boat, having called in
vain for Springall, whom he had left at Gull's Nest in the morning.

The motion of the oars was but a mechanical accompaniment to his
thoughts, which wandered back to his child, to his next beloved, Walter,
and to the events through which his chequered life had passed during the
last year. Strong as was now Hugh Dalton's affection for his daughter,
it is doubtful if it would have had force enough to make him relinquish
so completely his wandering and ruthless habits, and adopt the design of
serving for a little time under the banner of the Commonwealth, before
he completely gave up the sea, had not his declining constitution warned
him that at fifty-five he was older than at thirty. He had grown a wiser
and a better man than when, in middle age, he ran full tilt with his
passions at all things that impeded his progress or his views. A long
and dangerous illness, off the Caribbees, had sobered him more in one
little month, than any other event could have done in years. Away from
bustle and excitement, he had time for reflection, and when he arose
from his couch, he felt that he was no longer the firm, strong man he
had been. The impressions of early life, too, returned: he longed for
his child, and for England; but when he remembered her mother, he could
not support the idea that Barbara should know him as he really was.
Still his restless mind suggested that occupation would be necessary,
and his busy brain soon fixed upon the only way by which honourable
employment could be obtained. England had been, for a long series of
years in a perturbed and restless state, and Dalton had made himself
well known, both by his ingenuity, energy, and bravery: he had been
useful as a smuggler, and imported many things of rich value to the
Cavaliers--trafficking, however, as we have seen, in more than mere
contraband articles.

Sir Robert Cecil, as we have shown, was not always the possessor of
Cecil Place; and the secret of whatever course he had adopted, or crime
he had committed, to obtain such large possessions, was in the keeping
of Hugh Dalton.

Cromwell had not at all times watched as carefully over the private
transactions of individuals, as he was disposed to do during the later
years of his Protectorate. Persons obnoxious to the Commonwealth had
frequently disappeared; and though Oliver's system of espionage was
never surpassed, not even by Napoleon, the Cromwell of modern years, yet
it had been his