Captain Blood

e was not guilty of this; but we need not doubt that he was quite capable of it by the time he was indicted. Those two months of inhuman, unspeakable imprisonment had moved his

se was that he should have been brought to trial at all; the second, that his trial took place on the date named, and not a da

r to be summarily hanged in the market-place by the bloodthirsty Colonel Kirke. There was about the Colonel of the Tangiers Regiment a deadly despatch which might have d

gibbets with which they were planting the countryside, and they little cared how they procured them or what innocent lives they took. What, after all, was the life of a clod? The executioners were kept busy wi

they were brutally crowded, their wounds undressed and festering. Many were fortunate enough to die upon the way. When Blood insisted upon his right to exercise his art so as to relieve some of this suffering, he was

shipmaster had remained his close companion after their common arrest. Hence, fortuitously, had they been chained together in t

oundest dismay amongst those men who were suffering for the Duke and for the religious cause he had professed to champion. Many refused utterly to believe it. A wild story began

ite so unmoved, and served to nourish the contempt he was forming for King James. His Majesty had consented to see Monmouth. To have done so unless he intended to pardon him was a thing e

in leader of the rebellion, had purchased his own pardon for forty thousand pounds. Peter

efore as I know to-day, I don't doubt I should have given cause to be where I am now."

ruddy tan of the sea had faded almost completely during those months of

. Grey's case explains their absence, I think. They are wealthy men that can ransom themselves. Here awaiting the gallows are none but the unfortunates who followed

great hall of Taunton Castle to take his trial. With him went Pitt and the yeoman Baynes. The three

es-was hung in scarlet; a pleasant conceit, this, of the Lord Chief Justice's, w

ers, the five judges in their scarlet robes and heavy dark p

twelve good men and true that composed the jury. Neither good nor true did they look. They were scared, uneasy, and hangdog as any set of thieves caught with their hands in the poc

he Lords Commissioners, and particularly the presiding Judge, that Lo

ce and their gentle melancholy. The face was very pale, save for the vivid colour of the full lips and the hectic flush on the rather high but inconspicuous cheek-bones. It was something in those lips that marred

he did the agonizing malady from which his lordship suffered, and the amazin

d, hold up

Scotland, France, and Ireland King, his supreme and natural lord. It informed him that, having no fear of God in his heart, but being moved and seduced by the instigation of the Devil, he had failed in the love and true and due natural obedience towards his said lord the King, and had moved to disturb the peace

rely innoc

re and to the right of him bounced up. I

" snapped this peppery gentlem

y it please your lordships, I am guilty of nothing to justify any of those words I have heard used to describe me, unless it be of a w

e; but at this point the Lord Chief Justice i

and usual methods of trial, I must interrupt you

ost happy in that ignorance. I could gladly

arily lightened the

you come to your defence. But anything you s

equired of him, that he would be tried by God and his country. Whereupon, having prayed to God t

rk passed on to Pitt, who boldly owned his g

let brethren nodded. "If all were as obstinate as

e court, Mr. Pollexfen got to his feet. With great prolixity he stated the general case against t

three prisoners, together with Lord Gildoy. Upon the orders of his colonel he would have hanged Pitt out of hand, but was rest

concluded, Lord Jeffreys l

Blood ask the wit

has correctly rel

hat are usual in your kind. And I will say this, that here prevarication woul

the Captain's evidence, whereupon the scarlet figur

ice. It was brisk and rasping, and the lips through which it passed were curved in scorn. "I take it, Mr. Pollexfen,

crisply, on a note that almos

rdship, but there's a

then gradually with an expression of dull anger. The scarlet lips fell

d you waste our time

en of the jury hear me on my defence, as yo

elicate dead-white hand, on which the veins showed blue, brought forth a handkerchief with which he dabbed his lips and then his brow. Observing him with his phy

l judge,

urpose for whi

e confident flash of his blue eyes. Lord Jeffreys's bullying charge had whipped the spirit out of them. H

and saturnine. He was freshly shaven, and his periwig,

d me at Oglethorpe's Farm on the Monday morning after the b

oing there in the company of rebels, two of whom-Lord Gildo

beg leave to tel

r if I am to be troubled with the say of all you tr

quality as a physician, to

ou tell us that yo

f Trinity Col

gue is this! You heard the witness say that he had known him in Tangiers some years ago, and that he was t

was a soldier; but before that I was a physician, and I have been one again since Ja

mouth. I will ask you only this: How came you, who represent yourself as a physician peacefully

o the late rebellion. I regarded the adventure as a wicked madness. I take leave to ask your lordship" (his brogue became

rt more like a snivelling, canting Jack Presbyter. I t

t with so keen a nose your lordship

eries, instantly quelled by the fierce gla

He raised that delicate white hand, still clutching

s immortal soul, and there is nothing in the world equal to it in value. Consider that the great God of Heaven and Earth, before Whose tribunal thou and we and all persons are to stand at the last day, will take vengeance on thee for every falsehood, and justly strike thee into

. The man was incredible, unreal, fantastic, a nig

ldoy, and I conceived it to be the duty imposed

thirsted-glared upon him in evil mockery. Then he controlled himself as if by an effort. He sighed. He resumed hi

there, as he

that is himself a traitor self-

er Baynes here, who

oubt not he'll be greatly exercised to save his own neck fro

r, who saw me set out that morning up

re time on you. Answer me only this: When Master Pitt, as you pretend, came to summon you

d, My

inging jury and uttered a short, stabbing la

unded man, as wa

neration of vipers do we live in! Thy sacred duty, rogue, is to thy King and to Go

Gildoy

had been wounded in the battl

kne

elieve, a true and loyal subject of our

ent. "My business, my lord, was wit

the jury approved him. It served only to d

of this traitor rogue, and withal you cannot but observe the spirit of this sort of people, what a villainous and devilish one it is. Out of his own mouth he has said enough to hang hi

ng hanged without tri

f yours whether or how

injustice committed by one who holds the King's commiss

ession ever steadiest in moments of dire peril. With any other jury it must have made the impression that he hoped to ma

hen flung himself

ng, impudent rascal? But I have done with you. I see thee,

emotion passed again from his pale face. Back to invest it again came that gentle melancholy. Speaking after a

at all the pains in the world, and all compassion and charity are lost upon you, and therefore I will say no more to you." He turned again to the jury that countenance of wistful beauty. "Gentlemen, I must tell you for law, of which we are the judges, and not you, that if any person be in actual rebellion against the King, and another person-who really

, whom God had set over them, and with vituperations of Nonconformity and of Monmouth, of whom-in his own words-he dared boldly affirm that the meanest subject within the kingdom that was of legitimate birth had a better title to the crown. "Jesus God! That ever we should have such a generation of vipers among u

t afterwards, in retrospect, surprised him. He was so amazed by the man, by the reactions taking place in him between mind and

let-hung court. For an instant that foam of white faces seemed to heave before him. Then he was himself again, and a voice was

mockery of justice administered by that wistful-eyed jack-pudding in scarlet, who was himself a mockery-the venal

your neck, upon the very threshold of that

lood took

he justiciar, speaks with knowledge of what is to come to me. I, being a physician, may speak with knowledge of what is to come to your lordship. And I tell you that I would not now change places with you-that I would not exchange this halter that you

ed ten there was no sound in that paralyzed court after Peter Blood had finished speaking. All those who knew L

e briefly than his wont on such occasions and in a manner entirely mechanical, the manner of a man whose thoughts are elsewhere while his lips are speaking-he delivered sentence of de

oners fi

Judge-Advocate which he occupied-was overheard by one

lordship a scare. It's a pity he must hang. For