Caribbean: a novel Part 9

'Did you produce him?' Ledesma asked, and the young man said: 'We did, and Drake refused to hang him. He threw the culprit back at us officers and said: "You hang him," and we did.'

'But why is he suddenly so bitter against our church?' Ledesma asked, and the officer said: 'I heard Drake say: "Your Inquisition burns alive any English sailor they catch, if he admits he respects the new faith in England. Many of my men have perished that way." '

'What did he do with Santo Domingo? If there was no treasure from the churches, no ransom money?'

'He said he would wait three days, and when no money came back from the people who had fled, he began to burn down the city ... one area each day. The stone buildings that would not easily burn he destroyed by pulling down the walls.'

'How did you escape?'

'We have always kept our frigates hidden in estuaries, far from town.'

'So Santo Domingo is destroyed?'

'No. After three weeks, even Drake tired. The burning had stopped before I left. About half the city still stands.'

'Get some rest. Tomorrow I want you to go fast to Nombre de Dios. To warn them to prepare.'

On the afternoon of 9 February 1586, Admiral Sir Francis Drake led his twenty-one s.h.i.+ps smartly past the western walls of Cartagena, and disappeared to the south as if ignoring the city and the futile shots fired at him from its forts. But just when Governor Ledesma and his military leaders were congratulating themselves that they had escaped the fearful El Draque, he turned sharply to port and entered Boca Chica, whose narrow entrance he had forced before. Without slowing his speed, he came into the big Southern Bay, where he anch.o.r.ed in familiar waters, just as if he were back home at Plymouth. Soon his twenty companions were anch.o.r.ed near him and it was obvious that the great siege of Cartagena had begun.

Governor Ledesma asked those about him: 'Will he be able to force his way into the city?' and they a.s.sured him that the only causeway into the town was much too narrow to permit the entry of soldiers, especially when guns upon the walls would be aimed directly at them. 'We're safe,' his men repeated, 'and since we have adequate food inside the walls and deep wells, there's nothing Drake can do.'

But there was. Placing his army troops under the direction of the forceful general who had subdued Santo Domingo so easily, he moved his s.h.i.+ps first into the s.p.a.cious Middle Bay and then into the close-in Northern Bay, from where a few foot soldiers could be put ash.o.r.e for a flanking attack on the causeway. Then, with great daring, he moved some of his larger s.h.i.+ps boldly into the small Inner Bay that gave directly on the approaches to the city.

Never before had Cartagena been attacked by so many troops so capably led, and before Ledesma's generals had time to s.h.i.+ft their troops to more favorable positions, Drake's men were upon them. The fighting was unexpectedly fierce, because when Ledesma led the defense of a city the result was quite different from the pusillanimous surrender at Santo Domingo. English soldiers fell, scores of them, and with Ledesma and his three sons-in-law rallying their troops now here, now there, the battle's outcome seemed to hang in the balance, favoring first the English, then the Spanish.

But in the end Drake's superior firepower told, and gradually Ledesma's men were driven back to the central plaza. There, under Don Diego's personal leaders.h.i.+p, they fought with extraordinary bravery. But the English smelled blood, princ.i.p.ally from their own dead, and with unparalleled fury they literally shoved the Spaniards back, yard by yard, until the a.s.sault filled the marketplace, and there the Spaniards, including the fifteen men from the Ledesma clan who had borne arms, surrendered.

Early next morning Drake brought all his s.h.i.+ps into the tight little Inner Bay, in which position his gunners could command the city, and only then did he come ash.o.r.e to savor his capture of Cartagena, a city which the Spaniards had boasted could never be taken. Asking directions to the governor's house, where he could dictate the terms of surrender, he was led to Ledesma's fine residence facing the cathedral, and there he met the sixteen men of the family that had given him so much trouble.

'Admiral Ledesma,' he said in the excellent Spanish he had been taught by Spanish captives on his voyage around the world, 'your men fought with commendable bravery,' but before Ledesma could respond, General Carleill, leader of the English troops, added: 'Not only his troops, Drake. He himself,' and Drake saluted.

The simple negotiations for a surrender required a frustrating five weeks, for if Ledesma was obdurate in battle, he was a brazen lion when it came to frustrating the English conquerors, regardless of what reasonable demands they made. Backed by no soldiers, fortified by no fleet, and not even supported by the dignitaries of his church, all of whom had fled with their valuables to the mainland hills, tall, composed Don Diego could rely only upon the shrewd counsel of a few of his family members and the solid support of his conquered people.

