would not like mentioned. Many years ago,
when you were but a child, he encountered me in Cadiz. Promising me a
large reward, and giving me a handsome sum as an earnest of his
intentions, he engaged me on a hazardous and daring enterprise. It was
no less than to sail to the North of England--to the islands of
Shetland--and to carry off from a castle, situated on the shores of one
of them, a child, the son of a certain Captain Don Hernan Escalante. I
see you are interested in my account; you may well be so. I heard you
speaking of that castle. I accomplished my errand. I attacked the
castle, bore away the child, and purposed to return to Cadiz to receive
my reward, and to learn what the noble marquis wished as to the disposal
of the boy. I had some idea, indeed, of concealing him, and employing
him to wring from the marquis the gold which I might require. My plans
were, however, frustrated. I was driven by a gale nearly across the
Atlantic, and so many British cruisers swarmed in all directions, that I
was continually driven back whenever I attempted to approach the Spanish
coast. At length a Spanish vessel hove in sight. As she drew nearer, I
recognised her as a corvette commanded by an officer I knew, Pedro
Alvarez by name. I at first thought she was a friend, but, by the way
she approached, I suspected she had hostile intentions. I endeavoured
to make my escape, for I have always held that men should never fight if
they can help it. That is to say, if an enemy has a rich cargo on
board, a wise man may fight to capture it; but if he himself has
anything of value on board, he will fly to preserve it, and only fight
when he cannot preserve it by any other means.

"The corvette bore down upon us, and so well did she sail, that I found
escape impossible. She ran me aboard; and Pedro Alvarez and half his
crew, leaping down on my decks, drove my people before them; he fought
his way into the cabin--there was the infant, on the possession of whom
I rested the hopes of my future support. He seized it, and hurrying
back to his own vessel, called his people to follow him, and then,
casting my craft free, he stood away to the eastward, without firing a
shot at my vessel, seeming content with the mischief he had already done
me. Believing that he would at once go back to Spain, denounce the
marquis, and proclaim me as his tool, I dared not return to Cadiz. I
therefore sailed for the West Indies, and employed myse