so say."

The Protector replied calmly--"To the pardon for himself, I say, ay; to
the other conditions, no. Once spoken is enough. My words are for
eternity, young man; it is much that I pardon even him. Go to--what
hinders that I blow not his nest into the sky? what care I for the
vultures of his eyrie!

"But the doves, your Highness,--the doves that shelter there!"

"Look ye, sir ambassador," returned Cromwell, "were I to twine a wreath
of gunpowder round his nest, think ye he would suffer his child to
perish, whatever fate in desperation he might award himself?"

"My Lord, he can look the sun in the face at noon-day; he could weigh
with an unquailing eye the bullet that brought him death--he is a man of
unspeakable firmness."

"Granted," said the Protector; "but I am a father--so is he; you are
not, or you would feel that, were the female a vulture, not a dove,
still he could not peril her life. She is his child. I forget, while I
now speak, that which I am; for I could not speak thus if I remembered
it. I send you to Dalton, to tell him, that in humble, most humble,
imitation of the blessed God, whose unworthy servant I am, I say that
'though,' in the eyes of the world, 'his sins be as scarlet, they shall
be as wool;' they shall be blotted from my memory, and I will stretch
forth my right hand to save and not to punish; so much as regards
himself, I will not hint at his misdeeds, provided that----" he stopped
abruptly, and fixed his eye upon the timepiece that was set over the
chimney--a huge heavy iron machine, that one would fancy even Time found
it difficult to deal with. "You see the hour--the hand is on the stroke
of nine: provided that, before that same hand rests upon the single
figure which heralds in the morning, the Preacher, the Jewess, himself
and his daughter are within this room--provided they are here I will
seal his pardon: he shall go forth, or remain, a free subject of the
Commonwealth. And more than this, my soldiers sleep till midnight, so
that men, _all_ men may travel in safety,--in safety _by land_, I mean;
for if the slightest attempt be made to rid the harbour of the
pestilential vessel, whose crew keep such careful, or rather such
prudent, watch upon her deck, if that the night were dark as blackness
itself, there are eyes that see, and hands that avenge! The ship must
not remain unpunished; of her, justice _shall_ have its due. Your
Buccaneer should think of this, and bless the God t