Drake opened negotiations with a straightforward request, such as he had used with success in dealing with other captured Spanish cities: 'I will leave in peace, not one house having so much as a door broken, for a modest ransom, let's say one million ducats loaded by your men on my waiting s.h.i.+ps.'

Don Diego said quietly: 'But, Admiral, you can see there's simply no money in the city. None.'

Without raising his voice, Drake said: 'Then you must know from what recently happened at Santo Domingo that if the ransom is not paid, I shall start tomorrow morning to burn a different section of your city each day until Cartagena is no more.'

Maintaining the same level of discourse, Don Diego asked: 'Admiral, do you wish to be remembered as the Tamerlane of the West, the forever hated scourge of the West Indies?'

During the first four agonizing weeks, when every Spaniard he spoke to, including some members of his own family, advised him to surrender to Drake's demands, at least as far as possible, Ledesma resisted Drake's considerable pressure, and at the same time persuaded the Englishman not to burn the city. In the later stages of negotiations he was supported only by his three sons-in-law, whose wives hiding in the hills slipped messages into the city: 'Husband, do not give in,' and with this comforting a.s.sistance he persisted.

These were four of the strangest weeks in the history of Cartagena, because Drake and Ledesma shared the same house, the governor's residence, and in the evenings they invited whatever leading citizens still remained in the city to lavish dinners at which Drake and the governor tried to outdo each other in courtesies extended to the guests. With Drake speaking in Spanish, Ledesma in English, they discussed subjects of grave importance to their two nations and to the Caribbean in general, each man and his supporters feeling free to express his convictions and defend them.

On one March evening, with spring peering over the mountains to the east, the talk turned to religion, and Don Diego said: 'How simple things would be if your Catholic Queen Mary had lived longer in England, with our Philip as her husband, and one great religion binding our nations together. Then we could as allies terminate that d.a.m.nable apostasy in the Netherlands and wipe out Lutheranism in Germany and live together with France and Italy as our Catholic cousins, one citizens.h.i.+p, one faith.'

'I'm afraid differences have grown too great in Europe,' Drake said, but then he told the guests: 'On my trip around the world, and on all trips, I have prayers nightly and hold services on Sunday, with my own Protestant chaplain, whom I take with me. But never did I demand that any of my men attend my wors.h.i.+p if their allegiance was to the faith of Queen Mary and King Philip, and whenever we captured a priest we invited him to conduct prayers for such of our sailors who wished to listen.'

This encouraged Ledesma to offer an interesting proposal, which he had often contemplated: 'Would it not be best for all if the nations would agree to leave the lands of the Caribbean in Spain's hands and Catholic, as Columbus intended them to be when he found them? But invite Englishmen and Frenchmen and Dutchmen to trade freely wherever they wished?'

Drake asked: 'Are you not somewhat hesitant to make such a suggestion, knowing that I sit here with complete power over you, and your city?' and Ledesma said: 'I'm not, because I know that whereas you may burn my city, you will not harm me.'

Drake laughed: 'Even though you tried to have that one with the hidden dagger kill me at Ula?' and Don Diego replied: 'We had to kill you to get your s.h.i.+ps. You don't have to kill me to get my city.'

Then, to the surprise of the guests, including Drake, Don Diego said: 'Sir Francis, could we perhaps walk upon the battlements, alone?'

'No,' Drake said. 'You tried to kill me once, you'll try again.' Ledesma, humbled by this reply of a cautious fighting man, started to apologize, when Drake stopped him: 'But I will walk with you if ten soldiers, five Spanish to protect you from me, five English vice versa come along,' and the two adversaries, opponents in so many frays, walked out into the starry night-a rigid, imperial Spaniard with a clean-shaven hawklike face, and the short, nervously twitching Englishman with his carefully trimmed beard.

The first words spoken were by Drake as he looked down upon the four bays of Cartagena and their amazing collection of protective islands: 'You have here, Don Diego, one of the best anchorages in the world.'

But Ledesma felt compelled to speak of more portentous matters, ones that had to be clarified: 'You know, Drake, that I did not send the a.s.sa.s.sin at you,' and the Englishman replied: 'I knew you did not, could not do it.'

'How did you know?'

