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edecessors in title andtrust, have done to forfeit any rights which you ered; it was evident that this view of the questionhad not entered his rave possibilities His lips grew dry, and it ith avoice hoarser than hitherto that, after a pause, he said:
"Go on!"
"This treasure was sent, in tiland, forthe purpose of her undoing--that is her undoing froovernment of the time It was in itself an actof war The very docuinalownership, would serve to prove the hostile intent of such owners insending it Rereat Arether to attack this country The owner of thetreasure, the Pope, gave it in trust for the _cestui que trust_, theKing of Spain to your ancestor Bernardino de Escoban, as hereditarytrustee Your ancestor himself had the battleship _San Cristobal_ builtat his own cost for the King's service in the war against England Yousee, they were all--the individual as well as the nation--hostile toEngland; and the intention of evil towards that country, what Britishlaw calls 'malice prepense' or the '_mens rea_' was manifest in all!"The Spaniard watchedof hisswarthy face and the agonised contraction of his brows that the argu home to his very heart The man was so distressed that,ene that I went on:
"It remains to be seen what view the British laould take of youraction, or what is the sa the treasure in the doner you wouldnot have, I take it, a right in any case And certainly, as a foreignerin arht ineither dofrom your warship in time of war on British shores!"
There was a long pause Now that I caal matters as I had been able tolearn, and er than I had at first iined A whole host of collateral the law, as I saw it, thesubject took me aith it:
"This question would then naturally arise: if the forfeiture of therights of the original oould confer a right upon the Crown ofBritain, standing as it does in such a matter as the 're been hidden, being what thelaw calls '_bona vacantia_,' can be acquired by the finder, subject tothe law relating to the Royal prerogative In both the above cases therewould arise points of law In either, for instance, the nature of thetreasure ainst an individualclaihts as finder"
"How so?" asked Don Bernardino He was recovering his _sang froid_, andmanifestly ishful to reassert himself
"According to the statement of Don Bernardino, which would assuredly beadduced in evidence on either side, the treasure was, or is, of variousclasses; coined ems and jeork By one of theextracts which I have read you, the Crown prerogative only applies toprecious metals or bullion Gems or jewellery are therefore necessarilyexcluded; for it could not, I think, be claimed that such baubles werecontraband of war"
"Again, the place of hidingto the cipher narrative the place of hiding was a seacave This could not be either 'on' the ground, which would give titleto the finder; or 'in' the ground which would give Crown claiht arise the question as to whether thetreasure should in any way come into the purview of the law at all Youwill remember, in one of my excerpts Blackstone excepts the sea froht out in the LawCourts, right up to the House of Lords which is our final Court ofAppeal, whether the definition of 'sea' would include a cave into whichthe tide ran" Here I stopped; ument was exhausted of presentpossibilities The Spaniard's thought now found a voice:
"But still ownership ht be proved Our nations have been at peaceever since that unhappy time of the Invincible Arht side by side in the Peninsula! Besides, at notiland and the Pope, even when hispriests were proscribed and hunted, and imprisoned when capturedThe friendship of these countries would surely give a base for thefavourable consideration of an international claim Even if there mayhave been a constructive forfeiture, such was never actually exacted;England ht, in her wisdom, yield the point to a friendly nation, whenthree hundred years had elapsed" Here another idea struck me
"Of course" I said "such ht to a treasure, however acquired But let me remind youthat lawyers are very tenacious of points of law, and this would haveto be decided by lawyers who are the servants of the state and theadvisers of the governprinciples of law, even if the specific case were not on all fours withprecedents I learn that in India, which is governed by laws made byBritons and consonant with the scheme of British law, there is actuallyan act in existence which governs Treasure Trove By this, the of a claim ofprevious ownership within a hundred years So you see that by analogyyour claim of three hundred years of peace would put you clean out ofcourt" We both reh,rose up and said courteously:
"I thank you Senor, for the audience which you have given to me Asthere is to be no _rapprochement_ to us, what I can say may not availI must now take my own course I am sad; for what that course iven my fortune and my life to haveacquitted me honourably of the trust imposed on me But such happinessmay not alas! be mine Senor" this he said very sternly "I trust thatyou will always remember that I tried all ways that I know of, of peaceand honour, to fulfill e my duty, even to the point of life and death, you willunderstand that I have no alternative"
"Would you take life?" I said impulsively, half incredulous
"I would not scruple regardingthatof another?" he said simply, then he went on:
"But oh! Senor, it is not the taking of life, my own or another's, whichI dread It is that I may have to walk in devious ways, where honour isnot; have I not already tasted of its bitterness! Understand uardianship of the trust is not of reater powers than ourselves, by theVicegerent of God Himself; and what is ordained by him I shall do in allways that are demanded of me"