"Rupert Fitzroy, touch me not! Think not of love! When thou hast captured this freebooter—when I behold him bound at my feet so low that I can place my foot upon his neck, I will then be thy bride. Ay, to the music of his clanking chains shall be performed the marriage rites."
"If not my own honour, thine at least demands his capture and death. Catharine of Bellamont," he said, kneeling before her and solemnly elevating his hands, "I swear by the cross that is the emblem of our holy faith that thou shalt be avenged!"
She looked on his animated features a moment steadily with her full black eyes, and then said,
"'Tis enough! By thy urgency in this matter thou wilt show thy love for me, and by my determination to press it to its issue thou mayest construe mine for thee. I am now calm. Here is the flag I have worked for thee. It bears thy initials, with the arms of my house, conjoined. Take it, and beneath it win thy bride."
"Lady, it shall be done, or I will never see thy face more!"
"Ay, it should be for the world's weal that it should be done," she said, with eloquent fervour, "when every breeze comes tainted with the smell of blood; when wondering crowds, each with a tale that outweighs that his fellow bears, in nimble speech deal out to one another hourly marvels! When in bolts, bars, and locks before unknown in this peaceful land, each household, for leagues along the coast, seeks ill security against midnight dangers! When the fisherman fears to launch his boat, and towns count their strength and weigh the odds (as if a foe were thundering at their gates) against sudden surprise. When he who spreads such terror is captured, I will then be thine!"
"For this very enterprise am I now preparing. Within this last half hour I have got a ship that sails like the wind, which, with arms and ammunition on board, will place me on a better deck than that I have lost."
"Why did you delay to tell this, and lead me to blame you in my thoughts for supineness?"
"I would have kept it secret from thee till I had sailed."
"Wherefore?"