Your wife's a brave lady, Captain Percy" -
"And a passing fair one," said Claybourne under his breath.
"I left a friend below in the hold, your Honor," I said. "He came
with me from Jamestown because he was my friend. The King
hath never heard of him. And he's no more a pirate than I or you,
your Honor. He is a minister, - a sober, meek, and godly man" -
From behind the Secretary rose the singsong of my acquaintance of
the hold, Dr. John Pott. "He is Jeremy, your Honor, Jeremy who
made the town merry at Blackfriars. Your Honor remembers him?
He had a sickness, and forsook the life and went into the country.
He was known to the Dean of St. Paul's. All the town laughed
when it heard that he had taken orders."
"Jeremy!" cried out the Treasurer. "Nick Bottom! Christopher Sly!
Sir Toby Belch! Sir Francis, give me Jeremy to keep in my cabin!"
The Governor laughed. "He shall be bestowed with Captain Percy
where he'll not lack for company, I warrant! Jeremy! Ben Jonson
loved him; they drank together at the Mermaid."
A little later the Treasurer turned to leave my new quarters, to
which he had walked beside me, glanced at the men who waited
for him without, - Jeremy had not yet been brought from the hold, -
and returned to my side to say, in a low voice, but with emphasis:
"Captain Percy has been a long time without news from home, -
from England.
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