“‘She was down before her father. We strolled in the morning sunshine, all among the beautiful flower-gardens.
“‘While still here, O’More himself came up. He was rubbing his hands and laughing.
“‘“Ha, Mr. Ferocious Pirate!” he cried, “I have news for you. I have just been up to the top of my timber tower, which commands a view of all the isle and the sea for twenty miles at least. Yes: and there isn’t a sign of your ship.”
“‘“How strange!”
“‘“You are marooned, my boy. But there is nothing strange about it. Your Admiral Morgan is a good sailor and a long-headed fellow. He knows right well there is a storm brewing that would wreck every ship he has if he didn’t sheer off and give the shore a very wide berth indeed.”
“‘And sure enough by noon that day the storm did come. It shook the great house till I expected every moment it would fall; it tore through the woods, rooting up great forest trees that had braved the elements for centuries; and it raised breakers along the island shore as high, I thought, as mountains. The sea, as seen from the tower, was all one smother of breaking, angry waves. I could not help wondering if it were possible for even our sturdy ships to brave that eastern gale.
“‘Even when the hurricane force of the storm subsided, it settled down into a steady gale, which lasted for a whole fortnight.
“‘And that gale, how I blessed it! For during this time I wooed and I won sweet Aileen O’More; and her father consented to our union six months after this, when both myself and they, we hoped, would be safe on Irish shores.
“‘But one day the admiral’s ship appeared, and cast anchor not a long way off.
“‘Oh that sad parting!