Hartop hesitated and looked a little confused. At last he said, bowing to Raleigh:
"So please your honour, is it to Sir Walter Raleigh that I do now speak?"
Sir Walter Raleigh nodded. "Yes, I was asking thee the value of thy stolen goods."
"Nay, I know not precisely," answered Hartop. "It might be about the value of five or six hundred pounds in the form of pearls and emeralds and gew-gaws of such sort. But of these I care naught, for there was that in my wallet which I had rather have given my life than lose--a letter addressed to your worshipful self, that I was bidden to give with all speed into your honour's hands. I had thought it was safe in the pocket of my hose until late yesternight, but then I minded that ere I left the ship I put it into my wallet. And 'tis gone--God forgive me, 'tis gone!"
"From Havana, say you?" cried Sir Walter Raleigh doubtingly. "Prithee, who writ it?"
"Captain William Marsden, please your worship."
"Marsden?" echoed Raleigh. "But he is dead. He died ere the _Pearl_ set sail on her homeward voyage. Jasper Oglander told me so. 'Twas of a malarial fever that he died."
Hartop shook his head and rejoined very calmly: "No; so please your worship 'twas not fever. Master Oglander must surely have been misinformed, or else--" He broke off, glancing apprehensively at Lord Champernoun. "Captain Marsden was murdered, your worship, and he writ the letter, knowing beforehand that his life was menaced."
"Some treachery at work, eh?" muttered Sir Walter. "Well, and the letter. Dost know naught of its purport?"
"Naught saving the words that the captain spake as he gave it unto me," answered Hartop. "They were these: 'Guard the letter with thy life, Hartop, and let no Spaniard or friend of Spain know aught of its existence. Deliver it into the hands of Sir Walter Raleigh wheresoever he may be found, and, failing him, any one of Her Majesty's privy councillors. If thou shouldst fall into the hands of our enemies, destroy the letter. If thou shouldst lose it, which Heaven forfend, go still to Raleigh and tell him this: tell him that the King of Spain's people in the Indies have gathered together here in the treasure-houses of Havana the vastest store of silver and gold that hath ever been known upon earth, and that it is the intention of the King to have all this treasure transported into Spain, to the end that he may--in revenge for the great loss he hath lately suffered at the hands of England--build a yet greater armada than that of two years ago, wherewith to invade and conquer our Queen's dominions. Bid Sir Walter bear this in mind: that the taking of that treasure into Spain doth mean nothing short of the downfall of England and all her glory upon the seas.'"