Lord Julian from that moment began, almost in spite of
himself, to practise something that was akin to villainy. I regret
to chronicle it of one for whom--if I have done him any sort of
justice--you should have been conceiving some esteem. But the truth
is that the lingering remains of the regard in which he had held Peter
Blood were choked by the desire to supplant and destroy a rival. He had
passed his word to Arabella that he would use his powerful influence on
Blood's behalf. I deplore to set it down that not only did he forget his
pledge, but secretly set himself to aid and abet Arabella's uncle in the
plans he laid for the trapping and undoing of the buccaneer. He might
reasonably have urged--had he been taxed with it--that he conducted
himself precisely as his duty demanded. But to that he might have been
answered that duty with him was but the slave of jealousy in this.

When the Jamaica fleet put to sea some few days later, Lord Julian
sailed with Colonel Bishop in Vice-Admiral Craufurd's flagship. Not only
was there no need for either of them to go, but the Deputy-Governor's
duties actually demanded that he should remain ashore, whilst Lord
Julian, as we know, was a useless man aboard a ship. Yet both set out
to hunt Captain Blood, each making of his duty a pretext for the
satisfaction of personal aims; and that common purpose became a link
between them, binding them in a sort of friendship that must otherwise
have been impossible between men so dissimilar in breeding and in
aspirations.

The hunt was up. They cruised awhile off Hispaniola, watching the
Windward Passage, and suffering the discomforts of the rainy season
which had now set in. But they cruised in vain, and after a month of
it, returned empty-handed to Port Royal, there to find awaiting them the
most disquieting news from the Old World.

The megalomania of Louis XIV had set Europe in a blaze of war. The
French legionaries were ravaging the Rhine provinces, and Spain had
joined the nations leagued to defend themselves from the wild ambitions
of the King of France. And there was worse than this: there were rumours
of civil war in England, where the people had grown weary of the bigoted
tyranny of King James. It was reported that William of Orange had been
invited to come over.

Weeks passed, and every ship from home brought additional news. William
had crossed to England, and in March of that year 1689 they learnt in
Jamaica that he had accepte