left arm was in a sling, going
forward.

Captain Hughes, his arms folded, was leaning over the taffrail, when the
clink of the capstan made itself heard, as the sailors shipped the bars,
and to the merry tones of the flute began heaving up the anchor. Dom
Maxara was standing erect beside him, his tall figure and noble bearing
telling of a proud and haughty nature.

"Isabel has told me what has passed between you, Senhor Capitano,"
continued the noble; "but though I will never thwart her will, you must
remember we know little of each other."

"Ours has scarcely been a ball-room meeting," returned the English
officer, in a tone scarcely less haughty than that of the Portuguese.

"That I am willing to concede, and more, for on one occasion at least my
daughter owed you her life, but even that is not a debt on which a noble
caballero counts. Are you aware that Isabel, on her father's side,
descends from the oldest dukedom of the land, that of the princely house
of Cadaval?"

His listener bowed stiffly, and the proud noble continued--

"Are you aware also that her mother was of the race of the Guzmans of
Castille, and that in her is concentrated the purest Spanish, with the
oldest blood of Portugal?"

"Well, as to that," replied Hughes, who could not help smiling, though
feeling very anxious, "I can count pedigree with any man, only instead
of the Guzmans of Castille, I must refer you back to the rude hills of
the Cymri and the chieftains, my ancestors, who wore their golden
torques, when the Druids raised their altars in Britain, and before even
the Romans knew the land."

The speaker's voice showed pride and dignity fully equal to that of the
noble, though there breathed through the words a spirit of mockery and
cynicism.

Dom Maxara bowed courteously. "I can hardly perceive the analogy
between your skin-clad ancestors and the chivalrous barons of my land,"
he replied coldly.

"I regret to hear it, Senhor," said the soldier, with some show of
humour, "and it yet remains for me to learn how as to birth and old
lineage I am so immeasurably your inferior," he continued, sharply.
"The boon I ask of you is great, so great that a lifetime of devotion
will not pay my debt, but in other matters," and here the delicacy of
the subject striking him, he paused. "In a word, Senhor Maxara, my
fortune is small, very small, and resumes itself thus:--A captain's
commission, an income of five hundred a year besides, and an