“And so!” exclaimed Justin, no longer able to restrain himself, but bounding to his feet, and seizing the rebel captain by the throat, and shaking him violently—“and so I have been harboring no less a miscreant than a licensed pirate, who takes advantage of his letters of marque and makes war—not upon men-of-war, but upon defenseless merchantmen—seizing their cargoes, murdering their crews, and scuttling their ships!”
“It was a mil—lil—litary necessity, commodore!” spluttered the wretch, gasping and choking in the viselike grasp of the furious young athlete.
“Your instant execution is a moral necessity, miscreant!” thundered Justin, shaking him by the throat as though he would have shaken his sinful soul from his brutal body.
“Justin! Justin! forbear! would you murder the villain at your own board!” frantically exclaimed Britomarte, starting up and seizing the arm of the young man. “Would you murder him before my eyes!”
“I would execute him now and here! for he deserves instant death!” cried the young man, tightening his grasp until the pirate grew black in the face.
“Justin! Justin! spare him! not for his sake, but for your own honor! He is too much intoxicated to defend himself. He is helpless as a child in your grasp! For your own honor, Justin! curb your just rage and spare a defenseless man!” pleaded Britomarte, clinging to her lover.
“I will obey you, my queen! I will spare the miscreant, though he does not deserve to be spared, never having spared others!” replied Justin, hurling from him the form of the pirate, who fell heavily, striking his head upon the stone floor.
“Oh, Justin! I fear that he is already dead!” exclaimed Britomarte, approaching the motionless form of the pirate, who, from the united effects of drunkenness, suffocation, and concussion, was now quite insensible.
“He is dead drunk, that is all,” replied Justin, turning the body half over with his foot and then leaving it.
He went to the entrance of the cavern and looked out. The men that had been grouped before the door were nowhere in sight; but Judith was walking about gathering up crusts and bones and other litter left by them on the ground.