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 "LI 5 R.AFLY 
 
 OF THE 
 UN IVLRSITY 
 Of ILLINOIS 
 
 8^3
 
 UNDER THE GREAT SEAL
 
 JOSEPH HATTON'S NOVELS. 
 
 NEW HANDSOME LIBRARY EDITIONS, 
 
 In cloth, gilt top, 2s. 6d. 
 
 5th Edition. 
 THE PRINCESS MAZAROFF. 
 
 MODERN ULYSSES. 
 
 " There is not a page which has not upon it the stamp of power and 
 style." — Daily Telegraph. 
 
 "The writer reaches real dramatic force." — Spectator. 
 
 BY ORDER OF THE CZAR. 
 
 The Tragic Story of Anna Klosstock, Queen of the Ghetto. 
 13th Edition. 
 
 CLYTIE. 
 
 "If Clytie, in cold, silent Parian, was a favourite, her namesake, in 
 real, hearty genuine flesh and blood, will be loved a thousandfold. . . 
 The heroine is as fair and womanly as the hero is brave and un- 
 fortunate." — Standard. 
 
 CHRISTOPHER KENRICK. 
 
 "The book contains so many well-executed characters and exhibi- 
 tions of pleasantry akin to true humour, that it must be pronounced 
 a success that will contribute to Mr. Hatton's popularity."— The 
 Athcuceum. 
 
 THE VALLEY OF POPPIES. 
 
 "A charming story, tranquil and dreamy as its title." — Daily 
 Telegraph. 
 
 THE TALLANTS OF BARTON. 
 
 "It has a certain touch of the grace which belongs to Tennyson's 
 ' Lord of Burleigh.' " — Illustrated London News. 
 
 BITTER SWEETS. 
 
 " His sympathies are always with kindly, charitable, straight- 
 forward dealings, and he makes the reader feel that this is genuine." 
 — Pall Mall Gazette. 
 
 NOT IN SOCIETY. 
 
 "A vastly' entertaining work." ^-Sunday Times. 
 IN THE LAP OF FORTUNE. 
 
 " Lucy is picturesque enough for the central figure in a cottage 
 idyll, and it is in such tender bits of domesticity that we see Joseph 
 Hattofi at his bes.t;" — Athenmim. ... 
 
 CRUEL LONDON. 
 
 " Nothing so powerful has appeared in .fiction since Charles Reade 
 wrote his immortal story of ' Hard Cash.' " — Morning Post. 
 
 ' THE QUEEN OF BOHEMIA. 
 
 "To read Mr. Hatton's new novel, 'The Queen of Bohemia,' without 
 being amused would be impossible to anyone capable of estimating 
 and enjoying inventive power, constructive skill, and bright, graphic 
 diction." — Daily Telegraph. 
 
 London : HUTCHINSON AND CO., 34 Paternoster Row.
 
 t tnder the 
 
 Great Seal 
 
 Joseph Hatton 
 
 AUTHOR OF 
 
 BY ORDER OF THE CZAR", " CLYTIE " 
 
 "PRINCESS MAZAROFF . ETC. ETC. 
 
 IN THREE VOLUMES 
 VOL I 
 
 ' With 
 
 Hutchinson & Co.'s 
 Compliments, ^l 
 
 bonbon 1893 
 
 HUTCHINSON AND CO. 
 
 34 PATERNOSTER ROW
 
 PRINTED AT NIMEGUEN (HOLLAND) 
 
 RY H. C. A. THIEME OF NIMEGUEN (HOLLAND) 
 
 AND 
 
 TALBOT HOUSE, ARUNDEL STREET 
 
 LONDON, W.C.
 
 8£ 
 
 1 
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 I. THE BELLE OF HEART'S DELIGHT I 
 
 II. AFTER THE FISHING FLEET HAD SAILED .... 1 8 
 
 III. AROUND A WINTER FIRE 38 
 
 IV. "TO YOUR TENTS, O ISRAEL" 49 
 
 V. COUNCILS OF PEACE AND WAR 68 
 
 VI. FOR THE SAKE OF THE WOMEN AND CHILDREN . 78 
 
 VII. TREACHERY 92 
 
 VIII. AVOMAN'S INSTINCT 97 
 
 IX. A CRUEL CONSPIRACY • Il6 
 
 X. PAT DOOLAN TO THE RESCUE 1 25 
 
 XI. MUTINY " 143 
 
 XII. HOW THE KING'S MEN MADE REBELS 1 52 
 
 XIII. IN THE SHADOW OF THE FOREST PRIMEVAL. . . 1 73 
 
 XIV. A PRISONER AND IN IRONS 1 86 
 
 XV. SIGNALS OF FRIENDSHIP AND DANGER 205 
 
 * XVI. BOWERS THE SILENT DELIVERS HIS MESSAGE. . . 224 
 
 XVII. GRIM OFFERINGS TO THE HOUSEHOLD GODS OF 
 
 HEART'S DELIGHT 234 
 
 XVIII. THE TRAGIC REVOLT OF ALAN KEITH 260
 
 UNDER THE GREAT SEAL. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE BELLE OF HEART'S DELIGHT. 
 
 As the stony wilderness of some barren strand 
 is unexpectedly decorated with a flower, so did 
 Hannah Plympton dawn upon the uncouth com- 
 munity of Heart's Delight. A blush-rose from 
 the stock of a Devonshire garden, she adorned 
 the waste of a Newfoundland settlement in the 
 youngest days of the oldest British Colony. 
 
 Newfoundland had secret ties for some of the 
 early settlers. Alan Keith was held there by his 
 
 VOL. l i
 
 2 UNDER THE GREAT SEAL. 
 
 love for Hannah Plympton. That was his secret. 
 Season after season when he should have gone 
 home with the fishing fleet he lingered on the 
 shores of Heart's Delight. Father, friends, home, 
 religion, all were sacrificed to Hannah Plympton, 
 and yet he had made no confession of his love. 
 Hannah was not only the belle of Heart's Delight, 
 she was its good angel, and while ambitious to 
 win her for his wife Alan could only regard his 
 desire as rash and presumptuous. It should be 
 the reward of some gallant cavalier, or mighty 
 sea-captain, who had fought a great battle, to 
 gather the blush-rose of Heart's Delight. And 
 if such a hero had appeared Alan would have 
 liked nothing better than to wager his life against 
 him for the prize. 
 
 Furthermore Hannah had come to be regarded 
 as the daughter of the little community. She had 
 a father who was looked upon as the founder and 
 master of the settlement, but she was everybody's
 
 THE BELLE OF HEARTS DELIGHT. 3 
 
 friend and neighbour. Her mother had died when 
 Hannah was an infant. David Plympton, her 
 father, had brought her from St. John's to the 
 smaller settlement in the first days of her girlhood. 
 He had inherited certain territorial rights in the 
 natural harbour of Heart's Delight. The people 
 had gathered round him, and the girl had grown 
 up with the colony. She Avas an example of 
 the heredity of English beauty, and a type of 
 its nobility. The men of Heart's Delight felt 
 the better for her ingenuous smile. The women 
 were proud of her beauty. It made the men 
 shy. They revered it; all of them except one. 
 He was the shadow on her life and she knew 
 it not. 
 
 To dwell upon the beauty of Hannah is not 
 necessarily to discount the comeliness of the other 
 women of the colony. They had come from all 
 parts of the old country, companions of adventur- 
 ous men. Some of them were ill-favoured. Others
 
 4 UNDER THE GREAT SEAL. 
 
 brought pleasant faces, and all of them courageous- 
 hearts to the planting of the young colony. 
 Hannah Plympton's manners were just as frank 
 and free as theirs. There were no Society airs- 
 at Heart's Delight, no assertion of caste, no- 
 assumption of superiority; all were equal in the- 
 unwritten laws of the place, except in so far as. 
 a masterful individuality marked this man, or a 
 natural grace this woman, and these are factors 
 of influence in all communities, whatever the- 
 dispensation under which they live. Hannah 
 and her father held the foremost rank, not alone- 
 by reason of acknowledged rights — the father's 
 property and the daughter's beauty; they were- 
 born with less limitations, physical and intellec- 
 tual, than their neighbours and the community 
 unconsciously recognised the fact. 
 
 The superiority of Hannah was conceded with- 
 out any assumption of it on her part. She lived 
 the life of the other women. She did not shrink
 
 THE BELLE OF HEART'S DELIGHT. 5 
 
 from physical labour. She did her share of do- 
 mestic work, She helped to bake and brew and 
 took a hand at braiding nets. Yet her hands 
 were white and her complexion, not counting 
 a freckle here and there, bore the heat and 
 brunt of the day without losing its freshness and 
 *a certain delicacy of tint that is supposed to 
 belong, almost exclusively, to ladies of the 
 highest rank. There are women who never 
 lose the distinctive beauty of a rich and fair 
 complexion, give them the labour of the kitchen, 
 the factory, or the field; just as the rose will 
 blossom fresh and fair and sweet in the humblest 
 environment. 
 
 The Plymptons hailed from Devonshire. Alan 
 Keith came from Perth. David was the oldest 
 -colonist, Alan the youngest. Alan was a bright, 
 clever fellow, of fine build, with long swinging 
 arms, and great powerful hands. Awkward, 
 perhaps, as tall strong men often are, but won-
 
 6 UNDER THE GREAT SEAL. 
 
 derfully handy; a famous sailor, with a big genial 
 laugh; tender-hearted, but hot in temper; bared 
 his throat to the weather even in winter; wore 
 long, heavy boots, a rough jerkin and belt, with 
 a slouch hat, and a blue neckerchief that had 
 long, flying ends, like the streamers of a ship. 
 David Plympton was the master of the village. 
 The settlement needed a guiding hand; David's, 
 was the strongest. It wielded an unquestioned 
 authority. He had no official power, none- 
 in the least. They were a free and independent 
 community when the fishing Admirals had sailed 
 away after every year's harvest of the sea; too- 
 free, too independent, for then every man was 
 as good as another. They had no covenant, no 
 police, and no laws for police to enforce. Eng- 
 land knew them not out of the fishing season,, 
 and so it came to pass that David Plympton 
 ruled in Heart's Delight. 
 
 Brood in secret as Alan might over a love too*
 
 THE BELLE OF HEART'S DELIGHT. 7 
 
 deep for words, Hannah knew of it. Trust a 
 woman, however unsophisticated, to discover the 
 passion of the most secretive and constrained of 
 lovers. But Hannah did not know that this was 
 a case of love at first sight; that Alan on his 
 first trip to Newfoundland three years previously 
 had bribed his captain to leave him at the fish- 
 eries, and all for love of her. Alan was no 
 ordinary fisherman. He had prospects and ex- 
 pectations in Perth. He could have been a 
 master himself if he had chosen to go home. He 
 had been well trained so far as the sea was 
 concerned. A clever mariner, he was also a keen 
 and successful fisherman. Hannah delighted to hear 
 Alan talk with his pleasant Scotch accent, and he 
 was fascinated with her soft sweet voice. Both 
 Plympton and his daughter spoke with something of 
 the dialect of Drake and Frobisher; and Plympton 
 gloried in this reminiscence of his native county. 
 Alan had built himself a hut not far from
 
 8 UNDER THE GREAT SEAL. 
 
 the Great House where Plympton lived, and he 
 would sit on summer nights smoking and watch- 
 ing Hannah's window until the light went out, 
 dreaming all kinds of schemes for approaching 
 what always seemed to him the impossibility 
 upon which his heart was set. On her side Hannah 
 encouraged the praises showered upon Alan by 
 Sally Mumford, her one single domestic, who 
 with Patrick Doolan shared with her the duties 
 and responsibilities of the Great House, the 
 fishing stage, and the fish flakes, not to mention 
 the garden patch that belonged to the Plympton 
 domain. 
 
 It was in the days of the third George of 
 England when the personal history of our story 
 begins. They were turbulent times. Indeed the 
 times had been turbulent for many a long year. 
 Looking back with the guide of a systematised 
 history, England seemed to be doing little else 
 than fight and make peace, and fight and make
 
 THE BELLE OF HEARTS DELIGHT. Q 
 
 peace again. Treaties of amity and declarations 
 of war followed at intervals in regular succession. 
 Our foes only made peace when they could fight 
 no longer, to break their treaties as soon as they 
 had made fresh alliances and deemed themselves 
 strong once more, or the English sufficiently 
 weak for attack. 
 
 So far the history of the past ; so far the 
 history of the time when Alan Keith pondered 
 over his daring venture of proposing to Master 
 Plympton for the hand of his daughter Hannah. 
 
 The scene was the little fishing village of 
 Heart's Delight, not many miles from St. John's, 
 Newfoundland, with its rough stages and fish 
 flakes for drying cod, and its few scattered homes 
 and bits of garden. 
 
 At one time this seed of a colony had pro- 
 mised to flourish. It was almost the first settlement 
 that had been permitted to exist under the rights 
 and privileges granted to the first pioneer; but
 
 10 UNDER THE GREAT SEAL. 
 
 in the days of David Plympton, Newfoundland 
 was subject to a systematic persecution, which 
 in the light of the present time seems as strange 
 and unnatural as it was short-sighted and cruel. 
 
 When the first pioneer, Sir David Kirke, was 
 restored to the rights given and taken back and 
 finally re-endowed by Cromwell, the entire island 
 of Newfoundland contained a population of three 
 hundred and fifty families, or about two thousand 
 inhabitants, scattered in fifteen small settlements, 
 one of which Plympton's father, an original settler, 
 had called Heart's Delight. They were the resi- 
 dent community. 
 
 Besides these, there was a floating population 
 of several thousands, who arrived in the summer to 
 fish, and left with the autumn. Hundreds of ves- 
 sels from England, and many from France, an- 
 chored at the fisheries and salted their takes ashore. 
 As far as the English were concerned, the fish- 
 eries were carried on by merchants and ship-
 
 THE BELLE OF HEART'S DELIGHT. I i 
 
 owners and traders from the West of England. 
 They were hostile to the settlers, regarding them 
 as interlopers. They claimed the harbours and 
 coves for the use of their servants while engaged 
 in curing fish. So great did their influence 
 become that they induced the Home Government 
 to make repressive laws, by which the act of 
 planting became illegal, and the island was 
 administered periodically as a training ground 
 for the Navy. 
 
 Settlement of any kind was prohibited within 
 six miles of the shore, and this was intended to 
 apply to the existing residents, any others being 
 forbidden to proceed to the country for the purposes 
 of colonisation. All fishermen were commanded 
 at the close of each season to return to England. 
 Masters of vessels were bound in money fines of a 
 serious amount to carry back to the old country 
 such persons as they took out, and all plantations 
 in Newfoundland were rigorously discouraged.
 
 12 UNDER THE GREAT SEAL. 
 
 A hundred years ago the Governor for the 
 time being sharply rebuked a sheriff for having, 
 during his absence, permitted a resident to erect 
 a fence; ordered certain sheds or huts, erected 
 as shelters, to be removed; and prohibited the 
 erection of chimneys to other huts, or even the 
 lighting of fires therein under any pretence what- 
 ever. It was enacted that the master of the 
 first ship arriving at the fisheries from England 
 should be Admiral in the harbour where he cast 
 anchor, the masters of the second and third to 
 be vice-admiral and rear-admiral. The first had 
 the privilege of reserving as much of the beach 
 as he required for his own use. These men-ser- 
 vants of the capitalists, or owners of ships them- 
 selves, had a direct interest in questions of 
 property and other social and political matters that 
 came before them in their magisterial capacities. 
 They dispensed what they called justice on the 
 decks of their vessels. Disputes arising between
 
 THE BELLE OF HEART'S DELIGHT. 13 
 
 the inhabitants and the migratory fishing folks 
 were adjudicated by the fishing Admirals. In 
 the eyes of these judges the highest offence a 
 man could be guilty of was the cultivation of 
 the soil or the building of a house. They took, 
 without hesitation, such buildings for their own 
 use or destroyed them, and committed all kinds 
 of excesses against the person as well as against 
 property. 
 
 In the autumn they sailed away with all their 
 crews and servants, leaving the settlements with- 
 out even a semblance of law or order; some of 
 them in a state of anarchy and a prey to lawless 
 adventurers, others, however, blessed with good 
 strong men capable of leading their fellows and 
 maintaining order. Of such were Alan Keith 
 and Master David Plympton of Heart's Delight; 
 Keith, a young Scotch mariner and fisherman ; 
 Plympton, one of the few who had been secured 
 in his rights through his father from Sir David
 
 14 UNDER THE GREAT SEAL. 
 
 Kirke, to whom Newfoundland was a royal grant, 
 for services to his country on land and sea. 
 But such had been the excesses of the fishing- 
 Admirals and such the neglect of the high 
 authorities at home, that Plympton began to 
 fear for his inheritance, and to think of leav- 
 ing the island with such possessions as he could 
 carry, in bonds and notes and receipts, for Bank 
 deposits in England. 
 
 Moreover, Newfoundland, besides the disabili- 
 ties which she suffered by reason of the fishing 
 Admirals had latterly more than usually laboured 
 under the disadvantages of her position as a 
 more or less unprotected settlement lying at the 
 mercy of French cruisers and American priva- 
 teers. Troubles with America had stopped the 
 Newfoundland supplies from New England; and 
 there was no knowing what would be the result 
 of the latest conflict. Plympton was pessimistic in 
 his views. This arose chiefly out of anxiety for
 
 THE BELLE OF HEART'S DELIGHT. [5 
 
 his daughter, who, in an uncomfortable way, and 
 to her sorrow, had been subjected to the rough 
 admiration of such unexpected and powerful 
 visitors as occasionally put into Heart's Delight 
 — only recently a daring - company of officers and 
 men from a Salem war-ship, and on another 
 occasion the master of an armed Frenchman, more 
 like a pirate than a legitimate vessel of war. 
 
 It did not always happen that there were 
 English cruisers off Newfoundland to protect the 
 inhabitants, and, indeed, so bitterly opposed were 
 the Government to the settlement, except for the 
 uses of the fishery and the training of sailors for 
 the fleet, that it is probable that Heart's Delight 
 was hardly known to the English cruisers, or if 
 it was, they would have no special instructions 
 as to the insignificant interests of such a lawless 
 plantation. 
 
 Watching Hannah grow to womanhood, and 
 feeling that any day the control of Heart's Delight
 
 1 6 UNDER THE GREAT SEAL. 
 
 might fall away from him, and that Hannah might 
 be a source of some trouble which he could not 
 define, the master began to long for rest and 
 security. Already, without having told anyone 
 of the circumstance, he had had a serious alter- 
 cation with one Lester Bentz, who had recently 
 established a fishing station at Heart's Delight 
 with the Governor's permission. Lester Bentz 
 was supposed to be a Dissenter of the acute type, 
 a Puritan of pronounced views. He had taken 
 exception to the local influence of Father Lavello, 
 and, remonstrated with by Plympton, had followed 
 him home, and on the threshold of the Great 
 House had offered him a compromise, " Give 
 me thy daughter, Hannah," he had said, "and 
 I will be neuter. I don't say that I would not 
 even join thy Church, so deep is my love for the 
 maiden, so powerfully hath she ensnared my heart ! " 
 " Promise me, " Plympton had said, taking 
 Bentz by the throat, " that you will never
 
 THE BELLE OF HEART'S DELIGHT. 17 
 
 dare to say a word of this to my daughter, that 
 you will never dare so much as to look at her, 
 or by the Church you insult I will bait the wolf- 
 traps with your wretched carcase!" 
 
 Lester Bentz had promised and kept his vow; 
 but he hoped for an opportunity to be revenged 
 on both Plympton and his daughter. 
 
 It will be seen, therefore, by the most casual 
 reader of this opening chapter of a romantic and 
 tragic history, that the time was in every respect 
 favourable for Alan Keith to disclose the secret 
 of his love for the belle of Heart's Delight. 
 
 VOL. I.
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 AFTER THE FISHING FLEET HAD SAILED. 
 
 On a fine autumn evening, at the close of the 
 fisheries, when the last ship had raised her 
 anchor and sailed away, Alan Keith and Master 
 Plympton sat in the porch of what was called 
 the Great House, in the pleasant harbour of 
 Heart's Delight. 
 
 The title of the Plympton home was, however, 
 the greatest thing about it. Greatness is a matter 
 of comparison. By comparison with the other 
 dwellings of Heart's Delight, Plympton's, it is 
 true, was quite a mansion. For all that, com- 
 pared with what we in England regard as a 
 great house, it was no better than a hut. It
 
 AFTER THE FISHING FLEET HAD SAILED. 19 
 
 was a sort of log bungalow, a pioneer's abode, 
 on the frontiers of civilisation. It had no upper 
 storey, but consisted of a series of chambers with 
 one general living room, that was kitchen and 
 drawing-room in one. It was better furnished 
 than might have been expected. On one side of 
 the room there was a great old dresser from 
 Devonshire; on the other a dower chest full of 
 linen that had belonged to Hannah's grandmother. 
 The latter had been brought over to Heart's 
 Delight in a fishing vessel from Dartmouth. 
 The south side facing the harbour was partly 
 filled with a bay window, the lower half of which 
 was a cushioned- seat, covered with skins and 
 rugs. On the opposite side of the room was 
 the ingle nook, with a home-made settle, the 
 production of a local carpenter. The pride of 
 the place was an eight-day clock in a Spanish 
 mahogany case, polished to the very extre- 
 mity of polish, the clock-face having almost
 
 20 UNDER THE GREAT SEAL. 
 
 as beaming a countenance as Pat Doolan himself. 
 It had dials for showing the operations of the 
 sun and moon, and figures for the days of the 
 month. Doolan declared that when it struck the 
 hour he was reminded of the church bells of his 
 native village. Even Father Lavello complimented 
 the eight-day clock, which tick-tacked through 
 many a pleasant hour on winter evenings, and 
 seemed to rejoice in the local happiness and also 
 to sympathise with its troubles. 
 
 On the walls of this chief room in the Great 
 House were hung skins of beasts and birds; 
 muskets and pistols; not to mention a couple of 
 old cavalry swords; a picture of Dartmouth, 
 the ancestral home of the Plymptons ; and a 
 sampler which had been worked by Hannah's 
 mother. The floor was thickly laid with baulks 
 of timber that were freshly sanded every day. 
 The window panes were small and glazed with 
 leaded glass, opening in sections for air and sun.
 
 AFTER THE FISHING FLEET HAD SAILED. 2 1 
 
 The door-way had a wide porch flanked by a 
 couple of benches, upon which the owner and 
 Alan Keith were chatting on this autumn evening 
 of our story, while Hannah was helping her one 
 domestic and Patrick Doolan (who had been in 
 the old days Master Plympton's boatswain) to 
 prepare supper. 
 
 " Xo, Alan, " said the master, looking seawards, 
 a habit with him when unusually serious, "I 
 do not think the outlook promising; that is, in 
 a pleasant way; promising, perhaps, as you 
 nevertheless see it." 
 
 "I wouldna presume to dispute wi' ye," said 
 Alan, " but for all that I dinna see what's wrang 
 wi' the future." 
 
 " You lead a busy life, Alan, you don't give 
 much time to meditation, and you have only 
 been in the country three years." 
 
 " Is it sae long? " said Alan, thinking at the 
 moment of the time he had wasted, not having the
 
 2 2 UNDER THE GREAT SEAL. 
 
 courage to let Hannah know the state of his feelings. 
 
 " So long ! " said the master, " and I have lived 
 here nearly all my life." 
 
 " I was not exactly thinking of time in the 
 concrete, but in the abstract," said Alan, thrust- 
 ing his hands into his great belt. 
 
 " I don't understand you, " said Plympton, turn- 
 ing his kindly but anxious face towards his 
 friend and neighbour. 
 
 " Weel, I dinna wonder at that, " Alan replied, 
 smiling. " I dinna quite understand myself; but 
 I do think sometimes, ay, oftener than ye imagine, 
 and I have come to the conclusion that New- 
 foundland's the place for a man to stand by; it 
 cannot fail to have a grand future." 
 
 "Then we are thinking in very opposite 
 directions," said Plympton, stroking his clean- 
 shaven chin. " I was thinking that it had become 
 a good place to quit ; I was pondering of home. " 
 
 " Hame ! " exclaimed Alan, the weight of whose
 
 AFTER THE FISHING FLEET HAD SAILED. 23 
 
 Scotch accent was more or less intermittent 
 according as his feelings moved him — and the 
 reader must understand that in this record it is 
 only intended to suggest his vernacular, so that 
 the most Southern readers may not be confused 
 with an attempt on the part of the writer to be 
 superlatively characteristic in the matter of dialects, 
 or so realistic that he cannot be understood. 
 "Hame!" repeated Alan; "dinna ye consider 
 Heart's Delight hame? Ye hae never lived any- 
 where else, eh?" 
 
 " Only as a boy at St. John's ; but I have seen 
 the land of my fathers; it is very sweet and of 
 a mild and gentle temperature. And look you 
 at yonder picture hanging over my father's mus- 
 ket, is it not like a bit of paradise? It is true 
 I was born on this island that tries to think it 
 is a settlement. But I am getting weary of its 
 uncertainties. " 
 
 "Eh, man, dinna say that," Alan replied, taking
 
 24 UNDER THE GREAT SEAL. 
 
 his hands from his belt and rubbing his knees 
 nervously, "I seem to hear just the death knell 
 of all my hopes when ye talk like that." 
 
 " And what are your hopes, Alan ? " asked 
 Plympton, looking the young fellow steadily in 
 the eye. 
 
 "What are they?" said Alan, unable to bear 
 the inquiring gaze of his host. 
 
 "Yes, what are they? Don't get up, man. 
 Are you ashamed of your ambition ? " 
 
 Alan had risen to lean his back against the 
 doorpost and blush. There was no mistake about 
 the blush. Master Plympton noted Alan's con- 
 fusion. 
 
 "I canna tell whether I am or no," Alan 
 replied. 
 
 " Then out with it, man ! Have we lived as 
 friends and neighbours these three years and yet 
 there is no confidence between us?" 
 
 "I'm but a poor fisherman," said Alan, "and
 
 AFTER THE FISHING FLEET HAD SAILED. 25 
 
 much beholden to ye for the kindness ye've 
 shown me. 1 might have gone hame, it's true, 
 and perhaps have done better wi' a bit craft o' 
 may ain; but there, what's the gude talking? a 
 man never knaws what's best for him to do. 
 But ye say I dinna think; I tell ye, Master 
 Plympton, I hae thought a good deal about this 
 country; I hae seen a many miles of it on the 
 coast and inland; there is not a creek or a bay, 
 not a bit of the coast that I dinna ken; there's 
 every kind o' treasure for the adventurer and 
 explorer in these regions; far inland there's a 
 climate as fine as ye could wish, and many 
 fruits and flowers, and I make nae doubt of 
 mineral treasures that would be worth all your 
 bonnie county o' Devon from shore to shore, 
 asking your pardon for saying so." 
 
 "Why, Alan," said Plympton, turning round, 
 to catch the expression of Alan's averted face, 
 "what has happened? You talk like a man of
 
 26 UNDER THE GREAT SEAL. 
 
 ideas, and as you speak I could almost fancy I 
 hear my poor father talking, for he was enthusiastic 
 about Newfoundland. But why have you not 
 said these things to me before?" 
 
 " I dinna ken, " said Alan, " I suppose I am a 
 coward; or, maybe, it's ingratitude; the auld pro- 
 verb says, 'Ye put a snake into yer bosom and 
 it stings ye.' " 
 
 Plympton was a thoughtful man. He loved 
 books, though he had only a few; and he believed 
 he understood character. His appearance, while 
 it invited confidence, demanded respect. Alan 
 always regarded him as a superior being. He 
 talked something like a Dominie, Alan thought — 
 with correct emphasis and pronunciation. Even 
 when he had taken an extra glass of whisky 
 Plympton never lost a certain tone of dis- 
 tinction that was very notable among the colo- 
 nials. 
 
 " Could it be possible that Alan wanted to
 
 AFTER THE FISHING FLEET HAD SAILED. 2 J 
 
 speak to him of Hannah?" he thought. "And 
 why not?" Alan all the time was fearing that 
 even a hint at his desire might break off their 
 friendship and decide Plympton to quit the country 
 and gae "hame," as he persisted in calling the 
 English county of Devon. They could both hear 
 Hannah's voice in the house; they gathered that 
 she was baking a cake for supper and that Sally 
 Mumford had nearly finished laying the cloth, 
 while the old salt, as Doolan was mostly called, 
 had himself been preparing a dish of fish in the 
 way that was most appetising to the master, 
 Doolan having a stove all to himself in what 
 was called the back kitchen. 
 
 " Come, man, sit you down, " said Plympton ; 
 "something has gone wrong with you." 
 
 M Xae, " said Alan, " I dinna think that, but some- 
 thing might; it's the thought o' it that fashes me. " 
 
 " Why, what could go wrong with you ! Are 
 you in debt?"
 
 28 UNDER THE GREAT SEAL. 
 
 " Nae, except for the hospitality ye hae always 
 shown me, Master Plympton." 
 
 "You have paid that over and over again, 
 Alan, by your agreeable companionship; not to 
 mention many an act of neighbourly work at the 
 fishing grounds and at home." 
 
 " Thank ye, sir, I take it kind of ye to speak 
 of my companionship being agreeable; but as I 
 was saying, there is i' this island everything to 
 make man happy ; and I'll tell ye what will be a 
 great thing i' the future, when the auld country 
 discovers Newfoundland for the second time, and 
 that's the fact that she's nae sae far from mar- 
 kets i' the auld land, not only for the harvest o' 
 the sea but the harvest o' the airth; ay, and 
 grand markets they might be. That's plain to 
 see in yonder ships that hae just disappeared 
 sailing into St. John's and hereabouts every 
 season, making their masters and the merchants 
 over yonder rich and proud."
 
 AFTER THE FISHING FLEET HAD SAILED. 29 
 
 " And tyrannical ! " said Plympton, moved by 
 Alan's earnestness, "treading out the life of the 
 colony under their great boots, and dispensing a 
 justice that is worse than lawlessness." 
 
