Margaret Tudor A Romance of Old St. Augustine   By: Annie T. Colcock

[Illustration: MARGARET TUDOR.]

MARGARET TUDOR

A Romance of Old St. Augustine

By ANNIE T. COLCOCK

Illustrated by W. B. GILBERT

[Illustration]

NEW YORK · FREDERICK A. STOKES COMPANY · PUBLISHERS

COPYRIGHT, 1901, BY FREDERICK A. STOKES COMPANY

All rights reserved

Transcriber's Note:

Minor typographical errors have been corrected without note. The oe ligature is shown as [oe].

"That thee is sent receive in buxomnesse, The wrastling of this world asketh a fall, Here is no home, here is but wildernesse, . . . . . Looke up on high, and thanké God of all!" CHAUCER.

NOTE.

The names of Mr. John Rivers, kinsman and agent of Lord Ashley, Dr. Wm. Scrivener and Margaret Tudor appear in the passenger list of the Carolina , as given in the Shaftesbury Papers (Collections of the South Carolina Historical Society, Vol. V, page 135). In the same (page 169) may be found a brief account of the capture, at Santa Catalina, of Mr. Rivers, Capt. Baulk, some seamen, a woman, and a girl ; also (page 175) mention of the unsuccessful embassy of Mr. Collins; and (page 204) the Memorial to the Spanish Ambassador touching the delivery of the prisoners, one of whom is alluded to as Margaret , presumably Margaret Tudor.

The names of the two Spaniards, Señor de Colis and Don Pedro Melinza, each appear once in the Shaftesbury Papers (pages 25 and 443): the latter individual was evidently a person of some consequence in San Augustin; the former, in the year 1663, was "Governour and Captain General, Cavallier, and Knight of the Order of St. James."

ANNIE T. COLCOCK.

THE STORY OF MARGARET TUDOR

CHAPTER I.

San Augustin, this 29th of June, Anno Domini 1670.

It is now more than a month since our captivity began, and there seems scant likelihood that it will come to a speedy close, altho', being in good health myself, and of an age when hope dies slowly, I despair not of recovering both liberty and friends. Yet, in the event of our further detention, of sickness or any other evil that may befall me and there is one threatening I write these pages of true history, praying that they may some time reach the hand of my guardian and uncle, Dr. William Scrivener, if he be still alive and dwelling in these parts. Should they chance, instead, to meet the eyes of some friendly disposed person of English blood and Protestant faith, to whom the name of William Scrivener is unknown, I beseech him to deliver them to any person sailing with the sloop Three Brothers , which did set out from the Island of Barbadoes on the 2nd of November last, being in the hire of Sir Thomas Colleton, and bearing freight and passengers for these shores.

If the sloop has suffered some misadventure (as I fear is not unlikely, either at the hands of the Spaniards, or else of the Indians of these parts, who do show themselves most unfriendly to all Englishmen, being set on to mischief by the Spanish friars), then I pray that word may be forwarded to his Lordship, the Duke of Albemarle, and others of the Lords Proprietors who did commission and furnish a fleet of three vessels, to wit: the Carolina , the Port Royal , and the Albemarle , which did weigh anchor at the Downs in August of last year, and set forth to plant an English colony at Port Royal.