'From the way you behaved in our past struggles ... and because my men interrogated that infamous rogue before they let him go. He told us they silenced you in your protests by clapping you in arrest.'

The two men walked to diverse parts of Ledesma's uncompleted battlements, always coming to rest at some spot overlooking the Caribbean, that n.o.ble body of now placid, now hurricane-driven water for which each of the admirals felt responsible.

'We conduct our battles on a splendid sea, Don Diego.'

'Sometimes it seems our fine North Sea was made for battle-a Spanish lake protected on all sides by either islands or great land ma.s.ses.'

'We were made for this sea, Don Diego. We've contested it with honor and bravery. But let me warn you. It is no longer what you call your Spanish Lake. It's now the English Lake, too.'

The soldiers who guarded them saw a curiously matched pair, each the best of his race, each touched with greatness. But if the soldiers had overheard the next exchange between these two giants of the North Sea, they would have been bewildered, for Ledesma was singing a nursery rhyme to the Englishman: 'My granddaughters ... goodness, the little ones are great-granddaughters ... they sing it in your honor and to my disgust: 'This man will make The oceans quake When he comes to take Our Spanish Lake ...

Sir Francis Drake.'

'I'll have that engraved on my tomb,' said Drake, and the two men rejoined their guests.

At the beginning of the fifth week of this gentlemanly sparring, a plan evolved, not wholly satisfactory to either side. Don Diego, after consulting with his sons-in-law, conceded that he could acc.u.mulate not one million ducats in ransom but something like one hundred thousand, and Drake countered: 'I want extra for not touching the monastery and an additional bounty for not sacking your churches,' and each of his s.h.i.+p captains and his general of troops also had minor demands, so that in the end Ledesma produced far more than he had intended while Drake had to accept far less than he wanted.

It was an honorable peace, grudgingly accepted by each side, but applauded by all Spaniards who had been hiding in the woods and by the English sailors who yearned to get home and claim their share of the diminished booty. During the last days of March, Drake loaded his s.h.i.+ps and one bright morning raised anchor and sailed out through Boca Chica. Governor Ledesma, profoundly relieved to see him go, for only he and Drake appreciated how arduous their bargaining had been, ordered the fortress guns to fire a parting salute, which was done to the wild congratulatory cheering of the Cartagenians. Don Diego's courage had saved their city.

And then, to the horror of everyone, Drake's fleet wheeled in the morning sunlight and came sailing right back through Boca Chica and into the Northern Bay, from where it could, if it wished, resume bombarding the city. 'Merciful G.o.d,' Don Diego prayed, 'don't do this to me,' and his son-in-law the vice-regent had to catch him lest he fall in a faint.

Drake's demands were simple this time: 'That big French s.h.i.+p we captured. Badly sprung. I'll need some of your men to help me s.h.i.+ft the cargo.'

'Yes, yes!' Don Diego cried, nominating his sons-in-law to supervise the work, and during the eight days required for this heavy work-for the French prize was laden to the waterline with goods captured from Spanish s.h.i.+ps and towns in the Caribbean-Drake, Ledesma, the generals of both sides and the clergymen back from their hiding in the hills, met at the governor's house for good talk and the fine wine the priests had hidden from the invaders.

At one such dinner Ledesma introduced his daughters, telling Drake: 'It was these three who defeated you. They sent me notes each night from the hills: "Father, do not give in!" ' and Drake, kissing the hand of each, told the group: 'The sorrow of my life? I've been married ... but no sons ... not even any daughters.' Those were the last words he said in Cartagena, but as he returned to his s.h.i.+p to prepare the true departure in the morning, Ledesma, from the ramparts, watched him go, and swore an oath: 'I know the kind of man you are, Francis Drake. You'll come back, of that I'm sure, and when you do, I'm fated to dig your grave.'

During the various periods of peace, these two adversaries, so different in all aspects, were amazingly similar in the way they diverted their surging energies when not called upon to do battle at sea. Indeed, they seemed almost like twins, so nearly identical were their actions.

Drake served as mayor of Plymouth, Ledesma as governor of Cartagena; Drake on his own initiative provided Plymouth with a reliable water supply, Ledesma gave his city a great wall that enclosed it; Drake served terms in Parliament, Ledesma on the informal Council of the Indies; Drake spent much energy in finding himself an heiress as his second wife, Ledesma had to find wealthy husbands for his granddaughters; and Drake issued an unending stream of advice as to how England could gain control of the Caribbean, while Ledesma counseled King Philip as to how that sea could be made even more completely Spanish.