 " That's true, " said A Ian, ■ I'm with ye there, 
 Master Plympton, but dinna ye think that may 
 all come to an end ? " 
 
 " Oh, yes, " said the master, * the world itsel 
 will come to an end in time. I really am thinking, 
 Alan, that the best thing I could do would be 
 to take my daughter Hannah away to Dartmouth 
 and settle there for the remainder of my days." 
 
 Plympton threw in the name of his daughter 
 by way of experiment, and watched Alan as he 
 replied. 
 
 " Settle ! " said Alan, once more rising to his 
 feet, " and would ye settle, think ye ? With ships 
 o' war goin' out against the Yankees and the 
 French, and wi' schooners carrying their guns 
 against the Spaniard, think ye there'd be any rest
 
 30 UNDER THE GREAT SEAL. 
 
 in that port o' Dartmouth ye talk of sae much? 
 Nae, Master Plympton, ye'd just be manning 
 a ship o' war on your own account, and gaeing 
 out wi' the rest." 
 
 " Maybe, " said Plympton ; u it is like enough. " 
 
 " Ye hae been assured of your property rights, 
 your house is secure by legal title, and your 
 lands; since I, too, am just simply devoted to 
 the fisheries, it is likely that I'll be able to get 
 the same privileges; but if I fail i' that why, 
 believe me or believe me not, there's land even 
 in that very bight of Labrador, away frae the 
 jurisdiction of the Admirals, that might content 
 any man." 
 
 "Labrador!" exclaimed Plympton; "why, my 
 poor father avoided Labrador as he would the 
 infernal regions ! What is the lad talking of? Lab- 
 rador! The land of devils, wandering Indians, 
 and jabbering Esquimaux." 
 
 "With exceptions, master, let me tell ye,"
 
 AFTER THE FISHING FLEET HAD SAILED. 31 
 
 said Alan, turning his earnest eyes upon the 
 master. " I've sailed right into the blackest 
 of her waters, landed on her roughest shores; 
 once, man, I prayed to God if there were devils 
 with horns, and furies with fiery eyes, to let me 
 see them; and I rowed into the very shore, and 
 beached my boat, but there were nae demons, 
 and naething else but barrenness. But, man, I 
 could show ye one o' the snuggest harbours 
 close by a good fishing ground, and one o' the 
 rarest bits o' land in the island, back of the hard- 
 est bit o' the coast, wi' breakers that might 
 terrify the stoutest sailor, but on investigation 
 wi' a deep channel of calm water, fine enough 
 to float a man-o'-war; it's just as if the breakers 
 and the spray, and the bit nasty rocks were 
 hiding the channel to gie the bravest mariner a 
 secret rest and water-way. And once inside, man, 
 there's a harbour, and anither way out that's like 
 the entrance to a dock. And 'way on the south
 
 32 UNDER THE GREAT SEAL. 
 
 side there's a cavern that leads ye out into the 
 open, where Nature sets up the same kind o* 
 deception, as good as sayin', ' There's nought but 
 desolation for ye here ; ' but gae on, nevertheless, 
 and ye come to pastures, to trees, to flowers, to 
 berries, and on. and on again there's a fiord or 
 lake, with trees on its margin that might be ane 
 o' the blessed lakes o' bonnie Scotland." 
 
 "Alan," said Plympton, rising, and laying his 
 hand on his guest's arm, "it is nearly supper- 
 time; we have had a long 'crack' as you would 
 call it, and all the time you have been hiding 
 something from me. Nay, don't go away, I am 
 not angry, dear friend; only sorry that you no 
 longer consider me worthy of your confidence." 
 
 " Nae, " said Alan ; " let us walk out into the 
 open; my heart's too full to be stifled up here." 
 
 He strode out into the open, Plympton by his 
 side. 
 
 " Would ye call me friend, I wonder, if ye
 
 AFTER THE FISHING FLEET HAD SAILED. 33 
 
 knew what's in my heart ? Eh, man, I dare nae 
 say what I'd like to say for fear. I'd rather have 
 the privilege of lookin' o'er the hedge at the 
 thing I love than to be turned off altogether 
 when the owner found me trying to climb over. " 
 
 " You are enigmatical, " said Plympton, " I 
 have always thought of you, Alan Keith, as 
 frank and outspoken." 
 
 " I would be content all my life to look at 
 the gem I coveted rather than have it ta'en away 
 altogether because I reached out my hand to 
 touch it, " said Alan, as if still communing within 
 himself. 
 
 " And is this all you have to say now that we 
 are in the open ? " 
 
 "Nae; by all that's awfu' I'll risk it! After 
 all, if it is to come it might as well come now 
 as a year or two hence ; if I'm the wolf i' the 
 fold ye'd better see me now in my true character 
 and hae done wi' me. But I could na telt ye in 
 
 vol- I. 3
 
 34 UNDER THE GREAT SEAL. 
 
 there. I dinna feel sae mean wi' breathing room. 
 Hae ye ever wondered what kept me here ? " 
 
 " I have always been glad you remained, " said 
 the master. 
 
 " I never meant to stay when first I came ; and 
 my father's deed sin' I came, and the lawyers 
 write and write. But I couldna leave Heart's 
 Delight. Was it the fishin'? Was it the future 
 o' the place that I talk about? Nae, I conceived 
 the idea to rob ye the first time I went to yer 
 house ! Ay, man, to rob ye of what ye hold 
 dearer than life ! I was just a thief — just a wolf 
 i' the fold, ainly biding my time. It's Hannah ! 
 it's Hannah ! I love her ! " 
 
 A great tear coursed down Alan's bronzed cheek 
 as he confessed what at the moment he imagined 
 was an outrage upon a generous hospitality. He 
 hardly knew what it was to be deeply moved, 
 much less to shed a tear. He stood there like a 
 criminal awaiting sentence ; and no criminal ever
 
 AFTER THE FISHING FLEET HAD SAILED. 35 
 
 heard the verdict u Not Guilty " with greater joy 
 than Alan felt when Plympton said, " Keith, give 
 me your hand ; if Hannah is willing, I will give 
 you hers." 
 
 Hannah saw her father and Alan shaking hands. 
 She stepped out upon the beach and walked 
 towards them, and as she did so Lester Bentz, 
 who had been hiding among some bushes by the 
 garden palings, withdrew more closely within the 
 shadow. His eyes followed the handsome young 
 woman as she approached her father and Alan, 
 and he is not to be despised for admiring her. 
 She wore a light print dress ; it was a white 
 material, with lilac sprays, shortwaisted, slightly 
 open at the neck. Her brown hair was dressed 
 high upon her head. Her face was aglow with 
 health, and it carried at the moment something 
 of the reflection of the fire over which she had 
 been stooping while making a cake for supper. 
 When she spoke a second time, you could see
 
 36 UNDER THE GREAT SEAL. 
 
 between her lips a row of white teeth, for she was 
 laughing. 
 
 " Ahem ! " she said, to attract the attention of 
 the two men, who turned to see her make a mock 
 curtsey, as she observed, with much pretended 
 formality, " I ventured to call you to supper, but 
 receiving no answer, I presumed to ask what was 
 the matter." 
 
 "And we thank you, my darling," said Plympton, 
 putting his arm round her waist, " and we have the 
 pleasure to inform you that nothing is the matter. " 
 
 " Been making a bargain ? " she asked, return- 
 ing to her natural manner. 
 
 " Something in that way, " her father replied. 
 
 " May I know what it is ? " she asked. 
 
 " Oh, yes, " said her father, " you have got to 
 know." And as he said so he glanced peculiarly 
 at Alan, which somehow gave her thoughts a 
 serious turn. 
 
 " Oh ! " was all she said.
 
 AFTER THE FISHING FLEET HAD SAILED. 37 
 
 ■ It is a bargain, if bargain it may be called, that 
 concerns you more than anyone else in the world, " 
 said her father. 
 
 The same little exclamation as before was 
 Hannah's comment. 
 
 " Our dear friend and neighbour, Alan Keith, 
 will tell you all about it." 
 
 "Oh!" said Hannah. 
 
 "Will you not?" Plympton asked, turning to 
 the silent Alan. 
 
 " If I can, " said Alan, looking rather shyly at 
 Hannah. 
 
 " Oh ! " said the belle of Heart's Delight, her 
 eyes seeking the sandy path, her arm resting upon 
 her father's, her thoughts in a whirl of curious 
 but not unhappy anticipation. 
 
 As they entered the house Lester Bentz crept 
 from his hiding-place into the open, and made his 
 way to the temporary hut which he had raised 
 near his fish stages.
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 AROUND A WINTER FIRE. 
 
 All Heart's Delight turned out to add a wing 
 to the Great House for the home of Alan Keith 
 and Hannah Plympton, who were married and 
 as good as settled within a month of Alan's ordeal 
 of asking. 
 
 In October Alan and the leading settlers went 
 forth on a sporting expedition which had been 
 unusually successful. They returned laden with 
 cariboo, which gave the entire settlement skins 
 for the winter and the Great House a fresh set 
 of decorative antlers. 
 
 The fishing season had been fairly profitable 
 and the settlement generally was in a flourishing 
 
 38
 
 AROUND A WINTER FIRE. 39 
 
 condition. The villagers had never seen so lively 
 an autumn, never so merry a winter. 
 
 Most of the little settlements, and even St. John's, 
 found winter as a rule dull, monotonous, and 
 often miserable. But Heart's Delight had always 
 managed to keep its winter bright and pleasant, 
 thanks chiefly to the authority and good manage- 
 ment of Master Plympton. He dealt out summary 
 measures to evildoers by general consent and 
 authority of his neighbours, and by dint of his 
 good-nature helped to make Heart's Delight 
 desirable to all decent well-behaved people. 
 
 This winter of the newly-married couple was, 
 beyond all winters that had passed away, the 
 most worthy of the name of the settlement. 
 Nobody had any idea that life could be so happy 
 as the Plymptons and the Keiths managed to make 
 it. Good fires, plenty to eat, sleighing, shooting, 
 homely entertainments, dances ; hardly a day or 
 evening passed that did not count its special
 
 40 UNDER THE GREAT SEAL. 
 
 pleasure; and Father Lavello, a young priest 
 who had his little wooden chapel in the valley over 
 against the fish stakes, took a genial part in the 
 recreations and amusements of the settlement. 
 Everybody liked the young priest. He could 
 play the fiddle, tell a good story, sing a good 
 song; and he was none the less a disciplinarian 
 because he was a pleasant fellow, and loved to 
 see the people merry when they were not at 
 prayers. 
 
 Father Lavello was the chief medium of news 
 at Heart's Delight. His tidings came mostly from 
 his Superior at St. John's, including an occasional 
 newspaper from London, one now and then from 
 Paris, and stray gazettes from Boston in the 
 United States. While he was not a rebel, he 
 had expressed views about the rights of citizens 
 and subjects which had set both Alan and Plymp- 
 ton thinking more and more concerning the pros- 
 pects of Heart's Delight and the future of New-
 
 AROUND A WINTER FIRE. 41 
 
 foundland. Keith was a loyal subject, and yet 
 he agreed with Father Lavello that Great Britain's 
 claim of the right to search for deserters on 
 American ships, was, to say the least, high-handed. 
 Plympton was an old mariner, had sailed and 
 fought under the British flag, and honoured the 
 imperial banner; but he admitted that there was 
 much to be said for the Americans. He gave 
 both Keith and the priest many instances of 
 the brutal tyranny that had been permitted in 
 Newfoundland by royal authority under the Great 
 Seal. He explained that hitherto Heart's Delight 
 had been somewhat favoured, perhaps through 
 his own exceptional influence; but the story of 
 Newfoundland generally had been one of unparal- 
 leled cruelty on the part of the fishing Admirals. 
 " And who knows, " he said, " that our turn may 
 not come ? Not for thirty years, until last season, 
 have we had a shed pulled down in Heart's 
 Delight ; while St. John's has seen houses dragged
 
 42 UNDER THE GREAT SEAL. 
 
 to the earth, their owners reviled, their women 
 insulted. Imagine settlers tried for the offence of 
 building; tried on the deck of some ship that 
 had for its master a vulgar, ignorant, overbearing 
 plebeian, dispensing what he called justice as 
 Admiral of the Fleet!" 
 
 " I cannot imagine how such outrages could be 
 permitted?" said the young priest, crossing himself. 
 
 "Why, my dear Father, do you not know that 
 the bits of sheds Patrick Burke put up to cover 
 his potatoes were removed last season by order 
 of Admiral Ristack — admiral, forsooth! — and the 
 timber burnt?" 
 
 "Yes, I heard of it, Mr. Plympton; and the 
 incident pained me very much." 
 
 " It would have pained you more if you had 
 witnessed my reception on board the 'Anne of 
 Dartmouth/ when I went to plead for the poor 
 fellow, " said Plympton, with an impatient gesture. 
 
 " Truly, truly, " said the priest, " I did not
 
 AROUND A WINTER FIRE. 43 
 
 myself dare to interfere, knowing how much 
 more favour the Church receives at Heart's Delight 
 than anywhere else in the island; discretion is 
 sometimes almost a virtue, don't you think so, 
 Alan Keith?" 
 
 ■ Eh, man, but it's sometimes hard to be discreet. 
 There's yonder Lester Bentz ; saving your honour's 
 presence, I'd like to get my fingers into his neck- 
 cloth, for they tell me it was he who pointed out 
 to the Admiral that the wee shed had got a chimney ; 
 and it was the chimney that was the offence." 
 
 "It is remarkable," said Father Lavello, "that 
 spite of the harsh regulations of the Home 
 Government, men and women continue to come 
 to Newfoundland; men with women — even women 
 alone. What is the matter with the old country 
 that emigration on such conditions is acceptable?" 
 
 " I conceive it to be just the wanderin' habits 
 o' the poor folk," said Alan, "and the idea of 
 change. I've often thoug'ht mysel' — again saving
 
 44 UNDER THE GREAT SEAL. 
 
 your reverence's presence — that after all the 
 punishment of the Wandering Jew was nae so 
 bad if he could only have gotten his food regular 
 and in comfort." 
 
 " That is a pretty sentiment to settle down 
 with," said Hannah, looking up from her sewing. 
 
 "It's just what they might call a post-nuptial 
 sentiment, Hannah, for I dinna hold with it now, 
 be sure; it's your father who wants to leave 
 Heart's Delight, not me." 
 
 "I believe you, Alan; but if father does talk 
 of the old country, after all it is only to give us 
 what he calls security; and in his declining years 
 it is natural that he should think of his own land." 
 
 "That's where I dinna agree with the dear 
 guid man, " Keith answered. " Dartmouth is nae 
 his countrie ; he was born at St. John's, where his 
 mither and father are buried, and surely that makes 
 Newfoundland his countrie." 
 
 "That is true," said Plympton, "but once, when
 
 AROUND A WINTER FIRE. 45 
 
 I was a man, Alan, I went to Plymouth with 
 one of the fishing Admirals and made a stay in 
 Devonshire, and it's a fine country I can tell 
 you, Alan; a sweet land of stream and valley." 
 
 " Weel, and Perth is na sae bad, I'm thinking; 
 but what's the matter with Newfoundland? We'll 
 get rid of the fishing Admirals one o' these 
 days; and if we don't, why, we must gae to an 
 unfrequented part outside the official boundaries, 
 and make a paradise there; we can do it, can't 
 we, Hannah?" 
 
 "Eh, Alan, you are so romantic," Hannah 
 replied, with a smile of admiration. 
 
 They were an interesting family gathering, 
 sitting by the fire which sent a glow over walls 
 and ceiling. It was a great wood fire that 
 crackled and spluttered until it smouldered down 
 into a silent heat, and then the old salt, Pat 
 Doolan, brought fresh logs and put them on. 
 The new fuel was heralded as it were by swarms
 
 46 UNDER THE GREAT SEAL. 
 
 of golden bees, that went sailing up the wide 
 chimney and out into the starlight night. Father 
 Lavello was smoking a long pipe, and sitting in 
 a high-backed chair. Master Plympton was 
 ensconced in the window-seat, where, drawing 
 aside the curtain, he could see the broad ocean 
 right across a wilderness of snow that made a 
 white woolly carpet all over the long sandy 
 beach. They had not closed the shutters. It 
 was Plympton's house where they had all supped, 
 and he liked the view at all times from 
 the big front window that overlooked the 
 bay. Hannah was sewing by the table in 
 the light of a small oil lamp, and Alan was 
 sprawling almost at her feet upon a rug of wolf 
 skins, and looking into the fire. Lavello had 
 mentioned the probability of his having to leave 
 Heart's Delight, at least for a time. Alan ex- 
 pressed his deep regret at the suggestion of 
 such a possibility. He liked the young priest,
 
 AROUND A WINTER FIRE. 47 
 
 and they had often discussed together the destiny 
 of the colony, and the quarrels of the old country 
 with America. 
 
 " And where should you be likely to go, 
 Father Lavello?" asked Hannah, looking up from 
 her patchwork. 
 
 " To Italy, " said the priest ; " I was born in 
 Italy, you know, and I conclude there is a plan to 
 do me a kindness by giving me duty in Venice. " 
 
 " In Venice ! " exclaimed Hannah ; " I have heard 
 mariners say that Venice is the most lovely city 
 in the whole world — built in the sea, nearly every 
 house a marble palace. It's too much to be believed. " 
 
 "Ah, my dear," said Plympton, "you have 
 known nothing better than Heart's Delight and 
 St. John's ; you don't understand what fine brick and 
 stone houses are ; as for marble palaces, they are 
 dreams, my love, to one who has never seen them." 
 
 "Have you never sailed to Venice, Alan?" she 
 -asked.
 
 48 UNDER THE GREAT SEAL. 
 
 "No," said Alan, "I have mostly navigated 
 the stormy waters of the Atlantic. I ken mair 
 about icebergs ; they mek white palaces sometimes 
 on a mariner's course like fairy pictures, and 
 just as deevilish if ye had to trust to the impish 
 lights and strange forms they gie themsels." 
 
 "I love Venice," said the priest, thoughtfully, 
 as he refilled his pipe, " and my mother lives in 
 Florence ; but I have no desire to leave you, my 
 friends, no wish to give up the work our holy 
 Father has given me here in Heart's Delight." 
 
 "Father Lavello," said Plympton, leaving his 
 seat by the window and shaking the priest by 
 the hand, "we owe you a debt we can never 
 pay, as friend and adviser; and as a priest with 
 authority, I have never known one so merciful 
 of his discipline. I pray God you may remain 
 with us." 
 
 "Amen!" said Alan. 
 
 " I thank you, dear friends, " said the priest.
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 "TO YOUR TENTS, O ISRAEL." 
 
 When the summer came again, and the world 
 of Newfoundland was bright with fresh foliage, 
 and the shores of Heart's Delight busy with 
 harvesters of the sea, the "Anne of Dartmouth" 
 sailed in, first of all the season's ships. Thus 
 was Ristack once more Admiral of the fleet. 
 Ruddock, advanced to be master of the " Pioneer, " 
 was the second to cast anchor, and was therefore 
 vice-admiral. They began their ugly work with 
 malicious promptitude. 
 
 Hannah Keith was nursing her first-born. She 
 was not in robust health. The medical science 
 of the little colony was not of the highest, and 
 
 VOL. I. 4 9 4
 
 50 UNDER THE GREAT SEAL. 
 
 Mrs. Keith had undergone a severe time, but 
 was mending with the return of genial weather. 
 The boy had been christened David, after his 
 grandfather, and promised to be strong and hearty. 
 
 Keith, the proud and loving husband and father, 
 was getting his nets ready for work. Plympton 
 was standing on the shore watching the arrivals 
 of the ships, and gathering bits of news of the 
 lands beyond the sea, when Admiral Ristack 
 accosted the popular settler. 
 
 " Master Plympton," said Ristack, "I greet you." 
 
 " Good-day, Master Ristack, " said Plympton, 
 "and welcome once more to Heart's Delight!" 
 
 There was not much ring of sincerity in 
 Plympton's voice. He did not like Ristack; 
 but he was courteous to all, and respected autho- 
 rity. 
 
 Ristack (a short, stodgy, ill-favoured man, with 
 small eyes set as close together as a thick 
 stumpy nose would permit), tugging up his great
 
 "TO YOUR TENTS, O ISRAEL." 51 
 
 boots and giving his belt an extra eyelet, faced 
 Plympton somewhat aggressively, remarking, 
 ■ I don't know that you have much cause to 
 welcome me this trip ; I bring orders you will 
 not like, but I am in duty bound to fulfil them." 
 
 " And what may they be, Master Ristack ?" 
 asked Plympton. 
 
 "Admiral Ristack, if it so please you, Master 
 Plympton, " said Ristack, fastening the button of 
 his belt. 
 
 " So be it ! " Plympton replied. u Admiral 
 Ristack, since we stand on ceremony." 
 
 " You have not been used to stand on cere- 
 mony, Master Plympton, but the Government 
 has a mind^ to enforce both ceremony and law 
 at last. From this time forth every building 
 within six miles from the shore is either to be 
 razed to the ground or taken over for the fisheries." 
 
 " Indeed, " said Plympton, looking at the Admi- 
 ral and then turning his face in the direction of 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF 
 iiilNOIS LIBRARY
 
 52 UNDER THE GREAT SEAL. 
 
 his son-in-law, " such a visitation upon Heart's 
 Delight would be in contravention of rights that 
 have been ratified both by kings and envoys ; 
 and Sir David Kirke had double endowment of 
 this particular settlement, he and his heirs for 
 ever. Furthermore — " 
 
 "Sir David Kirke be hanged, sir!" exclaimed 
 Ristack ; " and a murrain on your furthermores ! 
 I summon you to quit yonder building which you 
 have the boldness to call the Great House, and 
 I give you twenty-four hours to put away such 
 of your effects as you may desire to preserve; 
 I have need of some of the other huts for the 
 fisheries, but I can dispense with the Great House 
 and so can His Majesty; though it might 
 make a good fish-house and flake ; but that 
 will be considered by myself and the other 
 Admirals. " 
 
 Plympton, passed his hand over his forehead, 
 and shook himself as if from a dream.
 
 "TO YOUR TENTS, O ISRAEL." 53 
 
 "I expected it would stagger you somewhat, 
 Master Plympton, " said the Admiral, " but you have 
 had a long innings at Heart's Delight. You've 
 sported it as a king might, and you have laid by 
 for stormy weather; I've heard of your remit- 
 tances to the Bank of England, and I take occa- 
 sion to congratulate you on your London deposits ; 
 you may need them now." 
 
 " Do you mean to tell me, Master Ristack, 
 that— " 
 
 "Admiral Ristack, if it please you," interrupted 
 the ruffian. 
 
 " Admiral Ristack — by the lord, you do well 
 to remind me how a great title can be borne 
 by " 
 
 "An honest man," said Ristack, in a loud, 
 boisterous manner, " and one who owns his lands 
 by rightful title, and builds his house not on the 
 sands, where storm and tempest may wash it away, 
 but upon the rock, sir. And mark me, Master
 
 54 UNDER THE GREAT SEAL. 
 
 Plympton, it does not behove a man in your 
 position to flout the Admiral of the Fishing Fleet, 
 who represents authority that is stamped with 
 the great seal of the realm, sir ; and I'd have you 
 to understand that ! " 
 
 Alan Keith, seeing that the two men were 
 engaged in an angry altercation, left his nets and 
 came up to them; as did also Vice- Admiral 
 Ruddock, accompanied by several sailors and 
 fishermen from the ships. 
 
 "Allow me, Master Plympton," said Ristack, 
 " to introduce to your notice my colleague, Vice- 
 Admiral Ruddock, of the ' Pioneer ; ' he will bear 
 me out in what I have said. " 
 
 Plympton bowed his head slightly to Ruddock, 
 a wiry fellow with lantern jaws, and a strong 
 vulpine mouth, firm and cruel. He wore some- 
 thing between an officer's uniform and a fisherman's 
 jacket, with boots of an exaggerative pattern, 
 and round his neck a heavy gilt chain. There
 
 TO YOUR TENTS, O ISRAEL." 55 
 
 was a touch of the mountebank in Ruddock's 
 uniform ; it was quite in keeping with the grotesque 
 idea of the Home authorities in giving such men 
 the title of Admiral, and it was fitting that 
 they should suggest the pirate in their style and 
 manner, seeing that they wielded powers little 
 inferior to those which pirates exercised by force 
 of numbers, audacity, and unscrupulous fol- 
 lowers. 
 
 " What's gane wrang? " asked Alan Keith, 
 standing forth, and dominating the little crowd 
 with his masterful personality. 
 
 "This Master of the ' Anne of Dartmouth,' " said 
 Plympton. 
 
 " Who is Admiral of the Fleet, " interrupted 
 Ristack. 
 
 "The first arrival; therefore Admiral of the 
 Fleet," said Plympton. 
 
 "And therefore the King's representative for 
 the time being," said Ristack.
 
 56 UNDER THE GREAT SEAL. 
 
 "And with new powers, d'ye mind, from Lon- 
 don." added Vice- Admiral Ruddock. 
 
 " To the deil wi' your palaver and fine phrases ! " 
 said Keith. "What's the business?" 
 
 " It's just this, my man, " said Ristack, assuming 
 his most pompous manner, " that Heart's Delight 
 has to obey the law that makes it, and St John's 
 and the rest, as it was always intended from the 
 first, a training ground for His Majesty's fleet, 
 and a fishing station for His Majesty's fishing 
 Admirals ; since you ask, why, that's the business. " 
 
 "Weel, and in what have we broken the law 
 here at Heart's Delight?" asked Keith. "Have 
 we nae been loyal to His Majesty, and honest, 
 kept the peace, nae listened to sedition, and paid 
 our way ? " 
 
 " Oh, you're a mighty fine company, " said 
 Ristack, scornfully, " all kinds of ye, Scotch and 
 Irish and French too, I make no doubt; and ye 
 have built yerselves fine houses, and made ver-
 
 "TO YOUR TENTS, O ISRAEL." 57 
 
 selves gardens, and flown in the face of the laws 
 and the conditions of the fisheries; but you've 
 got to bend to the King's Majesty and the Admi- 
 rals " 
 
 "And the long and the short of it is," said 
 Ruddock, coming to the aid of his chief, " that 
 Heart's Delight has to be moved; that is, such 
 of it as is illegal." 
 
 " There's only one man in the place who has 
 had the grace to obey the law," said Ristack, 
 his eyes falling on the figure of Lester Bentz, 
 " and I'm glad to see him here." 
 
 There was a murmur of dissent from the little 
 crowd of men of Heart's Delight, who were now 
 attracted to the scene. 
 
 " And what's it amount to ? " asked Keith, " the 
 matter ye hae got to say to Master Plympton ? " 
 
 " It is not to Master Plympton alone, " Ristack 
 replied, "but to others; indeed to all of you who 
 have built and made gardens within the limits of
 
 58 UNDER THE GREAT SEAL. 
 
 the fisheries ; if you insist on staying in the country 
 after the fishing's over, contrary to the rules and 
 regulations which come from the Star Chamber 
 downwards until now, why ye must go inland — six 
 miles at the shortest." 
 
 " Go inland ! " exclaimed Keith. 
 
 " I said inland ; and that is only a general per- 
 mission, and it does not mean that it gives you 
 any rights of planting, but only rights to herd 
 with the moose, the fox, and such like; but with 
 no more rights than the fox has, and the wolf, 
 and the moose. Your houses by the shore must 
 come down ; that's the business, Master Alan Keith, 
 I was talking over with Master Plympton when 
 ye came up." 
 
 " What ! " exclaimed Keith, " d'ye say we mun 
 pull our hooses down ? Pull 'em down ! The 
 Great House, and the wee bit hut we hae added 
 to it last autumn ? " 
 
 " Every log of 'em, " said Ristack, " and within
 
 "TO YOUR TENTS, O ISRAEL." 59 
 
 the next twenty-four hours the work must begin. 
 I give ye that time to get out your belongings ; 
 that done the rest can go on as quickly as hands 
 can wipe out the offences to the King's Majesty. 
 
 Ristack brought in the name of the king as 
 often as he could, to shield his own conduct. 
 Kings and Governments when they delegate power 
 to their instruments and officers would do well to 
 remember that if the Great Seal covers a despotic 
 action, they alone are held up as the instigators 
 and authors of the wrong that is being done ; 
 while on the other hand their good deeds are 
 often claimed by the officials or others who are 
 the mere agents who carry them out. 
 
 "And moreover," said Ruddock, "you have 
 defied the Government, inasmuch as ye have 
 permitted a Roman Catholic priest to settle among 
 you, and perform the obnoxious rites of mass. 
 Did ye not know that at a Court held at Har- 
 bour Main, September the twenty-fifth, seventeen
 
 60 UNDER THE GREAT SEAL. 
 
 hundred and fifty-five, that an order was given 
 to the magistrates commanding, that a certain 
 individual who had permitted that thing to be 
 done in one of his fish rooms, he being present 
 himself contrary to law, and against our Sove- 
 reign lord the King, was fined in the sum of fifty 
 pounds, the fish rooms demolished, and the owner 
 thereof compelled to quit the harbour of St. John's!" 
 
 "I have heard of outrages done by what ye 
 call the magistrates commanding, " replied Keith, 
 " the particular one ye name is news to me. But 
 let me tell ye, Master Ristack, that we stand on 
 our own ground at Heart's Delight ; and I think 
 my neebors will agree wi' me that His Majesty 
 has jest enough on his hands at present without 
 vexing his honest subjects in Newfoundland." 
 
 " Oh, that's your answer, is it ? " said Ristack. 
 
 "Master Plympton, it will be well for you to 
 restrain your friend," remarked Ruddock. 
 
 Keith turned upon Ruddock with a scowl, and
 
 "TO YOUR TENTS, O ISRAEL." 6 1 
 
 by this time nearly all the people of Heart's 
 Delight were on the beach. Several boats from the 
 Fishing Fleet were landing men. The scene became 
 animated. It was a glorious June day ; the sea per- 
 fectly calm, a pleasant breeze blowing over the land. 
 
 "Keith," said Plympton, "we will see the 
 Admiral's authority. " 
 
 " Here it is, " said the Admiral, producing a for- 
 midable-looking parchment with a tin case 
 dangling from it by a plaited cord and inside the 
 case the great seal of His Majesty George the 
 Third ; " perhaps the Vice- Admiral will read it ? " 
 
 " I would prefer to read it myself, " said Plympton. 
 
