The Buccaneer - A Tale

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"Now, Springall--I love to call you by that name," said the Buccaneer,

"though you have taken your old one, and made it even more honoured than

it was before,--the evening has closed in--the children a-bed--God bless

them! We will draw nearer round our cheerful hearth, and talk of days

long gone. Barbara, let's have some fresh logs on the fire; and now, for

past and present times."

"I am a bad hand at a long yarn--you know I always was so,

captain,"--said the naval officer, smiling, "and the news of poor Jack's

death has damped my canvass. I always thought he'd make a queer end of

it--so fond of plunder--so careless--so unprincipled--but brave, brave

to the backbone."

"Do you remember what he dared, by way of adventure, not a hundred miles

from this; when Major Wellmore and Walter De Guerre were masquing it

here so gaily?" inquired Robin.

"Ay, ay! But he and Grimstone were both half-seas over, or they'd have

hardly ventured it:--poor Grim paid the penalty."

"And deserved it too," added Robin. "He whom they assaulted was a

wonder--a being that will serve future ages to talk about, when the

rulers of the present day are either execrated or forgotten. Marry! but

it makes one's head swim to think of the warm blood and true that has

been spilled and wasted to raise up a throne for obscenity and folly!

Chambering and wantonness walk together as twin-born, along the very

halls where Cromwell, and Ireton, and Milton, and--my head's too hot to

recollect their names; but they are graven on my heart, as men who made

England a Queen among the nations."

"Then their Popery plots!" chimed in the Buccaneer; "the innocent blood

that has flooded the scaffold, as if the earth was thirsty for it--and

upon what grounds? the evidence, I hear, of one villain, supported by

the evidence of another! I grieve for one thing, truly--that I was ever

instrumental in forwarding the King's views. Robin said a true word in

jest the other day, that men as well as puppies were born blind, only it

takes a much longer period to open our eyes, than those of our

four-footed friends."

"So it does," said Springall, laughing; "that was one of Robin's wise

sayings. Barbara!--I beg your pardon,--Mistress Hays--do you think him

as wise as ever?"

"I always thought him wise; but I know it now," she replied, smiling.

"Sit ye down, Barbara," said Robin, "and our friend here will tell you

how much he admires our children; they are fine, healthy, and, though I

say it, handsome--straight withal--straight as Robin Hood's own arrow;

and I do bless God for that--for that especially! I would rather have

seen them dead at my feet than----"