But since both remained essentially superb naval captains, each read with intense attention a report made by a French spy working in London and circulated to outlying Spanish posts like Cartagena, but also acquired by English spies, who sent a copy to Drake: It is believed by all leaders in London that King Philip of Spain is collecting a vast concentration of s.h.i.+ps, sailors and armament in the ports of his country in order to make a major attack on England in the latter months of 1587. Queen Elizabeth, when captured, is to be dragged off to Rome to be burned alive in a public square already identified for that purpose, Philip will try to become King of England, and the followers of Luther are to be exterminated. Steps to frustrate Philip's plan are under way throughout England.

Don Diego found all parts of this remarkable account preposterous, for as he told the members of his family: 'Spain doesn't have enough s.h.i.+ps for such a venture. They would never burn a queen like a common criminal. And Philip has enough trouble ruling Spain, the Netherlands and bits of Austria.' But within a week after he delivered this judgment, the courier from what remained of Santo Domingo brought an official report from Madrid which clarified much: In Spanish court circles it is called The Enterprise of England and it consists of three parts which will be put into operation in the latter part of 1587. A huge fleet of hundreds of vessels will leave Spain and sail to the English coast. Meanwhile, a very large army of Spanish troops will have been a.s.sembled in the Netherlands for transport into England. When Elizabeth is caught, she will be disposed of; and when Philip a.s.sumes the throne, Lutheranism will be exterminated.

Since these plans are already known in England, extreme secrecy is not required, but in speaking of these matters, refer to them only as The Enterprise of England and let others guess what it consists of.

Before Don Diego had much time for reveling in antic.i.p.ation of England's humiliation, a correction of the timetable was dispatched from Madrid, and like many of King Philip's communications, it said much while explaining little: The Enterprise of England has had to be delayed. It will not occur in 1587 but will in 1588.

That left the Caribbean governors trying to guess what kind of disaster the cryptic words 'has had to be delayed' masked, and Don Diego had a sinking feeling: I'll wager Drake had something to do with this. His suspicions were confirmed when a mature, tightly controlled man in his thirties arrived from Spain with shocking news: 'I'm Roque Ortega, Excellency, son of your cousin Euphemia. Fortune did not smile on her, as you probably know. Married to a sea captain who lost both his s.h.i.+p and his life. One good thing, my father kept his home at Sanlcar de Barrameda at the mouth of the Guadalquivir, so I learned about s.h.i.+ps.'

Ortega was so handsome and compelling in his quiet speech that Doa Leonora remained in the reception room, contrary to her usual deportment when her husband had political or military guests. 'What brings you to our city?' she asked, and he gave a remarkable answer: 'Despair and hope.' Then he added: 'Despair because I captained one of the king's s.h.i.+ps in the disaster at Cadiz ...'

'What disaster?' Don Diego asked, almost leaping forward, and Captain Ortega revealed the dimensions of that tragic affair: 'In February of this year the king began to a.s.semble in various ports his s.h.i.+ps intended for The Enterprise of England.' Stopping in midflight, he asked: 'You know of the Enterprise?' and both Ledesmas nodded.

'I was ordered to take my Infanta Luisa down to Cadiz, where I moored her between two large men-of-war. Throughout March other important s.h.i.+ps drifted in, until by the first of April we had a congregation of at least sixty-six s.h.i.+ps-Dutch, French, Turkish, four English-all of which we had captured in recent months, plus our own heavily armed wars.h.i.+ps, more than enough to invade England. We had the right to be called an armada.

'On the late afternoon of the nineteenth of April, a date I wish I could forget, an additional twenty-five major s.h.i.+ps which I could not immediately identify sailed boldly into the harbor. But when a pilot boat went out to welcome them, it learned to its horror that they were Englis.h.!.+ Yes, Admiral Drake had sailed right into our strongest harbor.'

'What did you do?' Doa Leonora asked, moving closer to catch details, and Captain Ortega said with modesty: 'Like other captains, I tried to break my Infanta from her moorings so I could fight effectively, but before my men loosened one rope, an English s.h.i.+p bore down upon me, rammed my stern and those of the big s.h.i.+ps alongside me, and then poured cannon fire into our waterlines until we settled on the bottom without having fired a salvo. It was humiliating.'