 " Xay, then read it yourself, and much good 
 may the exercise do you, " said Ristack, handing 
 Master Plympton the parchment. 
 
 The people talked with each other while 
 Plympton was glancing over the document; its 
 purport was already known and was repeated 
 from one to another. Lester Bentz kept close to
 
 62 UNDER THE GREAT SEAL. 
 
 Ruddock. Many of the settlers were talking 
 loudly and gesticulating. Some of them were 
 already in altercation with the fishermen of " The 
 Pioneer" and the "Anne of Dartmouth." 
 
 "Friends and neighbours," said Plympton. His 
 well-known voice was sufficient to beget imme- 
 diate silence. He had let fall his soft Cromwellian 
 hat, and standing there bareheaded, his white 
 locks falling about his fine forehead, he looked 
 the father of the settlement; still, however, so 
 physically strong and lithe that he might have 
 given many a younger man a tussle in a wrest- 
 ling match or a bout at single stick. " Friends 
 and neighbours, " he said, " this document under 
 the great seal of England — how obtained it is 
 not for me to say, for who knows what interests 
 and influences are brought to bear upon our 
 rights and privileges in London — " 
 
 " Master Plympton, I must request " began 
 
 the Admiral, interrupting the speaker.
 
 "TO YOUR TENTS, O ISRAEL." 63 
 
 " Sir, do not interrupt me, " said Plympton, 
 impatiently. 
 
 ■ By God, if he does I'll choke him were he 
 fifty times an Admiral ! " exclaimed Keith, no 
 longer able to control himself, in face of the 
 haughty airs of Ruddock more particularly. 
 
 In a moment twenty sailors of the fleet rushed 
 to the support of the Admiral, and double the 
 number of the men of Heart's Delight stood by 
 the side of Alan Keith. 
 
 " Nay, Alan, give me leave, " said Plympton, 
 " and you, my friends, be patient until I tell you 
 the commands of His Majesty to these" — with a 
 somewhat contemptuous gesture — "his servants 
 and representatives." 
 
 "Stand by," said the Admiral, addressing his 
 men, " stand by and obey orders, stand by and 
 wait for the word of command." 
 
 " We are charged with having built and culti- 
 vated contrary to the law; we are commanded
 
 64 UNDER THE GREAT SEAL. 
 
 to remove such buildings and to cease such culti- 
 vation ; and this gentleman, who by virtue of his 
 first arrival in our harbour is styled Admiral of 
 the Fleet, is the magistrate who has authority to 
 see these orders carried out. Nay, be patient a 
 moment! He is good enough to give us twenty - 
 four hours to remove our household goods, prior 
 to the destruction of our dwellings." 
 
 There was a pause of a few moments, as if 
 the people were mastering the full purport of the 
 tyrannical decree; and then there was a shout 
 of anger. 
 
 " Men ! " exclaimed Alan Keith, striding among 
 his neighbours. " To your homes ! Every one of 
 you to your homes! Ask God to help ye, and 
 if He doesna, then we mun help oursels ! Eh, my 
 fine Admiral o' the Fleet, d'ye think we're dumb 
 animals that we're going to stand this thing ? " 
 
 " To your boats ! " said the Admiral, catching 
 the spirit and action of Keith.
 
 "TO YOUR TENTS, O ISRAEL." 65 
 
 " Aye, such on ye as hae hearts for such service 
 as these creatures gie ye ; but if ye are men, tell 
 your nigger drivers that ye will nae stand by 
 and see a wrang done that would mek a pirate 
 blush!" 
 
 For a moment the sailors seemed to waver. 
 
 " Rebellion! " shouted Ristack. " Mutiny ! Arrest 
 me this Alan Keith ! " 
 
 Keith drew his knife and waited. No one 
 stirred. Ruddock ventured a remark. No one 
 heard it. 
 
 " Gentlemen, " said Plympton, addressing Ristack 
 and Ruddock, " don't be rash, you have given 
 us twenty-four hours ; withdraw your men, and 
 leave us to obey your warrant. " 
 
 Plympton was the only calm man on either side. 
 
 " I name Alan Keith a rebel! " said Ristack, 
 irritated rather than soothed by Plympton's judicial 
 manner. 
 
 "And I name ye a liar!" said Alan, his 
 VOL. I. 5
 
 66 UNDER THE GREAT SEAL. 
 
 face paling with anger, "and by the honour of 
 Scotland, if ye dinna tek yer pirate face away, 
 I'll mek it uglier than it is ! " 
 
 "Rebel, I denounce ye!" shouted Ristack; 
 " men, I command ye in the King's name to arrest 
 me the traitor ! " 
 
 " Aye, come on! " cried Keith, a compact knot 
 of strong, firm men by his side. 
 
 Plympton once more intervened, standing 
 between the contending factions. " Men of Heart's 
 Delight, " he said, " friends, neighbours, brothers, 
 withdraw to your homes. I appeal to you in the 
 interests of your wives and children. Alan Keith, 
 son and comrade, I claim this once to command you. " 
 
 The settlers, Alan at their head, walked away 
 without another word, but with sullenness and anger. 
 
 " Very well, " said Ristack, moved by a sudden 
 inspiration of villainy, " I accept your mediation 
 thus far, Master Plympton: you and your rebel 
 neighbour shall have the twenty-four hours' grace
 
 "TO YOUR TEXTS, O ISRAEL." 67 
 
 I've given my word for. Ruddock, pass the 
 word for the men to get back to their ships." 
 
 Ruddock obeyed. The men returned to the 
 boats. Ristack followed them, muttering as he 
 went, " But I'll have Master Alan Keith on board 
 before the night's over — and in irons — by God, 
 I swear it ! "
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 COUNCILS OF PEACE AND WAR. 
 
 A meeting was called of the principal men in 
 the village. They assembled in the living-room 
 of the Great House. Women were also present. 
 The brightness of the morning was in sad con- 
 trast with the gloom depicted upon the faces of 
 the people. 
 
 Three pioneers of the coming fleet were lying 
 placidly at anchor, while far away could be seen 
 the white sails of other ships making their way 
 to the fishing grounds. 
 
 At the back of the bay the blue hills rose up 
 to the blue sky. Bees were humming in the 
 gardens of the Great House. In the room where 
 
 68
 
 COUNCILS OF PEACE AXD WAR. 69 
 
 the villagers were assembled the old clock in the 
 Spanish mahogany case was ticking its loudest. 
 The full moon on its disc, glowing with the red 
 cheeks of the man inside that luminary, looked 
 quite jubilantly upon the meeting. How often 
 external things seem to be especially bright when 
 we are most unhappy! 
 
 Hannah, pale but beautiful, sat by the bay 
 window with her infant upon her knee. Her 
 brown hair was loosely gathered together and 
 fastened in a knot on the top of her well-shaped 
 head. Her light print dress was open at the 
 throat. She looked anxiously at Alan but spoke 
 never a word except now and then by way of 
 greeting to some new comer. 
 
 Plympton had despatched a messenger to the 
 Governor at St. John's. He might as well have 
 let the messenger remain at home. The Gover- 
 nor had received orders to give place to the 
 Fishing Admirals in regard to the regulation of
 
 70 UNDER THE GREAT SEAL. 
 
 the shore, and in case of need to assist the 
 officers to maintain the law. He had only just 
 returned to his post and had brought these orders 
 in his pocket. Governors it must be noted went 
 away with the fishermen at the end of the season 
 and returned with the summer. 
 
 During the winter months, as already men- 
 tioned, the settlements were left without such 
 protection of law as might be provided by the 
 presence even of a weak governor. It is true 
 a garrison was left at St. John's with full instruc- 
 tions what they should do if they were attacked 
 by the French, and what more particularly they 
 should do in case the French were victorious. 
 They were to spike their guns and make other 
 dispositions to render their defeat as unimportant 
 as possible. But nothing was said about the 
 colonists; they were to make shift to live and 
 maintain order as best they could. 
 
 The governor to whom Plympton had despatched
 
 COUNCILS OF PEACE AND WAR. 71 
 
 his messenger was a weak officer. Moreover, 
 he and his people were somewhat jealous of the 
 authority that Plympton wielded at Heart's Delight. 
 While the little settlement, over which Ristack 
 and Ruddock were just now riding rough-shod, + 
 was in winter a model village of peace and 
 good-will, St. John's entered upon all kinds of 
 trials and troubles the moment the fishing fleets 
 with their Admirals and masters were out of sight. 
 In his contention with Plympton and the set- 
 tlers of Heart's Delight, Admiral Ristack knew 
 to what extent he could go. It was not neces- 
 sary that he should be moved by revenge or by 
 what Ruddock called love. He might be impelled 
 by either of these passions or not. The law 
 was with him, and it was quite open for him 
 merely to stand by the letter of it and pose as 
 a man performing an unpleasant duty. He was 
 of a malicious nature — hated anyone else to be 
 successful besides himself, could not endure to
 
 72 UNDER THE GREAT SEAL. 
 
 hear Plympton spoken of as a kindly and good- 
 natured man who loved his fellows and kept the 
 village peaceful and happy by his good example. 
 He was a grasping intriguing man, suspected at 
 Dartmouth of having once sold a Government 
 secret to a French spy, but he made his way 
 for all that to the confidence of the Court of 
 Admiralty in London. It is not unlikely that he 
 may have sold the French spy something that 
 was no good, and made merry over the trans- 
 action with the authorities in town. Anyhow, he 
 was on the best of terms with the best of 
 London officials who had control of the affairs 
 of Newfoundland. 
 
 Ruddock was Ristack's tool, his fetcher and 
 carrier, his pander, his toady, his neighbour and 
 comrade. The vice-admiral gloried in the pos- 
 session of a little brief authority. He was built 
 in a very common mould — had risen by fraud, 
 trickery and time-serving. On more than one
 
 COUNCILS OF PEACE AND WAR. 73. 
 
 occasion during the fishing seasons he had paid 
 Hannah Plympton offensive compliments that 
 she had resented. During the last voyage home 
 with his patron Ristack, in the ■ Anne of Dart- 
 mouth," he had spoken in opprobrious terms 
 of Alan Keith, and had falsely asserted that 
 Alan, in a conversation with Lester Bentz, had 
 denounced Ristack as a wastrel and corrupt. 
 Moreover, Ruddock had asked in one of 
 their many talks during the voyage homewards 
 what right had Keith at Heart's Delight; he 
 went there as a fisherman with a Dartmouth 
 vessel, and ought to have returned. The master 
 w T as a Scotchman, like himself, and was induced 
 by money or clanship to leave the lad behind. 
 As for him (Ruddock) he would have no Scotch- 
 men off Newfoundland unless they were really 
 fishermen in the service of the masters and the 
 Admirals ; there ought to be a law confining the 
 fisheries to the men of the west
 
 74 UNDER THE GREAT SEAL. 
 
 Although Ristack, with a pretended air of mag- 
 nanimity, doubted if this would be righteous as 
 law, Ruddock contended that the men of the- 
 east coast and such as came from the north, 
 especially a Perth man, ought not to be allowed 
 to become masters, or, if they were, on no con- 
 ditions should they become Admirals, whether they 
 sailed into harbour first or last. Ristack in this 
 argument was benevolently neutral; he would 
 carry out the law, whatever it might be; that 
 was his maxim — "Stand by the law, boys." Ho 
 declared that he had no selfish motives in any- 
 thing he did, but during a carouse to the confu- 
 sion of all his enemies he confessed to Ruddock- 
 that if there was any man in the world whom 
 he hated it was David Plympton ; and in return 
 for this confidence Ruddock had confessed that 
 he felt similarly towards Alan Keith. 
 
 The authorities in London were too busy 
 with more important affairs than such small
 
 COUNCILS OF PEACE AND WAR. 75 
 
 matters as concerned Newfoundland. The rights 
 and wrongs of so insignificant a section of 
 British subjects as those who had dared to 
 struggle for an existence on that barren coast, 
 had to give place to questions that were considered 
 to involve the national safety. The British 
 supremacy of the seas was being contested not 
 merely by recognised belligerent fleets, but by 
 pirates and buccaneers; and the chiefs of the 
 Admiralty were going to show their foes that no 
 combination, no flying of false flags, no subterfuges, 
 no accumulation of hostile fleets whatever could 
 stand against the British marine. The bare idea that 
 certain illegal settlers in Newfoundland presumed 
 to move a finger that might seem hostile to this 
 policy of defence and defiance irritated the autho- 
 rities to the last degree. Newfoundland was a 
 training ground for the navy; Newfoundland was a 
 fishery; Newfoundland should be nothing more. 
 In this direction of thought and resolution the
 
 76 UNDER THE GREAT SEAL. 
 
 master fishermen of the west, and the great 
 merchants and shipowners interested in the fisheries, 
 supported the Admiralty authorities and Court 
 with every artifice and influence. Ristack found 
 it an easy matter to win official sanction for an 
 arbitrary exercise of power, which he sought in 
 regard to the revision of affairs and the re- 
 organisation of the harbour of Heart's Delight, 
 the insolence of the settlers there having been 
 reported upon by himself and Ruddock in person, 
 and also by letters from one Lester Bentz, a 
 fisherman of St. John's, who had been prevented 
 from following his calling once every year in 
 the adjacent harbour by the outrageous exercise 
 of an undue and unlicensed authority on the 
 part of one David Plympton, who actually claimed 
 to be legally possessed of lands and tenements 
 in the harbour of Heart's Delight contrary to law 
 and polity. 
 
 It is possible that Plympton, without knowing
 
 COUNCILS OF PEACE AND WAR. 77 
 
 anything of its details, felt the spirit and effect 
 of this hostility. The reader knows that he had 
 looked into the future of Heart's Delight with 
 misgivings. His judgment had been endorsed 
 by signs and tokens which were as straws on 
 the stream of Time. The incident of the removal 
 of a potato shed in the previous season was 
 enough to make Plympton thoughtful and 
 suspicious. It was a pity Alan Keith had not 
 sufficient knowledge of Newfoundland to have 
 made him accept the suggestion of the Master 
 that they should seek the protection and peace 
 of the old country.
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 FOR THE SAKE OF THE WOMEN AND CHILDREN. 
 
 On this summer morning of that fatal season of 
 Ristack's extended authority, Plympton looked 
 unusually grave, and his looks did not belie his 
 feelings. Every man and woman in the room 
 "waited for his opinion with undisguised anxiety. 
 " I am getting old, " he said, rising in their 
 midst, " and it may be that my nerve is not what 
 it was; if we were within what might be called 
 our strict legal rights, as we undoubtedly are 
 within our strict moral rights, I should urge 
 resistance to these officers, these pirates, despite 
 the letters of authority that justify their piracy. 
 And that is the worst part of the business. A 
 
 78
 
 FOR THE WOMEN AND CHILDREN. 79 
 
 pirate we understand ; we fight him or we give in ; 
 but here are men backed by the powers in Lon- 
 don, whose acts are nothing short of piracy, though 
 resistance on our part to these magisterial powers 
 means rebellion." 
 
 " Then let it be rebellion, say I! " exclaimed 
 the next oldest man in the colony; "better lose 
 our lives than be slaves to such ruffians as Ristack 
 •and Ruddock, who have been the bane of Heart's 
 Delight these three seasons back." 
 
 " Aye, aye," said several voices. 
 
 " The thief who lays his hands on my dwelling, " 
 said a younger man, who had not long been 
 married, "had better say his prayers." 
 
 Alan Keith, nervous, but self-restrained, stood 
 by Hannah near the bay window that looked out 
 upon the broad ocean. He was leaning against 
 the window-frame, and watching the unaccustomed 
 scene in the Great House. Hannah had laid her 
 hand upon his, and was looking up into his face.
 
 80 UNDER THE GREAT SEAL. 
 
 She could see how bitter was his struggle to 
 remain calm ; she knew that it arose from his great 
 love for her. Alan would have liked to stand 
 forth and champion the rights of the villagers 
 with his strong right arm. He longed to grip 
 Ristack by the throat. He would not have hesi- 
 tated at commanding a fleet of boats to board 
 the " Anne of Dartmouth " had he been free as 
 he was before that day when he had first seen 
 Hannah standing at her father's door. 
 
 "What has Alan Keith gotten to say?" asked 
 the second oldest man of the village, who had 
 spoken after Plympton. 
 
 Alan made no reply, and Pat Doolan in the 
 porch way, with others of his way of thinking, bit 
 his lips for fear he might be tempted to interrupt 
 the proceedings before Alan Keith had spoken. 
 
 "You would like the voice of the younger 
 men, would you not?" said a stalwart fellow from 
 the east coast of England who, spite of laws and
 
 FOR THE WOMEN AND CHILDREN. 8 I 
 
 regulations, had brought his wife over to Heart's 
 Delight and built himself a hut. " If I might be 
 so bold as to speak that opinion, why, then, I 
 am with my grey-haired and honoured neigh- 
 bour who prefers death to slavery." 
 
 "Aye, aye," shouted the men in the porchway, 
 and " Hooroo ! " exclaimed Pat Doolan. 
 
 Then there was a cry of " Keith — Alan Keith!" 
 
 "Aye, why does not Mister Keith speak?" asked 
 a grim-looking villager, almost as broad as he 
 was long, with the arms of a giant on the body 
 of a dwarf. 
 
 "I am thinking of the women and bairns," 
 said Alan, looking round the room. " If we could 
 place them i' safety it would just be the reight 
 thing to feight ! And when I look at the Master 
 there, and ken how brave a man he is, and 
 he tells us we're i' the wrang, I dinna ken what 
 to advise. I hae got over the passion I felt face 
 to face wi' the devils yonder, and I'm willin' 
 
 VOL. i. 6
 
 82 UNDER THE GREAT SEAL. 
 
 we should be guided by what's best for the 
 women and the bairns." 
 
 Hannah pressed Alan's hand. He had spoken 
 without changing the position or attitude he had 
 taken up from the first. 
 
 "Spoken like the good man ye are," said one 
 of the women. " We might take sides with ye 
 and die with ye for our rights and honour; but 
 what about the childer?" 
 
 " Aye, aye, " said one or two earnest voices. 
 
 " If we could place the women and children 
 in safety, " said Plympton, " what then ? Suppos- 
 ing we are overcome, these admirals, as they 
 are called, would have the power to take such 
 of us as they could seize to England and try us 
 for high treason." 
 
 "Man," said a Scotchman, coming forward, 
 "it's just an awfu' position! But I'm for feight- 
 in' all the same!" 
 
 " Hurrah, " shouted a little knot of belligerents,
 
 FOR THE WOMEN AND CHILDREN. 83 
 
 especially those who had no belongings of wives 
 or children." And Pat Doolan again raised his 
 voice with a double, " Hooroo ! " 
 
 At this moment Father Lavello appeared upon 
 the scene. There were among the people of 
 Heart's Delight only a few Protestants. This 
 also was a grievance of the Ristack faction. 
 Father Lavello and his predecessors had worked 
 for and with the people; had befriended them in 
 their money troubles, had joined in their labours, 
 and assisted at their humble festivals. They had 
 made many converts, but those who still preferred 
 to worship outside the pale of the more popular 
 church had no ill-feeling towards the priest. 
 
 " God save you, my friends ! " said Father La- 
 vello, in his rich, deep voice, " I am grieved at 
 the trouble which has befallen us. I have heard 
 of it from your messenger. You are met in 
 council; let us first ask our Heavenly Father to 
 guide and help us to a right judgment."
 
 84 UNDER THE GREAT SEAL. 
 
 The people fell upon their knees; some with 
 a fervour of devotion, others with something like 
 a protest. 
 
 "Fight first and pray after, I say!" was the 
 remark of Damian the dwarf with the giant arms ;. 
 nevertheless he went down on his knees with the rest. 
 
 " Guide us, O Lord God, in this hour of peril 
 and danger," said the priest, raising his bared 
 head, "that we may follow Thy divine will and 
 glorify Thee in our acts and deeds. "We are 
 men of peace, children of Thy mercy. Thou 
 hast given us this place for a habitation. We- 
 have raised to Thee and to Thy Saints an altar 
 and a church. Our days have been spent in 
 honest labour according to Thy laws, and we 
 have striven to the best of our poor weak natures 
 to walk in Thy ways, to honour and glorify Thy 
 beloved Son, and to make unto ourselves a home- 
 of peace and contentment. If it be Thy will 
 that we quit our altars and our homes, and seek.
 
 FOR THE WOMEN AND CHILDREN. 85 
 
 Thee beyond the boundaries that arbitrary human 
 power has set up, let the same be made mani- 
 fest to Thy priests and to these Thy people by 
 such natural inclination as comes with humble- 
 ness and prayer. We pray Thee to inspire us 
 with a rightful judgment, and to strengthen us 
 so that we may overcome the devil who works 
 against us, and give us courage to do that 
 which is right, and just, and true, and obedient 
 in Thy sight. Amen!" 
 
 "Amen!" said the people, as with one voice; 
 and every man and woman rose from their knees. 
 
 "I beg to offer to Father Lavello and the 
 rest," said a villager who had hitherto been 
 silent, " this proposal. We leave it to his rever- 
 ence, and to Master Plympton, Alan Keith, and 
 John Preedie what course it be deemed right for 
 us to take; whether to stand by our homes to 
 the death or to take away our bits of things and 
 seek new homes in the interior.
 
 86 UNDER THE GREAT SEAL. 
 
 "Where we'd starve to death in the winter, * 
 remarked one of the women. 
 
 " Nay, nay, " said another, quickly, " we wouldn't 
 starve ; and we'd better starve than see our men 
 carried away to England and beheaded on Tower 
 Hill." 
 
 "Yes, yes," said twenty women at once. 
 
 "I have only one objection to make," said the 
 dwarf with the giant's arms; "it is this — and I 
 mean no offence to the priest though I'm a Pro- 
 testant hand and foot, heart and soul, that is if 
 I'm anything. It's no good leaving this question 
 to Father Lavello; he's a man of peace, of course 
 — though I've heard of fightin' priests as well as 
 sportin' parsons. But that's neither here nor there ; 
 I'm willin' to leave this affair to the Master, to 
 Keith, and to Preedie ; and I hope they'll let us 
 fight these thieves and buccaneers with the law 
 on their lips and hell in their hearts." 
 
 "Hooroo!" shouted Pat.
 
 FOR THE WOMEN AND CHILDREN. 87 
 
 "And one cheer more!" cried his mates at 
 the porchway. 
 
 "Then let it be so," saidLavello; " I assuredly 
 should advise peace, but I am willing that you 
 should this day be guided under Heaven and 
 Holy Mother Church by the three good men and 
 true who have been nominated ; let us then retire 
 while they take counsel together." 
 
 "Xae," said Alan Keith, standing away from 
 Hannah, "we hae nae need to tek counsel in 
 secret ; let us tek it among our friends and neebors. 
 I shall gie ye my opinion right here where we 
 stand. There's naething I'd like better than to 
 gae forth and fight these buccaneers o' the sea, 
 these villain agents of a besotted and ignorant 
 Government, and tear their hearts out o' their 
 vile bodies. But we mun stand by our women." 
 
 " Yes, yes, " said several women's voices, " that's 
 right." 
 
 " There are seasons when we stand by our women
 
 88 UNDER THE GREAT SEAL. 
 
 most true by seeming - cowards — when we resist 
 our impulses, when we decline to tek chances. 
 Master Plympton tells us we'd endanger their 
 lives and happiness if we resisted these men, 
 whether we drove the tyrannous ruffians to their 
 ships or nae, whether we killed them or let them 
 live; it would be all the same, we'd endanger 
 our wives and bairns; we hae gi'n hostages to 
 fortune, the Master says, and we mun tek the 
 consequences. " 
 
 " Do ye mean we mun gie in ? " asked one of 
 the young men who had previously spoken. 
 
 " Yes, yes, " said the women. 
 
 "Nay, nay," cried several of the men. 
 
 " Neighbours ! " exclaimed the second oldest 
 man of the village, who having secured attention, 
 went on, " hear Alan Keith out ! But let me also 
 tell you that the question before us is whether we 
 leave ourselves in the hands of Master Plympton, 
 Alan Keith, and John Preedie."
 
 FOR THE WOMEN AND CHILDREN. 89 
 
 "Right ye are," said PatDoolan; " me and my 
 mates is agreed to that." 
 
 " I accept the responsibility with my neighbours," 
 said John Preedie, a sober-browed, middle-aged 
 man ; " I am willing to tell you my opinion 
 without more ado. Like my friend Damian," 
 pointing to the dwarf, " I am a Protestant, though 
 willing to acknowledge the good there is in Mr. 
 Lavello apart from his priesthood, and I think it 
 best that laymen should settle this thing. I would 
 stand with any man and defend the rights of 
 Heart's Delight ; but it appears we have no rights 
 to defend — we are only lodgers. This land, 
 which brave Englishmen discovered and planted, 
 is not for all, but for a chosen few; and for my 
 part I shall take myself and belongings in the 
 first ship that can carry us to America and join 
 our brothers there who have not only the courage, 
 but the power, to resist tyranny and do battle for 
 liberty."
 
 90 UNDER THE GREAT SEAL. 
 
 " Hooroo! " shouted Pat; and his national man- 
 ner of expressing approval was followed by a 
 cheer that might have been heard away on the 
 decks of the " Anne of Dartmouth, " the " Pioneer, " 
 and the "Dolphin" that had cast anchor within 
 the past twelve hours, thus giving to the harbour 
 of Heart's Delight a full court of Admiral, Vice- 
 Admiral, and Rear-Admiral. 
 
 " In the meantime, " continued Preedie, " I'm 
 for peace. I'm not one, as a rule, who'd turn 
 the other cheek to the smiter; but just now to 
 the strength of the tiger I would oppose the 
 cunning of the serpent. At present I say I am 
 for peace." 
 
 A murmur of approval came from the women. 
 The men were silent, for they saw that Alan was 
 again about to speak. 
 
 " Dinna ye think, neighbours, " he said, his face 
 white with suppressed passion, "dinna ye think 
 I wouldna like to feight ; dinna ye think it doesna
 
 FOR THE WOMEN AND CHILDREN. 91 
 
 tek me all my time to say 'Nae' to them as would. 
 And, above all, dinna ye think, feight or nae, 
 I will na be revenged. By the God above us I 
 will, and up to the hilt " 
 
 The priest raised his right hand reprovingly 
 
 " Asking your reverence's pardon, " said Alan ; 
 " and ye mun understan', Father Lavello, that we 
 Scotch Catholics are nae sae tractable as some 
 ithers o' yer flock ; we are wild and uncultured 
 to discipline. But all the same, friends and 
 comrades, I'm for peace this day." 
 
 "And I, too," said Plympton. 
 
 " God's blessing be upon your good resolves ! " 
 said the priest.
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 TREACHERY. 
 
 And thus it came to pass that the people resolved 
 pending other advice that might change them — 
 in the reply of the Governor to the messenger 
 whom Plympton had sent to St. John's — that they 
 would proceed to move their household goods and 
 chattels to a spot whither Alan Keith undertook to 
 lead them. He had in his mind no distant pilgrim- 
 age, no wild scheme of an independent kind of 
 government away in the wildeness of Labrador, but 
 a valley known to many of them only a few miles 
 distant, where they could build without the let or 
 hindrance of the fishing Admirals and come to a 
 
 decision as to their future movements and policy. 
 
 92
 
 TREACHERY. 93 
 
 During the afternoon the men met and made 
 their dispositions for the morrow. Some of them 
 already began to pack their goods. Others visited 
 each other at their houses and said good-bye to 
 their bits of fragrant gardens. 
 
 The women gossiped about the meeting, and 
 compared notes upon methods of packing. 
 
 Heart's Delight was very busy one way and 
 another. The fishing boats were hauled ashore. 
 Xot a man was any longer engaged with his nets. 
 
 The second oldest man of the village had pro- 
 posed that they made their exodus by water ; but 
 this was always over-ruled by the argument that 
 at whatever point of the coast they disembarked, 
 they would have to march at the very shortest 
 six miles inland. 
 
 Pat Doolan desired to remove the little fort 
 and the two guns which they had erected and 
 mounted during the winter by way of defence of 
 the harbour. Damian, the dwarf, said " no " to
 
 94 UNDER THE GREAT SEAL. 
 
 this, because they might still desire to turn those 
 guns on the " Anne of Dartmouth," the " Pioneer, " 
 and the " Dolphin. " Pat was more than delighted 
 at this suggestion, and would have been willing 
 to try the argument of shot and shell on Ristack 
 and Ruddock at once, spite of the fact that 
 the long guns which the fishing Admirals carried 
 would have been sufficient to batter down the 
 little fort and destroy the whole village in a few 
 well-directed rounds. 
 
 In this way the afternoon slipped into evening, 
 and evening into night, the weather sweet and 
 soothing, as if it were in sympathy with the 
 peaceful resolutions of the people. 
 
 The law had given them twenty-four hours to 
 remove their goods. Alan, with the rest, had 
 resolved to obey the law to the letter. Plympton 
 and Alan smoked the pipe of peace over their 
 resolve in the wooden arbour of Plympton's garden 
 during the sunset. They talked of many things,
 
 TREACHERY. 95 
 
 watched the sun go down red and golden into 
 the sea, noted its caressing beams fall upon the 
 anchored ships, and took in the sense and feeling 
 of the scene as betokening a sort of dumb approval 
 of their action. 
 
 All these signs of peace, however — the perfume 
 of the first gilly-flowers, the quiet sea reflecting 
 the quiet sky, the red-gold sunset, with its last 
 beams on the ships in the harbour and the lead- 
 glazed windows of the village — were but typical 
 of the calm that goes before the storm. 
 
