“Long ago you won my hatred; an you would not win my contempt, speak truth this day!”

In his eyes, which he had never taken from her face, there leaped to meet the proud appeal in her own a strange fire. That he loved her with a great and evil passion, I, who needs had watched him closely, had long known. Suddenly he burst into jarring laughter. “Yea, he treated me fairly enough, damn him to everlasting hell! But he ‘s a pirate, sweet bird; he’s a pirate, and must swing as such!”

“A pirate!” she cried. “But he was none! My lord, you know he was none! Your Honor” —

The Governor interrupted her: “He made himself captain of a pirate ship, lady. He took and sunk ships of Spain.”