sentiment of
gratitude. This he now proved in every possible way, and under his
powerful protection the credit of Captain Blood among the buccaneers
very rapidly reached its zenith.

So when it came to fitting out his fleet for that enterprise against
Maracaybo, which had originally been Levasseur's project, he did not
want for either ships or men to follow him. He recruited five hundred
adventurers in all, and he might have had as many thousands if he could
have offered them accommodation. Similarly without difficulty he might
have increased his fleet to twice its strength of ships but that he
preferred to keep it what it was. The three vessels to which he confined
it were the Arabella, the La Foudre, which Cahusac now commanded with a
contingent of some sixscore Frenchmen, and the Santiago, which had been
refitted and rechristened the Elizabeth, after that Queen of England
whose seamen had humbled Spain as Captain Blood now hoped to humble it
again. Hagthorpe, in virtue of his service in the navy, was appointed by
Blood to command her, and the appointment was confirmed by the men.

It was some months after the rescue of Mademoiselle d'Ogeron--in August
of that year 1687--that this little fleet, after some minor adventures
which I pass over in silence, sailed into the great lake of Maracaybo
and effected its raid upon that opulent city of the Main.

The affair did not proceed exactly as was hoped, and Blood's force came
to find itself in a precarious position. This is best explained in the
words employed by Cahusac--which Pitt has carefully recorded--in the
course of an altercation that broke out on the steps of the Church
of Nuestra Senora del Carmen, which Captain Blood had impiously
appropriated for the purpose of a corps-de-garde. I have said already
that he was a papist only when it suited him.

The dispute was being conducted by Hagthorpe, Wolverstone, and Pitt on
the one side, and Cahusac, out of whose uneasiness it all arose, on the
other. Behind them in the sun-scorched, dusty square, sparsely fringed
by palms, whose fronds drooped listlessly in the quivering heat, surged
a couple of hundred wild fellows belonging to both parties, their own
excitement momentarily quelled so that they might listen to what passed
among their leaders.

Cahusac appeared to be having it all his own way, and he raised
his harsh, querulous voice so that all might hear his truculent
denunciation. He spoke, Pitt tells us, a dread