The Buccaneer - A Tale

But the most singular portion of the garniture of this most singular

cave consisted of a number of "Oliver's Acts," pinned or nailed against

the walls. If Dalton had been Lord Chief Justice, he could not have

displayed a more minute attention to the products of legal sittings

than distinguished his private chamber: here was set forth on goodly

parchment, "An Act for the Security of his Highness the Lord Protector,

his Person, and Continuance of the Nation in Peace and Safety;" there,

"An Act for Renouncing and Disannulling the pretended Title of Charles

Stuart, &c. at the Parliament begun at Westminster the 17th day of

September, anno Domini 1656," with the names "Henry Hills" and "John

Field, Printers to his Highness the Lord Protector," in large letters at

the bottom, together with divers others, chiefly however relating to the

excise.

Hugh Dalton rose from his seat, and laid his enormous pipe on a pile of

ebony logs that answered the purpose of a table, when Sir Willmott

Burrell saluted him with more civility than he usually bestowed upon

inferiors: but, despite his outlawry, and the wild course his life had

taken, there was a firm, bold, and manly bearing about the Buccaneer

which might have overawed far stouter hearts than the heart of the

master of Burrell. His vest was open, and his shirt-collar thrown back,

so as to display to advantage the fine proportions of his chest and

neck. His strongly-marked features had at all times an expression of

fierceness which was barely redeemed from utter ferocity by a pleasant

smile that usually played around a well-formed mouth; but when anger was

uppermost, or passion was subdued by contempt, those who came within

reach of his influence, more dreaded the rapid motion or the sarcastic

curl of his lip, than the terrible flashing of eyes that were

proverbial, even among the reckless and desperate men of whom he was the

chief, in name, in courage, and in skill. His forehead was unusually

broad: thick and bushy brows overhung the long lashes of his deeply-set

eyes, around which there was a dark line, apparently less the effect of

nature than of climate. The swarthy hue of his countenance was relieved

by a red tinge on either cheek; but a second glance might have served to

convince the gazer that it was the consequence of unchecked dissipation,

not a token of ruddy health. Indeed, notwithstanding the fine and manly

character of his form and countenance, both conveyed an idea of a mind

ill at ease, of a conscience smitten by the past and apprehensive of the

future, yet seeking consolation in the knowledge of good that had been

effected, and of more that remained to be done. Years of crime had not

altogether obliterated a natural kindness of heart; he appeared as one

who had outraged society and its customs in a thousand forms, yet who

knew there was that within him by which he was entitled to ask and

expect a shelter within her sanctuary; and when a deep flush would pass

over his features, and his blood grow chill at the recollection of

atrocities at which the sufferers in a score of lands had shuddered as

they talked, he endeavoured to still the voice that reproached him, by

placing to the credit of his fearful account some matters to which we

may hereafter more distinctly refer.