 While Heart's Delight had come to the con- 
 clusion that they would obey the law as it was 
 interpreted in the powers of the fishing Admirals, 
 Ristack and Ruddock in council assembled came 
 to the conclusion that the law would be best 
 obeyed by the arrest of Alan Keith, the ring- 
 leader of what they chose to call the day's revolt. 
 Ristack was not a brave man. He could fight, 
 if need be, to defend his own, but he preferred
 
 9 6 UNDER THE GREAT SEAL. 
 
 rather to take his enemy in the toils of legal 
 villainy than to run the risk of his enemy's knife. 
 Ruddock, in his black heart, had a mind to what 
 he called a flirtation with Hannah Keith. He 
 had only learned, after they had returned to the 
 ship, that she was Keith's wife. Lester Bentz 
 was his informant. Lester had come aboard in 
 the dusk, rowing himself from the shore. After 
 a brief conference on board the "Anne of 
 Dartmouth, " he undertook to pilot a picked boat's 
 crew to a point where they could approach the 
 Great House and its annexe by a path through 
 the wooded hills that protected the harbour from 
 the north wind, and formed a picturesque back- 
 ground to the village.
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 woman's instinct. 
 
 Sally Mumford had put the infant son and heir 
 of the Keiths to bed. He and his nurse slept in 
 a little room adjacent to that occupied by the 
 boy's parents. He had been named David after 
 his grandfather. Pat Doolan, considering the 
 child's form and promise, had suggested that 
 Goliath would have been a more characteristic 
 name than David. But Pat had always some 
 lively criticism for every event, and he contended, 
 in a professedly serious argument with Sally, 
 that when you named a child you gave the bent 
 to its future. Well, after all, perhaps, it was 
 just as well to be David and kill your enemy 
 VOL. I. 97 7
 
 g 8 UNDER THE GREAT SEAL. 
 
 with a sling as with anything else so that ye did 
 kill him. 
 
 Little David Keith was perfectly oblivious of 
 all Pat's philosophy and badinage. He had no 
 inkling of trouble present or to come. He smiled 
 in the most benign way upon Sally. His time 
 was mostly taken up with an ivory "tooth-pro- 
 moter," as Alan called the fanciful toy which he 
 had constructed for David's amusement. The 
 hope and joy of the Keith household was quite 
 a precocious infant, considering his age; for at 
 three months much cannot be expected in the 
 way of an intelligent recognition of anything 
 beyond the food provided by Dame Nature for 
 the sustenance of her creatures — however insig- 
 nificant. 
 
 While little David slept in the fond arms of 
 his nurse, Mr. and Mrs. Keith sat up to talk 
 over their plans and arrangements for the morrow. 
 They would be up with daylight and get their
 
 WOMAN S INSTINCT. 99 
 
 household goods together, and assist the Master 
 to collect his belongings. Their own were a 
 comparatively small matter; but in the Great 
 House there would be the clock to pack, the 
 one or two pictures to stow away, the guns and 
 swords, and all the kitchen utensils; it would be 
 a heavy day's work. John Preedie's team would 
 be needed, and Alan was thankful now that he 
 had recently bought an extra horse at St. John's. 
 He had two strong and steady animals, and the 
 Master had a pair. These w T ith Damian's mule, 
 and a donkey or two belonging to Jakes, the 
 boat caulker, would make a good show in the 
 way of carrying-power, considering that there 
 were three wagons and a couple of carts in the 
 settlement, besides the old shay that had been 
 brought from Devonshire when the Master, years 
 and years ago, had paid his one long visit to 
 the place which he still called home. 
 
 They had little occasion for horses in a general
 
 IOO UNDER THE GREAT SEAL. 
 
 way at Heart's Delight; but of late there had 
 been something like a serious attempt at farming. 
 John Preedie had done quite a business in po- 
 tatoes, and had created a sensation when he had 
 used a team of horses to haul half his year's 
 product to the beach for St. John's. What plough- 
 ing had hitherto been done was chiefly the work 
 of Jules Amien, but he was half a Frenchman, 
 and he ploughed with a pair of oxen. Jules had 
 practised other economies in the matter of haulage, 
 and animal power. Not that Heart's Delight 
 objected either to his dog-work or his oxen, but 
 some of the fishermen were rather inclined to 
 jeer at a man who hitched dogs to his boats to 
 bring them ashore and beach them. 
 
 They were fine, well-trained dogs the two that 
 Jules called by the pet names of Lion and Tiger. 
 Hannah Keith often paused when she was out 
 of doors to stroke them, much against the jealous 
 feelings of her own constant attendant Sampson.
 
 WOMAN S INSTINCT. IOI 
 
 He was a fine specimen of the breed that takes 
 its name from the island. It is doubtful, however, 
 if what is now known as the Newfoundland dog 
 belonged to the aborigines; it is more likely to 
 have been the result of a happy crossing of 
 breeds. Master Plympton described the genuine 
 one as a dog some twenty-six inches high, with 
 black ticked body, gray muzzle, white-stockinged 
 legs, and dew-claws behind. Since the days of 
 Plympton the breed has still further improved; 
 but even in his time there were fine examples 
 of the Newfoundland dog, with proclivities for 
 life-saving, and a capacity for friendship with 
 man. 
 
 In the matter of strength, Hannah's four-footed 
 companion was worthy of its name. Like the 
 Master of the settlement he was getting on in 
 years, and curiously enough had recently seemed 
 a little unsettled as to the prospects of the coun- 
 try. At least Pat Doolan said so; but this was
 
 102 UNDER THE GREAT SEAL. 
 
 only said in confidence to Sally, and it might 
 have been one of Pat's subtle jokes. You should 
 have seen him when he was engaged in com- 
 posing his bits of waggery for the behoof of 
 Sally or the delectation of the men down at the 
 fish warehouses or the stages; his small eyes 
 would fairly sparkle beneath their grey brows, 
 and his mouth would twist into curious shapes, 
 intended to signify the extra value that he attached 
 to any particular statement he was about to make, 
 or the fun of which was not to be controlled. 
 
 Pat was a thick-set, short, stumpy fellow, with 
 a closely-cropped head, big feet, a beard that 
 tried to hide itself in his neck, encouraged thereto 
 by the razor which he used every morning upon 
 his chin and upper lip. He had a ruddy com- 
 plexion, and even in his silent moments his lips 
 were generally busy twitching in sympathy with 
 the varied thoughts that were working within 
 his inner consciousness. He had been in his
 
 103 
 
 time pretty well everything that belongs to the 
 sea and seafaring, not to mention powder-monkey, 
 cook, and lastly boatswain to the Master when 
 the Master had sailed his own ships to the chief 
 port of New England with fish, bringing back 
 commodities for St. John's, even on one occasion 
 crossing the Atlantic and casting anchor in the 
 port of Dartmouth, which had now the unenvi- 
 able notoriety of counting among its seafaring 
 folk the fishing Admirals Ristack and Ruddock. 
 
 Old Sampson, with his ragged black and white 
 coat, was lying at Hannah's feet, while she sat 
 upon a low stool by Alan, her head on his knee, 
 her thoughts running with his, and his full of 
 reminiscences of his three years at Heart's Delight. 
 
 "I mind the first time I ever saw ye," said 
 Alan, stroking her thick hair with his great brown 
 hand, " I landed from the first ship that sailed in 
 that season. It was ' The Hope', frae Yarmouth. 
 The master was a Scotchman, hailin' frae Glasgae.
 
 104 UNDER THE GREAT SEAL. 
 
 When I strode up into the village I saw ye 
 standing i' the porch o' yer father's house, the 
 bonniest picter I'd ever set eyes on. Eh ! but 
 ye were, Hannah ! Ye just completely dazed me ; 
 ye did that! " 
 
 " Alan! " said Hannah, putting her white hand 
 above her head to touch his that caressed her 
 brown hair all the time he was speaking. 
 
 "It's true, Hannah, my lassie; and though I 
 concluded not to return in * The Hope' and not to 
 go back to Perth, which was my intention after 
 I'd made Yarmouth — for there was a fellow there 
 that sailed 'twixt that and Glasgae — I'd nae mair 
 courage to speak to ye than if ye'd been just an 
 angel frae Heaven ! " 
 
 " Alan, " said Hannah, " you always exaggerate 
 your want of courage in those days." 
 
 " Nae, not one iota, Hannah. I was just skeered 
 at ye." 
 
 "Nay, Alan dear, not scared."
 
 WOMAN'S INSTINCT. 105 
 
 " I was most assuredly reight down skeered; 
 eh ! but, Hannah, I did love ye ! " 
 
 " I know it, dear ; but I loved you, too, and 
 yet I did not feel like that." 
 
 "Like what, my sweet lassie?" 
 
 " Afraid. Xor did I wish to make you scared. 
 I remember, as if it was yesterday, when my 
 father brought you to the Great House that I 
 was bent on making you feel very much at home 
 and very content." 
 
 "Eh! but ye were avvfu' kind to me, Hannah. It 
 was then that I telt your father I had made things 
 straight for staying at Heart's Delight until the next 
 fishing. He was curious to know if I had arranged 
 it wi' the Admiral, and I telt him yes, that the master 
 was a countryman, and knew my father in Perth. " 
 
 "My father liked you from the first, Alan." 
 
 " Did he noo ! Weel, that's as precious as a 
 gude character frae the Provost o' Perth. I 
 wouldna change it for a medal."
 
 106 UNDER THE GREAT SEAL. 
 
 " You were afraid of me a very long time, were 
 you not, Alan?" 
 
 "That was I, indeed," said Alan, "ye seemed 
 something so far beyond me; and so ye are." 
 
 " Nay, Alan, you only think that because ye 
 love me, and if ye had loved in moderation we 
 might have been married, eh, I don't know how 
 many months sooner than we were." 
 
 "I know how gude ye are to me, how much 
 ye love me when ye say that, Hannah; but ye 
 will allow [here he chuckled — it was nearly a 
 laugh] that when I had yer consent I made short 
 work aboot askin' ye to fix the very next day 
 for the weddin'." 
 
 "Yes, truly," said Hannah laughing in her turn, 
 " a little encouragement soon made a man of 
 you." 
 
 "Eh! it did that; I could a'most greet to think 
 what would a' come of me if ye hadna ta'en pity 
 on me."
 
 WOMAN'S INSTINCT. 107 
 
 "Pity!" said Hannah; "I loved you all the 
 time, loved you then as I do now; and I love 
 you to-day, if it were possible, more than ever 
 for the kind and thoughtful way in which you 
 have acted in this trouble of Heart's Delight; you 
 made a sacrifice of feeling and pride, Alan, that 
 is the sweetest, the noblest tribute you could pay 
 to me, and the best thing you could do for our 
 little David. All the women in the village love 
 you to-day; God bless them and you for it!" 
 
 " My dear little wife, " said Alan, " there is 
 naething ye could ask me I wouldna do for ye ; 
 but you mek too much of this day's business. 
 I would tae God we could hae been left in peace 
 for a' that ! " 
 
 Just then Sampson sniffed the air and growled. 
 
 " Why, what's the matter ! " said Alan, patting 
 the dog's head. 
 
 Sampson, pushing his wet nose into Alan's 
 hand, got up to rub his rough sides against Han-
 
 Io8 UNDER THE GREAT SEAL. 
 
 nah in token of his double affection, his divided 
 allegiance. 
 
 "Yes," said Hannah, as if answering what the 
 dog might be thinking ; " yes, we know ; good 
 old dog!" 
 
 Sampson gave a short bark of pleasure; but 
 it was quickly followed by another low growl of 
 alarm. He walked about the room uncomfortably, 
 sniffing the air, and once bending his head down 
 by the inner door of the porch. 
 
 "The puir beast knows we are aboot to quit, 
 I mek nae doubt," said Alan, watching him. 
 
 " He is growing old, " Hannah replied, " and 
 with age comes what father calls intuitive know- 
 ledge. He has often told me that instinct in age 
 takes the place of knowledge ; he always feels in 
 advance the coming of joy or sorrow." 
 
 Alan generally grew silent and reflective when 
 Hannah began to talk in what he called her wise 
 and learned way. She had had a far better edu-
 
 IOQ 
 
 cation than Alan, whose training- had not been 
 through books or at schools, except such books as 
 treated of navigation, and such schools as had 
 mere experience for schoolmasters. Hannah had 
 always had the advantage of the education that 
 priests can give; watched over by her father, 
 who was a man of some learning. Alan often 
 had sat and wondered at the strange knowledge 
 which Hannah possessed relating to all manner 
 of curious things, historical and otherwise. She 
 and Father Lavello and the Master would, on 
 winter evenings, discuss questions of travel and 
 discovery, even matters of science and works of 
 art which Hannah had not seen nor was ever 
 likely to; but the young priest would describe 
 the great pictures of Florence and Venice, and 
 the antiquities of Rome ; and Hannah would look 
 at Alan and wonder if they would ever see those 
 classic treasures. 
 
 On this memorable night before the exodus
 
 IIO UNDER THE GREAT SEAL. 
 
 of Heart's Delight, Hannah seemed to Alan to 
 be full of wisdom beyond woman. "I sometimes 
 think, " she said, " that God also gives to a 
 mother knowledge of things that is beyond books 
 and teaching. Her love becomes her intelligence, 
 her devotion inspiration. I somehow knew to-day, 
 Alan, that your love would hold your manhood in 
 check ; that you would keep a calm, unruffled front 
 to the most irritating opposition. At the same time 
 there entered into my mind a keen sense of regret 
 that we had not taken our dear father's instinct 
 of trouble to heart, and sailed away to the old 
 country on the very day when we married." 
 
 There were tears in Hannah's voice as she 
 uttered these last words, and Alan put his great 
 strong arms about her, soothingly, as he asked, 
 41 would ye prefer that we do so now, Hannah ? " 
 
 " If it were possible, " she replied. 
 
 "Anything is possible that ye wish," Alan 
 answered, softly.
 
 WOMAN'S INSTINCT. Ill 
 
 "I have no wish that is not yours, Alan." 
 
 "And I nane that is na yours." 
 
 ■ But your faith in the future of this place is 
 so strongly fixed!" 
 
 "It was, dear; I don't say it isna now; but 
 what is that against your desire?" 
 
 " My father, I think, longs for an abiding place 
 in the old home of his fathers. He so often 
 talks of it now. But Father Lavello says that 
 comes with age ; the memory of our youth is 
 intensified. Don't you observe that father con- 
 tinually talks of his father, and what his father 
 told him of Dartmouth and Bideford, of the famous 
 pioneers, the busy ships with news from distant 
 seas, the quiet homes, the right to sow and reap 
 without question, and every man's house his 
 castle?" 
 
 "Why ye talk like ye might hae seen the 
 •auld country yersel, Hannah." 
 
 " I have seen it in my dreams, " she answered,
 
 112 UNDER THE GREAT SEAL. 
 
 "but it's too late, I fear, to see it in very truth." 
 " Nae, it's nane too late, my lassie. It wouldna 
 be reight to desert the neebors and bairns just 
 noo; but when the settlement is once mair in 
 some kind o' shape and ye still desire it, with 
 the Master we'll tek ship for the auld country, 
 and welcome, Hannah. If Newfoundland is to 
 continue under the heels of these licensed free- 
 booters, weel, then, the sooner we're out o' it the 
 better." 
 
 "Dear Alan, does your heart or your head 
 speak in that sentiment?" 
 
 "Baith, my darlin', baith. It greets me sair 
 to think o' the hairdships we're embarkin' on, 
 gaeing out o' the village to seek a newrestin'- 
 place, not that the Back Bay valley isna de- 
 lightfu', that it just is ; d'ye nae mind the ride we 
 had ane day in the autumn, and ye ran aboot 
 like a cheil, gathering the flowers? we hadna 
 been married mair than a month."
 
 woman's instinct. 113 
 
 "Yes, I remember, of course, dear," said Han- 
 nah, "but I don't see in my memory the place 
 you select for the new settlement." 
 
 " Eh, it's just grand ! I'm thinking we didna 
 ride quite sae far as the bit o' pine forest; it's 
 at the back o' that; wi' a fine stream o' pure 
 water, a long sloping bank o' grass, a long level 
 o' natural meadow, and soil fit for a garden. I 
 ken the very spot where ye shall sleep to-mor- 
 row neight; I can tell ye, Hannah, that it's as easy 
 as any thin' ye can think on to mek a tent just that 
 comfortable ye would nae imagine ye were not 
 in a regular built and caulked hoose. Ye'll hae 
 the shade o' the trees and the modified heat o' the 
 sun; and for the neight ye'll hae a bed o' skins 
 and sheets, and a' the comforts ye are possessed 
 of just here in Heart's Delight. And I'm thinkin' 
 we'll ca' the place Heart's Content, eh?" 
 
 "Yes," said Hannah; "Heart's Delight was 
 heart's delight; but losing that Heart's Content 
 
 VOL. I. 8
 
 114 UNDER THE GREAT SEAL. 
 
 comes next; yes, Alan, it is a beautiful idea and 
 has an inspiration of submitting to Providence; 
 but with you, dear, every place would be Heart's 
 Content for me." 
 
 A low growl as if by way of protest came 
 from Sampson, who was now standing in a 
 watchful attitude by the door. 
 
 "Eh, man, what's wrong?" said Alan, address- 
 ing the dog. 
 
 Sampson came from the door and leaped upon 
 his master, planting his great paws upon his 
 chest, and whining as if he would speak. 
 
 " What is it ? Some puir devil wants shelter, 
 or what? " 
 
 The dog leaped down and stood once more by 
 the door watchful and angry. 
 
 " Don't go out, Alan ; it is some enemy, I feel 
 sure," said Hannah. 
 
 On the other hand, the dog seemed to encourage 
 Alan to open the door. He showed his teeth,
 
 woman's instinct. 115 
 
 fell to heel, growled and was impatient. The 
 poor beast was conscious of his strength, and did 
 not understand that there might be danger still 
 for Hannah and Alan, although he was there to 
 protect them. 
 
 The dog now suddenly dashed towards the 
 inner chamber where little David was sleeping, 
 then bounded to the window, and finally stood 
 in the middle of the room bewildered.
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 A CRUEL CONSPIRACY. 
 
 " There are men about the house, " said Hannah, 
 in a whisper, 
 
 " Our neebors passin' by wi' their goods and 
 chattels to be ready for the morrow, perhaps ; 
 something unusual in Sampson's experience ; that's 
 it, auld friend, eh ? " 
 
 Sampson wagged his tail for a moment by 
 way of answer, and once more stood sentinel 
 by the door. 
 
 "It is a very dark night," said Hannah, "and 
 I'm afraid; it may be that those cruel men are 
 back again from their ships." 
 
 " Nae, dinna fear that, " Alan replied ; " they 
 
 116
 
 A CRUEL CONSPIRACY. 117 
 
 hae gin us twenty-four hours, and it's rather to 
 catch us in the toils o' some illegal act than to 
 put theirsel's i' the wrang they'll be scheming; 
 I dinna fear their presence, my lassie, until 
 to-morrow at sunset; and then, please God, we'll 
 be cookin' our evening meal beneath the pines 
 of Heart's Content." 
 
 " Don't go out, dear, " said Hannah, clinging 
 to his arm. 
 
 The dog walked quietly to the window, then 
 sniffed at the further door, and with a grumble 
 followed Hannah and Alan to the old cushioned 
 settle by the fireplace, and once more disposed 
 himself in a picturesque attitude at Hannah's feet. 
 
 "Good dog!" she said, "yes, the bad men are 
 gone; and I pray God we may hear no more of 
 them until it is daylight, when we can see their 
 faces. " 
 
 "Hannah, you are trembling as if you had 
 seen a ghost."
 
 I 1 8 UNDER THE GREAT SEAL. 
 
 "Those men from the ships are about, I feel 
 sure they are, and for no good." 
 
 "Nae, dinna feai\; I am nae inclined to think 
 ye are reight ; Pat Doolan, by way of bravado, 
 said somethin' aboot turning the two wee guns 
 upon the ships. The man Ristack is a great 
 coward, and may be he would think it safe to 
 dismantle the fort until such time as the removal 
 o' Heart's Delight is accomplished." 
 
 " Thank God they are no longer near our 
 doors ! " said Hannah, as Sampson seemed to be 
 settling himself down more and more steadily to 
 sleep. The old clock in the living-room of the 
 Great House could now be heard as if afar off 
 striking the hour of ten ; it was very late for 
 Heart's Delight. The note of time was echoed 
 by a small timepiece in the annexe which the 
 Keiths had called their own domicile. 
 
 "Time's gettin' on," said Alan; "how quiet j 
 it all is!"
 
 A CRUEL CONSPIRACY. 119 
 
 "Yes," said Hannah, laying her head upon 
 his shoulder, as they sat side by side on the 
 settle. 
 
 " It will be quieter in the Back Bay valley, " 
 said Alan, "for there ye dinna hear the sea; 
 but the trees mek a music o' their ain, which 
 isna much different." 
 
 " The sea is very calm to-night, " said Hannah. 
 
 "Not a ripple on it," Alan replied, "and to 
 think o ' the Lord of Hosts lettin' yonder pirate- 
 ships ride at anchor as if they were on some 
 landlocked mere ; eh, Hannah, I ken a wonderfu' 
 place where a man o' war might sleep at anchor 
 while the sea was ragin'." 
 
 "The secret harbour you talk of in Labrador?" 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 " But it is a terrible coast thereabouts, Alan ; the 
 sailors see demons there ; and it was under taboo 
 even in the earliest times when the natives roamed 
 this island from end to end."
 
 120 UNDER THE GREAT SEAL. 
 
 "It's a wonderfu' harbour; it's a dock made 
 by Nature; a sort o' hide-and-seek for mariners. 
 One day when its very calm weather as the noo 
 we'll just sail down the coast, and I'll show you 
 the way ; ye would think there was nae channel 
 enough for a dingey, but there's a channel that 
 would float a three-decker ; a water-way as gude 
 as the entrance to St. John's, but it's disguised; 
 eh, ye canna guess how safe it's disguised." 
 
 They did Sampson an injustice to think he 
 was sleeping. He had gathered that Hannah did 
 not want the door opened. He knew that the 
 men who had been prowling without had left 
 the immediate locality of the house; but he did 
 not know that they had only gone down to the beach 
 to take council once more by the boats. Bentz 
 and Ruddock had heard Sampson's growl; also 
 the voice of Alan. They had hoped to find all 
 abed, both in the Great House and the annexe. 
 They had now to revise their plans in presence
 
 A CRUEL CONSPIRACY. 12 l 
 
 of a watchful dog, and a strong and wakeful 
 opponent. 
 
 " Jim Smith, " said Ruddock, " Admiral Ristack 
 has trusted you with the command of this thing; 
 I am only a volunteer; it's naught to do with 
 my ship; it's Admiral Ristack's affair, and you 
 are his representative, and, therefore, mind ye, on 
 this occasion you carry the authority of the King 
 himself." 
 
 " Very well, " said Smith, " I am ready to do 
 my duty, if I am rightly supported." 
 
 " Ye needna question that, " said one of the 
 crew. " If we dinna think much of our leader 
 we hae undertaken the job, and they say duty's 
 duty at all times." 
 
 "Aye, aye," said the others. 
 
 "Then," continued Ruddock, "my advice and 
 that also of this loyal man, Master Jacob Bentz, 
 is that one of you have a knife handy for the dog, 
 and the others crowd all sail on Keith and secure
 
 122 UNDER THE GREAT SEAL. 
 
 him at any risk, dead or alive; alive if possible, 
 and gagged, eh, Master Bentz!" 
 
 "Just so," said Bentz. 
 
 " I shall try a subterfuge, " said Smith. 
 
 "May a man ask what a subterfuge may be?" 
 said Donald Nicol, who was a very matter-of-fact 
 Scotchman. 
 
 "Knocking at the door and begging for 
 assistance, as if a body was in trouble; or say 
 the fish stages are afire; or what you will." 
 
 "And then?" asked Ruddock. 
 
 " Well, the moment he shows himself seize him." 
 
 "And the dog?" asked Bentz, who had seen 
 Sampson's teeth more than once. 
 
 "Mardyke undertakes the dog, with ten inches 
 of cold steel." 
 
 "That's right," said Mardyke. 
 
 " For which duty well performed, " said Bentz, 
 "I, as a volunteer, <■ am willing to pay out five 
 golden guineas."
 
 A CRUEL CONSPIRACY. I 23 
 
 " Consider that dog dead, " said Mardyke. 
 
 "Well, then, we are agreed," said Smith; 
 "march, and take your orders from me." 
 
 " Aye, aye, " responded the men. 
 
 " And no one speak above a whisper. " 
 
 "Aye, aye," was the prompt reply, and in 
 less than half-an-hour Sampson, at the moment 
 when Alan and Hannah had resolved to retire, 
 once more showed signs of uneasiness, and at one 
 bound, with a great loud bay, rushed to the door. 
 
 "What is it?" exclaimed Alan, following the 
 dog, Hannah clinging to her husband's arm. 
 
 " A man in distress ! " said a voice from with- 
 out ; " wounded, dying — help ! help ! " 
 
 " Don't go out! " Hannah whispered, as Alan 
 unbarred the door. 
 
 The dog crouched at Alan's heels ready to 
 spring. 
 
 " Oh, " groaned the voice outside, " don't leave 
 me to die ! "
 
 124 UNDER THE GREAT SEAL. 
 
 Alan opened the door. 
 
 As he did so he was attacked by half-a-dozen 
 men before he could strike a blow in self-defence. 
 At the same moment, Ruddock and Bentz rushed 
 upon Hannah, fastened her apron over her head 
 and smothered her cries. 
 
 The attack was so sudden and complete that 
 hardly a sound was heard beyond the first grating 
 bark and growl of the dog as he leaped at the 
 throat of the very man who, unfortunately, was 
 best prepared for the assault
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 PAT DOOLAN TO THE RESCUE. 
 
 Pat Doolan slept in a hammock of his own 
 construction in a cabin of the Great House, not 
 far from the Master's room. He had been swing- 
 ing about uncomfortably, harassed by troublous 
 dreams, for some little time before he awoke with 
 a groan, conscious that something was wrong. 
 He peered out into the night. There were 
 shadowy forms moving about near the house. 
 
 Pushing open his cabin-window, that was formed 
 like a port-hole, he heard mutterings, and now 
 decidedly a smothered scream. He slipped into 
 his breeches, dragged his big boots upon his big 
 feet, fastened his belt about his waist, thrust a 
 
 125
 
 126 UNDER THE GREAT SEAL. 
 
 couple of pistols into it, gripped a short hard 
 stick, and sallied forth. 
 
 First he went into the Master's room, the door 
 of which was always left ajar, awoke him with 
 the information that something bad was afoot, 
 and then going out into the night, made for the 
 door of Keith's part of the Great House. 
 
 Arrived in front of the little porch of the Keith 
 annexe, he fell over the dead body o the dog 
 Sampson and stumbled through the open door 
 into the room where Ruddock and Jacob Bentz 
 had bound Mrs. Keith, and just at the moment when 
 they were having trouble in the next room with 
 Sally Mumford. He knew nothing of the condition 
 of Mrs. Keith, who was lying by the settle, gagged, 
 but Sally was proclaiming her woes with unmistak- 
 able vigour. She had been awakened to meet the 
 gaze of a couple of ruffians who had turned a dark 
 lantern upon her, for what villainy she did not know, 
 but of course it was nothing short of murder.
 
 PAT DOOLAN TO THE RESCUE. 1 27 
 
 " Have at ye, ye bastes of prey ! " exclaimed 
 Pat, dashing to her assistance. 
 
 In a moment, with his short bit of timber, a 
 souvenir of the old country, he had felled first 
 one and then the other of the two intruders. 
 
 "Surrender!" he went on, planting his right 
 foot upon one and dominating the other with his 
 cudgel, " surrender, or begorrah yoor dead men, 
 and begorrah I think ye are whether ye surrender 
 or not. " 
 
 Here he picked up a dark lantern which one 
 of them had dropped and turned it upon the two 
 marauders. 
 
 " Oh it's naybor Bentz and one o' they thaving 
 Admirals, is it? Sure ye're a mighty fine brace 
 o' blackguards that ye are to disturb inoffensive 
 settlers in the middle av God's blessed night! 
 Lie still where ye are while I disarm ye or be- 
 jabers I'll blow ye both to the devil! " 
 
 Pat stooped over them, took away their weapons,
 
 128 UNDER THE GREAT SEAL. 
 
 which he stuffed into his own belt, and then 
 addressed Sally. 
 
 " Sure and ye are quite safe, Mistress Sally ; 
 get up wid ye and light the candles; I'll turn 
 my back while ye put on your ball-dress and 
 make your twylet. Don't whimper, Master David, 
 it's all right; Pat Doolan's by your side." 
 
 The child had uttered a little cry, but was 
 hushed back to sleep by Sally, while she pulled 
 the curtain about her and put on her things. 
 Ruddock and Bentz meanwhile thought it good 
 policy to remain quiet, in the hope that their 
 comrades, missing them, would return and call 
 them to the boats. 
 
 At this juncture the Master entered the front 
 room with a lantern. Glancing about the place 
 he saw Hannah, and released her. " Great hea- 
 vens, what has happened? " he asked. 
 
 Hannah could not answer him. He had raised 
 her up. She fell into his arms.
 
 PAT DOOLAN TO THE RESCUE. I2Q 
 
 " Are you hurt, my darling ? " he asked, fondling 
 her. 
 
 " No, " she whispered. She could only speak 
 in whispers. 
 
 "Who has done this thing? Where is Alan?" 
 
 " Alan, " she whispered, " has gone. " 
 
 " Where, my love, where ? " 
 
 " They have killed him, " she said, and relaxing 
 her hold upon her father would have slipped to 
 the ground but for the strong arm he had wound 
 about her waist. 
 
 "Hannah, don't give way; be brave; be strong; 
 tell me, dear, what has happened?" 
 
 But Hannah was speechless. He laid her 
 upon the window seat, and looked about for 
 water, found a jug, bathed her face, and she 
 revived. 
 
 " I am better, " she whispered, half-rising. 
 
 Then Pat Doolan's voice was heard in the 
 next room saying, " Now, Sally, go and see about 
 
 VOL. I. 9
 
 130 UNDER THE GREAT SEAL. 
 
 the misthress; where is she? That's right, give 
 us light ; oh, ye cursed villains ! " 
 
 Before the Master had made a step towards 
 the next room the front door was filled with 
 sailors. " Admiral Ruddock, " said the spokesman, 
 " are you here ? " 
 
 " Yes, " shouted Ruddock from the next room, 
 " I'm a prisoner ; release me ! " 
 
 "Bring in your lantern," said the spokesman, 
 addressing someone outside. 
 
