Die schwarze Galeere. English Page 6

thisstory. Trust me, love of my life, nothing untoward will happen toyou as long as Jan Norris can still stand on his own two feet. Butkeep listening; my story isn't over yet. I still have to tell youhow it came about that they sniffed me out as helmsman of the blackgalley. That's a much better story than the one I've just beentelling you."

  "Oh Jan, Jan, feel how my heart is beating--merciful God, who willprotect poor Myga? Oh Jan, let's go, here and now, immediately.I can't breathe here any more. The air in this room is choking me!"

  "Calm down, Myga, calm down. I'd gladly take you with me rightaway, and there'd be a boat ready to take us on board, but listendown there in the streets--the whole town knows now that men fromthe black galley are concealed in disguise within its walls. Justlisten to the rumpus. Making a run for it would be no good asthere's no chance of us getting through unscathed. Sit down andstop trembling like that. We're still safe and time is the bestcounsellor. Think about those times when we'll be sitting roundthe fire in wintry Amsterdam. Ha ha, let them look for me downthere. Jan Norris has always been too quick and too cunning forthem. It would also be a pity for the fellow if they hanged him,wouldn't it, Myga?"

  "Oh Jan, Jan!"

  "Never mind. Give me a kiss and then another one and then I'lltell my story. So there I sat biting my lips till they bled, butnot missing a word of the conversation going on near me and therogues kept chattering on and complimenting themselves on theirstroke of genius. Then they drained their glasses, got up andwould have gone out only they were detained at the door bygreat to-do. A lad was being brought in on the shoulders of twostrapping youths and a loud hurrah went up when the topers in thetavern spotted him. The lad in question was the cabin boy fromthe Immaculate Conception, who alone had survived out of the wholecrew and had made his way to land through mad perambulations viasea and air. Everyone wanted to see this lad. Everyone wantedto talk to him and they all pressed up against him, reaching outto him their tankards and jugs. I thought it best to make useof this diversion to slip away unnoticed. I crept out keeping asclose as possible to the walls and had almost got to the doorwhen it was my misfortune to catch the eye of the cabin boy, whowas still crouching on the shoulders of his carriers. The ladstared at me as if he had seen a ghost, went white as chalk andshouted at the top of his voice: "Help! Help! Ecco! Ecco!He's one of them! Help! Arrest him!" "Who is? What's allthis?" the customers bellow and each of them looks at the ladand their neighbours. "There, there, where the table is. Arresthim. He's one of those sea beggars, the one who struck downCaptain Perazzo, one of the crew of the black galley." Whatcame next was pandemonium. All eyes were focused on me. Allswords flew out of their sheaths. I too had got my knife outto sell my life if needs be as dearly as possible. Now theythrew themselves at me, but I was faster on my feet than theywere, grabbed the nearest bench and flung it at the feet of thefirst wave of attackers so that a pile of them stumbled over itand fell against one another onto the floor. I made use ofthis brief opportunity to jump into the thick of it, hitting outto right and left with my knife into upturned faces. I reachedthe door. I was outside in the street. Behind me I could hearthe noise of my pursuers. Thanks be to God that I know Antwerplike the back of my hand. I get chased all over the place, butI manage to lose them with adroit twists and turns. I take themdown blind alleys and double back on myself. On the quayside allis still. My trusty key opens up a well-known door and I'vetaken refuge here, Myga, in order to rescue you. But still theydidn't give up hope of hanging a sea beggar. The whole of thegarrison came after me if truth be known. A great honour, men!Thank you most kindly!"

  Jan Norris listened with a laugh on his lips. Myga van Bergentrembled at the noise in the streets below.

  "Dearest, dearest Jan, are you quite sure that no-one has seenyou come into this house? Listen. They're coming this way.Oh God, look out of the window--torches and spears--heaven above,they're knocking on the door. They're looking for you, Jan.Lord have mercy on us. We're lost. We're lost."

  The front door flew open, people appeared to be forcing theirway into the house. Jan Norris gritted his teeth and seized hisknife by the hilt.

  "Calm down, calm down. It's not possible. Calm down, Myga."

