among them whom I had seen before,--the physician who had
dressed my wound and my Lord Carnal. The latter was seated in a great
chair, beside a gentleman with a pleasant active face and light brown
curling hair,--the new Governor, as I guessed. The Treasurer, nodding to
the two men to fall back to the window, glided to a seat upon my lord's
other hand, and I went and stood before the Governor of Virginia.

For some moments there was silence in the cabin, every man being engaged
in staring at me with all his eyes; then the Governor spoke: "It should
be upon your knees, sir."

"I am neither petitioner nor penitent," I said. "I know no reason why I
should kneel, your Honor."

"There 's reason, God wot, why you should be both!" he exclaimed. "Did
you not, now some months agone, defy the writ of the King and Company,
refusing to stand when called upon to do so in the King's name?"

"Yes."

"Did you not, when he would have stayed your lawless flight, lay violent
hands upon a nobleman high in the King's favor, and, overpowering him
with numbers, carry him out of the King's realm?"

"Yes."

"Did you not seduce from her duty to the King, and force to fly with
you, his Majesty's ward, the Lady Jocelyn Leigh?"

"No," I said. "There was with me only my wife, who chose to follow the
fortunes of her husband."

He frowned, and my lord swore beneath his breath. "Did you not, falling
in with a pirate ship, cast in your lot with the scoundrels upon it, and
yourself turn pirate?"

"In some sort."

"And become their chief?"

"Since there was no other situation open,--yes."

"Taking with you as captives upon the pirate ship that lady and that
nobleman?"

"Yes."

"You proceeded to ravage the dominions of the King of Spain, with whom
his Majesty is at peace"--

"Like Drake and Raleigh,--yes," I said.

He smiled, then frowned "Tempora mutantur," he said dryly. "And I have
never heard that Drake or Raleigh attacked an English ship."

"Nor have I attacked one," I said.

He leaned back in his chair and stared at me. "We saw the flame and
heard the thunder of your guns, and our rigging was cut by the shot. Did
you expect me to believe that last assertion?"

"No."

"Then you might have spared yourself--and us--that lie," he said coldly.

The Treasurer moved restlessly in his seat, and began to whisper to his
neighbor the Secretary. A young man, with the eyes of a hawk and an iron
jaw,--Clayborne, the surveyor general,