"Nay, forgive me! I planned it not beforehand; but seeing, as I approached you, that you knew me not, the fisher's coat and cap I borrowed of him who fished me from the water having disguised me even to your keen-eyed love, I was tempted to try your affections."
"Nay, Rupert, did you doubt it?"
"I have no cause," he said, embracing her.
"And did you escape as you just now said?"
"Yes. My brig was taken by a strange fatality after I had sunk the pirate vessel. All my men were slain—none, save Edwin and myself, left alive. I, from some strange thirst for blood that possesses Kyd—for I can divine no other motive—was condemned by him to walk the plank. I succeeded in snatching a cutlass, for the purpose of selling my life dearly as might be, but at length was driven overboard. I had, before sunset, seen a fisher's skiff a mile off at anchor; and, rising far from the vessel towards her bows, struck out, when she had passed me, towards it. It so chanced that he had seen the brig lying to, and pulled towards her to find a market for his fish, when I hailed him and was taken on board. Knowing that the pirate would steer directly to this port, I bribed the man to bring me hither through the Staten Island Sound: and here I am once more in your loved presence."
She mused while he spoke, and then, as if unconscious of his presence, said,
"Robert, poor Robert, to what height of crime has passion led thee—to what abyss will it plunge thee! Thou wert my first, my only love! As some wild vine clings around a stately trunk, curling its tendrils about its topmost limbs, as if in one embrace 'twould clasp it all, so did I entwine my heart around thee, taking thy shape! But, at last, the tempest came and swept my stately oak away. Lonely and lost, I stretched my wounded tendrils on every side, seeking some branch to cling to; then fell down, and lay in ruins along the ground.—Ha, Fitzroy! Why is thy eye with such fierce scrutiny fixed upon me?"
The lover started, and then a moment or two hurriedly paced the sward ere, with hesitation and embarrassment, he said,
"It has reached my ears—how, it matters not—that, since my departure, you and this freebooter Kyd have met in private. From his own lips there fell dark words of favours given or received! The thoughts (forgetful of my presence) you now gave tongue to put to this, together, the one strenghtened by the other, give—"
"Fitzroy, cease! why will you seek to cast a cloud over the heaven your presence makes so bright?"