Page:A Mainsail Haul - Masefield - 1913.djvu/94

This page has been validated.
82
A MAINSAIL HAUL

thorough 'salt.' A fool and an idiot out of his trade."

During the next few years, in spite of various losses, Ward seems to have prospered. It is said that he made a cruise to Ireland, with seven hundred men, and that he offered King James £40,000 for a pardon, which was refused. When he heard that his offer had been unavailing, he determined to settle down at Tunis. His old friend "Crossyman," gave him the remains of a castle, which he repaired with marble and alabaster, till it was "a very stately house far more fit for a prince than a pirate." He lived there, when not at sea, "in a most princely and magnificent state. His apparel both curious and costly, his diet sumptuous." He had two cooks to dress and prepare his diet for him, "and his taster before he eats." "I do not knowe any peere in England," says his biographer, "that bears up his post in more dignity."

It is not known how and when he died. Dansekar, his old ally, obtained a pardon from Henri IV of France, and entered the service of the Duke of Guise. Ward, as far as we can learn, was never pardoned. "He lived there, in Tunis," in