How long we stood there in the joy of that moment I can never say. We were brought back to a sense of our surroundings by the jarring voice of someone speaking to us from the sidewalk.

“Ah ha! Bless my stars if it isn’t my two passengers all in one.”

It was Captain Donaldson who had spoken, and I was glad of a friend to turn to, for I was at my wits’ end to know what to do. Only a few words were necessary to acquaint him with our story. His genial eyes stood out in amazement as the tale of our long separation and accidental meeting unfolded itself to his willing sympathy.

“God-a-mercy me,” he cried, striking his chest. “It is hard to believe how the Lord does go about it to work His will. ’Twas only yesterday, Mistress Ruth, that I was charging him to fall in love with you, and now I suppose I shall lose both my passengers.”

He took on a thoughtful look at the idea of losing us. After a moment’s deliberation, however, he clapped his hands together.

“Well, that shall not prevent my sailing at the usual hour; no, not if I have to go empty-cabined inside and out.”

27Ruth, who clung to my arm affectionately as if she feared to lose me again, assured the good captain that she saw no reason why we should not go on as we had planned. In fact, though we had not thought it all out, we saw our way clear to continue our journey to America. It was a long distance, to be sure, but we had overcome the greatest obstacle when we had first made up our minds to go; besides, both Ruth and I were full of anxious curiosity to see the new land where so many of our countrymen had found homes of comfort and prosperity. Suddenly the captain broke out anew with a surprised question:

“What are the two of you doing here locking arms at midnight?”

I told him our adventure and all about the brawl at the tavern, and where I intended to take Ruth to.

“It will never do,” he said. “It will never do to rouse decent folk up at this time o\' night. Odds man, they’ve been in bed this three hours past, and it’s a warm welcome you’d get at one o’clock. No, no, it will never do. Come with me to the ship and I’ll make stowaways of ye both till morning.” The three of us set out together along the quiet streets to the dock. Now that the distracting noise of traffic was all spent, I found the vague roof of ship fronts under which we picked our way silently far different from what it was by day. Every vessel creaked and groaned in a thousand 28joints; the air fairly reeked with the smell of tar and cordage; the heaving hulks and the tall figureheads looming upon the prows were ghostly in their slow rise and fall. I was glad to get away from the lonely neighborhood and reach the Royal Lion; Ruth no less so, for she was a timid child when the excitement of the moment was passed.

Captain Donaldson offered to provide for us, but we had so much to talk about that we were quite content to huddle upon the deck with a pair of shawls to shield us from the wind.

Ruth told me that she had escaped from La Rochelle in safety ten years before and had found a good home in England, where she had wearied through the years waiting for me. Her experience had not been wholly unlike my own. After many years her mistress had died and, about the same time that my good master was sent to the Tower, Ruth was cast upon her own resources. Before this event occurred, however, she had given up all hope of my coming. Upon her mistress’ death she made up her mind to go to one of the Huguenot settlements in America. With this intent she had set out for Bristol. Footpads and highwaymen on land were then as likely to be met with as buccaneers upon the sea. The van which brought her to Bristol was waylaid and Ruth, as well as the other passengers, robbed of all they had. She arrived in Bristol penniless and had to take what employment came to hand in order to earn a living. 29Thus it happened that she was compelled to such base labor at the Mariner’s Rest.

“Oh, Vincie,” she sobbed. “It was so hard.”

An angry tremble shook me as I thought of her harsh treatment; then I recalled the threat the landlord had made in my hearing.

“What did he mean when he said that you knew what he could do when he was in earnest?”

“Do not think of that,” she answered softly. She was always so forgiving. “It is all past now.”

“Tell me what he meant,” I continued fiercely. “Did he ever dare to—”

“Hush, Vincie,” she murmured, putting her fingers over my mouth; but I shook her hand down. “He—must I tell you?” she continued with hesitation, not wanting to anger me further. But I insisted that she should speak out. “Well, he beat me once,—but not hard. What are you going to do?”