 A sailor, armed to the teeth, entered with a 
 ship's lantern. The spokesman signed for the 
 man to advance, and for another to support him 
 with his cutlass. The Master stood by Hannah, 
 who had once more risen to her feet. 
 
 "What are you doing here?" he asked, 
 
 " Begorrah, that's the Masther ! " exclaimed Pat 
 from the next room. " Sure, sorr, we're all right, 
 and little David's all right. And, by the holy 
 St. Patrick, the man that puts his snout in here
 
 PAT DOOLAN TO THE RESCUE. 131 
 
 I'll blow his head off! I mane it, by me soul!" 
 There was a dead silence. The click of Pat's 
 pistols was heard distinctly. 
 
 ■ Oh, Pat, dear ! " said Sally, half-pleading, half- 
 admiring. 
 
 ■ It's a thrue bill, s'help me, be jabers ! " said Pat. 
 " We only want our comrades ; we intend no 
 
 harm ; our work is accomplished, " said the spokes- 
 man. 
 
 ■ Indade and is it ? " said Pat. " I can't say as 
 much for myself, then." 
 
 "What was your work, may I ask, besides 
 having gagged and bound my daughter, villain?" 
 asked the Master. 
 
 " We have done her no other harm; it was 
 necessary that she should be prevented from 
 crying out" 
 
 "You scoundrel!" exclaimed the Master. 
 
 " Xay, I did not do it, " said the spokesman, 
 " but it had to be done, I suppose, and there's an
 
 132 UNDER THE GREAT SEAL. 
 
 end of it. Come forth, Admiral, and you, Master 
 Bentz." 
 
 "Come to our rescue," cried Ruddock, "there's 
 a pistol at our heads." 
 
 " Pistol, by St. Patrick, there's two ; and if the 
 murdering gang don't disperse off the face av 
 the earth before I count three I'll shoot your 
 ugly faces into a jelly!" 
 
 Here Sally, with little David in her arms, 
 rushed out of the room, and the next moment 
 the child was in its mother's arms, though they 
 clutched it with a weak and faltering embrace. 
 
 " Permit our comrades their freedom, " said Smith, 
 " and that is all we require. Our work is done. " 
 
 " Master, what'll I do ? Give me orders to 
 execute the villains." 
 
 " You will answer my questions and leave this 
 house without further molestation, your comrades 
 being released?" said Plympton, addressing the 
 spokesman.
 
 PAT DOOLAN TO THE RESCUE. 133 
 
 ■ We will," said the spokesman. 
 
 " Are you here with authority?" 
 
 "Yes, the authority of the Admiral of the Fleet, 
 and with a force sufficient for the release of our 
 comrades. " 
 
 "You seem to be a fair-spoken man. I take 
 your word. Pat!" 
 
 " Yessorr ! " 
 
 "Release the brave gentlemen?" 
 
 "Yessorr! My brave gallants with your great 
 souls, get up wid ye!" 
 
 Mr. Bentz and Admiral Ruddock came forth. 
 
 " Thank the boy for your lives, " said the Master, 
 addressing them as Pat stepped out by their side. 
 
 " I'll none av their thanks, Master ; the hangman 
 will take care av them when it comes to his 
 turn." 
 
 "Smith, you will find us at the boats," said 
 Ruddock, arranging his ruffled plumes, and making 
 for the door, Bentz after him, Pat half-tempted
 
 134 ' UNDER THE GREAT SEAL. 
 
 to empty his pistols into them, as the spokesman made 
 way for them. Hannah was weeping over little 
 David, Sally sitting by her side and stroking her hair. 
 
 " I'm sorry the young woman and the child 
 have been disturbed, " said Smith, " I don't know 
 why it was considered necessary." 
 
 " And what authority could have justified an 
 attack upon this lady?" 
 
 " That, you must ask my betters, " said Smith, 
 " we had orders to make an arrest, which I 
 presume she resisted." 
 
 " What arrest ? Nay, you need not say, since 
 I find this poor child's husband absent. What 
 has happened to him ? " 
 
 " No harm, " said the spokesman. 
 
 " Oh, thank God, " whispered Hannah, hoarsely. 
 "Oh, Alan, Alan!" 
 
 " He is under arrest, " continued the spokesman, 
 " charged with rebellion against his Majesty the 
 King, and with other crimes."
 
 PAT DOOLAN TO THE RESCUE. 135 
 
 ■ Yes ? " said the Master, suppressing his anxiety 
 and indignation ; " and where is he ? " 
 
 "By this time he is on board the vessel of the 
 Admiral of the Fleet." 
 
 " Merciful heavens ! " exclaimed Hannah, look- 
 ing up with wild eyes and blanched face. 
 
 " Comfort ye, lady," said Donald Nicol, one of 
 the ship's men, who had stood near the spokesman 
 during the brief colloquy with Plympton, "your 
 gude man isna wi'oot friends." 
 
 " Donald Nicol, " said Smith, turning upon the 
 speaker, " I would have you understand there is 
 only one spokesman here." 
 
 "I amna sae sure o' that," said the other; 
 " there's nae a man present who's gotten a heart 
 in his breast that wouldna like to say a kind word 
 of hope to Alan Keith's young wife." 
 
 " Whatever reparation in the way of explanation 
 was necessary has been made, and that's the end 
 of it, Nicol," said the spokesman.
 
 136 UNDER THE GREAT SEAL. 
 
 " Dinna ye think I'm a log wi'out a heart or 
 a free voice, Jim Smith," Nicol replied. "Master 
 Plympton, I tell ye, we're sorry, me an' my mates, 
 that the gude lady has been put aboot, and if 
 I'm yard-armed for it that's what I've gotten to 
 say!" 
 
 "And me," said a red-bearded fellow-country- 
 man of Nicol's. 
 
 " So say we, all of us, by God ! " exclaimed 
 another, which drew forth a hearty response of 
 " Aye-ayes. " 
 
 "Men of the Admiral's ship," said Smith, red 
 with rage, " Attention ! " 
 
 The men fell together. 
 
 " Right-about. March ! " 
 
 The men filed out, Smith at their head. 
 
 "Pat, get some brandy from the liquor cup- 
 board," said the Master. 
 
 "Yes, yer honour," said Pat. 
 
 "Sally, put your mistress to bed."
 
 PAT DOOLAN TO THE RESCUE. 137 
 
 "Yes, sir," said Sally, taking the child from 
 Hannah's arms and retiring with it to her own 
 room. 
 
 "Ah, bless it, it's a good bairn; it knows it's 
 safe with its Sally; bless its brave heart, it will 
 lie quiet and go to sleep." 
 
 Sally was heard cooing over her charge for 
 several minutes before she returned. 
 
 " My dear Hannah, it's a sad business, but 
 you must not give way. I know what you 
 feel, but we'll soon have Alan back, never fear ; 
 keep a good heart for his sake and for mine." 
 
 Hannah began to cry for the first time. 
 
 "It is very hard, I know, but we must be 
 patient. " 
 
 " Yes, " she said between her sobs, " I am 
 better now; I will bear up, dear." 
 
 "Take a little of this," said her father, handing 
 her a cup with a mixture of brandy and water. " You 
 must, love, it is the finest medicine in the world.
 
 138 UNDER THE GREAT SEAL. 
 
 Hannah took the cup and drank. 
 
 " That's right. Now, Sally, assist your mistress. 
 You will be better after an hour or two. I will 
 not leave the house." 
 
 " Be jabers, it's true there's nothing like it, " 
 said Pat, helping himself to a horn full of the liquor. 
 "It's mate and drink and firearms, sure it is." 
 
 Sally and Hannah disappeared, and the Master 
 and Pat stood looking at each other. " Sure, 
 Master dear, take a drink yourself. " 
 
 "No, thank you, Pat," said Plympton. "Sit 
 down. God bless you, Pat, for a staunch, true 
 and brave fellow!" 
 
 " Brave is it, wid a couple of spalpeens that I 
 could break over my knee ; but what's to be done, 
 Master?" 
 
 "Yes, what's to be done? They have tied our 
 hands, Pat; we are indeed bound hand and foot 
 with Alan a prisoner to Ristack; it is an awful 
 business!"
 
 PAT DOOLAN TO THE RESCUE. 139 
 
 "So it is; it's just the darkest hour we've had 
 at Heart's Delight. Couldn't we collect a crew 
 and go for a rescue? There's the little fort; we 
 could play on the blackguard ships and cover a 
 rescue party." 
 
 "My dear Patrick, one round from their long 
 gun would settle us, and what could we do with 
 a half-armed mob against their muskets and small 
 cannon? No, Pat, we must be diplomatic, we 
 must negotiate, and, above all, we must wait. 
 They are in the wrong; we must keep to the 
 letter of the law. Go and rouse such of our neigh- 
 bours as may be sleeping, tell them what has 
 happened, but without any flourishes. Tell them 
 simply that Alan Keith has been arrested ; tell them 
 to be up betimes and get away to the Back Bay 
 Valley, so that we keep our part of the compact, 
 and leave no further excuse for outrage. First, 
 Pat, we must get the women and children out of 
 harm's way; make them comfortable, do you see,
 
 140 UNDER THE GREAT SEAL. 
 
 with their own belongings about them, and be 
 clear out of Heart's Delight within the four-and- 
 twenty hours. Our friend Preedie knows all about 
 Alan's arrangements for the tents and shelters. 
 God has given us kind weather for the exodus, 
 and He will not leave us to the fury of our 
 enemies." 
 
 "Amen to that swate hope!" said Pat. 
 
 " But let all things go on, just as if Alan was 
 with us." 
 
 " Yes, your honour. " 
 
 " You understand that? " 
 
 "Entirely." 
 
 "The time may come for fighting, Pat; I think 
 it will ; but we must first make our dispositions. " 
 
 "That's right," said Pat 
 
 " Put the garrison in order. " 
 
 " I see, your honour. " 
 
 " I am sure you do, Pat ; and now I want you 
 to be as wily and discreet as you are brave, Pat. "
 
 PAT DOOLAN TO THE RESCUE. 1 41 
 
 " Dipind on me, Master ; I'll emulate the sarpent 
 Master Preedie spoke of, never fear. You shall 
 find everything go just as smooth as if Heart's 
 Delight was enjoying itself to the bitter end. I 
 don't mean exactly that, but as if we was just 
 movin' out to Paradise, and it was the thing 
 we'd been looking to all our blessed lives." 
 
 " That's what I wish, Pat ; go now, and when 
 you have seen the good people fairly settled at Back 
 Bay Valley, then, Pat, we will talk about fighting. " 
 
 " Please God, sorr, " said Pat, unbarring the door 
 and disappearing. 
 
 Plympton followed him. " I'll see you again, 
 Pat, when you come back." 
 
 " Right, sorr, " said Pat, his voice already coming 
 from a distance, for Pat thought he saw a spy, 
 and was chasing him. 
 
 "Be jabers, I must keep calm," he said: "it's 
 a diplomat I am, not a warrior. Pat ! On guard 1 
 Steady! Stand at ase."
 
 142 UNDER THE GREAT SEAL. 
 
 Thus bracing himself to the business of the 
 night, Pat went on his way to Preedie's house, 
 while Plympton, holding a lantern over the canine 
 martyr, Sampson, stooped to pat the faithful 
 beast, remarking : " And are we sure that Para- 
 dise is meant for man alone? I hope, if ever I 
 get there, dear dead friend, it may be good 
 enough for such a true and loving companion as 
 thou! Good night, Sampson ; lie there, old friend, 
 where you fell at the post of duty. It will be 
 a sight for some of the men of Heart's Delight 
 to remember!"
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 MUTINY. 
 
 NlCOL and his red-bearded fellow countryman 
 disliked both the work in which they had been 
 engaged and the authority which had been en- 
 trusted to Jim Smith, who besides being a much 
 younger man than any of those under his brief 
 command, was unpopular in the ship, and by no 
 means an efficient seaman. He could read and write 
 and ■ sling accounts. " That might have raised 
 him in the estimation of the men who could not boast 
 of these accomplishments if he had carried his know- 
 ledge with modesty ; but he had a way of making 
 his messmates feel their ignorance, and he was a 
 sneak and a toady where thrift would follow fawning. 
 
 J 43
 
 144 UNDER THE GREAT SEAL. 
 
 The command of the enterprise of Keith's 
 arrest was only nominally given to Smith. It 
 was his first bit of active promotion; but he was 
 all the same under the unofficial orders of Rud- 
 dock. His task was not an easy one. Hardly 
 any other man in the ship would have taken it 
 cheerfully; no other would have been proud of 
 it ; especially when at starting Admiral Ruddock 
 simply referred to Smith as the spokesman of the 
 party, intimating that he would get his orders 
 from Admiral Ruddock. 
 
 If on leaving the outraged home of the Keiths 
 the men had obeyed the word of command with 
 readiness, they did not disguise their ill-temper. 
 Nicol and his red-bearded companion had openly 
 murmured. Others of the men had responded 
 to their observations in a manner that seemed to 
 disparage the action of the spokesman. They 
 conversed in low tones, but Smith heard them, 
 ■and knowing that Ruddock and Bentz were ahead
 
 MUTINY. 145 
 
 of them, felt safe in rebuking the men who had 
 addressed words of sympathy to Mrs. Keith. It 
 was enough that he had endeavoured to finish 
 the business without a fight. He knew that 
 Ruddock would appreciate the diplomatic way in 
 which he had saved him and his friend Bentz 
 from that fire-eater, PatDoolan. So he screwed 
 up his courage and asserted his position. When 
 they were well on their way to the boats, he 
 turned upon the company with the word " Halt ! " 
 
 The men obeyed, but without ceasing their 
 talk. 
 
 "Donald Nicol," said Smith, "I'll report you 
 for insubordination! " 
 
 " And by the might of grand auld Scotland if 
 you do, my canny man, I'll stick a knife between 
 your ribs if I swing for it ! " said Nicol, breaking 
 ranks and confronting the spokesman. 
 
 " Right you are ! " said the red-bearded one, 
 standing by his side. 
 
 VOL. 1. 10
 
 146 UNDER THE GREAT SEAL. 
 
 "We shall see," said Smith. "Fall in! " 
 
 " Fall in be ! " said Nicol. " What do you 
 
 take us for — a troop of marines? Look here, 
 mates, who's this whipper-snapper frae the sooth 
 that's goin' to jaw an auld sailor, and thirty year 
 a fisherman, aboot insubordinashun ? " 
 
 " And for what ? " asked his fellow-countryman, 
 "for bein' civil to a puir devil's wife, who'd been 
 gagged by a coward." 
 
 "Fall in, I say,"* was Smith's only reply. 
 
 " And I say ' Stand' ! " exclaimed Nicol. " By 
 heevens, we'll hae this thing out now. D'ye 
 hear, Jim Smith ? " 
 
 " It's mutiny, " said Smith, in as defiant a tone 
 as he could command. 
 
 " Oh, mutiny be bio wed ! " said another of the crew, 
 hailing from the east coast of England ; " take it 
 back, Jim Smith, take it back ; you've got your bit 
 of promotion in a bad cause, and yell take back the 
 insult about reporting Donald Nicol. D'ye hear? "
 
 MUTINY. 147 
 
 " I have my duty to do, " said Smith, quailing 
 a little before the third speaker. 
 
 " Your duty ! " exclaimed the east coaster. 
 " What do you think you are? What do you 
 think we are ? We are not men-o'-warsmen, nor 
 even privateers; we're just common sailors on 
 board a fishin' ship, the master no better than 
 any one of us, with a power that, by the lord, is 
 a disgrace to our country ! " 
 
 " Aye, aye, " shouted the entire company. 
 
 "Take back your insult or we'll make the 
 'Anne of Dartmouth' too hot for you!" 
 
 " Gie us your hand, " said Nicol, grasping the 
 eastern man's big fist. 
 
 " Oh, my heavens, mates, " exclaimed Smith, 
 all his assumption of authority gone, " don't talk 
 like that. I take it back— all I have said. I don't 
 want to be at enmity with Donald Nicol or any 
 man on the ship. I've been promoted through 
 interest, I know; I tried to do my duty "
 
 148 UNDER THE GREAT SEAL. 
 
 " But it's not your duty to sneer at a shipmate 
 'cause he cannot read his letters nor do a sum 
 in figures," said a burly chap, who had often 
 been Smith's butt in the fo'k'sle. 
 
 " That's all right, mates, " said another. " Jim 
 Smith's got his lesson ; and we'n got it writ down 
 in our minds. That lasts longer nor books." 
 
 "You tek it a' back?" said Nicol, "that's 
 understood?" 
 
 " Yes, " said Smith ; " and, more, I ask your 
 pardons. " 
 
 " That's a? reight, " said Nicol ; " ther's nae 
 mair to be said, mates!" 
 
 " Yes, ther's just this, " replied the east coast- 
 man. " We conclude to keep an eye on Jim 
 Smith, and we'd have him know that. " 
 
 " Aye, aye, " said the rest. 
 
 " Very well, then, Mister Take-it-back, give us 
 1 the word ! " said the east coastman, falling in with 
 the rest.
 
 MUTINY. 149 
 
 They found Ruddock and Bentz by the boats 
 awaiting them. 
 
 "What have ye been argufying about?" asked 
 Ruddock, standing by the first boat, and motion- 
 ing a crew to step aboard. 
 
 "We were discussing the prospect of fishing 
 beginning to-morrow, " said Smith. 
 
 "Oh, that's all," Ruddock replied. 
 
 " Wind's changed to the right quarter, Donald 
 Nicol says," continued Smith. 
 
 " Oh, it has, has it?" said Ruddock. 
 
 "Better be takin' cod than planters," said 
 Nicol. 
 
 "What?" asked Ruddock, "what?" 
 
 " Donald says there's mair fun in fishin' for 
 cod than traitors, " said the red-bearded one. 
 
 " Oh, " said Ruddock, " seems to me there's as 
 many traitors most as cod on this coast." 
 
 " They'd mek short work o' the ' Anne o' Dart- 
 mouth' and the 'Pioneer' if there was," said
 
 150 UNDER THE GREAT SEAL. 
 
 Nicol, with a disputative swing of his right arm 
 as he vaulted into the boat. 
 
 "Would they?" said Ruddock ; " Donald Nicol, 
 ye are too free with your tongue." 
 
 "It's just a way we have in Scotland," said 
 Nicol. 
 
 " It's a way I don't allow on the ' Pioneer, ' " 
 said Ruddock. 
 
 " Vary weel, when I hae the honour to belong- 
 to the 'Pioneer' I'll remember it," said Nicol, 
 settling down to his oar. 
 
 "Now, lads, pull away!" said the boatswain, 
 and the splash of the oars put an end to further 
 discussion. 
 
 As the men climbed once more upon deck 
 they could see that Heart's Delight had been 
 awakened from one end of the long street to the 
 other. It was not yet midnight, at which time 
 as a rule not a single lamp or candle would be 
 burning in the village. Now, however, the place
 
 MUTINY. 1 5 I 
 
 was illuminated as if in honour of some happy 
 event. 
 
 Not only were there lights in the windows, but 
 torches and lanterns were moving about along 
 the sea front. The people were obeying the 
 orders of the Father of the settlement, preparing 
 for their exodus on the morrow, while Alan 
 Keith lay bound and wounded in the hold of his 
 enemy's ship.
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 HOW THE KING'S MEN MADE REBELS. 
 
 The first mad impulse of Heart's Delight was to 
 rescue Alan Keith. John Preedie proposed to 
 man every boat in the harbour and board the 
 Admiral's ship. 
 
 " He will fire his long gun across your bows, " 
 said Plympton, " and if that does not bring you 
 to he will fire into you." 
 
 "Some of us will go down," said Preedie, "the 
 rest will swarm over the ship's sides like blue 
 jackets boarding a Spanish galleon." 
 
 " The long gun which Ristack has mounted 
 on his main deck is the same kind of engine you 
 admired so much on the Yankee sloop that put 
 
 152
 
 HOW THE KING'S MEN MADE REBELS. 153 
 
 in for provisions soon after the ice broke up. 
 D'ye mind the thing ? " 
 
 " That I do, friend Plympton, and would to God 
 the American was here now, we'd join his standard 
 and fight these King George men, long gun or no. " 
 
 " An' by jabers why not fight them now ? " 
 exclaimed Pat Doolan; "and turn the 'Anne's' 
 long gun on the 'Pioneer' and the 'Dolphin'." 
 
 " Let us not talk wildly, " said Plympton. 
 
 " Saving your honour's authority and no man 
 bows lower to its wisdom than Pat Doolan, I am 
 not talking wildly; it's a regular plan in black 
 and white I have constructed ; and it's just this ; the 
 campaign on shore first, the maritoime adventure 
 afther ; let us meet the bastes with the cunning of 
 the fox ; pretend submission, and while they're at 
 their damnable work on our hearths and homes 
 fall upon them and cut every man's throat of 'em ! " 
 
 A low murmur of approval greeted Pat's fiery 
 speech.
 
 154 UNDER THE GREAT SEAL. 
 
 " I would like nothing better, if success could 
 be assured," Plympton replied. 
 
 "Believe me, we'll not fail," said Pat, " and if 
 we do we can but die onst." 
 
 "But we don't want to die at present," said 
 Plympton, " we began by thinking of the women 
 and children, let us still keep them in mind; if 
 we could be reasonably assured of victory and 
 could follow it by capturing the 'Anne' and turning 
 her long gun upon the ' Pioneer', and the ' Dolphin ' 
 or, if failing that we could march inland unmolested, 
 leaving scouts to look out for a rebel ship to take 
 us aboard or assist in our defence — for St. John's 
 would send troops after us — then I would say 
 let it be war to the death." 
 
 " Aye, aye ! " exclaimed the majority of the 
 crowd, but it was evident that the approving 
 voices were only intended to endorse the latter 
 part of the master's words. 
 
 " I am for going at the murderous scum o'
 
 HOW THE KING'S MEN MADE REBELS. 155 
 
 the earth right here!" said Preedie, his knotted 
 forehead puckered with angry lines, his lips closed 
 tight, his right hand clenched. 
 
 " Hooro ! " shouted Doolan. 
 
 " Friends, brothers, " said Father Lavello, step- 
 ping into their midst, "be advised by Master 
 Plympton, he has more at stake than any of us; 
 he is thoughtful as he is brave; if you have to 
 fight by all means fight, and to the death, I am 
 with you; but do not be the aggressors." 
 
 " Father Lavello is right in that last remark, " 
 said Plympton, " do not let us be the aggressors ; 
 we may have to fight whether we wish or no ; 
 anyhow, this day will not see the last of the 
 Ristack and Ruddock outrage ! To-day, for some 
 inscrutable reason, God gives them the advantage ; 
 but our turn will come. In the meantime, not- 
 withstanding the Government's breach of faith, 
 as represented by these ruffians, who disgrace 
 the English flag, it would be folly to offer a
 
 156 UNDER THE GREAT SEAL. 
 
 weak and useless resistance to the carrying out 
 of the authoritative order of the fishing Admirals. 
 I would advise that for the present we think no 
 more of fighting. The wise commander selects 
 his time and ground, and does not allow the 
 enemy to do that for him and take him at a 
 disadvantage. Besides, some of us have valu- 
 ables to protect, specie, plate ; not too much of 
 it, but enough to give us the advantage on 
 some future occasion. We may yet have a 
 ship of our own, armed with more than one long 
 gun, and equipped with the force of our own 
 bitter wrongs. " 
 
 The Master's face flushed as he flung out this 
 threat, and the crowd cheered lustily. 
 
 " If that's in your mind, old friend, " said 
 Preedie, " say no more ; we will take our orders 
 from you." 
 
 " Indade, and we will if they lead us to , 
 
 saving your riverence's presence, " said Pat,
 
 HOW THE KING'S MEN MADE REBELS. 157 
 
 pausing in his full run of profane allusion to a 
 certain place which has a special charm of con- 
 trast and illustration for men of all conditions of 
 recklessness. 
 
 " I forgive you, Pat. You mean well, but 
 your vocabulary is ample without profanity. 
 Leave that to men of passion and limited speech. 
 They need the safety valve of a profane exple- 
 tive ; look at our friend Bowers ; he will explode 
 if he doesn't utter one good round anathema 
 of all cowards. " 
 
 The priest's judicious interposition and his 
 characteristic badinage relieved the situation of its 
 vengeful aspect, and it was resolved that Master 
 Plympton's judgment should be acted upon ; that, 
 in short, the entire community should place 
 themselves in his hands. 
 
 It was still dark. There was a clear starry 
 sky above. This was only enough to show an 
 outline of things. The lights of the hostile ves-
 
 158 UNDER THE GREAT SEAL. 
 
 sels could be seen blinking at sea. A line 
 of lights along the shore showed the course of 
 the waves as the tide came swelling into the 
 harbour. 
 
 There was no more thought of sleep. The 
 collection of the goods and chattels of the village 
 was commenced by the light of torches and lan- 
 terns. John Preedie hummed an old sea-song 
 as he helped to carry out his household goods, 
 and he thought of Plympton's threat of a large 
 and dignified vengeance as he piloted to his 
 heaviest wagon an iron-bound box weighted with 
 great locks like a Spanish dollar chest, such as 
 may still be found in old country houses, relics 
 of the days of Raleigh, Frobisher, and Drake. 
 Plympton had one or two similar articles, but 
 the Master's money treasures consisted chiefly of 
 Bank of England notes and bonds. 
 
 Morning came soft and sweet. With its first 
 rosy streaks Doolan and a dozen others started
 
 HOW THE KING'S MEN MADE REBELS. 159 
 
 for Back Bay Valley, where neither tents, sheds, 
 nor buildings came under the jurisdiction of the 
 fishing Admirals. It is true they might if pro- 
 voked stretch their authority and appeal to the 
 Governor for support; but it was hardly likely, 
 the village being quietly evacuated, that emi- 
 grants would be molested. 
 
 All day long the villagers laboured at their 
 "flitting," as one of the east coast men called 
 the exodus. 
 
 Every kind of domestic furniture was laid in 
 heaps along the sandy shore. The day was genial 
 and pleasant, the sky as blue and serene as a 
 summer day in that city of the sea of which 
 Father Lavello had so often spoken, and to which 
 Plympton was fond of offering by way of com- 
 petition the picture of a certain Devonshire port 
 sleeping in the sun, or bright and busy with 
 venturous ships coming and going to and from 
 all the known and unknown seas of the wide world.
 
 160 UNDER THE GREAT SEAL. 
 
 During the morning, without a word to Plymp- 
 ton or the rest until his return, Father Lavello 
 had taken a boat and presented himself before 
 Admiral Ristack as a petitioner for the release 
 of Alan Keith. 
 
 " I have a mind to keep you for his confessor 
 when we hoist him up to yonder yard-arm, " said 
 Ristack, hitching up his belt and turning a quid 
 of tobacco in his sallow cheek. 
 
 " I would not wish to confess a more honourable 
 man," said the young priest. 
 
 "Oh, you wouldn't! damme, sir, d'ye mean to 
 say I'm not honourable?" 
 
 " I mean to say that I think it would be an 
 honourable act to release your prisoner, Alan 
 Keith." 
 
 " That's the kind of honourable act I'm not to 
 be bullied into, d'ye hear, Master Priest!" 
 
 "I hear," said Lavello. 
 
 "And further mark me, the devil take me if I
 
 PIOW THE KING'S MEN MADE REBELS. 161 
 
 don't stop your perverting campaign in these 
 parts ; d'ye know it's illegal to perform the Mass 
 in Newfoundland!" 
 
 " I did not know it. n 
 
 " Then it is, I tell you, body o' me, I'll have 
 ye burnt if ye're not careful of your conduct in 
 this affair." 
 
 " I could not burn in a holier cause, " said 
 Lavello. 
 
 " Oh, you couldn't ; you're a saucy priest, let me 
 tell you ; quit this ship while ye're free, d'ye hear ! " 
 
 " One word, not as priest, but as man to man, " 
 said Lavello. ■ Mrs. Keith has received so great 
 a shock, not being in good health at the time of 
 the attack on her husband, that her life is despaired 
 of; Keith's release, if it does not save her life, 
 will console her dying hours." 
 
 ■ To the bottomless pit with Mrs. Keith ! " was the 
 brutal reply, " the world would be the better for the 
 extermination of the whole brood of 'em. Mrs. Keith, 
 
 VOL. I II
 
 1 62 UNDER THE GREAT SEAL. 
 
 forsooth! Bo's'n, see this fellow to the boat." 
 
 "Dinna fear, he'll nae hang him," said a voice 
 as Lavello went down the ladder and dropped 
 into his boat. He looked up, but could not see 
 the man who had spoken. 
 
 The priest was rowed by a silent old fellow 
 who had sought through life to model his 
 conversation on the proverb "The least said the 
 soonest mended." 
 
 "Did you hear that remark, Bowers?" asked 
 Lavello. 
 
 "Aye, sir," said Bowers. 
 
 " They will hang him nevertheless, if they dare, " 
 said the priest. 
 
 Bowers made no reply, but simply tugged 
 away at the oars. While the priest was on board 
 Ristack's ship, Sandy Scot had entrusted a long 
 and important message to Bowers for careful and 
 timely deliverance to John Preedie. 
 
 The silent one was committing it to memory.
 
 HOW THE KING'S MEN MADE REBELS. 1 63 
 
 All the same, had his mind been unburdened 
 with Sandy's message, he would still have held 
 his peace. He not only did not talk as a 
 rule, but on theological matters he was opposed 
 to the views of Father Lavello. 
 
 "We have fallen on bad times, Bowers!" 
 
 "Aye, sir," said Bowers. 
 
 "We must bear and forbear." 
 
 Bowers made no answer. 
 
 The priest also dropped into silence. Calmly 
 contemplating Bowers, he noted that the man's 
 face was full of wrinkles, that his mouth was hard, 
 his lips tight, his hair grizzled, his hands enormous, 
 his body broad and strong, his legs like bended 
 pillars, his feet so large that he might have been 
 one of those ancient Picts that Hereward ridiculed 
 and scoffed at in the olden days. He found 
 Bowers quite fascinating for want of any other 
 object of contemplation; his mind was so perplexed, 
 he could not bring it into any exercise of discipline;
 
 164 UNDER THE GREAT SEAL. 
 
 it revolted against every maxim that fitted the 
 case of Keith, the young wife, and her devoted 
 father. Presently he began to count his beads 
 and to pray for guidance and strength. 
 
