d certainly been sped, if he had thought me worth knife
or pistol, or anything short of the cord.--Look at him sire! If the
rascal dared, he would say at this moment, like Caliban in the play,
'Ho, ho, I would I had done it!'"

"Why, oddsfish!" answered the King, "he hath a villainous sneer, my
lord, which seems to say as much; but, my Lord Duke, we have pardoned
him, and so has your Grace."

"It would ill have become me," said the Duke of Ormond, "to have been
severe in prosecuting an attempt on my poor life, when your Majesty
was pleased to remit his more outrageous and insolent attempt upon your
royal crown. But I must conceive it as a piece of supreme insolence on
the part of this bloodthirsty bully, by whomsoever he may be now backed,
to appear in the Tower, which was the theatre of one of his villainies,
or before me, who was well-nigh the victim of another."

"It shall be amended in future," said the King.--"Hark ye, sirrah Blood,
if you again presume to thrust yourself in the way you have done
but now, I will have the hangman's knife and your knavish ears made
acquainted."

Blood bowed, and with a coolness of impudence which did his nerves
great honour, he said he had only come to the Tower accidentally, to
communicate with a particular friend on business of importance. "My Lord
Duke of Buckingham," he said, "knew he had no other intentions."

"Get you gone, you scoundrelly cut-throat," said the Duke, as much
impatient of Colonel Blood's claim of acquaintance, as a town-rake of
the low and blackguard companions of his midnight rambles, when they
accost him in daylight amidst better company; "if you dare to quote my
name again, I will have you thrown into the Thames."

Blood, thus repulsed, turned round with the most insolent composure,
and walked away down from the parade, all men looking at him, as at some
strange and monstrous prodigy, so much was he renowned for daring and
desperate villainy. Some even followed him, to have a better survey of
the notorious Colonel Blood, like the smaller tribe of birds which keep
fluttering round an owl when he appears in the light of the sun. But as,
in the latter case, these thoughtless flutterers are careful to keep out
of reach of the beak and claws of the bird of Minerva, so none of those
who followed and gazed on Blood as something ominous, cared to bandy
looks with him, or to endure and return the lowering and deadly glances,
which he shot from time to time on th