' Mad Nicholas' to his friends ' Scourge of Spain' to the enemy Sir Nicholas Beauvallet has never been known to resist a challenge. When a captured galleon yields the lovely Dona Dominica de Rada y Sylva he vows to return her & her father to the shores of Spain. But he has no sooner done so than he proposes a venture more reckless than any of his exploits on the high seas which have made him Drake's equal & a favourite of the Queen. He will take Dominica as his bride even if he must enter the lion's den...