I sprang to my feet and took two steps toward the gangway; then Ruth was at my elbow. She gripped me by the arm.

“What are you going to do?”

“Never mind what I am going to do. Let me go.”

“I shall not let you go,” tightening her grip. “Stop.”

I looked at her in amazement. I remembered her as a timid child when I used to think out and plan everything she did. But the case was different 30now. I had a notion to shake her off and was almost on the point of saying as I used to, “Hush, you are a mere child.” But there was a look in her eyes which told me plainly that childhood was past and that, between us two, I was no longer the master.

“Let me go, Ruth,” I said. But I spoke without spirit, and when I added “Please” she only shook her head and began to draw me back to where we had been sitting.

“I am ashamed of you,” she said, but very gently. “Do you no longer read your Bible, Vincie?”

“Aye,” I answered, jumping at the chance her reference gave me. “And it says that whoso sheddeth man’s blood by man shall his blood be shed.”

“But he did not shed my blood.”

“Give eye for eye, tooth for tooth,—blow for blow.”

“Ah, Vincie, you read only where you like; love thy neighbor as thyself. Have you forgot the parable of the cloak? You must love your enemies and pray for them who persecute you. Were we driven out of home for Jesus’ sake to deny all His teachings and forswear His word? No, no, brother, do not forget the woman taken in adultery, and how she was brought before the Christ? Where were her accusers then? Vincent, turn the word of God into your own wicked heart before you judge your neighbor. What shall I say at the great day if they say to me: ‘Your brother did this or that 31wrong act in your name?’ Answer me, Vincent, what shall I say then?”

I could make no answer. Her pure spirit overcame me. I could only ask her to forgive me. She bade me kneel down upon the deck just as we used to kneel when we were children. Ruth prayed that I might come into a better spirit. I was in much need of her gentleness, and with great diligence she set to work to curb my resentment against the Catholics, which ten long years of disappointment and continual warfare had tempered to the hardness of steel. Every morning upon the deck as we sped across the wide ocean she wrought against my contrary spirit till it was partly broken. My little Ruth, whom I had protected so zealously in her childhood, wound me around her finger and ruled me firmly, but with all the gentleness of love.

“For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.” Her words and the promises she talked about in the good Book were like music, and I was beginning to be a better man. “Did we not prophesy in thy name, and by thy name cast out devils?” She showed me what all this meant, and that if I went on in the way I had begun I should some day be face to face with the great denial: “And then shall I profess unto them, I never knew you; depart from me, ye that work iniquity.”

Such was the burden of her teaching. She spoke much of the golden rule, and by that text 32she brought me to see how my fierce zeal against the Roman church was but persecution under cover of my own selfish faith as the Catholics persecuted under theirs. I remember one afternoon in particular when we were more than half way across the Atlantic. We were nestling in the bow of the ship beneath a flapping sail, and Ruth sat by my side, and teaching me, just as Jesus may have taught his disciples not to forget what He was telling them. The sun beat down warm and comfortable upon the deck. The merry surface of the water laughed in skipping sunlight. She had talked to me a long time that afternoon, and as she talked a great peace came upon me and little by little the remorse for my evil ways slipped away and vanished at her forgiving words.

Suddenly our attention was attracted by a commotion on the main deck where the cannons were. The sailors began to run this way and that in great confusion. Half a dozen of them started to drag the canvas covers off the guns and to get them ready for use. Others ran below to the magazine to bring up powder and small arms. I could not make out what all this rumpus was about till I glanced in the direction of the cannons’ aim and saw a large, square-rigged vessel about a mile away, bearing down upon us like a tower tilted against the sky. Surely all this preparation must be to repel an attack, and I guessed at once that the strange ship was a buccaneer. Our passengers were 33in a great scare when they found out the truth. A little baby whose mother lay sick in the cabin set up a wail of fright at the unusual sounds. No notice was taken of the child, however, till Ruth took it up in her arms and hushed it to sleep.

