The religious orders, he well knew, were the chief instigators of the
policy which was maddening the world. He sent two of these friars with
the provost-marshal to the spot where the boy had been struck, promptly
hanged them, and then despatched another to tell the Governor that he
would hang two more every day at the same place till the officer was
punished. The Spaniards had long learnt to call Drake the Draque, the
serpent, the devil. They feared that the devil might be a man of his
word. The offender was surrendered. It was not enough. Drake insisted
that they should do justice on him themselves. The Governor found it
prudent to comply, and the too hasty officer was executed.
The next point was the ransom of the city. The Spaniards still
hesitating, 200 men were told off each morning to burn, while the rest
searched the private houses, and palaces, and magazines. Government
House was the grandest building in the New World. It was approached by
broad flights of marble stairs. Great doors opened on a spacious gallery
leading into a great hall, and above the portico hung the arms of
Spain--a globe representing the world, a horse leaping upon it, and in
the horse's mouth a scroll with the haughty motto, 'Non sufficit orbis.
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