for the
provisioning of our new home, getting up the bread and such viands as we
could, and packing them in as portable a manner as might be for the next
journey. But by this time unhappily we began to be threatened by a fresh
trouble. No sooner were we free from the women-folk and the children,
whose presence had hampered us so sorely, than a far more pressing
vexation came upon us. For certain of the sailors, who up to this point
had behaved well enough, suddenly flung aside their good behaviour. They
had got at the wine, of which, unhappily, in the first confusion of our
mischance no care had been taken, and many of them were roaring drunk,
and capable of doing little service beyond shouting and cursing at one
another. When Cornelys Jensen saw this he did his best to prevent them,
and though some of them were too sullen to obey him, he did at last
contrive with threats and oaths to keep such of the sailors as were
still sober away from the liquor. By this time Lancelot, facing the new
danger, got from his uncle the key of the storeroom where the arms were
kept, and served out weapons to all those on board who had been soldiers
and who loved Captain Amber. A pretty body of men they made, each with a
musket on his shoulder, a hanger by his side, and a brace of pistols in
his belt. They were all reliable men--many of them, indeed, had
experienced religion, and had in them something of the old Covenanting
spirit, which had worked such wonders under General Cromwell.

I could see that Cornelys Jensen was very ill-pleased with this act on
our part, but he could say nothing, for the thing was done before he
could say or do aught to prevent it, and very fortunate it was that we
had done so betimes, for now Captain Marmaduke had under him a body of
sober, disciplined, well-armed men, who would obey him and stand by him
to the last extremity. I myself had slung a hanger by my side and thrust
a brace of pistols into my girdle, and I believe that I well-nigh
rejoiced in the peril which gave me the chance to carry those weapons
and to make, as I fancied, so brave a show. Lancelot armed himself too
in like fashion, for he served as second in command of our little troop
under Captain Amber. For my part, I held no rank indeed in the little
army, but I looked upon myself as a kind of _aide-de-camp_ to my
Captain.

With half a dozen of those men we gathered together all the cases of
wine that had been brought out and placed them back