 The room in which Hannah was lying was reserved 
 until the last loads were arranged for removal. 
 She had striven hard to bear up against the 
 disaster that had befallen her. The local leech 
 had bled her, and possibly it was the worst thing 
 he could have done, but the Master and Sally 
 Mumford admitted that the fever into which she 
 had fallen had considerably diminished since that 
 operation. The disease and the remedy had, 
 however, left her very weak. Her pulse, which 
 during the night had beaten in alarming sympathy 
 with a high state of fever, had now fallen very 
 low. The doctor said it would be dangerous to 
 move her. One of the women offered to go out 
 to the " Anne of Dartmouth" and plead for her,
 
 HOW THE KING'S MEN MADE REBELS. 1 65 
 
 but the men declined to have any further action 
 taken in the way of petition. Moreover Master 
 Plympton's messenger from St. John's had returned 
 with the intimation that Heart's Delight within 
 six miles of the shore was absolutely under the 
 authority of Admiral Ristack and his colleagues, 
 the Vice and Rear-Admirals of the fishing fleet. 
 It was within an hour of the twenty-four that 
 had been granted to them, when Hannah was 
 carried forth on a stretcher e?i route for Back Bay 
 Valley. She was very pale. Her weary eyes 
 turned towards the ship where her husband lay 
 in irons. She murmured his name, and offered 
 up a prayer for his safe return to her. Father 
 Lavello walked by the side of the litter, Sally 
 Mumford followed with little David, who beheld 
 the proceedings with a baby smile. The village 
 leech and some twenty women made up the sad 
 procession; and as many men remained behind, 
 packing the last loads upon John Preedie's wagon.
 
 1 66 UNDER THE GREAT SEAL. 
 
 Other bundles and pieces of furniture had been 
 carried a few hundred yards along the road 
 awaiting later removal. 
 
 Master Plympton with a dozen settlers received 
 the Admiral and his boat's crew. The Master 
 was very calm. He had dressed himself as if for 
 a State ceremony. He wore a pair of dark brown 
 breeches and worsted stockings with shoes and 
 buckles, a swallow-tail coat with a high collar 
 and stock, and a sugar-loaf hat with a steel buckle 
 and band. He was clean shaven, and his grey 
 hair fell somewhat stiffly behind his ears. His 
 long sharp-cut features were very pale, his grey 
 eyebrows looked more than usually thick and 
 shaggy, his eyes more than usually sunken. In 
 contrast with the blustering, pimpled Ristack, he 
 looked like an aristocrat of the bluest blood. 
 
 Ristack had also dressed for the occasion. It 
 is hardly necessary to say that the fishing 
 Admirals had no special uniform ; neither had
 
 HOW THE KING'S MEN MADE REBELS. 1 67 
 
 they for that matter as ordinary masters of ships; 
 but some of them donned curious showy jerkins 
 and belts, with such bits of finery as might be 
 picked up in foreign ports. Ristack had assumed 
 a costume that was something between a Naval 
 uniform and a pirate chief. Most conspicuous were 
 his cocked hat, and his heavy belt, in which a 
 brace of pistols were prominent. Ruddock was 
 not present, and Jacob Bentz had also thought 
 it wise to remain on board the Admiral's ship. 
 
 " Sir, " said Plympton, " we surrender the village 
 to you as the King's representative; we do so 
 under protest; we do so in the cause of peace. 
 With such example as is offered us elsewhere 
 and with not less aggravation to revolt we might 
 on moral and even patriotic grounds have resisted 
 your high-handed proceedings. Nay, you must 
 hear me, sir! " 
 
 "Then check your tongue, Master Plympton, 
 and make your oration brief; I am not bound to
 
 1 68 UNDER THE GREAT SEAK, 
 
 listen to yarns, and I draw the line at treason," 
 said Ristack. 
 
 " A great disaster may be dwarfed by a greater, " 
 said Plympton, " since you fell upon our son and 
 carried him from us we have felt the destruction 
 of our homes as nothing ; release Alan Keith and 
 we will disappear from Heart's Delight, never to 
 return ! If this sacrifice is not enough, name some 
 other; we will obey it." 
 
 " Aye, aye, " said the men of Heart's Delight. 
 
 " If you had stowed your jaw to this extent 
 at our first meeting, Master Plympton, our measures 
 might have been moderated; but at present we 
 make no terms beyond what the Law and the 
 King's authority have laid down." 
 
 " Is that your final reply ? " 
 
 " It is, " said Ristack. 
 
 "You winnat release our comrade?" said one 
 of the villagers, standing forth defiantly; "ye 
 broke your word, ye made your King lie, you
 
 HOW THE KING'S MEN MADE REBELS. 1 69 
 
 came like a thief i' the neight and broke into a 
 peaceful hoose, and yell mek no recompense ? " 
 
 "None," said Ristack. "Stand back, man!" 
 
 "I'll nae stand back, ye evil-minded son o' 
 perdition," said the villager, with flashing eyes, 
 his hand upon his dirk. 
 
 " Arrest the traitor," exclaimed Ristack, turning 
 to his men. 
 
 At once a score of villagers gathered round 
 their champion. Cutlasses and knives were drawn. 
 The Admiral laid his hand upon his pistols, but 
 the sailors did not advance, and the villagers did 
 not retreat. 
 
 Another moment and the men would have 
 been at each others' throats. Plympton came 
 between them. " Back, my friends, no bloodshed ; 
 don't forget the women and children." 
 
 Then turning to Ristack, he said, "Bear with 
 my neighbour, he is a Magreggor and finds it 
 hard to suffer oppression."
 
 170 UNDER THE GREAT SEAL. 
 
 Ristack was anxious to avoid an encounter. 
 His cause was too weak to inspire him with more 
 than a blustering imitation of courage. He had 
 an uncomfortable feeling as to the devotion of 
 his crew, and his game was to get comfortable 
 possession of Heart's Delight. It was not his 
 cue to fight at this time. 
 
 " Draw off your vagabonds, " he said to Plymp- 
 ton, "the law is with me, and the power, and I 
 can afford to be patient in the doing of a dis- 
 agreeable duty." 
 
 " Friends and comrades, " said Plympton, " you 
 have made me your leader; be ruled by me." 
 
 "Aye, aye, we will," was the reply. 
 
 " Since you are in a judicial mood, Sir Admi- 
 ral," said Plympton, "and a patient one, let me 
 plead for the release of your prisoner, Alan Keith ; 
 it will make my vagabonds, as you are pleased 
 to call them, content to leave you their hearths 
 and homes."
 
 7i 
 
 "Don't Sir Admiral me, Master Plympton, 
 with a sneer on your lips, and don't repeat me; 
 I am in a judicial mood, I am the King's repre- 
 sentative, and in opposing me you put yourself 
 in the wrong." 
 
 "Not so much in the wrong as your seizure 
 of Alan Keith and the manner of it," said Plympton. 
 
 ■ That's as the great lords and judges of the 
 land shall resolve in England," said Ristack. 
 
 " You don't mean to say you will take him to 
 England?" asked John Preedie. 
 
 "I do, unless he will purge himself of his guilt 
 by confession, and join you in guarantees of good 
 behaviour till the fishing's over." 
 
 " Confession ! " exclaimed Plympton, " of what 
 crime ? " 
 
 ■ Obstructing the King's authority, speaking 
 treason, inciting Heart's Delight to rebellion." 
 
 It was in Plympton's mind for a moment to 
 rush upon the lying tyrant and choke him on the
 
 172 UNDER THE GREAT SEAL. 
 
 spot; but Preedie, seeing his comrade's sudden 
 rise of passion, took him by the arm and drew 
 him aside. 
 
 "You ask too much," said Preedie. 
 
 " I shall ask no less, " said Ristack, " and now, 
 Master Plympton, there's no more to say I think. " 
 
 "Not another word," said Preedie, answering 
 for his friend. 
 
 " Bo'sun, signal for the carpenters," said Ristack. 
 
 The boatswain drew a pistol from his belt and 
 fired. 
 
 Plympton, moving away with Preedie, beckoned 
 his neighbours to follow him, and as they disap- 
 peared among the undulations that gradually rose 
 into the foothills of the distant mountains, two 
 boats put off from the " Anne of Dartmouth, " and 
 the demolition of Heart's Delight was commenced.
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 IN THE SHADOW OF THE FOREST PRIMEVAL. 
 
 The evicted villagers were just as busy in laying- 
 out their new settlement as the Fishing Admirals 
 were in destroying the old one. The distant 
 mountains slumbered on all the same in the 
 sunshine, the sea was calm as if in utter disregard 
 of man's happiness or misery, the flowers blos- 
 somed in the valleys inland, the flag on the tiny 
 fort showed its colours in a gentle response to 
 the breeze; everything on sea and land wore an 
 air of blissful peace. 
 
 A tent had been erected for Hannah, the child, 
 and Sally the nurse. The body of the favourite 
 dog, Sampson, had been brought along and buried 
 
 173
 
 174 UNDER THE GREAT SEAL. 
 
 in a copse of tamarack and birch. On the bark 
 of the tallest tree John Preedie had cut the letter 
 S pending a more important memorial. 
 
 Mattresses and beds of skins were placed beneath 
 the trees on the other side of the valley. Fires 
 were lighted as a protection against wild animals 
 and insects. 
 
 The forest at the point where the settlement 
 had been commenced needed no clearing. It was 
 wide and open, with a bright stream of water 
 dancing through it, over shining pebbles. It re- 
 minded one of the men who hailed from Derby- 
 shire — having run away from Belper to go to sea — 
 of a bit of valley, which he had known as a boy, near 
 Buxton, the only difference being that the Derby- 
 shire brook was full of trout, so tame in the shallows 
 that you could tickle them with your hand, which 
 was a fashion of fishing when he was a lad. 
 
 The forest, of which the valley was a piece of 
 Nature's clearing, was full of noble timber — spruce,
 
 IX THE SHADOW OF THE FOREST. 175 
 
 balsam-fir, tamarack, white birch and poplar. 
 Open spaces here and there bore evidence to the 
 general fertility of the district. Flowers of many 
 kinds brightened the scene. The wild strawberry 
 and raspberry were in bud. Maiden-hair fern 
 and flowering heaths abounded. Wild cherry trees 
 were shedding their snowy blossoms among the 
 green grasses. Here and there at bends in the 
 stream, where it rested as if to provide quiet 
 pools for indolent fish or limpid beds for water- 
 cresses, the blue iris flourished on its banks. Water- 
 fowl, hitherto undisturbed by gun or dog, sailed 
 about the calm pools, and in the evening deer 
 came out of the woods to drink. 
 
 From marshy patches deep down in low lying off- 
 shoots of the valley rose the rich perfume of lilies- 
 of-the-valley. Childish stragglers from the camp 
 found the wild lupin, Jacob's ladder, Solomon's 
 seal, and, more notable still, the pitcher plant, 
 its tubular leaves heavy with pure water. A
 
 176 UNDER THE GREAT SEAL. 
 
 woman from Lincolnshire shed tears over a bunch 
 of lilies-of-the-valley. They reminded her of the 
 time when she was a young and innocent child, 
 roaming the woods of Norton, where acres of the 
 sweet, pure flower blossomed. Little she thought, 
 in those days, to travel so far and suffer so much 
 before she saw the lovely flower again. Not, 
 she said, that she had been hungry and thirsty 
 and had found no relief — life was hard enough 
 at all times; it had been much harder for many 
 than she had found it with her good, honest 
 man — and yet she could not help crying at sight 
 of the lilies-of-the-valley. She could shut her 
 eyes with that perfume about her and see the 
 cottage where she had lived as a girl, and the 
 beck slipping along by the sedges at the bottom 
 of the twenty-acre meadow. 
 
 The people truth to tell were mostly in a reminis- 
 cent mood. They hardly realised their loss. 
 Some of them felt the incident of migration to
 
 IX THE SHADOW OF THE FOREST. 177 
 
 Back Bay Valley as a holiday picnic. There was 
 something pleasant in being together, all one 
 family as it were. It reminded some of the old 
 people of the first days of Heart's Delight; but 
 Back Bay had the advantage of trees and grass 
 and flowers and running brooks. At sunset, 
 several of the men returned to camp with their 
 hands full of flowers. They straggled in more 
 like children than men ; and far away in the dis- 
 tance could be heard a little company of pioneers 
 singing the chorus to an old ballad of the sea. 
 
 "John Preedie," said Master Plympton, taking 
 a pinch of snuff from Preedie's box and proceeding 
 at the same time to fill his pipe with tobacco 
 almost as black, " we must have a strong and 
 powerful ship." 
 
 " It would be a fine possession, " said Preedie. 
 
 "Two ships for choice; but one that's equal to 
 any six such as the 'Anne of Darmouth.' " 
 
 " Yes, " said Preedie, " on the lines of a king's 
 VOL. T. \2
 
 178 UNDER THE GREAT SEAL. 
 
 frigate, with a hull as high as a church and yards on 
 her mainmast like the wings of the fabled roc." 
 
 "You love hyperbole, Preedie, when you are 
 talking of ships." 
 
 " My master was a poet, Plympton — had the gift 
 of song as the saying is, and was the very devil 
 in action." 
 
 "How long did you sail with him?" 
 
 "Seven years. And we had letters of marque, 
 but Captain Hoyland wasn't particular. It was 
 fine business while it lasted ; but it didn't last." 
 
 " Seven years was a fair term. Give me two 
 and I'll never complain." 
 
 "Now look you, Preedie, you must leave this 
 to-morrow. They say the sloop we saw was 
 from Salem; they say she had been a slaver. 
 Boston or Salem are your ports; they have been 
 building ships fast as the stays would hold 'em. 
 I will provide the money." 
 
 "I am not without means, Master Plympton;
 
 IX THE SHADOW OF THE FOREST. 179 
 
 the venture being to my liking, I am in with 
 you body and purse." 
 
 "Did you like the business Master Hoyland 
 followed? " 
 
 "I did not object; if it had had a spice of the 
 right kind of revolt or vengeance, as one may 
 say, where the ship's thunder and lightning smote 
 a foe as well as won a fortune, why, then, Master 
 Plympton, I'd have liked it the better." 
 
 "That is the sort of work for you and me!" 
 said Plympton. "Seems to me that these are 
 no days for loyal men and true; the false and 
 the villain prosper; the King either has not the 
 heart or the power to do what's right; the 
 Government's in the hands of such as Ristack 
 and Ruddock; they send us weak, time-serving 
 governors; speculating merchants and money- 
 grabbers make a market out of us. I'm with 
 the men of Boston and Salem ; I am for taking 
 a hand in the business of the sea."
 
 180 UNDER THE GREAT SEAL. 
 
 " And I for vengeance, too, friend Plympton ; 
 and since they have turned us adrift and despoiled 
 us of our homes, insulted our women, and borne off 
 to their ship the best fellow and the most honest 
 of all Heart's Delight, why, to hell with allegiance 
 that brings dishonour and a tyrannous rule!" 
 
 " There's Keith's smack, The Perth ; she'll serve 
 you for the trip. The weather's favourable, " said 
 Plympton. " Bowers and the dwarf, with the 
 eastern man and Jim the builder might make 
 up your crew. Doolan must stay by me." 
 
 "Right," said Preedie, "I'll ship the four of 
 'em, handy men and safe." 
 
 "You could put off to-morrow?" 
 
 " We could ; might tack about a bit with a net. 
 Best not excite suspicion," said Preedie with 
 something in his mind quite different from the 
 Plympton plans of the moment. 
 
 "If you think right. But what suspicion can 
 they have?"
 
 IN THE SHADOW OF THE FOREST. 181 
 
 They'll suspect everything and provide for 
 every emergency." 
 
 " You think so ! " said Plympton. 
 
 " D'ye never think of a rescue, Plympton ? " 
 a.sked Preedie, suddenly. 
 
 "I think of nothing else," said Plympton, "but 
 I am fearful of tightening Alan's irons; they've 
 got him, Preedie, and we must not endanger his 
 life by any rash, ill-digested scheme of attack." 
 
 " By the lord, Plympton, I am thinking that 
 age has bred in you such an amount of caution 
 that it weighs down your natural courage? I'm 
 the man now to sneak a boat alongside in the 
 night and board the damned illegal prison, and 
 take Alan off at every hazard." 
 
 " I honour your spirit, Preedie, but we help his 
 cause and our own best by going slowly. Alan 
 cautious would not be where he is. Come round 
 to my quarters. I have made ready for your 
 expedition papers, scrip, letters; you'll nothing
 
 1 82 UNDER THE GREAT SEAL. 
 
 lack sailing into Salem. Rendezvous and flag\ 
 I have all set forth; and between now and 
 then maybe I'll ransom Keith that we may have 
 a master worthy of that business of the sea upon 
 which we've set our mind. Eh, friend Preedie?" 
 
 " I'm wi' ye to the death, and if we don't make 
 these ruffians and their imbecile royal master 
 smart for it, why then let's perish in the attempt. " 
 
 " That's well said. But first we must provide 
 a reasonable safety for Hannah and the rest. 
 It is war upon which we are about to enter, and 
 we must make our dispositions accordingly. 
 Come on, old friend, d'ye mind our winter 
 evenings? Good fortune and ill, sunshine and 
 storm, bide close together, do they not?" 
 
 They met Lavello as they walked towards the 
 rough hut which had been run up for Plympton's 
 accommodation. Plympton's mind was too much 
 occupied with schemes of vengeance to be in 
 tune for the mild and religious advice of the
 
 IN THE SHADOW OF THE FOREST. 183 
 
 priest. Indeed, the triumph of injustice and bru- 
 tality had so worked upon his otherwise gentle 
 nature that he felt an inclination of general revolt 
 against all constituted authority, spiritual or other- 
 wise. This feeling was intensified by the hopeless 
 condition of his daughter Hannah. 
 
 " My daughter ? " he said, as Lavello approached 
 them. 
 
 " I was about to speak of her, " said the priest. 
 
 " Then don't delay. How is she ? " 
 
 In all the priest's association with Plympton he 
 had had no experience of the peremptory tone in 
 which the Master now addressed him. 
 
 "I fear she is no better," said the priest. 
 
 "Nor will ever be," said Plympton, "spite of 
 all our prayers. Oh, my God, why persecutest 
 thou me ? " 
 
 " Nay, nay," said the priest, " be patient, dear 
 friend." 
 
 " It is easy to preach patience. "
 
 1 84 UNDER THE GREAT SEAL. 
 
 " And with the help of God and the Church 
 it is easy to practise it," said the priest. 
 
 " What can you know of that, who never lost a 
 wife, who never had a child at death's door ? Now 
 is the time to show what you can do. Now is the 
 time to pray and count your beads, to swing the 
 censer and say the Mass, to prostrate yourself and 
 ask that it may be given to you, to cry and ye 
 shall be heard. Oh, my God, I shall go mad!" 
 
 Plympton flung himself upon the ground and 
 wept aloud. Preedie and the priest gazed at 
 each other. They had not suspected this possi- 
 bility of passion in one whom they all looked 
 upon as having full control of himself; as one 
 who would bear any shock with fortitude. 
 
 "Let us leave him for a while," said Preedie; 
 " he is strangely overcome ; he will be the better 
 for this heart's defeat of the head." 
 
 "I grieve to see him thus," said the priest, 
 walking apart with Preedie.
 
 IN THE SHADOW OF THE FOREST. 1 85 
 
 "And I, dear sir," said Preedie, "but he is 
 sorely wrought upon by his love of Keith and 
 Hannah, and bitterly smitten in the overthrow of 
 Heart's Delight." 
 
 " I would I could do more than pray for him, " 
 said the priest ; " I would not hold it wrong to 
 fight his battle with carnal weapons, but I'll go 
 pray. Master Preedie, do you minister to him 
 physically. " 
 
 The priest handed Preedie a flask of brandy, 
 and went to his little open-air altar beneath a 
 clump of whispering pines.
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 A PRISONER AND IN IRONS. 
 
 Alan Keith lay in the hold of Ristack's vessel, 
 dazed, stunned, sore in mind and body. He had 
 fought like a lion, only to be beaten down and 
 fettered as if he were still a brute untamed and 
 dangerous. 
 
 The hold was dark, and stifling with the odour 
 of fish. The sounds of life on board the ship 
 came to him dim and faint. The wash and slop 
 of the waves was all that he could hear. He 
 was weak with the loss of blood. His manliness 
 seemed to go out of him in tears. He imagined 
 his wife subjected to insult and injury, and when 
 he did rouse himself it was in a half-hysterical 
 
 1 86
 
 A PRISONER AND IN IRONS. lb J 
 
 fashion. The memory of his days of happiness 
 tortured him. His obstinate clinging to Heart's 
 Delight occurred to him now as a crime. He 
 ought to have been guided by Plympton, whose 
 love for his daughter must have been of a keener 
 instinct than his own. Why had he not taken 
 the old man's advice? Why will youth insist 
 upon buying its own bitter experience? 
 
 These thoughts came to him in his loneliness, 
 happily for the time being to be followed by 
 something akin to insensibility. 
 
 He could not think out any consecutive idea. 
 He seemed to have forgotten everything; as if 
 he were dead. More than once he must have 
 been delirious. He thought he was in purgatory, 
 did not remember what had happened, where he 
 was, who he was ; and he would fall a-sobbing like 
 a child. 
 
 It was the first time in Alan's strong life that 
 he had been under control ; the first time that he
 
 1 88 UNDER THE GREAT SEAL. 
 
 had ever been worsted in any undertaking. 
 From his earliest boyhood he had been a leader 
 and a master of men. In every game of physical 
 skill he had led the way at Perth. In his teens 
 he was an able-bodied seaman. There was no 
 nasty bit of navigation on the Scottish coast that 
 he had not conquered. The boldest of sailors, 
 he was the most expert of fishermen. But for 
 that first sight of Hannah standing at her father's 
 •door he might, instead of being chained in a 
 floating prison, have been master of his own 
 vessel, with a crack crew in every port. He had 
 in his modest way told Plympton of his position 
 and prospects. For three years his father, a 
 prosperous merchant and shipowner, had been 
 waiting for his return to endow him with all that a 
 man of his character and ambition could desire. 
 
 When at last Alan began to recover the balance 
 of his mind he could not guess how long he had 
 been a prisoner. He ran over the events which
 
 A PRISONER AND IN IRONS. 189 
 
 had preceded his successful arrest. The quiet 
 talk with his wife, his romantic plan of leading 
 the villagers to a peaceful valley and being their 
 saviour ; the sudden alarm, his seizure, pinned to 
 the earth before he could strike a blow, his un- 
 availing struggle, the gag that was forced between 
 his teeth, the dragging of him along the shore, 
 the whispered orders to his captors, the arrival 
 at the boats, being flung* in and literally trampled 
 upon, hauled up the ship's side, dashed upon 
 the deck ; and the brutal " damn-you-what-do-you- 
 think-of-yourself-now?" — uttered by Ristack; all 
 this presently came back to him. But he remem- 
 bered no more. Ristack must have struck him as 
 he gave him this brutal welcome. It must have been 
 hours afterwards before he came to his senses. 
 Merciful heavens ! were they going to leave him here 
 to starve, to die, to rot ? He tried to move. He 
 was pinioned. Both legs and arms were useless. He 
 cried out, but his voice seemed to fail in his throat*
 
 I go UNDER THE GREAT SEAL. 
 
 He prayed to God for patience and for help. 
 Not for his own sake, but for hers, for the sake 
 of their child, and for Plympton. His prayers 
 were not in words so much as in thoughts. 
 Having prayed, he cursed, uttered the deepest 
 and blackest oaths, swore the most deadly 
 vengeance, and mentioned the names of the men 
 whom he hoped to tear limb from limb. Bentz, 
 Ruddock, Ristack! These names he registered 
 in his inmost soul, and the name of the " Anne 
 of Dartmouth." 
 
 But nothing happened. 
 
 Time went on. The waves washed up against 
 the bulwarks. The sea slopped and swished 
 against the prow. He could tell that it was a 
 calm night. He thought of the stars that were 
 shining on Heart's Delight. 
 
 How could there be all this peace when tyranny 
 and murder were afloat ? How could heaven look 
 on and see the sacredness of a man's home
 
 A PRISONER AND IX IRONS. 191 
 
 outraged, husband torn from wife, wife from 
 husband, and for what ? He held his breath with 
 horror when he thought of Hannah in the power 
 of the man Ruddock and the fiend Ristack. He 
 had always hated Bentz, though his absence from 
 Heart's Delight for so many months had hushed 
 Alan's resentment into forgetfulness. It had only 
 been by way of what Plympton had considered 
 a necessary warning that he had informed Alan 
 of his encounter with Bentz in regard to his 
 proposal for Hannah. As he thought of this his 
 heart almost ceased beating. 
 
 Presently in such voice as he had left he began 
 to talk to himself as if he were someone else: 
 " Patience, man, " he said ; " ye're weak enough 
 in body to fall, even if ye could pick the locks 
 o' these infernal irons. Dinna beat your life out 
 agen the bars. It's a mercy ye're alive at all. 
 Why, man, if it were nae for thoughts o' Hannah 
 ye'd stand a' this wi'out a murmur! I call to
 
 1 92 UNDER THE GREAT SEAL. 
 
 mind many's the time ye've torn your flesh after 
 an eagle's nest and been wi'out food the day and 
 neight and thocht naught aboot it ! Patience, 
 man! Eh, but how long have I lain here? How 
 long? It maun be half a week! O God, gie 
 me strength and patience ! " 
 
 There was a movement — a footstep — he was 
 sure of it. He held his breath. He listened with 
 his body and soul. His eyes seemed to be starting 
 out of his head; but the darkness was as black 
 as ever. 
 
 " 'Ssh, mon, I'm a friend, " said a voice. 
 
 " God save you ! " said Alan. 
 
 " And ye the same, " was the reply. 
 
 "Who are ye?" 
 
 " Donald Nicol, syne I can remember, " was 
 the answer. 
 
 The owner of the voice now stood close to 
 Alan, and was bending over him. 
 
 "Are ye badly hurt?"
 
 A PRISONER AND IN IRONS. 193 
 
 " I fear it, " said Alan. 
 
 " Gie me yer hand," said Nicol. " That's reight." 
 
 Alan found a bottle in his hand. 
 
 " Can ye reach yer mouth ! " 
 
 " No ! ■ 
 
 " Wait a wee ; ye mun sing sma', mon ; it's like 
 enough I have been watched. S-s-sh! I dinna 
 ken the trick o' them irons, but we'll investigate 
 them the noo. I'll first assist ye to a drink. Let me 
 get houd o' yer head. That's it. Pull at the bottle ; 
 it's meat and drink and life to a man in distress. " 
 
 Alan required no invitation. If it had been a 
 poisoned dose he would soon have been a dead man. 
 
 " Now hold yer soul in patience and I'll come 
 again. Twa o' yer fellow-countrymen hae sworn 
 to get ye oot o' this, and I'm one of the twa. " 
 
 " God bless you ! " said Alan. 
 
 " But we'll hae muckle little chance for the 
 next hour or mair, and ye maun just lie quiet; 
 that deevil of a Admiral, a curse light on him, 
 
 VOL. I. 13
 
 194 UNDER THE GREAT SEAL. 
 
 is gaeing ashore after the mid-day watch. S-sh! 
 the bo'sun's coming to see ye. " 
 
 Alan's friend in need crept away, and almost 
 at the same moment the boatswain, with a lantern, 
 attended by a couple of seamen, came down into 
 the hold. 
 
 " It's the Admiral's order we don't let ye starve, 
 here's a wedge of junk and a biscuit, " said the 
 boatswain. 
 
 Keith moved as if to take the proffered food. 
 
 " Here, Dymoke, loosen his right hand. " 
 
 One of the two sailors unfastened the irons that 
 gripped the prisoner's hand. 
 
 "Here, be smart," said the boatswain. 
 
 Alan took the junk and begun to gnaw it. 
 The hope that filled his mind encouraged him to 
 eat that he might keep up his strength. 
 
 "Have ye naught to say?" asked the boatswain. 
 
 " Naething, " Alan answered, breaking the biscuit 
 against his irons.
 
 A PRISONER AND IN IRONS. 1 95 
 
 « Surely, eh?" 
 
 Alan made no reply. 
 
 "It might answer to be civil." 
 
 "What do you want me to say?" Alan asked, 
 savagely. "What I think?" 
 
 "Aye, what you think." 
 
 "That you're a base coward to serve such a 
 master as Ristack," said Alan. 
 
 " ]f ye were not a prisoner and in irons I'd 
 answer that, my lad, in a way you'd not forget, " 
 said the boatswain. 
 
 "We've signed articles and have to obey 
 orders, and if we dinnat it's mutiny, " said Dy moke, 
 in attendance on the boatswain. 
 
 "Aye," said the other sailor. 
 
 "Maybe he doesn't know what it is to have 
 to obey orders," said the boatswain. 
 
 "I know what it is to have a soul to be 
 saved!" said Alan. 
 
 "Don't you think nobody else has a soul!"
 
 196 UNDER THE GREAT SEAL. 
 
 said the boatswain. "You fought as if you didn't 
 when we brought you aboard, I've got a bruise 
 or two in token thereof." 
 
 Alan once more subsided into silence. 
 
 " The doctor's sent you a plaster," said Dymoke. 
 "I towd him you'd a pike wound in the head; 
 here, man, let's wash it for ye!" 
 
 " I want none of your plaster, " said Alan. 
 
 "Nay, be advised," said Dymoke, gently; 
 " give me leave, boatswain, it's the doctor's 
 orders. " 
 
 " Why didn't the doctor come hissen ? " asked 
 the boatswain. 
 
 "The Admiral forbade it," said Dymoke, who 
 by this time was sponging Alan's head with 
 almost a woman's tenderness. 
 
