The Buccaneer - A Tale

"Had I known," thought Robin, "the true particulars about Sir Willmott's

affairs, of which I am convinced, from many circumstances, Dalton was

in full possession, I could have assisted in all things, and prevented

results that may hereafter happen." There was another idea that had

lately mingled much with the Ranger's harassed feelings--Constantia's

intended marriage. Robin was satisfied that a strong regard, if not a

deeply-rooted affection, existed between Walter De Guerre and Barbara's

kind mistress; and he thought that Hugh Dalton's manifesting so little

interest on the subject was not at all in keeping with his usually

chivalrous feelings towards woman-kind, or his professed esteem and

affection for his young friend. He knew that the Buccaneer's heart was

set upon attaining a free pardon; and he also knew that he had some

powerful claim upon the interest of Sir Robert Cecil; he knew, moreover,

Dalton's principal motive for bringing over the Cavalier; but with all

his sagacity, he could not discover why he did not, at once and for

ever, set all things right, by exhibiting Sir Willmott Burrell in his

true colours. Robin had repeatedly urged the Buccaneer on this subject,

but his constant reply was,-"I have no business with other people's children; I must look to my own.

If they have been kind to Barbara, they have had good reason for it. It

will be a fine punishment, hereafter, to Sir Willmott; one that may

come, or may not come, as he behaves; but it will be a punishment in

reserve, should he, in the end, discover that Mistress Cecil may be no

heiress." In fact, the only time that the Buccaneer felt any strong

inclination to prevent the sacrifice Constantia was about to make, was

when he found that she knew her father's crime, but was willing to give

herself to misery as the price of secrecy; then, indeed, had his own

pardon been secured, he would have stated to the Protector's face the

deep villany of the Master of Burrell. Until his return on board the

Fire-fly, and his suppression of the mutiny excited by Sir Willmott and

the treachery of Jeromio, he had no idea that Burrell, base as he knew

him to be, would have aimed against his life.

The Buccaneer was a brave, bold, intrepid, careless man; more skilled in

the tricks of war than in tracing the secret workings of the human mind,

or in watching the shades and modifications of the human character. His

very love for his daughter had more of the protecting and proud care of

the eagle about it, than the fostering gentleness with which the tender

parent guards its young; he was proud of her, and he was resolved to use

every possible means to make her proud of him. He had boasted to Sir

Robert Cecil that it was his suspicions made him commit "forged

documents to the flames," at the time when the baronet imagined that all

proofs of his crimes had been destroyed; but, in truth, Dalton had

mislaid the letters, and, eager to end all arrangements then pending, he

burned some papers, which he had hastily framed for the purpose, to

satisfy Sir Robert Cecil. When in after years it occurred to him that,

if he obtained those papers he could wind Sir Robert to his purpose, he

searched every corner of the Gull's Nest Crag until they were

discovered; so that, in fact, he owed their possession to chance, and

not to skilfulness. Even the boy Springall had seen through the

Italian's character; but Dalton had been so accustomed to find his

bravery overwhelmingly successful, and consequently to trust to it

almost implicitly, that his fine intellect was suffered to lie dormant,

where it would have often saved him from much that he endured. If he had

thought deeply, he would have seen the impropriety of trusting the

Fire-fly at any time to Jeromio's command, because, as he had found him

guilty of so many acts of treachery towards others, he should have

known, that it only needed sufficient bribery, or inducement of any

other kind, to turn that treachery upon himself.