Captain Donaldson was the coolest head among us. He spoke some hearty words to his crew and bade them get ready to fight. Some of them went forward to man the guns in the bow; others climbed into the rigging to shoot down upon the enemy’s deck when she came alongside; small arms were dealt out to the rest of us who stood waiting near the main hatch. By the time all our operations were complete the hostile ship was not more than a quarter of a mile away, and soon she spread the flag of the buccaneers.

“I knew it,” shouted our captain, and the crew responded with a rousing cheer. I could scarce understand the reason of their joy, but put it down to their love of a good fight, and the escape from the humiliation that would have followed all their hurry if the ship had turned out a peaceful trader. I think the shame of having made a mistake as to the character of the approaching vessel would have smote them harder than a battle. Before the ship had got near us, all the women were sent below as a matter of precaution. Very soon two long-boats, bristling with weapons, put off from the buccaneer.

The two boats tilted merrily along the waves till they were half way to our ship. By that time 34some men in the pirate’s rigging must have made out the strength of our defenses, for the long-boats were hastily summoned back and taken on board the ship again. The buccaneer now came on under full sail. As it drew near we could see a squad of men at each end with ropes and grappling irons ready to lash us fast the moment we touched.

Ten minutes later, after a harmless exchange of cannon shots, the two ships were lashed fast together and the pirates were popping over our side like frogs into a pond. Captain Donaldson had placed his men in two lines in such a position that the buccaneers had to jump aboard between them. The pirates set themselves back to back in the middle of the ship and fought both ways at once. Donaldson cut down the leader of the band opposed to us. At this his party lost heart and gave back a step or two upon their comrades. They were now so close together that one party of the pirates hampered the other. They fell into confusion, and in two minutes we were chasing them back into their own ship.

It is always easier to defend than to attack. The moment the situation was reversed and we stood upon the offensive, we found our difficulties grown tenfold. Captain Donaldson’s voice rang clear above the din, bidding his men to stand firm and capture the ship. Suddenly the clamor increased at a great rate, and I heard hasty orders given to retreat to the Royal Lion. There was scuffling on 35the deck, shouts, and orders given in quick succession; then one of the grappling chains broke with a noise like the report of a cannon. Just at that moment I was engaged in a close fight with one of the pirates and could not turn my head to see what was happening. So long as he kept his sword flashing before my eyes I had no desire to look otherwise than to my guard, and my pride would not let me run. But soon I had him, for all he was a good fighter, and, by the time he slumped backward with a groan, the ships had drifted apart, and there was fifty feet of clear water between me and my friends.

Captain Donaldson made every effort to put his ship alongside again; but the pirates had had enough of fight for that day and their ship was the faster sailer. My heart sank as I saw the gulf widening between us; nor could I catch a last glance of Ruth, who had gone below with the sleeping baby in her arms at the beginning of the engagement.

In this way our short-lived reunion came to an end. I watched the Royal Lion drop behind till, night coming on, I could no longer see her. Strange to say, my captors had nothing to say to me for a while, and left me quite alone as long as I wished to keep my eyes on the vessel that contained my sister. In fact the treatment I met with at the hands of the buccaneers was such as to belie much of what I had 36heard concerning their reprobate character. When I passed my word of honor, they allowed me the freedom of the deck and set no sort of watch upon me. Some of them who thought that I had showed bravery in the fight even pressed me to join their crew, offering me equal rights with the buccaneers who had ventured money in the ship. Though I would not hear to this, I won favor in other ways, particularly by casting their accounts and by writing fair in the logbook. I practiced a good hand for the latter business, which was eventually the means of saving my life. One day when I was engrossing the date in large round letters at the top of the page, the captain, who was looking over my shoulder, began to laugh. He would not tell me what amused him, though he imparted it to his companions. Each one as he heard it looked at me and clapped his hands for fun. It was not long, however, before I understood how they intended to make use of my scanty store of learning.

About a week later we sighted a point of land. Though we soon passed this cape, I knew by many signs that we were making for the coast. That afternoon the chief spoke to me in the cabin.

