Page:A Mainsail Haul - Masefield - 1913.djvu/115

Rh in contempt of headache. "I shall hang in the sun, shortly," he said, "and then my neck will ache. I do but practise now." Later, in the autumn, there was a fall of snow; so that he could cheer up his heart with a game at snowballs. Then his old friend Captain Harris, whom he had known in Barbary, was committed to the Marshalsea; to comfort him with fellowship and cups of sack. It was reported that the two were "mad drunke" together; but that was calumny. They were only "orderly merry" together; and they had now but little time either for merriment or for sorrow. At the trial, Jennings did his best to save two of his crew; who, as he told the Court, had been compelled to turn pirates at the pistol muzzle. "Alas, my Lord," he cried to the Judge, "what would you have these poor men say ... if anything they have done they were compelled unto it by me; 'tis I must answer for it."

All three were condemned in spite of his pleading (Dec. 3rd, 1609); but five days later they obtained a respite; as the King hoped to obtain information from them, to help him in the extirpation of other pirates. It was not till the 22nd of December that they were led out to suffer. John Burles, the curate