That you have done this I dare take my oath, my lord" -
She stood silent, her eyes upon his. The men around stirred, and a
little flash like the glint of drawn steel went from one pair of eyes
to another.
"My lord, my lord!" said the King's ward. "Long ago you won my
hatred; an you would not win my contempt, speak truth this day!"
In his eyes, which he had never taken from her face, there leaped
to meet the proud appeal in her own a strange fire. That he loved
her with a great and evil passion, I, who needs had watched him
closely, had long known. Suddenly he burst into jarring laughter.
"Yea, he treated me fairly enough, damn him to everlasting hell!
But he 's a pirate, sweet bird; he's a pirate, and must swing as
such!"
"A pirate!" she cried. "But he was none! My lord, you know he was
none! Your Honor" -
The Governor interrupted her: "He made himself captain of a
pirate ship, lady. He took and sunk ships of Spain."
"In what sort did he become their chief?" she cried. "In such sort,
gentlemen, as the bravest of you, in like straits, would have been
blithe to be, an you had had like measure of wit and daring! Your
Honor, the wind before which our boat drave like a leaf, the waves
that would engulf us, wrecked us upon a desert isle. There was no
food or water or shelter. That night, while we slept, a pirate ship
anchored off the beach, and in the morning the pirates came ashore
to bury their captain.
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