"No," the captain put in quickly; "in a few years' time the statute of limitations will allow me to go back to France. When the conscience is clear, and a man has broken the law in obedience to----" he stopped short, as if scorning to justify himself.
"How can you commit new murders, such as I have seen with my own eyes, without remorse?""We had no provisions," the privateer captain retorted calmly.
"But if you had set the men ashore--"
"They would have given the alarm and sent a man-of-war after us, and we should never have seen Chili again.""Before France would have given warning to the Spanish admiralty--"began the General.
"But France might take it amiss that a man, with a warrant still out against him, should seize a brig chartered by Bordeaux merchants. And for that matter, have you never fired a shot or so too many in battle?"The General shrank under the other's eyes. He said no more, and his daughter looked at him half sadly, half triumphant.
"General," the privateer continued, in a deep voice, "I have made it a rule to abstract nothing from booty. But even so, my share will be beyond a doubt far larger than your fortune. Permit me to return it to you in another form--"He drew a pile of banknotes from the piano, and without counting the packets handed a million of francs to the Marquis.
"You can understand," he said, "that I cannot spend my time in watching vessels pass by to Bordeaux. So unless the dangers of this Bohemian life of ours have some attraction for you, unless you care to see South America and the nights of the tropics, and a bit of fighting now and again for the pleasure of helping to win a triumph for a young nation, or for the name of Simon Bolivar, we must part. The long boat manned with a trustworthy crew is ready for you. And now let us hope that our third meeting will be completely happy.""Victor," said Helene in a dissatisfied tone, "I should like to see a little more of my father.""Ten minutes more or less may bring up a French frigate. However, so be it, we shall have a little fun. The men find things dull.""Oh, father, go!" cried Helene, "and take these keepsakes from me to my sister and brothers and--mother," she added. She caught up a handful of jewels and precious stones, folded them in an Indian shawl, and timidly held it out.
"But what shall I say to them from you?" asked he. Her hesitation on the word "mother" seemed to have struck him.
"Oh! can you doubt me? I pray for their happiness every day.""Helene," he began, as he watched her closely, "how if we should not meet again? Shall I never know why you left us?""That secret is not mine," she answered gravely. "Even if I had the right to tell it, perhaps I should not. For ten years I was more miserable than words can say--"She broke off, and gave her father the presents for her family. The General had acquired tolerably easy views as to booty in the course of a soldier's career, so he took Helene's gifts and comforted himself with the reflection that the Parisian captain was sure to wage war against the Spaniards as an honorable man, under the influence of Helene's pure and high-minded nature. His passion for courage carried all before it. It was ridiculous, he thought, to be squeamish in the matter; so he shook hands cordially with his captor, and kissed Helene, his only daughter, with a soldier's expansiveness; letting fall a tear on the face with the proud, strong look that once he had loved to see. "The Parisian," deeply moved, brought the children for his blessing. The parting was over, the last good-bye was a long farewell look, with something of tender regret on either side.
A strange sight to seaward met the General's eyes. The /Saint-Ferdinand/ was blazing like a huge bonfire. The men told off to sink the Spanish brig had found a cargo of rum on board; and as the /Othello/ was already amply supplied, had lighted a floating bowl of punch on the high seas, by way of a joke; a pleasantry pardonable enough in sailors, who hail any chance excitement as a relief from the apparent monotony of life at sea. As the General went over the side into the long-boat of the /Saint-Ferdinand/, manned by six vigorous rowers, he could not help looking at the burning vessel, as well as at the daughter who stood by her husband's side on the stern of the /Othello/. He saw Helene's white dress flutter like one more sail in the breeze; he saw the tall, noble figure against a background of sea, queenly still even in the presence of Ocean; and so many memories crowded up in his mind, that, with a soldier's recklessness of life, he forgot that he was being borne over the grave of the brave Gomez.
A vast column of smoke rising spread like a brown cloud, pierced here and there by fantastic shafts of sunlight. It was a second sky, a murky dome reflecting the glow of the fire as if the under surface had been burnished; but above it soared the unchanging blue of the firmament, a thousand times fairer for the short-lived contrast. The strange hues of the smoke cloud, black and red, tawny and pale by turns, blurred and blending into each other, shrouded the burning vessel as it flared, crackled and groaned; the hissing tongues of flame licked up the rigging, and flashed across the hull, like a rumor of riot flashing along the streets of a city. The burning rum sent up blue flitting lights. Some sea god might have been stirring the furious liquor as a student stirs the joyous flames of punch in an orgy. But in the overpowering sunlight, jealous of the insolent blaze, the colors were scarcely visible, and the smoke was but a film fluttering like a thin scarf in the noonday torrent of light and heat.