In obvious disgust with himself, Ortega said: 'Lost my s.h.i.+p before the battle started.' For some moments he sat shaking his head, thus providing Doa Leonora with an opportunity to study his manly features and the way his lean face seemed to announce quietly: 'I am ready for any challenge.' But then he added details that were even more infuriating: 'As night fell, Drake's s.h.i.+ps played havoc with our vessels, chopping and snarling and setting fires, and we were powerless to halt him. Our sh.o.r.e batteries, on which we depended, could not shoot at his s.h.i.+ps without hitting ours. In the morning Cadiz Bay was littered with sunken s.h.i.+ps, all ours, and the bodies of Spanish sailors.'

Ortega stopped, looked at Governor Ledesma, and said, with his hands raised upward: 'Not one of our anch.o.r.ed s.h.i.+ps was able to break loose and give him battle, and those that tried he sank. Night fell, but not darkness, for the flames of our stricken s.h.i.+ps made the carnage visible, and when dawn came, Drake finished off the cripples, sending more of our good men to their graves in the harbor.'

Recollection of the tremendous losses was so painful that for some moments he could not speak, but when he did he summarized the tragedy in a few words: 'On the morning of the nineteenth we were the most powerful fleet in Europe. At midnight of the same day, practically destroyed.'

Don Diego, as a fellow searfaring man, felt no embarra.s.sment in probing: 'How many s.h.i.+ps did we lose?' and Ortega said: 'So many that the Enterprise cannot go forward.'

In the lull that followed, Doa Leonora asked: 'That was obviously the disaster. What was the hope?' and Ortega said quietly: 'When I reached home, far from Cadiz, my mother wept: "Like your father, you lost your s.h.i.+p; you were lucky you didn't lose your life." Seeing that there were few prospects for me, she said: "You have an uncle of sorts who's governor in Cartagena. Try your luck there," and here I am. You are my hope.'

At this honest disclosure, Doa Leonora looked at her husband and raised her eyebrows in a secret gesture which meant 'Why not?' and he nodded slightly to indicate 'Go ahead,' so she said brightly: 'Captain Ortega, you must remain with us till you find quarters,' and he did not engage in mock humility: 'That would be most generous. But a captain with no s.h.i.+p has little to offer in return.'

In the days that followed, Doa Leonora saw with approval that her husband and Ortega got along handsomely, for they were both active men who required few words to belabor att.i.tudes on which they agreed. On many evenings they walked together along the battlements, staring down at the landlocked harbor: 'Was Cadiz much like this?' and Ortega would place the Spanish s.h.i.+ps among the islands, then show Drake sweeping in to create his havoc: 'My s.h.i.+p? I never got her away from her mooring!'

Don Diego said: 'The loss of a s.h.i.+p like yours is no worry, really. To you, yes. To the king, no. What really hurts is the rumor that the wily John Hawkins is building a score of s.h.i.+ps to bring against us. Men like Drake will devise ways to protect themselves when we strike. More English s.h.i.+ps, more English sailors.'

Ortega added: 'And more ammunition when the fighting begins,' and Don Diego concluded: 'As a seaman who has fought Drake many times, winning and losing, I know how tenacious he can be.'

They studied the sea in silence, then Don Diego asked: 'Will you be going back to fight him?' and Ortega said: 'I'd swim back to have the chance.'

But other important matters in Cartagena intruded, and The Enterprise of England was temporarily forgotten, because if Don Diego was constantly striving to enhance his family's fortunes, his wife was equally determined to improve hers. Her campaign began one evening at supper when she asked bluntly: 'Captain Ortega, are you married?' and he replied: 'Was once. She's dead,' and no more was said.

Seora Ledesma had on the island of Espaola a cousin her age who had a daughter with a lovely name, Beatrix, but no face to match. With Santo Domingo, the capital of Espaola, having been recently sacked by El Draque, ordinary social life had been disrupted, so that poor Beatrix had slimmer chances than ever of catching a husband, and Doa Leonora decided to do something about it.

As swiftly as the dispatch frigate could get to Santo Domingo and back, it deposited on the docks of Cartagena a young woman twenty-two years old and extremely seasick from a rough crossing. Her whole intention was to climb into bed at her cousin's house and feel sorry for herself, but Leonora would have none of that, for it was important that Captain Ortega see Beatrix soon and in the best possible light. So Leonora summoned two of her married daughters to the bedroom where Beatrix supposed she would be resting, and with the seasick girl listening, the three Ledesma women surveyed their problem.

