ion. Can you not
understand how tired I was of my life in Yarmouth, in that old, dreary
inn; and how I wished to be abroad and see the great world, and also
to embrace my own parents, from whom I have been separated these
twelve years?"

Thus she made her defence. Nor was I like to gainsay it, loving her as
I did, with the same folly and blindness as of old, and ready to see
and to hear just as she bade me, so that I might only be let hug
myself in the belief that I had her affection in return.

"For the first part of our voyage," she told me further, "all went
well enough, until your cousin recovered of those wounds you had given
him. Then he began to take a tone with me which I could ill brook; and
you may imagine my uneasiness when I perceived that he had greater
interest with the men than Mr. Sims, and that I was fairly in his
power. As soon as we had got out in these seas he threw off all
pretence of taking me to Fort William; and when I implored him at
least to set me ashore in Bombay, where I might find another ship, he
flatly refused, and told me plainly that I was nothing more than his
prisoner. I applied to Mr. Sims for protection, but he answered that
it was none of his business, and since I had come aboard freely there
was nothing penal in detaining me. This man, I could see, was afraid
of Gurney, who shortly after raised a mutiny against him, put him in
irons, and carried him into Gheriah."

I had forgotten to say that when we took the pirates' castle, Captain
Sims was found among the prisoners, who, producing his papers, and
making out a long tale about his being an innocent merchant skipper,
fallen into the hands of the Moors, not only got his freedom, but a
handsome compensation out of the plunder of the place, with which he
took passage home to England.

Marian told me that her complaints and anger at last drove Rupert to
put her ashore, where he gave her, like Sims, into Angria's custody.

"And the horrors of that prison," she said, "are not to be described,
nor even conceived by one who has not had experience of it. I was
locked into a small cell, with scarce room to move or breathe, and the
insufferable heat was such that I was forced to strip naked and lie on
the floor, with scarce a rag to cover me. What would have happened to
me if the fort had not been taken I dare not think. I must have gone
mad or died."

"Do not let us speak of it," I said, soothing her. "All those horrors
are passed,