 "Curse me," said the boatswain, "if I don't 
 think you favour this rebel Keith and his fellow 
 grabbers o' the King's lands! If you do, have 
 a care, or the Admiral will make a triagnel of
 
 A PRISONER AND IN IRONS. 197 
 
 you and flog you till you scream for mercy hard as 
 old Trinder, the carpenter, did last fishin' season. " 
 
 " He winnat flog me," saidDymoke, quietly, "and 
 if he did, he'd get no cry for mercy out o ' me ! " 
 
 "Does he ropes-end his men?" asked Alan, 
 submitting to the plaster and the binding-up of 
 his head with a handkerchief, and feeling the 
 stronger for Dymoke's kindly touch. 
 
 "Does he?" sneered the boatswain, " aye, and 
 it generally follows being put in irons; so mind 
 your eye, my buck of Heart's Delight!" 
 
 "And let your thief of a skipper mind his," 
 said Alan. 
 
 " Hold 'ard, " said the boatswain, " I'll not swear 
 I won't report them words." 
 
 "Nay, dinnot mind him, bo'sun, he does na 
 mean it; but ye'd better take old Bowers for 
 your model, the least said soonest mended." 
 
 Dymoke pressed Alan's arm as he mentioned 
 Bowers, and Alan checked his anger, with a
 
 198 UNDER THE GREAT SAEL. 
 
 sudden regard to diplomacy. " That's reight, * 
 he said, " and I ask the bo'sun's pardon ; do you 
 know old Bowers, bo'sun?" 
 
 "No. Who's Bowers!" 
 
 " Oh, he's a half-saved, worn-out old mariner ; 
 me and Sandy Scot knows him." 
 
 There was something in the tone of the man's 
 voice, more particularly when he mentioned Sandy 
 Scot, that sounded like a hint of aid and hope. 
 Alan, however, checked the reply he was about 
 to make, giving the man a responsive sign of 
 faith. It was well that he did so, for the boat- 
 swain, with an impatient gesture, said, " Here> 
 come on, mate, we're wasting time ; " and as the 
 two stood once more outside the stuffy odours 
 of the hold the boatswain remarked, " Mind what 
 you're about, Dymoke; seems to me you and 
 Sandy Scot's a bit too close. I see you cover 
 him when he slipped down the side into the boat 
 that brought yonder priest out. I can see through
 
 A PRISONER AND IN IRONS. 1 99 
 
 a four inch deal as well as most, and though I 
 don't love the captain any more than you do 
 I'm going to stand by, as in duty bound, what- 
 ever happens." 
 
 "It's right as you should, bo'sun ; no offence," 
 said Dymoke, an old Lincolnshire salt who had 
 spent his early boyhood beating about the coast 
 and trading mostly to Boston and Grimsby. 
 
 "And ain't it right as you should? What do 
 you mean?" 
 
 " I don't mean mor'en I say. I knows my duty ; 
 but I'm no slave, and I winnat side wi' tyranny." 
 
 " Tyranny ! " exclaimed the boatswain. 
 
 "My fayther and mother, and a heap out o' 
 Boston, sailed for Salem on that account; they 
 couldn't abide not bein' 'lowed their right free- 
 dom; and I spose it's in the blood." 
 
 " Oh, you're a fool, Dymoke ; we're all English- 
 men, but we mun uphold discipline! " 
 
 " That's so, " said Dymoke, wiping his lips with
 
 200 UNDER THE GREAT SEAL. 
 
 the back of his hand, and trying to moisten his 
 mouth, which was dry with suppressed passion; 
 for he sympathised with Keith, and hated to think 
 of a fellow-creature lying down below, a vicfim 
 to the malice and tyranny of Ristack, whom he 
 knew to be a boastful brute and a coward. 
 
 " The Admiral wants you, " said the mate step- 
 ping up at the moment and addressing the boat- 
 swain, who straightway left the able-bodied Dymoke 
 to his duties and his reflections. 
 
 A few minutes later a crew was told off to 
 man the Admiral's boat. Neither Donald Nicol 
 nor Sandy Scot were called, but Dymoke was 
 among the crew named for duty ashore. As he 
 passed Nicol there was a knowing exchange of 
 looks that was in sympathy with the sudden hope 
 of the prisoner that he was not to be left entirely 
 to the unrestricted malice of Ristack. Though 
 there was nothing more definite in the fear of 
 Ristack than there was in the hope of Keith,
 
 A PRISONER AND IN IRONS. 201 
 
 the Admiral ordered a double guard over the hold. 
 The boatswain's whistle sounded shrilly in the 
 summer air. The arrogant shriek of it gave a 
 snap to the freshness of the pleasant breeze. The 
 tall spars fairly shone against the blue sky. There 
 was something spick-and-span about the whole 
 appearance of the vessel as she rose and fell with 
 a gentle motion upon the deep. She looked more 
 like a king's ship than a fisherman. Enough had 
 already been done by American privateers and 
 French and Spanish cruisers to compel the owners 
 and masters of British fishing ships engaged at 
 Newfoundland to give extra equipment to vessels 
 already in the service and to put into it new and 
 well-armed ships that might with skill and courage 
 hold their own against the heavy odds that English 
 captains were accustomed to meet. The " Anne 
 of Dartmouth" was no ordinary craft. The one 
 long and formidable gun referred to in an earlier 
 chapter was by no means her only armament.
 
 2Q2 UNDER THE GREAT SEAT. 
 
 She carried a very hornet's nest of guns, besides 
 cutlasses, axes, grappling-irons, and other appli- 
 ances for battle and for victory. At first blush 
 it might seem that this was rather overdone in a 
 merchant ship ; but the "Anne" was Ristack's own 
 vessel. He was no mere servant of a merchant 
 company, no master at the beck and call of London 
 or Plymouth traders. He sailed his own ship and 
 had his own yards at Dartmouth besides holding 
 shares in other fishing enterprises as one of a 
 company of London merchant venturers. He had 
 come out to the fisheries equipped for every 
 emergency. A man of mark indeed was Admiral 
 Ristack, but without any very definite record of 
 bravery or courage. Lie had risen to prosperity 
 upon other men's shoulders. He was not the 
 man to fight unless he saw his way to an easy 
 victory or was compelled to strike in self-defence ; 
 and he had lived through such a long run of luck 
 that he had grown as reckless as he was arrogant,
 
 A PRISONER AND IN IRONS. 203 
 
 presuming upon his good fortune and rejoicing 
 in his animal and sensual passions. 
 
 For all that, it must have been a fascinating 
 sight, the preparations to man the boat, the men 
 skipping gaily along the deck to the cheery 
 command of " Away you go ! " The crew literally 
 tumbled over the ship's sides and dropped into 
 their places, the bedizened Admiral in the stern. 
 The boat leaped through the water, throwing up 
 a fountain of spray, as she made for the shore 
 where the sad hearts of the doomed settlement 
 awaited the destroyers. 
 
 " The man Dy moke's a braw chiel," said Donald 
 Xicol to Sandy Scot, as they swung from the 
 yards engaged upon some simple duty. 
 
 " That is he, " said Sandy, " a dozen such and 
 we might hoist the rebel flag and set up in 
 business wi' Alan for our captain, and ye, Donald, 
 for first mate." 
 
 "Nay, man, I'd be willin' to serve under ye
 
 204 UNDER THE GREAT SEAL. 
 
 baith; I'm just sick o' this deevlish service, wi' a 
 brute beast, while there's better wark to be done, 
 and prize money for the winning o' it." 
 
 "S-s-sh! it's the bo'sun's shadow as strikes 
 forrard, he's got the ears of a lynx." 
 
 "I thought it was eyes as they was most 
 favoured wi'," Sandy replied. 
 
 " It's a' the same, " said Donald ; " keep yer own 
 eyes on me, it's deeth or glory the neight, Sandy! " 
 
 The boatswain's whistle broke in upon the 
 conversation, and, glancing landwards, the two 
 friends of Alan Keith saw the landing of Ristack 
 and his crew. Half-an-hour later they were 
 witnesses of the signal for the carpenters, and 
 the despatch of the long boat with a company 
 that looked like British pioneers with their axes 
 and hammers, instead of men on an expedition 
 of shameless destruction.
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 SIGNALS OF FRIENDSHIP AND DANGER. 
 
 RlSTACK was a proper villain. He hated those 
 whom he injured and wronged those who had 
 befriended him. It is to be hoped this type of 
 man is infrequent. But it exists. In those days 
 your "Spanish Don" was not the only rascal, 
 nor your " French mounseer" the only coward. 
 Perhaps Ristack was a mongrel, and could not 
 in very truth be counted an Englishman. 
 
 The opportunity to be a rogue has been known 
 to corrupt even honest men. There are creatures 
 who cannot endure success : it makes them tyrants — 
 brutes. 
 
 Ristack, in his early days, had fawned and 
 
 205
 
 206 UNDER THE GREAT SEAL. 
 
 sneaked — had been beaten for his pains with 
 sticks and staves. He had fawned all the same — 
 skunked, crept, crawled, made his way, married 
 money, stole money, got money; and when he 
 could strike out in return he had used his power 
 with a hard, brutal strength ; had drunk and lied ; 
 fought when he must, compromised when he could ; 
 had broken down and slain — but with the legal 
 weapons of ill-treatment and harshness — two women 
 who had been fools enough to marry him, each 
 with a little fortune ; and here he was at Heart's 
 Delight at the height of his success, a noisy, 
 blustering, brutal ruffian, full of evil, and glorying in 
 his devilry. He had fairly revelled in the destruction 
 of Heart's Delight. His hatred of Plympton was 
 unprovoked, except through a consciousness of 
 Plympton's superiority; but Alan Keith had 
 spurned him openly and dared him to do his worst ; 
 that was enough to set fire to his vengeful 
 passions.
 
 SIGNALS OF FRIENDSHIP AND DANGER. 207 
 
 If Heart's Delight had been the captured strong- 
 hold of an active and bitter enemy he could not 
 have shown greater satisfaction in knocking it to 
 pieces. " The accursed insolence ! " he was heard 
 to exclaim as he took part with his men in laying 
 low some more than usually pretentious bit of 
 woodwork, "to build themselves houses to laze 
 out their lives on stolen land, to defy the Admi- 
 rals of the King!" and so on, justifying himself 
 to his men and glorying in his ill-gotten power. 
 It was in the nature of the man to carry his 
 villainy to its furthest possible point. 
 
 " Go, man, " said Ristack, in the midst of the 
 wreck ashore, "Master Jacob Bentz, I say, old 
 fellow, go your ways to the new settlement; 
 you'll find her there, the lass you love, as you 
 call it; the lass they name Hannah Keith; be her 
 friend, get her aboard the 'Anne', tell her Alan 
 Keith has sent for her; tell her I'm willing to 
 j release him ; give her this ring ; I tore it out of
 
 208 UNDER THE GREAT SEAL. 
 
 his neck-gear when we had the scuffle aboard; 
 take it, man ; she'll believe in thee with that talis- 
 man to back thee. Ah, ah — bring her aboard!" 
 
 Bentz took the ring. His cunning nature was. 
 moved at Ristack's suggestion. 
 
 " They've rigged her up a tent I hear, fit for 
 a queen; go, lad; go, come back and tell us. 
 how the land lies." 
 
 " They say the woman's sick, " Bentz replied. 
 
 " Sick ! Why, of course, the artful hussy's sick ; 
 she's sick for her man — go and console her; 
 that's what the landsman calls it when at sea;, 
 go and console her, lad." 
 
 Bentz disappeared. He had no part in the 
 active duties of the carpenters and mariners of 
 the first Admiral of the Fleet. 
 
 " I'd half a mind to go myself. But it wouldn't 
 do ; them London lords might see personal malser- 
 vation and self-seeking in it; I can hear a certain 
 stiff-necked old coon from Bristol saying as much
 
 SIGNALS OF FRIENDSHIP AND DANGER. 20g 
 
 when the case of Heart's Delight comes before 
 
 the Council if I did such a thing; otherwise stuff 
 
 me with tobacco juice but I'd lay siege to my 
 
 fine lady's tent! 
 
 This was the theme upon which Ristack rejoiced 
 
 to dwell even after the sun had gone down and 
 
 the "Anne" had laid aside her usual discipline for 
 
 high festival. 
 
 The bite of active work had been relaxed. 
 
 Extra allowances of grog had been served. The 
 
 men who had been ashore had already tasted the 
 
 sweets of unusual duties in certain irregularities 
 
 of liquor. 
 
 Moreover fishing was to be commenced on the 
 
 morrow. All the signs were favourable. The 
 
 cod had been seen to windward chasing the caplin, 
 
 which for some twenty-four hours had thickened 
 
 the waters of the bay. Heart's Delight was 
 
 now really the Fishing Admirals'. The service 
 
 of the fleet would meet with no obstruction, hardly 
 VOL. I. 14
 
 2IO UNDER THE GREAT SEAL. 
 
 with competition. Ristack had resolved to occupy 
 Plympton's house. He would live like a fight- 
 ing cock. Already he had figured in his mind 
 what things he would send ashore. St. John's 
 should contribute the necessary furniture. He 
 would have a rare time. 
 
 This spirit of lawlessness had taken possession 
 of the ship. It was a lawless age. Englishmen 
 did not eat Englishmen as a rule, but the spirit 
 of destruction spreads. The same spirit of destruc- 
 tion that directs heroic action illdirected will sacri- 
 fice women and children in some so-called patrio- 
 tic fury. The experiences of the day, followed 
 by undue allowances of rum, had stirred the 
 miscellaneous crew of the " Anne of Dartmouth " 
 already into quarrels and disputes ; occasion offer- 
 ing it would have led them into any excess of 
 right or wrong. They drank, and sang, and 
 quarrelled. Sandy Scot and Donald Nicol, who 
 were intensely sober, took on the appearance of
 
 SIGNALS OF FRIENDSHIP AND DANGER. 211 
 
 conviviality with the rest, and went on playing- 
 their desperate game with the able-bodied Dymoke. 
 It was part of their plan that Scot should quar- 
 rel with Dymoke, and there was strength in the 
 pretended knockdown blow that Dymoke gave 
 Scot as a conclusion to a careful harangue which 
 Scot delivered against the destruction of Heart's 
 Delight. It was with considerable satisfation that 
 Scot at once found two of the least drunk of the 
 crew by his side, men who while they did their 
 duty did not hold with Ristack's views of his. 
 Half an hour later these two men had been won 
 over to the side of Sandy Scot and Donald Nicol ; 
 and the conspirators were alive with a well dis- 
 guised watchfulness, while they seemed not the least 
 reckless of the drunken crew. 
 
 " And that's all you got for your pains," said 
 Ristack, addressing Bentz, whom the Admiral 
 was entertaining with his colleague and friend 
 Ruddock. They had dined right heartily, had
 
 2 12 UNDER THE GREAT SEAL. 
 
 drunk each a bottle of such Madeira as is, alas, 
 no longer common afloat or ashore. Ristack 
 had unloosened his belt, had laid his knife and 
 pistols on a grim old chest that was packed 
 with arms, and had ordered rum. 
 
 " She was sick unto death, they said, " Bentz. 
 replied. 
 
 "Who said?" 
 
 "The priest." 
 
 " The priest be hanged ! what say you, Rud- 
 dock?" 
 
 " The same, " said Ruddock, " I'd have listened 
 to no priest." 
 
 " What the hell have priests to do here, is what 
 I say," Ristack replied, pouring out a horn full 
 of rum, a great jorum of which his boy had 
 placed upon the table. 
 
 " Did you see the wench's tent ?" 
 
 "No," said Bentz. "They would not let mo 
 enter the precincts of the new settlement."
 
 SIGNALS OF FRIENDSHIP AND DANGER. 213 
 
 "Wouldn't let you! Ah, ah, by all the fish 
 in the sea but they shall ! Wouldn't let you ! 
 Who wouldn't?" 
 
 u Master Plympton and his Irishman. They 
 were sentinels at the Bay-end of the valley." 
 
 " Sentinels ! A murrain on them ! I'll be her 
 sentinel to-morrow night. What a poor creature 
 you must be!" 
 
 Ristack went on drinking while Ruddock 
 broke up a plug of tobacco and stuffed it into 
 his thin jaw which looked like an ape's with 
 an abnormally large nut in process of cracking. 
 
 " I am not a fighting man as you know," said 
 Bentz. 
 
 "I am," said Ruddock, "first come, first 
 served, the Admiral with his usual 'fair doos' 
 says Bentz has the first claim on the belle of 
 Heart's Delight; and so we allow you to take the 
 precedence as the first takes precedence of the Vice 
 and the Vice of the Rear-Admiral; but it's my
 
 214 UNDER THE GREAT SEAL. 
 
 turn now; and I'll bet you a guinea to a shillin* 
 they don't put me off with their sentinelship." 
 
 " Give us your hand" said Ristack, grasping 
 Ruddock's red fist, "that's my spirit! Old as I 
 am, I'd back myself to distance you both in a 
 down right genuine love affair where pluck counts 
 for beauty. Ha! ah! I never was a beauty; 
 but I've been a buck; and as for women, why, 
 who cares about such paying out and such muf- 
 fled oars to get at 'em! Why, in Guinea you 
 can buy them by the dozen for a baccer box: 
 or an old knife, — aye, Venuses compared with 
 yon pink and white innanity. Sick is she? So 
 far as I'm consarned she may be sick and dead, 
 too, the sighing lackadaisical pennorth. I don't 
 care!" 
 
 " Well, I do care," said Ruddock, "and I'll have 
 her on board to-morrow night, considering as Bentz. 
 resigns. " 
 
 "Nay, I did not say so," Bentz replied.
 
 SIGNALS OF FRIENDSHIP AND DANGER. 215 
 
 " Drink, Bentz, drink ! " said Ristack, passing 
 the jug" of rum that was as brown as mahogany 
 and strong as Jamaica made it. 
 
 " Well, gentlemen, the game's in your own 
 hands; humble me that stuck-up, saucy, insolent 
 Keith, and his fme-tongued father-in-law, and you 
 may settle the rest between you. Fight it out, 
 and the devil take the hindmost. Bring her on 
 board, I say, to see her man, nothing easier; 
 Bentz has the loadstone that'll bring her ; I thought 
 of its usefulness when I took it from the blamed 
 thief; bring her to see her man; nothing easier. 
 When I was a lad in Dartmouth I knew how to 
 wheedle the girls, and they were worth it. Yes, 
 by the lord, they were — none of your cheap 
 settlers, but the pick of the land, I tell you. 
 Here's to 'em as I knew 'em, and to the devil 
 with all cowards!" 
 
 Ruddock drank glass for glass with Ristack, 
 and Bentz took his share. They were a sinister-
 
 2l6 UNDER THE GREAT SEAL. 
 
 looking company. Ruddock still wore his fanciful 
 barbaric dress, with a thick gold chain round 
 his neck, his strong vulpine mouth in grim contrast 
 with the coarse, loose, flabby lips of Ristack, 
 and the puritanical shifty mouth of Bentz. 
 
 The porthole of the cabin was open. The night 
 had grown very dark. The column of light from 
 the captain's cabin must have penetrated the 
 darkness like a long hot finger. The cabin was 
 lighted with a powerful oil lamp that swung from 
 the low ceiling. It left dark corners in the 
 apartment, but played fitfully upon sundry weapons 
 that hung upon the walls. The brown jug upon 
 the table with a silver carafe of water that was 
 only used now and then by Bentz or Ruddock, 
 and the heavy horns out of which the men were 
 drinking made a fine picture of still life, flanked 
 as the jug was with a great leaden tobacco box, and 
 a broad knife in its leather sheath that Ruddock 
 had taken from his belt for ease and comfort.
 
 SIGNALS OF FRIENDSHIP AND DANGER. 21 J 
 
 They had been sitting some time over their 
 liquor. The effect of it was different in all three. 
 Bentz grew more cunning with every glass. 
 Ruddock developed a jealousy of his colleague 
 and patron. Ristack became brutally coarse and 
 criminally vicious in his cups. His small piggish 
 eyes emitted malignant flashes as he plotted 
 against his victims. His face was red with 
 robustuous and ill-conditioned inflammation. 
 
 ■ Curse me, but I'd like to see the Plympton 
 lass aboard, " he said ; ■ and a murrain on her 
 Scotch villain ! Husband or no husband, I'll swing 
 him from the yard-arm yet. Did you note the 
 swine's sneer — this Plympton, this Father of the 
 settlement? Ah! Ah! We've made a settlement of 
 it ! They won't know it to-morrow if they see it. " 
 
 " I conclude, Admiral Ristack, it cannot be 
 questioned that you, with full authority and 
 according to law, had the right to destroy the 
 place," said Ruddock.
 
 2l8 UNDER THE GREAT SEAL. 
 
 "Right! Ruddock, what's the matter? Do 
 you forget who made you?" 
 
 " I suppose God made me same as he made 
 others," said Ruddock. 
 
 " I made you, Ristack — I, Tobias Zacharay 
 Ristack. I made you! Is that so or is it not 
 so ? Speak, man ! " 
 
 " Dear friend," said Ruddock, filling his glass, 
 " I thought you were asking me a question out 
 of the Catechism?" 
 
 " I was, I tell you — a question out of my 
 catechism. Answer me that — Who made you ? " 
 
 " Tobias Zacharay Ristack, Admiral of the Fish- 
 ing Fleet, of Heart's Delight," said Ruddock. 
 
 " When you are asked that question again answer 
 it, d'ye hear!" 
 
 " And who's the best friend and ally you ever 
 had, the best second in command?" asked Rud- 
 dock, emboldened by his tenth glass of spirits. 
 
 " Ruddock the ready ! " the Admiral replied,
 
 SIGNALS OF FRIENDSHIP AND DANGER. 2iq 
 
 " Ruddock the judicious and the sly! Ah, ah, 
 you know you are, Ruddock; sly as the devil. 
 But curse me, I like you, Ruddock, and you 
 shall advance next to me — next, mark you. 
 Next!" 
 
 "I look for no higher honour," said Ruddock. 
 
 " Mind you don't, " said Ristack, " what do you 
 say, Master Bentz, eh? And which of you's to 
 have the gal, the belle of Heart's Delight, eh? 
 Which? Will you fight for her? Will you fight 
 this Scotch devil, Master Bentz? " 
 
 " Thank you, Admiral Ristack, I am not a 
 fighting man, as you know, though I admire 
 valour. " 
 
 " But you'd fight for this siren, this Venus, this 
 Cleopatra, eh?" 
 
 ■ I'd do almost anything to win her," said 
 Bentz. 
 
 " Go on, drink, man, " said Ristack, pouring out 
 ; a glassful of liquor and pushing it before him,
 
 2 20 UNDER THE GREAT SEAL. 
 
 "to win her, man; what does it matter whether 
 you win her or not. By Satan and all the imps 
 how I do hate the whole of that Plympton and 
 Keith crew!" 
 
 He tightened his belt and half drew his knife 
 as he uttered the exclamation, adding, as he leaned 
 forward towards Bentz, " did you ever kill a man, 
 Master Bentz ! " 
 
 "No, thank God!" said Bentz. 
 
 "You'd rather persecute and worry them to 
 death, " said Ruddock, " it's safer. " 
 
 " Have you?" saidRistack, addressing Ruddock. 
 
 " I don't want to brag, " said Ruddock, " I 
 have served as a volunteer on a king's ship, 
 and seen service. " 
 
 ft Seen service ! Curse me, but I could spin 
 you a yarn that would make your flesh creep; 
 Ave was boarded by a pirate off the Azores ! 
 Bentz, pass the rum, you drink like a fish and 
 sit and guzzle as silently. Look here, my hearties,
 
 SIGNALS OF FRIENDSHIP AND DANGER. 22 1 
 
 have any of us seen that cursed high and mighty 
 Scotch Keith since we've had him aboard I No. 
 A plague on every mother's son of us but we'll 
 have him up and make him drink to the fishing 
 Admirals of Heart's Delight. " 
 
 He rose as he spoke, unsheathed his knife, 
 laid it upon the table, and called for the 
 mate. 
 
 " Fetch the prisoner Keith, I would have a word 
 with him. " 
 
 " Aye, sir, " said the mate. 
 
 " Keep the irons on him. " 
 
 " Aye, sir. " 
 
 " Tell him I want to — oh tell him what the 
 devil you please. " 
 
 "Aye, sir, " said the mate. 
 
 " Make no trouble ; bring him quiet : no disturb- 
 ance. " 
 
 " Right, sir, " said the mate as he left the 
 cabin.
 
 2 22 UNDER THE GREAT SEAL. 
 
 Keith was only too willing to obey the Admiral's 
 orders. Anything was preferable to the dark 
 damp hole in which he was languishing. Moreover 
 his mind was troubled with hopes and fears. 
 Nicol in some unaccountable way had succeeded 
 in visiting him not more than an hour previously. 
 His faithful fellow-countryman had informed him 
 that he had been able to send a message to John 
 Preedie, one of Keith's best friends, intimating 
 that if a boat, not to say a bark, could be handy 
 thereabouts it might be within the range of possi- 
 bility that the "Anne" would have a passenger for 
 her, perhaps more; and the signal was agreed 
 also. Nicol had wandered on in a whisper, uttering 
 various hints and warnings ; and had disappeared 
 before Keith could rightly understand all that he 
 wanted to convey to him. The night was favour- 
 able, and the men would all be drunk — except 
 he and Sandy Scot. When, therefore, Keith was 
 isent for to the captain's cabin he obeyed as
 
 SIGNALS OF FRIENDSHIP AND DANGER. 223 
 
 quickly as his chains would permit, and thought 
 that he might be advancing the schemes of his 
 friends, whatever they might be. 
 
 But it was very far from being any part of 
 Donald Nicol's arrangements that Alan should 
 ~be hauled up before Admiral Ristack.
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 BOWERS THE SILENT DELIVERS HIS MESSAGE. 
 
 St. John's was too busy with her own affairs to 
 pay any attention to John Preedie's unusual equip- 
 ment of the "Perth". She had come round from 
 Heart's Delight for certain new nets and appli- 
 ances for the fisheries. "Who cared or noticed 
 whether she took them out or not? St. John's 
 did not love Keith or Plympton. She admired 
 them. They were strong men and prosperous. 
 Heart's Delight was more than a rival of St. 
 John's; it was like a little independent kingdom 
 that was a standing rebuke to the larger and 
 more important community living under the imme- 
 diate eye of official government and inspection. 
 
 224
 
 BOWERS DELIVERS HIS MESSAGE. 225 
 
 The strongest men of Newfoundland somehow 
 drifted to Heart's Delight and accepted the 
 independent and unofficial government, firstly of 
 David Plympton and latterly of Plympton and 
 Keith. 
 
 There was news of trouble between these hardy 
 settlers and the fishing Admirals. St. John's rather 
 rejoiced in this, feeling assured that Heart's Delight 
 would not submit as tamely as St. John's had 
 done to the tyranny of the floating magistracy. 
 Beyond this passing thought St. John's gave the 
 news no further consideration. The codfish were 
 crowding into the feeding grounds and that was 
 the one great news of the year, and for the time 
 being St. John's cared for nothing else. 
 
 All this favoured the easy completion of John 
 Preedie's arrangements. He had got the " Perth" 
 under weigh with incredible speed. She was a 
 
 trim little vessel. You might call her smack or 
 barque; Keith used to speak of her as his "bonnie 
 VOL. I. 15
 
 2 26 UNDER THE GREAT SEAL. 
 
 wee Perth. " She usually combined in her fishing- 
 service with one or two other Heart's Delight 
 craft, working both net and line; but on this 
 occasion she took on board neither the seine, the 
 cod net, the trap, the gillow, nor the hook and 
 line; she had a new kind of fishing in view. 
 
 If the rival fishermen of St. John's had not been 
 too busy to notice the " Perth, " or so jealous in their 
 rivalry that they were all hurrying up with their 
 own fishing devices, they would have wondered 
 why Mr. John Preedie was taking in cutlasses, 
 muskets, and pistols, not to mention knives and 
 a curious kind of headgear that looked suspici- 
 ously like a captain's boarding-cap, instead of 
 the customary peaceful instruments of destruction 
 applicable to the seafaring of June or August off 
 Newfoundland. 
 
 Dick the builder, and Damian the dwarf had 
 slipped out from Plympton's landing stage in the 
 "Perth's" dingey, while the "Anne of Dartmouth's"
 
 BOWERS DELIVERS HIS MESSAGE. 227 
 
 men were still hacking away at the hearths and 
 homes of the settlement, and had kept their ren- 
 dezvous with the eastern man and Bowers the 
 silent at St. John's. 
 
 The " Perth" was well off St. John's when Preedie 
 changed her course. The first idea of the trip 
 had already been suggested. Preedie had resolved 
 to make his own proposals to his comrades outside 
 all possibility of eaves-droppers. " Lay her to," 
 he said to Bowers who was at the helm. 
 
 It was a calm night, but with a freshening 
 freeze that favoured the new point that Preedie 
 had in his mind. Oddly enough Bowers the silent 
 had the very same object in his mind, not clearly, 
 but there it was. Preedie had thought out his 
 plan. Bowers, in his lumbering way, had come 
 upon a similar notion, but not intuitively, for he 
 bad taken it in with a certain message from Sandy 
 Scot, which he had nursed for the right oppor- 
 tunity of delivery. He had taken joyful note in
 
 2 28 UNDER THE GREAT SEAL. 
 
 his undemonstrative way of the " Perth's" armament, 
 and had himself carried on board a couple of 
 axes, remarking to Preedie in the most matter- 
 of-fact way that " mun might be useful. " Preedie, 
 with equal secretiveness, had said, yes, they might. 
 If Preedie had not altered the vessel's course 
 when he did Bowers would have unbosomed 
 himself. During the ten minutes previously to 
 Preedie's order Bowers had suffered considerably. 
 He hated to say a word out of season ; hated to 
 speak at all, as we know : believed in the eloquence 
 of silence, but he had more than once been on 
 the point of letting his jaw-tackle run before 
 Preedie had spoken, and he knew Preedie must 
 have something special and important to say. 
 
 "Mates," began the volunteer captain of the 
 " Perth, " settling himself down in the stern, and the 
 silent man knew almost as if he looked into 
 Preedie's inmost soul what he was going to say. 
 " Comrades, one and all, I want your attention.
 
