sent Bob Lyth."

CHAPTER XXVIII

FAREWELL, WIFE AND CHILDREN DEAR

Now Robin Lyth held himself in good esteem; as every honest man is bound
to do, or surely the rogues will devour him. Modesty kept him silent as
to his merits very often; but the exercise of self-examination made
them manifest to himself. As the Yorkshireman said to his minister, when
pressed to make daily introspection, "I dare na do it, sir; it sets
me up so, and leaveth no chance for my neighbors;" so the great
free-trader, in charity for others, forbore to examine himself too much.
But without doing that, he was conscious of being as good as Master
Anerley; and intended, with equal mind and manner, to state his claim to
the daughter's hand.

It was not, therefore, as the farmer thought, any deep sense of
illegality which kept him from coming forward now, as a gallant sailor
always does; but rather the pressure of sterner business, and the hard
necessity of running goods, according to honorable contract. After
his narrow escape from outrage upon personal privilege--for the habeas
corpus of the Constitution should at least protect a man while making
love--it was clear that the field of his duties as a citizen was
padlocked against him, until next time. Accordingly he sought the
wider bosom of the ever-liberal sea; and leaving the noble Carroway
to mourn--or in stricter truth, alas! to swear--away he sailed, at the
quartering of the moon, for the land of the genial Dutchman.

Now this was the time when the forces of the realm were mightily
gathered together against him. Hitherto there had been much fine feeling
on the part of his Majesty's revenue, and a delicate sense of etiquette.
All the commanders of the cutters on the coast, of whom and of which
there now were three, had met at Carroway's festive board; and, looking
at his family, had one and all agreed to let him have the first chance
of the good prize-money. It was All-saints' Day of the year gone by when
they met and thus enjoyed themselves; and they bade their host appoint
his time; and he said he should not want three months. At this they
laughed, and gave him twelve; and now the twelve had slipped away.

"I would much rather never have him caught at all," said Carroway, to
his wife, when his year of precaption had expired, "than for any of
those fellows to nab him; especially that prig last sent down."

"So would I, dear; so would I, of course," replied Mrs. Carroway, who
had b