The Buccaneer - A Tale

"I heard of that," interrupted Robin; "Roupall told me all: he met me

but a little time past in the Fox Glen; and there, too, I saw the

traitor's head, with the ravens feasting on their prey!"

"Ah! ah!" exclaimed Dalton, "is that the way Sir Willmott treats his

wedding present! The Fox Glen is beneath his chamber window; so I

suppose he cantered it out to find its own grave in the grassy hollow."

"Is this Barbara's father!" thought Robin, "and the man who would not

kill a cub-whale?--How wonderful! how strange his modifications of

feeling: the older he grows, the more incomprehensible he becomes."

Robin then detailed the particulars of his journey since he left the

Gull's Nest, which, as we are already acquainted with them, need not be

repeated here, and raised himself considerably in the Buccaneer's

estimation by his attention, shrewdness, and, above all, by the account

he gave of his interview with Cromwell.

"I believe it, Rob, I believe it--I am sure you would not betray me! But

I fear we must abandon this place--this and all others of a similar

description. I knew that as soon as internal commotions ceased, old Noll

would root us out. He will set Burrell on the trail, if he can get no

other informer; for he has never been too great not to make use of

filthy tools to effect his purpose. He had been here long ago but that

he dislikes to employ such troops as he has trained in hunting up moles

and water-rats. Yet he thinks it a disgrace to his policy not to know

all things, even the hiding-holes along the coast. There's good nesting

in the Cornish cliffs; but I have done with it, pardon or no pardon. Sir

Robert Cecil's gone mad, and I have a game to play there still. What

you tell me of Walter is most strange; yet I feel certain he is safe,

and my course, in reference to him, must be guided by the events that a

very few hours will doubtless produce. Cromwell--Roundhead and rebel as

he is--unless he be marvellously changed--has generosity enough to

guarantee the youth's safety, were he a thousand times more dangerous

than he can be. Whatever may be my fate, his will be a happy one. They

may leave me to rot upon a gibbet, so he and my sweet Barbara are safe."

"But," observed Robin, "I dread no such peril for you. Even if danger

awaits you in England, there are other lands--"