'First thing, fetch her some salts,' Leonora said, and when these were waved under her nose the two younger women sorted out the newcomer's clothes and expressed disgust with what they saw: 'Have you nothing decent, nothing whatever?' and when Beatrix broke into tears, Leonora slapped her: 'Your whole future is at stake, girl. You don't find a man like Captain Ortega very often,' and together the three women worked a miracle on their distressed cousin.

Borrowing one of Juana's fine dresses, they called to the kitchen for a seamstress to pinch in the waist, and Mara, the middle Ledesma daughter, gave her a pair of shoes and a lovely fawn-colored shawl for her shoulders. Then, squeezing her forcefully into the dress until she cried 'I can't breathe!' they told her: 'You don't have to. Until after you meet him.'

When the transformation was complete, with her hair exquisitely done and cosmetics applied to her pallid face, she was what she had always been, had she but known it: a lovely young Spanish woman, not dazzling in beauty but adorable in her vulnerability, the beauty of her posture and the quivering about her mouth as she whispered to herself: 'I will not get sick. I will not get sick.'

Indeed, when Doa Leonora and her daughters propelled her into the main hall where Captain Ortega waited, Beatrix was truly the finest-looking of the lot, her wan face, perfectly powdered, giving her the appearance of a princess in a fairy tale. Small wonder that Ortega was taken with her immediately, but he had to wait for a dance because others reached her first.

The courts.h.i.+p progressed at a rea.s.suring pace, orchestrated by Doa Leonora, and she would surely have had her cousin married had not imperative news reached Cartagena in January of 1588: Admiral Ledesma, Greetings! The Enterprise of England resumes. a.s.semble all available heavy s.h.i.+ps, crews and repair materials and report immediately to Lisbon. There you will form part of the train carrying supplies for the Duke of Parma's troops, whom you will transport from the Netherlands across the Channel for their invasion of England.

To seafaring men like Ledesma and Ortega the message brought both joy and irritation-joy for having another chance to fight Hawkins and Drake, irritation that their s.h.i.+ps would carry not the invading army but only cargo to Spanish soldiers already waiting in the Netherlands. 'Of course,' Ledesma said rea.s.suringly, 'as soon as we deliver the goods, we'll ferry them across the Channel and land them in England. We'll still see a lot of the fighting.'

Despite his disappointment in not being part of the battle fleet, he told his wife: 'It's great for a man my age to be back on the deck of his s.h.i.+p. It takes a steady hand to manage the Mariposa and I can do it.'

She thought him surprisingly old for such adventures and was downright disgusted when she learned that Captain Ortega was leaving too. She realized that this ended any hope of an immediate marriage for Cousin Beatrix, but she had faced such disappointments before, and surprisingly often they worked out well when years were used as the measuring stick instead of days.

She and Beatrix found solace in the fact that their men would be partic.i.p.ating in this great adventure in a s.h.i.+p as st.u.r.dy as the Mariposa, for they had been a.s.sured: 'That one will get us there and back.' There were tearful farewells as the odd a.s.sortment of s.h.i.+ps weighed anchor and headed out into the Caribbean, firing salutes as they pa.s.sed through Boca Chica and coasted under the battlements of Cartagena.

Now came the months of tension. Since all available s.h.i.+ps had been requisitioned by King Philip for his vast Armada, the mightiest invasion fleet ever to have been a.s.sembled, none were available to carry news to Spanish possessions in the Caribbean. The citizens of Cartagena remained in darkness while their home country fought great battles in its quest for domination of the known world.

Doa Leonora and her daughters met regularly with their priest, who preached but one message to the citizens of his walled city: 'Since our men are fighting to protect G.o.d's true religion, He will never allow heretics to win,' and these words gave Doa Leonora comfort.

But when months pa.s.sed with no news, she reasoned with her daughters: 'If the news was good, surely the king would have spared at least one small s.h.i.+p to speed to us. No s.h.i.+p? No news? Disaster.' Gradually this conclusion was reached by so many that even the priest's rea.s.surances began to sound hollow, and many whispered: 'Who cares about victory? Will our s.h.i.+ps return? Have our sons and husbands been lost in wintry seas?' and gloom prevailed.

