The Buccaneer - A Tale

It is one of the most extraordinary anomalies in the female character,

that, having once outstepped the boundaries that are never even thought

upon but with danger, it plunges deeper and deeper still into

irretrievable ruin. Perhaps it is because women must feel most acutely

that society never permits them to retrieve, or, what is much the same,

takes no cognisance of their repentance, be it ever so sincere: their

station once lost is never to be regained; it would seem as if Dante's

inscription on the gates of Hell were to be for ever their motto--"All

hope abandon." Man may err, and err, and be forgiven; but poor woman,

with all his temptations and but half his strength, is placed beyond the

pale of earthly salvation if she be but once tempted into crime! It is a

hard, even though it may be a salutary law.

It must be borne in mind that Zillah had committed as great an iniquity

in the eyes of her people by marrying as by intriguing; nor could she

expect pardon for either one or the other, except by some wonderful and

powerful interposition, such as Burrell held out. It was astonishing to

witness the fortitude with which the fragile and delicate Jewess, who

had been clothed in purple and fine linen, fed on the most costly

viands, and slept on the most downy couch, encountered the illness,

terrors, and miseries attendant on a sea voyage in the vessel of a

Buccaneer. The Fire-fly certainly deserved every encomium bestowed upon

her by her captain; yet was she not the most pleasing residence for a

delicately-nurtured female. No murmur escaped her sealed lips, nor, in

fact, did she perceive the inconveniences by which she was surrounded;

her mind was wholly bent upon the prevention of Sir Willmott Burrell's

marriage, of which she had heard from undoubted authority; and it would

appear that she had no feelings, no ideas to bestow upon, or power to

think of, other things.

Jeromio's plotting but weak mind, never satisfied with the present,

eager for the future, and anxious to make it better by foul means, had

contrived to bring into use an abandoned excavation under the old tower

we have so frequently mentioned, which had been forsaken by Hugh

Dalton's party from its extreme dampness. They had filled the entrance

with fragments of rock and large stones; but it was known to Jeromio,

who, thinking that during his occasional visits to Gull's Nest he might

manage to smuggle a little on his own account, assisted by two other

Italians as evil-minded as himself, arranged the stones so as to permit

one person at a time to creep into the wretched hole, where he stowed

away such parts of the cargo of the Fire-fly as he could purloin from

his too-confiding commander. He admitted Zillah to a knowledge of this

cave, as a place in which she might shelter. He knew her to be a female

of wealth and consequence; yet had no idea of her connection with the

Master of Burrell, whom he had rarely seen; and though of necessity she

occasionally mixed with the people of the Gull's Nest, yet she expressed

so strong a desire for some place of privacy in the neighbourhood of

Cecil Place, and paid so liberally for it withal, that he confided to

her the secret of this cave--the entrance to which was nearly under the

window of the tower in which Barbara Iverk had been concealed on the

night when, by her lady's direction, she sought to communicate to Robin

Hays the perilous situation of the young Cavalier. At that time, also,

the Jewess saw Sir Willmott for the first time in England. She had been

on the watch ever since her landing, but terror for her own wretched

life had prevented her addressing him openly. The tones of his

well-known voice had reached her miserable cavern, and roused her from a

troubled slumber. She understood too little of his language to

comprehend the nature of his communication to Roupall, and her first

impulse was to strike a dagger to his heart; but this, her womanly

affection prevented, and she suddenly withdrew. Subsequently, she wrote

to Mrs. Constantia, and trusted much to her generosity and truth of

character, of which she had heard in France; but poor Constance, through

the cowardice of Jeromio, never received her packet, and, enraged and

maddened by the reports of his immediate marriage, she resolved on

seeing Mistress Cecil, and accomplished her purpose, as she thought,

when in fact she only saw Barbara. Her jealousy and violence defeated

her purpose at that time; but still her determination remained fixed to

prevent the union, if her life were to be the forfeit. After meeting

with the knight, she retreated into the earth, from which she had so

suddenly appeared, much to the Master of Burrell's astonishment, who had

no knowledge whatever of the cave, though he doubted not it was of

Dalton's preparing. After securing the preacher, he examined every

portion of the ruins most attentively, but without success, for she had

learned to be as wily as a fox, and had carefully secured the aperture,

through which even her delicate form passed with difficulty.