y
afterwards his signal midshipman reported that one of the ships-of-war
in the harbour was telegraphing to them.

"You must be mistaken, boy; it cannot be intended for us shut up your
book, we are beyond signalling distance," he answered. "And so farewell
to lovely Spain--for ever, perhaps," he thought to himself. "It will
take more years than I am likely to live to make those wretches forget
or forgive the death of their official. From henceforth I am a banished
man. For myself I care not; but for poor young Hernan--who is to
advocate his cause? Well, I fear for this time the spirit of evil and
his imps have got the upper hand of honest folk."

CHAPTER TWELVE.

A STRANGE SCHOONER APPEARS OFF LUNNASTING--THE CASTLE ATTACKED--THE
PIRATES ENTER THE CASTLE--YOUNG HERNAN CARRIED OFF.

The winds whistled round the towers of Lunnasting, and the wild waves,
as they were wont, washed the base of the rock on which it stood, and
time sped on without any material change taking place among its
inhabitants. Hilda spent the greater portion of the day in her turret
chamber, gazing out--when not engaged in nursing her child--on the
wide-spread ocean, and thinking of him who slept beneath its surface.
Her infant, however, was her constant and only source of interest.

The little fatherless infant grew and flourished, and gave every promise
of becoming a strong healthy boy. Meantime the health of Bertha Morton
became week after week worse and worse, and her mother began to fear,
too justly, that her days on earth were numbered. Rolf had been
compelled to make a voyage to Greenland, as first mate of a ship; and he
came back only in time to have his little boy put into his arms and to
receive the last breath of the wife he so fondly loved. At Hilda's
special invitation the young Ronald was carried up to castle that his
grandmother might have the entire charge of him.

"He will make a good playmate for my little Hernan, dear Bertha,"
observed Hilda; "so you see he will amply repay me for any advantage he
may obtain by the arrangement. I trust the boys may be friends through
life. They are of kindred blood, and Morton is a person in manners and
conduct far above the position he holds. From his appearance it has
more than once occurred to me that he must be of gentle blood. He that
is gone, who saw a good deal of him, several times made the same
remark."

"He was brought up by a good, kind, Christian man, and it is o