Then one morning a lookout cried the joyous news: 'Sail on the horizon!' and all ran to the ramparts to see the st.u.r.dy old Mariposa come down from the north as if arriving from a routine trip to Cuba, and as it came parallel to the city and continued down to Boca Chica and the entrance home, watchers swore that they could identify this man or that, and word pa.s.sed that Admiral Ledesma was among those returning, but others denied that anyone could be recognized from such a distance.

It was a most painful hour and a half as the lumbering Dutch s.h.i.+p sailed far south to make the turn, then disappeared behind the forts at Boca Chica, only to reappear in the lower bay in what looked to be excellent condition-'She has her masts. No holes in her sides'-and as the s.h.i.+p grew larger coming up the bay, watchers could accurately pick out this man and that. Then came a triumphant cry: 'Ledesma! Ledesma!' and the governor's white hair could be clearly seen.

When the s.h.i.+p gave no triumphant signal, Doa Leonora whispered: 'It did not go well,' and as she watched the close approach of the Mariposa she saw something which caused her heart to stumble. Don Diego, having brought his s.h.i.+p home from the wars with at least some of its crew, was so grateful to provident G.o.d who had guided him through terrible battles in the English Channel and fearsome struggles with his ancient adversary Drake that he fell upon the deck of his s.h.i.+p as it touched the wharf and kissed the planking. It was obvious to his wife that he was overcome with emotion, but she also saw that he was too weak to regain his feet without a.s.sistance from Captain Ortega, and she thought: The old man has suffered some terrible defeat, and her heart ached with love for him.

But as she watched him steady himself against Ortega's arm, she saw him stiffen in the old way, throw back his shoulders as if facing one more enemy, and come ash.o.r.e, where with a raised arm he silenced the cheers which would be deserved only by returning conquerors. Walking directly to where the a.s.sistant governors of the city stood, the ones who had protected Cartagena in his absence, he stood before them, nodded gravely, and announced in a clear voice: 'Spain has suffered a terrible defeat. Let the bells be tolled,' and all that mournful day the bells of Cartagena struck the slow, heavy notes that signaled grief.

In the afternoon, while the bells were still mourning, Ledesma had the courage to a.s.semble the leaders of the city, and in subdued tones he and Ortega reported on the encounter of the big, slow s.h.i.+ps of the Armada with the smaller, swifter s.h.i.+ps of the English.

'It started with a monstrous humiliation,' Ledesma said, and Ortega confirmed: 'We were not allowed to be a fighting s.h.i.+p. Nor did we even carry fighting weapons. When we reported to Spain to take our place in the fleet, we were sent to the rear.' He was too ashamed to reveal what happened next, but Ledesma was not.

'In the holds of our s.h.i.+p where we expected to carry guns and ammunition, what do you suppose we loaded? Hay. And in the holds where we could have managed heavy field guns and cannonb.a.l.l.s, what did we get? Horses.' He looked at the floor, then said softly: 'You remember how we sailed out of here. Flags, salutes, men ready to die for the glory of G.o.d and King Philip. What we were asked to do, instead, was feed horses.'

'But you did deliver them to the troops?' a counselor asked.

'We never found the troops,' Ortega said. 'They were supposed to be with Parma, a great general, somewhere in the Netherlands. He never appeared.'

'You didn't invade England?' several men asked at once, and Ledesma said with a bitterness which had been growing for months: 'We never got close to England. We never even got close to her s.h.i.+ps.'

'But the great battle? Our fleet against theirs?' men asked in amazement, and Ledesma allowed his captain to explain: 'We sailed right up the Channel, in splendid formation. Every one of our captains knew just what to do.'

'And then? In the battle?'

'We never had a battle. The English refused to come at us from the front, where they were supposed to. We'd have destroyed them. Instead, they came pecking at us from the rear ... sending fireboats among our s.h.i.+ps to disrupt us.'

The officials, appalled at what they were hearing, looked to Ledesma for explanations, and he said: 'He speaks the truth. We never had a battle. We sailed up the Channel, fighting off the gnats that buzzed around us, and never made contact with our land troops. Sailed right past, and before long we were so far beyond England that their s.h.i.+ps stopped chasing us. We escaped.'

'But your duel with Drake, the one you told us about when you left ... the one you were burning to fight?'