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to be.”
    “Treasure which they have discovered?” I said.
    “Treasure!” It was Jake beside me. “There’s gold in the world … it only has to be brought home.”
    “Or filched from those who have already found it?”
    Honey and Edward were looking at me in dismay. I didn’t care. I felt some tremendous surge sweeping over me. I had to fight these men, father and son, brigands and pirates both, for that was what they were; and when I talked to them I was excited, alive as I hadn’t been since I knew that I had lost Carey.
    “By God,” said Sir Penn, “it would seem the lady is a friend of the Dons.”
    “I have never seen one.”
    “Swarthy devils. I’d cut the liver and lights out of ’em. I’d send ’em down to the deep sea bed, for ’tis where they belong to be. Don’t side with the Spaniards, child, or you’ll be going against what’s natural.”
    “I was siding with no one,” I retorted, “I was saying that if they had found the treasure it was theirs just as if you had found it it would be yours.”
    “Now don’t you bring schoolroom logic into this, me dear. Findings bain’t keepings when it comes to Spanish gold. Nay, there’s one place where treasure belongs to be and that’s in an English ship and we’re going to drive the Spaniards from the sea with might and main.”
    “There are many of them and I believe they have made great discoveries.”
    “There are many of them, true, and we are going to see that there are not so many, we are going to take their discoveries from them.”
    “Why do you not make some yourself instead?”
    “Instead! We shall make them, never fear; we shall make and take. Because I tell you this, little lady, the sea belongs to us and no poxy Don is going to take one fathom of it from us.”
    Sir Penn sat back in his chair red-faced, almost angry with me. Mistress Crocombe looked a little afraid. I felt the color in my cheeks; Honey was signaling with her eyes for me to be silent.
    Jake said: “The old Queen died in time. Our Sovereign Lady Elizabeth is of a different temper.”
    “By God, yes,” cried Sir Penn. “We’ll defend her on sea and land. And if any poxy Don turns his snout toward these shores … by God, he’ll wish he never had.”
    “We can guess what would have happened had Mary lived,” went on Jake. “We’d have had the Inquisition here.”
    “We never would have. Thank God there are men of Cornwall and Devon who would have stood together and put a stop to that,” declared Sir Penn. “And God be praised we have a new Queen and she understands well that the people of this land will have nought of Papists. Mary burned our Protestant martyrs at the stake. And by God, I’d burn alive those Papists who would attempt to bring Popery back to England.”
    Edward had turned pale. For a moment I thought he was going to protest. Honey was gazing at her husband, warning and imploring. Be careful! she was saying; and indeed he must be. I wondered what would happen if these fierce men knew that their host and hostess were members of that faith which they despised.
    I heard myself say in a rather high-pitched voice: “My stepfather was one of those martyrs.”
    The tension relaxed then. We had suffered such a death in the family; the implication was that we were of one belief.
    Sir Penn lifted his glass and said: “To Our Sovereign Lady who has made her intentions clear.”
    We could all drink to the Queen and we did so. Equanimity was restored.
    We talked of the Coronation and the two men were ready to listen for a few minutes; and after that we went on to speak of local affairs, of the country and the prospects for hunting the deer; and an invitation was extended to us to visit Lyon Court.
    It was late in the evening when the men left; and when I was in my room I found that I was wide awake and I sat at my turret window, knowing it was useless to try to sleep.
    There was a knock on my door and Honey came in.
    She was dressed in a long