lect; but disappointment is good for holy fathers; it
makes them more earnest in their devotions and keeps their paunches from
swelling."

He let fall the lid of the chest, which locked itself, and then, after a
short trial of the keys, opened the one beside it. This was stored to
the top with what I took to be pigs of lead, and when he pulled out one
and bade me feel the weight of it I still thought it was lead, until he
told me it was virgin silver.

"This was good booty!" cried he, taking the lanthorn and swinging it
over the blocks of metal. "It would have been missed but for me. Our men
had found it in the hold of the buccaneer in a chest half as deep again
as this, and thought it to be a case of marmalade, for there were two
layers of boxes of marmalade stowed on top. I routed them out and found
those pretty bricks of ore snug beneath. I believe Mendoza made the
value of the two chests--silver though it be--to be equal to six
thousand pounds of your money."

The next chest he opened was filled with jewellery of various kinds, the
fruits, I daresay, of a dozen pillages, for not only had this pirate
robbed honest traders but a picaroon as well that had also plundered in
her turn another of her own kidney; so that, as I say, this chest of
jewellery might represent the property of the passengers of as many as
a dozen vessels. It was as if the contents of the shop of a jeweller who
was at once a goldsmith and a silversmith had been emptied into this
chest; you could scarce name an ornament that was not here--watches,
snuff-boxes, buckles, bracelets, pounce-boxes, vinaigrettes, earrings,
crucifixes, stars for the hair, necklaces--but the list grows tiresome;
in silver and gold, but chiefly in gold; all shot together and lying
scramble fashion, as if they had been potatoes.

"This is a fine sight," said Tassard, poring upon the sparkling mass
with falcon nose and ravenous eyes. "Here is a dainty little watch.
Fifty guineas would not purchase it in London or Paris. Where is the
white breast upon which that cross there once glittered? Ha! the perfume
has faded," bringing a vinaigrette to his hawk's bill; "the soul is
gone; the body is the immortal part in this case. Now, my friend, talk
to me of the patient drudgery of honourable life after this," collecting
the chests, so to say, to my view with a sweep of the hand; "men will
break their hearts for a hundred livres ashore and be hanged for the
price of a pinchbeck dia