Francis Drake's little fleet; and
the return to England had been only just in time to save his life.
Though Humfrey had set forth merely as a lieutenant, he had returned in
command of a vessel, and stood in high repute for good discipline,
readiness of resource, and personal exploits. His ship had, however,
suffered so severely as to be scarcely seaworthy when the fleet arrived
in Plymouth harbour; and Sir Francis, finding it necessary to put her
into dock and dismiss her crew, had chosen the young Captain Talbot to
ride to London with his despatches to her Majesty.

The commission might well delight the brothers, who were burning to
hear of home, and to know how it fared with Cicely, having been
absolutely without intelligence ever since they had sailed from
Plymouth in January, since which they had plundered the Spaniard both
at home and in the West Indies, but had had no letters.

They rode post into London, taking their last change of horses at
Kensington, on a fine June evening, when the sun was mounting high upon
the steeple of St. Paul's, and speeding through the fields in hopes of
being able to reach the Strand in time for supper at Lord Shrewsbury's
mansion, which, even in the absence of my Lord, was always a harbour
for all of the name of Talbot. Nor, indeed, was it safe to be out
after dark, for the neighbourhood of the city was full of roisterers of
all sorts, if not of highwaymen and cutpurses, who might come in
numbers too large even for the two young gentlemen and the two
servants, who remained out of the four volunteers from Bridgefield.

They were just passing Westminster where the Abbey, Hall, and St.
Stephen's Chapel, and their precincts, stood up in their venerable but
unstained beauty among the fields and fine trees, and some of the
Westminster boys, flat-capped, gowned, and yellow-stockinged, ran out
with the cry that always flattered Diccon, not to say Humfrey, though
he tried to be superior to it, "Mariners! mariners from the Western
Main! Hurrah for gallant Drake! Down with the Don!" For the tokens
of the sea, in the form of clothes and weapons, were well known and
highly esteemed.

Two or three gentlemen who were walking along the road turned and
looked up, and the young sailors recognised in a moment a home face.
There was an exclamation on either side of "Antony Babington!" and
"Humfrey Talbot!" and a ready clasp of the hand in right of old
companionship.

"Welcome home!" exclaime