"And where is the pirate, thy master?"
"He stands before thee," replied the Earl, pointing to David Wood; for he was anxious to preserve an incognito which he hoped his disordered attire might favour.
"Thou hast but little the air of a shipman," rejoined the captain of the Biornen incredulously; "and I think that, were this knave thy leader, he would have addressed me, and not thou. So, sirrah, art thou really captain of that ship which dared to abide my cannon in the Danish seas?"
"Yes!" replied Wood boldly; "and how darest thou, Sir Captain, to doubt the word of a true Scottishman?"
"Because I would save thee, if I could, from the doom such an acknowledgment merits—away with him to the yard-arm!"
And in another moment, almost ere a word could be spoken or a hand raised in his defence, a rope was looped round the neck of David Wood, and he was run up to the arm of the main-yard, where he hung, quivering and writhing in the moonlight, while his last half-stifled shriek tingled in the ears of his companions, who were silenced and appalled by a catastrophe so sudden.
"By St. Paul! my poor skipper," thought the Earl, "if thou farest so for telling the truth, how shall I fare for telling a falsity? Knave of a Norseman! thou hast destroyed the cadet of a gallant race—the line of Bonnington, in Angus!"
"Hah! this is not the bearing of a Scottish boatswain," said old Christian Alborg, stepping back a pace at the menacing aspect of his prisoner; "and now, I bethink me that such wear neither corselets of steel nor spurs of gold; so tell me who thou art, or, by the hand of the king, I will run thee up at the other arm of yonder yard. Thy name?"
"James Hepburn, Earl of Bothwell, and Duke of Orkney, Knight of the Thistle, and Governor of the Kingdom of Scotland!" replied the Earl, drawing himself up with an aspect of dignity and pride, that was not lost upon the portly Norseman and his helmeted officers.
"Unhappy lord!" replied Christian Alborg, making a profound reverence; "I have heard of thine evil fame, and envy thee not the grandeur of thy titles."