colonel’s high-pitched voice, but he did not understand the words. The Governor’s voice carried far and he spoke loudly so that everyone could hear him.

“But, my dear Colonel Bishop, you should choose first and set your own price. After that we’ll send the rest to auction.”

Colonel Bishop nodded. He answered loudly. “They’re thin and weak; there won’t be much use of them in the plantation.” He looked at them again. He seemed annoyed and disappointed that they were in no better condition. Then he started talking to Captain Gardner and the master of the Jamaica Merchant for some minutes. The master of the ship made a list for him.

Then he came up to the men. He stopped before young Pitt, and stood for a moment looking at him. Then he felt the muscles of the young man’s arm, and told him open his mouth so that he might see his teeth. The Colonel nodded.

He spoke to Gardner over his shoulder.

“Fifteen pounds for this one.”

The Captain did not agree with the price. “Fifteen pounds! It isn’t half what I wanted to ask for him.”

“It is twice as much as I wanted to give,” said the Colonel.

“Even thirty pounds are not enough, your honour.”

“I can get a negro for that. These white men die quickly. They can’t work.”

They argued over the price for some time. Pitt, a sensitive man, was quiet and did not move. Only the colour in his cheeks showed how dificf ult it was for him to control himself.

Peter Blood was annoyed that he had to listen to their argument.

In the background, moving slowly along the line of prisoners, went the lady. She was talking to the Governor and did not hear what the Colonel was saying. Did she care at all?

Colonel Bishop went on.

“I’ll give you twenty pounds. Not a penny more.”

Captain Gardner realised that Colonel Bishop would not change his mind and sighed. The Colonel only looked at Mr. Blood and stopped in front of a middle-aged man. His name was Wolverstone and he had lost an eye at Sedgemoor. The Colonel and Captain Gardner started arguing about the price again.

Peter Blood stood there in the sunlight. The air was different from any air that he had ever breathed. It smelled of wood and flowers. He did not want to talk. Young Pitt did not want to talk either. He stood at Peter Blood’s side and thought that he might not see him again. In the last months, he had learnt to love and depend on Peter Blood. He felt lonely and miserable.

Other people came and looked at them, and went. Blood did not pay attention to them. And then something happened at the end of the line. Gardner was speaking in a loud voice to the people that had waited until Colonel Bishop had finished. Blood noticed that the girl was speaking to Bishop and pointing up the line. Bishop looked in the direction in which she was pointing. Then slowly, he went up the line with Gardner, the lady, and the Governor.

The lady made the Colonel stop in front of Blood.

“But this is the man I meant,” she said.

“This one?” Colonel Bishop asked. Peter Blood was now looking into a pair of brown eyes on a yellow face. “A bag of bones. What should I do with him?”

He was turning away when Gardner spoke.

“He may be thin, but healthy. When half of them were sick, this man helped them. Say fifteen pounds for him, Colonel. That’s cheap enough. He’s strong, though he is thin. And he can bear the heat when it comes. The climate will never kill him.”