“Monsieur Le Bourse, you know very well that you are our prisoner, and we paid dear for you, too; that was a jolly brush we had with the Royal Lion. Once more, and this is the last time I’ll say so, you can have full freedom and a share in the prize money if you will sign our articles.”

37“I shall not do it,” I replied haughtily. “Take your own way with me.”

At that he opened a locker, not at all offended by my manner, and drew out a suit of black clothes and a powdered wig which he told me to put on. This done he handed me a book and a silver-topped cane.

“Now walk,” he cried, “from here to the porthole and back again. There, there, you’ll do,” he went on, chuckling with delight. “Now, look you here, Monsieur Le Bourse, we are going to redeem you in the plantations for a schoolmaster, for they are sore in need of a little sense in Lord Baltimore’s colony. That’s where we shall set you. On my life, we’ll do it! And a brave dominie you’ll make in your black coat and wig.”

I did not resent this arbitrary disposition of my services. I had expected to walk the plank, and this was a great sight better than that. So I waited patiently for this new change in my fortunes. On the evening before we reached port I was seated in the bow of the ship alone. No one was near me, and soon the captain crept stealthily to my side.

“We’ll bind you out for five years of service,” he began. “Whoever takes you will pay us twenty pounds.” He tossed a purse into my lap. “There’s the money in good pieces of eight, Spanish gold. Never say Ned Teach of Bristol’s not a gentleman of honor.”

38I pressed him to know the cause of so much generosity; and I learned that the man I had killed in the fray was a desperate mutineer who threatened to overthrow the captaincy of Teach.

“Now,” continued the buccaneer, “you’ve got some money, and if you don’t find a way to escape in less than six months you deserve to hang.”

The approach of some of the crew prevented any further talk between us. The next day we ran into port. I was duly bound out to service in the capacity of what is called a redemptioner. This kind of service, I was told, received its name from the fact that the redemptioner, or bond-servant, could buy back his freedom by paying a certain sum of money at any time after five years of service. It was into this kind of bond that Ruth had intended to enter before I found her in Bristol. As I had given her but little ready money, I feared that fate had again laid its harsh hand on Ruth and me alike.

The immediate effect upon me of my service, or imprisonment, for such it really was, was to undo what small tolerance towards the Roman church I had learned from Ruth. The buccaneers bound me out to a Catholic owner of plantations, and soon, upon an attempt to escape, he had me stripped and flogged at the public whipping post on a crowded market day. I was kept close after that and not allowed to stray from the spot of my labors.

39For some time, in memory of Ruth, I struggled hard against a change of heart. But little by little my bitter hatred came back to me, and the mere shadow of a Catholic was something to be trampled under foot and spat upon. I resolved to make my escape, come what would, and to this end I was alert to every accident that could be turned to my advantage.

At that time the governments of Europe, and especially of England, were determined to put down the evil practices of the buccaneers. Orders were sent to all the American colonies to arrest the pirates wherever found. They were by this means driven from the larger ports and forced to frequent the smaller villages on the sea. Sometimes, nay, generally, their visits were connived at because of their liberal exchange in captured goods and of the cupidity of the merchants. It chanced, however, that an occasional honest magistrate made a rapid descent upon some unexpected place and captured a rover in an out of the way anchorage.

I had been in Maryland nearly a year when an event occurred that offered me a desperate chance of freedom. Captain Tew, a noted pirate, was discovered lying in a cove not far away. The planter to whom I was bound out, and who was also magistrate of the district, prepared to capture the buccaneer. By accident I learned his plans. They were so well laid that, if carried out in secrecy, they 40could not but be successful. I made up my mind to warn the pirate of his danger, to win thereby his gratitude, and purchase the means of flight. I succeeded in my venture by so narrow a margin that Captain Tew was quite aware that I had rendered him a great service. His gratitude knew no bounds. Though he had intended to sail farther to the south, he set his vessel northward again in order to land me near New York, where I hoped to find Ruth awaiting me. But before we reached our destination he did me the service I have already spoken of. Upon the gift he gave me the day before we reached Long Island turned an important part of my career in the province of New York.