The Buccaneer - A Tale

Jabez carried about him all the external distinctions of Puritanism--a

cropped head--a downcast eye--a measured step, and a stock of sighs and

religious exclamations. There was one maxim that found a ready response

within his bosom. "He was all things to all men;" could aid a smuggler,

drink with a Cavalier, pray with a Roundhead. He was, moreover, a tall,

powerful man--one who, if he found it fitting, could enforce a holy

argument with a carnal weapon; cutting a man's throat, while he

exclaimed, "It is the Lord's will! it is the Lord's will!" There was

nothing peculiar in his dress, except a huge pair of loose boots, of the

thickest untanned leather, that reached considerably above his knees,

and from frequent immersion in the tide had assumed a deep brown hue.

His hat was conical, and only distinguished by a small dirk glittering

in the band, which he carried there as a place of safety from contact

with the sea-water.

"My gay Ranger travelling in open day, when there is such wild news

abroad!" he said.

Robin made no reply; and Jabez, who was pulling at the huge cable, which

then, as well as now, towed the boats across, stopped and looked at him.

"My bonny Robin, what ails ye, man? Hast been cheated by the excise, or

plundered by the Roundheads, or does the strange trouble they say has

come upon Hugh Dalton affect ye so much?"

Robin turned his head away; his grief was too deep to covet witnesses.

"There's a guard of Ironsides at Cecil Place by this time," continued

the man, who began to think that Robin was relapsing into one of his

taciturn fits, "and Noll himself on the road, which I heard, not an hour

past, from two soldiers, who have been sent on with his own physician to

Sir Robert, who's gone mad as a March hare; and they do say that his

Highness has a plan of his own to destroy all free trade on the island

for ever: but I'm thinking Hugh has scented it, and is far enough off by

this time."

Robin looked inquiringly into the man's face, but did not speak.

"Some time or other, master," continued the ferryman, whose boat now

touched the strand, "you'll maybe condescend to unriddle me how Dalton

could have a daughter brought up by----"

Robin Hays did not wait for the conclusion of the sentence, but sprang

right on the land, with the air of a man bereft of reason, confirming

Jabez in the idea that he was again labouring under his old infirmity.