Saint Mary's beacon. [volume] (Leonard Town, Md.) 1867-1983, 1869-11-25
CONTRIBUTED.
THE BUCCANEERS.
-FOUR OLD MEN IN HISTORY.
PROLOGUE

On the 10yh day of October, 1893,
an old man sat writing at table 10 cell
IN the palace Of the EScural in Spain
This apartment was the cell of a recluse
50 far as silence, Eroined arches, the dim
med and softened light o. stained and
cruciform windows, bare Stone walls, cru
cifxcs, PAINTINGS Of the clorifed martyrs.
sublime in death over their mortal agony,
-,onderou9 tones Of civil, military and
ecclesiastical history. with rich antique
blazonrv.tound in yellum with bright silver
clasps, arranged with stuliousy precision in
uichrS-the moukish looking habit the
occupant wore and that old man himself
could make an apartment at one end Of a
long vaulted corriior below the surface
Of the ground.
The ouly article Of luxury the cell CON
tniued was the carpet, and that vas so
thick and 50 soft that the hoof9 of a squad
ron of cayljrY charging over it would hlye
been us uoiscIcas as though they beat the
air. Al things in that cell were prepar-
ed for silence and for work-the sQcnt
wolk If that silent old man as he sat wri-
tug at that table who governed forty nil
lions Of subjects with that pen and that
brain
His hair was as white as sixty years
Of mental toll and the cares ofa monarchy
which ruled one fourth of the habitable
slot-, could make it, His back was as
Geeply bent as 10 years Of stopping over
that table could bend II.
But the eye with which Philip the II.
of Spain gazed upon the world within and
without that cell was young-such eyes
never grow olI-thev are dimmca by
death but not nge-thc eyes of cnthusi-
asts and fanatics are ever young. They
are the lights which know not time or
space.
His was. in fact, the eyes Of Mahomet,
con verted after some centuries of postum
nous purgation, to the catholicism OF
Philip IL.
The old man was dipping his pen into
the iukstaud to refill it, when the door
opened. as noiseless as though It's hinges
swung on air, and middle aged man,
stal aud composed features of that class
of men whose otlitial duties Of one day
are exactly Ike those Of all other days, =
entered and after making the customary
gcnuAexion said
"Sire. remain with Cod
The ed man, without tang either his
eyes or his pan from the paper on which
he wa, writing simply raised his left
hand 1t was his silent way Of returning
the customary beucdictjon of his servants
who had access 10 his cell.
The cntrant. unfolding a slip Of paper,
conttuued
"Sire, the armada has been defeated
and dispersed in the English channel aud
the few which survived the calamity are
now in the Say Of B,scay under the guns
of S,ntauGer
!. "piega Mendez. my son" said Philip
III taxing his eyes but not his pen from
the paper. there must be ma,Se, said for
the souls Of those brave men who have
persisted in this srest disaster to Spain
pensions to their widows aud orphans and
a Te pcun for those who have survived
Spain torsetS nothing. 90 with God. >
Ha uttered these words with his lips
without moving his lower Jaw. but those
hns opened sufficient to show now far tha;
jaw projected beyond the uPpee-a con-
formation which gave his voice a peculiar
deep aud Stpulcara. tone Ike amau speak
- h.,i,S.t