  "They're coming. They're coming," screamed Myga. "They'recoming upstairs. They're going to find you. Jan, Jan, let medie at your side!"

  The young man was as pale as death.

  "How could I have been so careless as to endanger you, Myga?That was an awful thing to do. By my oath as a sea beggar,they really are coming upstairs. What's to become of you,Myga?"

  "Let me die at your side, Jan!" breathed Myga, clinging tothe chest of her betrothed.

  IV.The Raid.

  Not only was Leone della Rota at home in the Alcantara Arms,but in all the taverns of an Antwerp full of drinking dens.He had dragged his friend and captain, Antonio Valani, on thisparticular evening to the Golden Lion, and reluctantly, asusual, the captain had followed him there.

  Who could resist Leone della Rota when he had a plan to put intoaction?

  More reckless than malicious, the young lieutenant looked uponthe world as a great playground and the war as a splendid chanceto execute daring schemes unhindered. He saw the abduction ofthe poor small abandoned orphan, Myga, as a daring, playfulscheme, an honourable thing as far as he was concerned, and hadtaken it into his addled pate to carry it out only after havingconvinced his friend with difficulty to agree to it. What didthis Genoese good-for-nothing care about the affairs of therebel provinces and His Spanish Catholic Majesty? Heretic womencould be very pretty and female members of the one true churchextremely ugly. Leone definitely preferred charming heretics tougly Catholics and did all that he could not to depart from theold proverb that went the rounds in Italy about his home town,namely that Genoa has a sea without fish, a landscape withouttrees and men who cannot be trusted.

  In the Golden Lion he had, as we know already from the tale toldby Jan Norris, made the final arrangements with Antonio Valani asto the planned abduction. If this came off and the Andrea Doriagot back safely from its expedition, the black galley would eitherhave been taken as a prize or sunk. Who would dare then to pointthe finger at the victors? If the galleon did not come back, thenits last deed would have been worthy of its end. The possibilityof a third state of affairs, in which the Andrea Doria returnedhome without having seen the enemy ship, was unthinkable and heldby Leone della Rota to be beneath his dignity. The captain allowedhimself to be led by Leone however and wherever he wished.

  The two friends from Genoa had taken not the slightest part inthe pursuit of the bold sea beggar. They wandered arm in armthrough the streets in which an excited crowd was milling in thedirection of the quayside.

  "We'd have been fools to have run after that scoundrel!" laughedLeone. "Leave it to others to chase that audacious beggar. Bythe doves of Aphrodite, since I've been serving the formerly coldAntonio Valani as a pathfinder in the magic kingdom of love, mysoul hovers high over this land of mists. Oh Love, tamer of hearts,I follow your battle standard, oh goddess of Cythera, place us underyour divine protection!"

  "I beg you, Leone, be sensible. Don't be a fool. I'm in a strangemood. In all my life I have never had such a feeling in my breast.Leone, it's as if--Leone, all day and all night I have such strangethoughts. Leone, be prepared, perhaps you will soon take over fromme as captain of the Andrea Doria..."

  "And you'll be a rear admiral to Federigo Spinola."

  "Or a corpse at the bottom of the sea," murmured the captain.

  "What? Thoughts of death? Thoughts of death under the window ofthe girl of your dreams?" laughed the lieutenant. "By all that'sholy, that's a splendid thought. Would that I were Petrarch tocompose a sonnet on this wonderful mood. Look, you dreamer, herewe are directly under the window of your beloved--her light isstill shining--what a thought! Antonio Valani, friend of my youth,to scare away your intimations of mortality, let's now, right thisminute, pay a visit to
the sweet child who lives up there."

  "Leone!"

  "Let's search her house. All mad ideas would be most welcome!Forward in the name of the king! Forward in the name of love!"

  "Leone! Leone!"

  "Let me be," snorted the lieutenant. "I ask you, can the beggarthat these boorish fellows are looking for not just as easily havecrept into the lodging of the little one as into any of the otherhouses of this town? Forward, Antonio, you worry too much. We'llcarry out a house search of your fair beloved's and familiarizeourselves thereby with the position of the house for tomorrownight."

  Before the captain could hold his