"'I soon found such a profession.
"'My grandfather had been a sea-faring man, like nearly all Bretons who live on the coast; but my father's rather delicate health led him to enter the judiciary. But I had been reared on the coast, and the sight of the sea, and the daring, adventurous, and independent life of the fishermen had made a deep impression upon my mind.
"'A privateer! to be a privateer! When this idea presented itself to my mind my heart bounded with hope.
"'It seemed to amount to a revelation.
"'It offered an outlet for the feverish ardour that was devouring me.
"'My one object in life now was to save you from poverty, and ensure you the comforts of life, both now and in years to come,—to secure sufficient wealth to make it possible for you to marry the man of your choice, some day. This, and to find a career in which my powers could be best utilised.
"'How could I do this more effectually than by becoming a privateer?
"'The prize-money gained by privateers often amounts to large sums, so it was quite possible that I might succeed in amassing a very comfortable little fortune for you; besides, where could I hope to find a life that would suit me better, or even as well as the daring, exciting, adventurous life of a corsair?
"'Contention and strife were like the breath of life to me. Resistance exasperated me to frenzy; peril only incited me to greater efforts; the presence of danger set my blood to boiling. Madness seized me, and my capabilities seemed to increase in power in proportion to the number of my enemies.
"'Nor was this all, my child. As I have remarked before, cruelty, or oppression, or treachery, enraged me well-nigh to madness, and against whom should I fight if I became a corsair? Against a country I abhorred,—against a country that, impelled by hatred, greed, or ambition, as the case might be, had pursued France with the utmost vindictiveness for years, hesitating at nothing,—now trying to ruin us by flooding our country with counterfeit assignats, now torturing our brave soldiers to madness, even to death, in her horrible prison hulks,—in short, England!