 BOWERS DELIVERS HIS MESSAGE. 229 
 
 Bowers, let her drift, I have something to say." 
 
 "Aye, aye," said Bowers, leaning his back 
 against the helm and taking a fresh quid from 
 his leaden tobacco-box. 
 
 " I'm sick of things as they stand, " said Preedie. 
 " Use, they say, is second nature ; well, I suppose 
 it is; we'd never have stood what we have had 
 it been otherwise ; but second nature gets broken 
 down and the original pluck and courage springs 
 up afresh out of the ruins. What are we ? Swine, 
 
 slaves, cattle, dogs ! By , I tell you I'm sick 
 
 of it." 
 
 "Not more than we are," said the dwarf, 
 squaring his great broad shoulders and turning 
 over a quid that bulged out his weather-beaten 
 cheek, " hell's tame to what I've suffered in mind 
 this day." 
 
 " We are comrades, brothers, men, let us stand 
 by each other and act for ourselves, " said Preedie. 
 
 " Why not ? " asked the eastern man.
 
 230 UNDER THE GREAT SEAL. 
 
 "David Plympton is with us heart and soul," 
 continued Preedie ; " but he is for gathering* 
 munitions, buying ships, declaring war, so to speak, 
 and all on a fine scale! I've got his authority 
 to deal for men and ships, and for a right hearty 
 slap at our foes." 
 
 "By , that's great; that means joining the 
 
 Americans, and I'm with you to the death," said 
 the dwarf. 
 
 "I'm there," said Dick the builder. 
 
 " And me, " said Bowers in response to inquiring 
 glances, "but I goes furder." 
 
 " Oh, you do, " said the eastern man, laughing, 
 "you always wos a dark horse, what is it?" 
 
 " When Master Preedie's done, " said Bowers. 
 
 "Well, this is all I have to say," continued 
 Preedie. " You see yonder cursed sloop with her 
 defiant flag flying, and the ensign of the Admiral I 
 look at her! Neither a king's ship nor a pirate; 
 neither an honest fisherman nor a trader, fine lines,
 
 BOWERS DELIVERS HIS MESSAGE. 23 1 
 
 tight, trim, a ship any crew might be proud of! 
 Look at her from the point of view of ownership ! 
 look at her as a buccanneer! look at her with 
 letters of marque ! look at her fighting for freedom 
 with the new flag of the stars and stripes flying 
 fair and free! look at her as your fancy will — what 
 couldn't we make of her! Then look at her as 
 the prison of our comrade and friend, gagged, 
 in irons, torn from his wife and child; what we 
 ought to make of her when she's ours, there's 
 time to consider, but considered from the point 
 of view of Alan Keith's prison, I'm for boarding 
 the prison-ship this night, and giving her a new 
 flag and a new commander. Now, lads, what 
 say you?" 
 
 Preedie's speech was received with a dead 
 silence, but it was the silence of resolution. Each 
 man following the lead of the fisherman from 
 the east coast, extented a strong broad hand to 
 Preedie, who shook each in turn; and Bowers
 
 232 UNDER THE GREAT SEAL. 
 
 then signified that he had something to tell them. 
 " I'm a man of few words, as you know, " said 
 Bowers, pulling up his right boot and turning a 
 capacious quid to give his tongue full play, 
 " when Father Lavello went aboard the 'Anne,' a 
 red-headed mariner lowers munsen into my boat, 
 and says he, 'Scot's my name, and Scot's my 
 nation, what be you, Bow T ers?' and I says, 'The 
 same,' says I; 'I'm a friend o' Keith's,' says he, 
 and says I, 'I'd follow mun to blazes,' on which 
 says he, ' You knows John Preedie ? ' and says I, 
 'have I ever heard of Tenterden Steeple?' and 
 then he goes on, says he, 'Tell John Preedie to 
 get together a strong crew, muffled oars,' he 
 says, 'and come alongside by the starboard bow, 
 and when he sees a light dropped over the side, 
 just a ship's lantern, mun,' he says, 'why look 
 out for squalls ; there'll be a ladder with the light ; 
 me and two others'll be ready, and if he swarms 
 right aboard with all arms,' he says, 'the men'll
 
 BOWERS DELIVERS HIS MESSAGE. 233 
 
 be drunk except me and Nicol, and another or 
 so, and if John Preedie's the same man as I 
 sailed with in the Azores, why, he'll gie the 
 1 Anne' a different flag to that what we be groanin' 
 under; and that's the whull matter.'" 
 
 " Sandy Scot, by ! " exclaimed Preedie, 
 
 " and his game's our own. " 
 
 Bowers relapsed into silence. He had made 
 the one speech of his life. If he had been saving 
 himself up for the effort, during all his years of 
 thoughtfulness at Heart's Delight he could not 
 have been more successful. 
 
 " You've settled it between you, " said the 
 eastern man, ■ and it's been well done, it's not 
 the forlorn hope I made it out two minutes since ; 
 Preedie, you've won the right to lead us!" 
 
 " Follow me, lads, I ask no more ; and if we 
 live, to-morrow shall give the 'Anne' a new cap- 
 tain, and his name is Alan Keith."
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 GRIM OFFERINGS TO THE HOUSEHOLD GODS 
 OF HEART'S DELIGHT. 
 
 Donald Nicol's dispositions were shadowed by 
 the sudden resolve of Ristack to have Alan Keith 
 brought before him. He had hoped to release 
 Keith while officers and crew were drinking. 
 One of the ship's boats was floating astern. 
 Released and on deck it would not be difficult 
 for Keith to reach it. This was the smaller of 
 Nicol's hopes and plans. The larger one lay in 
 the working of Scot's menace to Preedie. Scot 
 knew Preedie, and Scot had no doubt about the 
 due appearance of his former comrade, Hoyland's 
 famous mate. Scot had already moved most of 
 
 234
 
 GRIM OFFERINGS TO THE HOUSEHOLD GODS 235 
 
 the men's arms from the forecastle, and he had 
 won over a Bristol man who had also sailed 
 with Preedie. 
 
 Everything looked favourable until Ristack 
 ordered up the prisoner Keith. 
 
 "We'd best appear just as drunk as the ithers, " 
 said Nicol to Sandy, " and be awfu' sober at the 
 reight moment. " 
 
 Sandy and the Bristol man whispered their ■ aye- 
 ayes, " and Xicol reeled past the mate and another 
 as they conducted Alan to the captain's cabin. 
 
 " Keep your feet, prisoner, " said Ristack, as 
 Keith attempted to sit, borne down really by the 
 weight of his irons. 
 
 With a great effort Keith stood upright. 
 
 " I've a message for ye, " said Ristack. 
 
 Keith waited to hear it. 
 
 " Have ye no tongue in your cursed mouth ? " 
 Ruddock asked, stretching out his legs and leaning 
 back in his chair.
 
 236 UNDER THE GREAT SEAL. 
 
 " D'ye hear I'm talking to you ? " 
 
 " I hear, " said Keith, in a hoarse whisper ; his 
 voice seemed to have gone with his strength. 
 
 " You know Vice- Admiral Ruddock, eh ? * 
 
 Keith bent his head, his blue lips moving ner- 
 vously, a vague, helpless look in his eyes, all 
 the more forlorn on account of the plaster that 
 only partially hid a wound on his forehead. 
 
 " And Master Jacob Bentz ? " 
 
 " Yes, " said Keith, determined not to give any 
 new occasion of offence to any of them at that 
 time if possible. 
 
 " Very well, drink their healths and the good 
 ship 'Anne of Dartmouth/ Hand him a hornful, 
 mate ; fill it up a bumper. " 
 
 The mate did as he was ordered and handed 
 the cup to Keith, who took it with a trembling 
 hand. 
 
 " Nay, stop, " exclaimed Ristack, rising un- 
 steadily and laying his hand on Keith's manacled
 
 GRIM OFFERINGS TO THE HOUSEHOLD GODS 237 
 
 arm, which only just allowed him to lift the glass 
 to his lips, ■ no toast, no rum. " 
 
 Keith remembered the warning he had received 
 from Xicol within the hour — to be hopeful and 
 on the alert. Nevertheless, he was on the point 
 of dashing the liquor in Ristack's face when 
 suddenly Xicol staggered into the cabin, exclaiming, 
 " Drenk it. Drenk the toast ! why, of course he'll 
 drenk it and twenty such. Three cheers for the 
 'Anne of Dartmouth,' our Admiral Ristack is just 
 the grandest master that ever trod a British deck!" 
 
 " What in the name of Satan's this ? Out you 
 go, you Scotch ragamuffin. I'll put you in irons 
 and flog ye, too; d'ye hear?" 
 
 " By , ye may yard-arm me and I'll shout 
 
 three cheers for the 'Anne o' Dartmouth' and three 
 mair for the Admiral of the Fleet!" 
 
 Xicol staggered out as he came, the two 
 admirals smiling, and Bentz remarking, "They 
 say there's truth in rum."
 
 238 UNDER THE GREAT SEAT.. 
 
 " I'm afeared it's a drunken ship this night," 
 said Ristack. " Mate, see to it. They've won 
 their extra allowance, that's sure ; but stop it. 
 And I've a mind to make an example of that 
 man Nicol." 
 
 "Aye, sir," said the mate, leaving the cabin, 
 as Keith, unable to resist the drink, emptied 
 the glass. 
 
 "A murrain on it. Where's the grog?" said 
 Ristack, looking at Keith. "Did ye pronounce 
 the toast in your throat? Curse me, but I'll hear 
 it. Here, try again." 
 
 He handed Keith another glass. 
 
 "Now then," said Ristack, "to it." 
 
 " A health to you all, gentlemen," said Keith, 
 "good luck to the 'Anne of Dartmouth,'" and he 
 gulped down the liquor. 
 
 " Ah, ah, " roared Ristack, " I knew ye to be 
 a rank coward, a weak-kneed runnagate. Now 
 you shall drink 'Good luck' to Master Bentz in his
 
 GRIM OFFERINGS TO THE HOUSEHOLD GODS 239 
 
 love for Hannah Plympton ! By , you shall ! " 
 
 Keith neither moved nor spoke. A little colour 
 liad come into his pale face, a glint or two of 
 added light into his eyes. 
 
 "Stay," said Ruddock. "You will think better 
 of this in the mornin'." 
 
 "Yes, yes," said Bentz, also interposing. 
 
 " Who stays me ?" exclaimed Ristack. " Who ?" 
 
 He staggered to his feet, took up his knife 
 and felt the edge of it. 
 
 " Don't talk to me, you Bentz, " he said with 
 a laugh, and resheathing his knife as if some new 
 drunken thought had come into his head, " it's 
 all right, you are a wicked devil, you know you 
 are, what's his pretty little plan do you think ? " 
 
 He sat down once more, drank another tumbler 
 of rum, stretched his legs, and rocked his thick 
 coarse body to and fro with a drunken chuckle. 
 
 "I knew you were a coward; and if I promise 
 to let you go — not to-morrow, day after — you'll
 
 240 UNDER THE GREAT SEAL. 
 
 drink that toast ; but it'll be over then, and you 
 needn't. The lovely Hannah is comin' on board, 
 and a murrain blight all such say I, lovely or 
 otherwise ; Bentz brings her to see her man, and 
 she sees Bentz — ah, ah, ah — curse me if it isn't 
 as good as a play!" 
 
 Ristack almost choked himself with laughing. 
 In the midst of his fit, the mate returning, Ruddock 
 signalled him to remove the prisoner; and so 
 the painful scene was brought to an end. Keith 
 had felt no hurt so keenly as the insult offered 
 to his wife, aggravated by his suppressed rage 
 and passion. But he had noted too keenly the 
 warning of Nicol, and the danger the faithful 
 fellow had run, not to make every possible effort 
 to maintain an appearance of submission. It was 
 clear that his fellow-countryman had some very 
 special hope of rescue, and he would be a bad 
 ally and a poor general to augment his friend's 
 risk by any want of self-denial and patience.
 
 GRIM OFFERINGS TO THE HOUSEHOLD GODS. 24 1 
 
 But as the mate led him away, he ratified for the 
 hundredth time, his one great oath of vengeance 
 on Ristack and his crew. 
 
 "Here, you bo'sun, take your prisoner," said 
 the mate, addressing Keith's gaoler. 
 
 The boatswain wished Keith at the deuce and 
 the mate too at that moment, and was not a 
 little rough in pushing Alan before him, the 
 prisoner hobbling and cursing in his irons. 
 
 ■ Ah, don't be hard wi' the puir devil, " said 
 Xicol, who had been hovering around the captain's 
 cabin. 
 
 " Who are you talking to, you sot ? " exclaimed 
 the boatswain, thrusting Nicol aside, the cun- 
 ning Scotchman reeling with a drunken stagger 
 towards the hold. 
 
 " Allri', bo'sun, " said Nicol, u No offence, extra 
 grog, capn's health!" 
 
 " Damned Scotchman ! " said the boatswain, " any 
 excuse to get drunk." 
 
 VOL. 1. 16
 
 242 UNDER THE GREAT SEAL. 
 
 " Ri' you are, " said Nicol, " let me hold the 
 lantern for ye." 
 
 Nicol put out his hand and took the lantern, 
 the boatswain willing to be waited upon. 
 
 " Hello there, Marks, Gowling, where are the 
 men I left here ?" he exclaimed, missing his two 
 guardians at the hatchway. 
 
 " End their watch ; next was comin' on, extra 
 grog," said Nicol, " le' me" bear hand." 
 
 " If you're not too drunk, " said the boatswain ; 
 and the three disappeared. 
 
 At the foot of the ladder it was the work of 
 a moment to fell the boatswain which Nicol did 
 heartily; to gag him was done with equal preci- 
 sion ; to bind his arms and legs came still easier. 
 
 "Steady," said Nicol to Keith, "don't move; 
 here are the keys." 
 
 Keith's irons were unlocked. 
 
 "Stretch your legs, my laddie," said Nicol, 
 "are ye a' reight?"
 
 GRIM OFFERINGS TO THE HOUSEHOLD GODS. 243 
 
 "Yes," said Keith. 
 
 " Here's a knife and a pistol, follow me, kick 
 the ladder down as ye leave it. By Thunder ! They're 
 at it, man ! John Preedie and a boat's crew 
 have come on deck; dinna ye hear the music? 
 Xoo, lad, tek the time from me ! It's mair than 
 a rescue, it's a prize !" 
 
 " Better than all, it's vengeance," Alan exclaimed, 
 as he kicked the ladder away and flung down 
 the hatchway with a bang. 
 
 " To the captain's cabin ! " exclaimed Nicol. 
 
 Keith leapt after his follower, his knife in his 
 hi and, murder in his heart. 
 
 " To the fo'c'sle, Sandy ! " shouted Nicol, as he 
 met his comrade and the Bristol man making 
 for the captain's cabin; leave the quality to us." 
 
 Sandy dashed off with a cry of triumph. The 
 sight of Keith inspired him with a new and tre- 
 mendous energy. He was equal to any six op- 
 ponents; and Damian, the dwarf, hewed men
 
 244 UNDER THE GREAT SEAL. 
 
 down with his axe as if they had been dummies 
 of wood. You could hear his shout and his blows 
 all over the ship. 
 
 Nicol flung open the door of the captain's cabin. 
 There had been sudden cries of " A mutiny ! " 
 "The Yankees!" "Pirates!" Ruddock, snatch- 
 ing a cutlass from the wall, was making for 
 the deck. Ristack had not realised so quickly 
 as his comrade that some serious trouble had 
 broken out. It was not until pistol shots were 
 heard that he drew himself up and buckled his 
 belt. As Ruddock dashed out of the captain's 
 cabin he fell into the brawny arms of Donald 
 Nicol. The two men gripped each other in a 
 deadly hug. 
 
 Almost at the same moment Alan Keith seized 
 Ristack by the wrist close above the handle of 
 the long knife that flashed in the Admiral's hand. 
 Jacob Bentz crept beneath the Admiral's bunk 
 and hid himself in the shadow of Ristack's sea chest.
 
 GRIM OFFERINGS TO THE HOUSEHOLD GODS. 245 
 
 " You fiend ! " exclaimed Alan, with a wild yell 
 of laughter that might have shaken the nerves of 
 a far more valiant man than Ristack, " I've got 
 ye! Ye black-hearted coward! I call the tune 
 now, and ye shall dance!" 
 
 One hand holding his wrist, Alan with the 
 other took his enemy by the throat and shook 
 him until he rattled above the din of the fight 
 that could now be heard on all hands. 
 
 Ristack grew purple as if he were choking, 
 and Bentz, at his feet, quivered with a sense of 
 coming dissolution. 
 
 " Dinna fear I am gaeing to kill ye. Not yet!" 
 said Alan, who in his hatred of the man was 
 forgetting the interests of his own brave res- 
 cuers and friends. " Ye shall feel what it is to " 
 
 But at this moment Ristack made a desperate 
 lunge forward, and his knife grazed the cheek 
 of his adversary. 
 
 Alan dragged the knife from his grasp and
 
 246 UNDER THE GREAT SEAL. 
 
 flung it aside, at the same time turning the handle 
 of his own weapon that he could hit Ristack 
 with his fist. He hit him fairly and squarely in 
 the face. " Man, I'll nae kill ye ! I'll play wi' ye 
 as ye do when ye hae gotten a man i' your power! * 
 
 Ristack fell, striking his head against the sea 
 chest and sprawling so near to Bentz that the 
 captain's guest had to compress himself nearly 
 unto death by suffocation. 
 
 Nicol held no parley with his man. Nor did 
 Ruddock speak. They were too seriously en- 
 gaged for angry words. Their curses were deep 
 enough, no doubt, but they were unspoken. It 
 was a wrestle to the death. Before Alan Keith 
 had struck his man the Vice- Admiral was flung- 
 across the table with a crash of jugs and bottles,, 
 and there was a gash in his throat that silenced 
 for ever the voice of the ruffian who had under- 
 taken to show Jacob Bentz how to woo the belle 
 of Heart's Delight.
 
 GRIM OFFERINGS TO THE HOUSEHOLD GODS. 247 
 
 Ristack, gaining strength as the effects of the 
 liquor he had drunk wore off in the sudden excite- 
 ment of battle struggled once more to his feet. 
 
 Alan, with the blade of his knife directed 
 towards him, was about to strike, when once more 
 the passion of revenge provoked him to think of 
 something more terrible than immediate death. 
 
 * Nay, ye hell-hound, ye shall live ! " he exclaimed, 
 once more, " until I have time to tell you 
 to your teeth what you are ; till I've time to kill 
 ye by inches, and sail wi' ye to the Sooth to 
 fling ye alive to the sharks. Oh, I'll get even 
 wi' ye, never fear ! Curse ye ! " 
 
 And again Alan struck Ristack in the face. 
 
 " Oot, man, " cried Nicol ; " ye waste time, kill 
 the devil, kill him! Hello, ye swine, come out o' 
 that! " 
 
 It was Bentz whom Nicol suddenly espied; 
 but before he could size him the mate and the 
 chief carpenter came to the aid of the captain's
 
 248 UNDER THE GREAT SEAL. 
 
 cabin, and Nicol warded a shrewd blow from 
 the butt-end of a pistol. As Keith turned to the 
 defence of Nicol, Bentz picked up Ristack's knife 
 and thrust it into his hand. Ristack struggled to 
 his feet, and was about to take full advantage of 
 the mate's diversion when the axe of the dwarf 
 swung in at the open door, and Keith, catching 
 the raised arm of Ristack, the two fell together. 
 One got up again; it was not Ristack. He lay 
 quiet at last and Bentz drew himself into such 
 small compass that he was once more overlooked. 
 
 The fight now drifted away from the cabin to 
 the gangway, from the gangway once more to 
 the deck. To Bentz the whole ship was one 
 great scene of riot and butchery. He listened. 
 He heard yells and curses above and below; 
 but they were further away. The Admiral's cabin 
 was still as death. 
 
 " Admiral Ristack, " he whispered. 
 
 The Admiral made no reply.
 
 GRIM OFFERINGS TO THE HOUSEHOLD GODS. 249 
 
 " Master Ruddock. " 
 
 The Vice-Admiral did not answer. 
 
 " Lord have mercy on me ! " said Bentz. 
 
 He tried to move. He was literally barricaded 
 by the body of Ristack. He stretched forth his 
 right hand. It came in contact with the wet face 
 of his host. He knew that his hand was red. 
 
 " Ristack, " he whispered. 
 
 All still. 
 
 " Ruddock. " 
 
 No answer. 
 
 " They are dead, " he said, to himself. " Oh, 
 gracious heavens, be merciful unto thy servant, 
 a miserable sinner! " 
 
 Then the fight seemed to break out afresh. 
 He heard shouts and cries, the clash of steel, and 
 now and then a pistol shot. 
 
 " Oh, it's awful — save me, good Lord, for there 
 is none other that fighteth for us but only Thou, 
 Oh God!"
 
 250 UNDER THE GREAT SEAL. 
 
 If the wind had not been blowing from the 
 south-west they must have heard the noise of the 
 battle on board the "Pioneer." As it was the 
 conflict made no disturbance in the direction of 
 the other vessels, and the Vice- Admiral's men as 
 well as the sailors on the Rear-Admiral's ship 
 were happily engaged in drinking success to the 
 morrow's fishing. 
 
 The attack and capture ot the " Anne of Dart- 
 mouth" did not occupy more than twenty minutes. 
 To Bentz it was an age. To Keith it was only 
 a second. From the moment that Preedie had 
 scrambled aboard, his knife between his teeth, 
 his boarding cap on his head, with the dwarf at 
 his heels swinging his awful axe, the eastern 
 man with his pike, Bowers with his cutlass, and 
 Nick the builder with his pistol, the result was 
 a foregone conclusion. They had Scot and the 
 Bristol men for leaders. Forming two parties 
 they went to work with courage tempered with
 
 GRIM OFFERINGS TO THE HOUSEHOLD GODS. 25 I 
 
 method. The success of Nicol and with Keith 
 in the fight, the vessel was won almost at the 
 first blow; but not without some desperate fighting. 
 The eastern man fell in the first encounter. He 
 was speedily avenged; but Bowers was literally 
 cut down by the mate, who in his turn fell before 
 Damian's axe. 
 
 When the last stand had been made, no officer 
 being left to command, Keith shouted: "Quarter 
 to all who lay down their arms ! " 
 
 " Agreed ! " was the reply of the few still in 
 fighting trim. Immediate attention was given to 
 the wounded. Nicol collected the arms of the 
 defeated. The prisoners were marched aft under 
 guard. 
 
 " Ye'll not be put in irons, men ; ye'll be well 
 treated ; them as likes to take service under Captain 
 Keith can sign new articles; them as wants to 
 gae ashore can quit at the first convenient port. " 
 
 "All right," was the reply of the majority;
 
 252 UNDER THE GREAT SEAL. 
 
 while two who hated Sandy the Scot invited him 
 to go to a certain hot region. Sandy thanked 
 them and asked them meanwhile to accompany 
 the dwarf to the hold. On a manly remonstrance 
 from another of the crew, who was known to be 
 an honest kind of fellow, Sandy said, "Weel, 
 comrade, I'll just leave the malcontents on parole, 
 as the marines say, and mek you responsible 
 for 'em." 
 
 " Right, " said the other, and the men, worn 
 out with excitement and the fumes of their debauch, 
 flung themselves upon deck in every attitude 
 that promised change and rest for limb and muscle. 
 
 The dead being counted it was found that besides 
 Ristack and Ruddock the "Anne of Dartmouth" 
 had lost six men and had five wounded. The 
 attacking party had to regret the eastern man 
 and Bowers, who was now indeed Bowers the 
 Silent. Preedie was cut across the face. The 
 Dwarf was wounded badly enough to have
 
 GRIM OFFERINGS TO THE HOUSEHOLD GODS. 253 
 
 killed most men, but he made light of it. Neither 
 Nicol nor Keith were hurt, and Sandy Scot 
 counted the loss of a finger " just as a flea-bite. " 
 
 " We'll do the best we can for ye, " said Keith 
 to the wounded, " until we get ye properly doctored. 
 Your ain man doesna appear to be on board." 
 
 "He's visiting the doctor in the 'Pioneer,'" said 
 one of the men. 
 
 "I dare say we'll find plaster enough," said 
 Keith, " and, mind ye this, we bear ye no malice ; 
 we'll cure ye if we can." 
 
 "And now, lads, we'll go on deck and drink 
 a measure to Heart's Content," said Keith, "and 
 anither to Donald Nicol and Sandy Scot ! " 
 
 " Aye, aye, " shouted the little crew, some of 
 them binding up their wounds, others stretching 
 their arms and muscles as if for relief from the 
 strain of the fight. 
 
 The steward having consented to wait upon the 
 visitors, grog was liberally served. After Heart's
 
 ^54 UNDER THE GREAT SEAL. 
 
 Content had been drunk and the names of Nicol 
 and Scot duly toasted, John Preedie proposed that 
 Alan Keith should be elected captain, and that 
 the Anne should be called " The Avenger." 
 
 The cheers which endorsed Master Preedie's 
 proposition were heard against the wind on board 
 Admiral Ruddock's ship, the "Pioneer," whose chief 
 mate, listening to the cheery shout, remarked that 
 the Admiral of the Fleet was giving his men a 
 regular old Devonian debauch. 
 
 " And now, dear friend, " said Keith, when he 
 and Preedie presently sat together aft while Master 
 Bentz prayed for his life and obtained it at the 
 cost of his liberty, and the men were busy, under 
 the direction of Nicol, now chief mate, "what of 
 Heart's Content?" 
 
 " No news is good news, " said Preedie, " and 
 your sweet wife was alive when I left." 
 
 " Alive ! " said Alan, in an anxious whisper. 
 
 " She had been sick, as you know. "
 
 GRIM OFFERINGS TO THE HOUSEHOLD GODS. 255 
 
 "Nay, I didna," said Alan. 
 " I hope she is better, " said Preedie. 
 " I mun see her, " said Alan, " at any risk, " 
 "I will not say ye nay for my part." 
 "Bear \vi' me, friend; I'll be worthy o' your 
 trust and faith. 'Twould be wise to up-anchor 
 and out to sea, anyway. There's like to be cruisers 
 at St. John's. We mun have sea-room to overhaul 
 and clear decks. When we're rid o' the men we 
 dinna want, and who dinna want us, I ken a 
 harbour that's made for us! " 
 
 At about midnight the wind came out fair and 
 the moon appeared fitfully. Now and then it 
 would struggle through a grey cloud, and for a 
 moment make a wierd reflection upon the sea. 
 Between the lights, as if by arrangement, a group 
 of men on the lowerdeck amidships, on the star- 
 board side, with low cries of " steady mates, " and, 
 "now, boys, ready," and so on flung grim and 
 weighty things into the sea.
 
 256 UNDER THE GREAT SEAL. 
 
 " Let 'em float or let 'em sink, " remarked 
 Dymoke the Lincolnshire sailor, " I reckon we've 
 declared oursens. Accordin' to the law, to resist 
 authority on board ship's mutiny — to resist and 
 win, why that's piracy: so let 'em float or let 'em 
 swim, our flag flies free ! " 
 
 " But they're to have Christian burial ; our ain 
 men, God rest 'em," said Sandy Scot, "it brakes 
 my heart to think o' that gude man Bowers 
 the Silent lyin' low." 
 
 As the last of the dead men were flung out 
 into the sea, the cry of " All hands ! up anchor ! 
 ahoy!" rung out in the strong full voice of the 
 new boatswain. The men responded with a will. 
 Sails were lowered, yards braced, and the anchor 
 was raised with a cheerful " heave ho. " Alan 
 Keith stood upon deck, his eyes turned toward 
 a distant star, poised as he thought right over 
 the spot where Hannah and their boy David were 
 encamped.
 
 GRIM OFFERINGS TO THE HOUSEHOLD GODS. 257 
 
 The first morning of the fishing broke calm 
 and fair and full of happy promise. The caplin 
 were racing before the swarming cod, and making, 
 every now and then, a splash of silvery bright- 
 ness upon the blue waters as they leaped forward 
 under the pressure of the hunt. Along the shore 
 in many punts the poorer folk were luring the 
 cod with rival baits. In the middle distance 
 hundreds of heavily-manned boats were merrily 
 at work with hook and line. As far as the eye 
 could range seawards along the banks, white sails 
 were seen, as if a fleet of British yachts had met 
 for sport, as they meet in our day at Cowes. 
 Here and there among the boats that rose and 
 fell in a quiet undulating and easy fashion, 
 brown-winged skiffs glided to and fro. 
 
 It was a bright inspiriting scene ; and so 
 busy that not until the doctor of the " Anne " 
 mentioned to the mate his desire to go on 
 board his own ship to breakfast, was the " Anne " 
 
 vol. 1. 17
 
 258 UNDER THE GREAT SEAL. 
 
 rmissed. The look-out could report nothing. The 
 mate, with the ship's most powerful glass, could 
 see no signs of her, though he swept the horizon 
 as it were inch by inch, yard by yard. He 
 could not even see what Fate had left by way 
 of token of the lost ship. 
 
 The sea, however, seemed conscious of its load. 
 Two bodies were floating into the harbour of 
 Heart's Delight. There was Ruddock, with his 
 gold chain and his showy jerkin ; Ristack in his 
 boots, his belt tight and trim. Ruddock was 
 first in the journey shorewards; Ristack was 
 no longer in a position to resent Ruddock's 
 presumption. Ruddock, on the other hand, was 
 incapable of rejoicing in his promotion to the 
 front. They were not far apart. The sea ap- 
 peared to understand them. It gave Ristack a 
 decoration as if to make him equal to the man 
 with the gold chain. The Admiral wore a crown 
 of sea-weed. Ruddock floated with a certain
 
 GRIM OFFERINGS TO THE HOUSEHOLD GODS. 259 
 
 motion of defiance. His head seemed to sway 
 about in egotistical deprecation of his fellow- 
 Admiral. Ristack lumbered along as if with a 
 sense of his questioned importance. Caplin and cod 
 rushed past them, chased and chasing. As the 
 tide, with a swirl, made for the entrance to the 
 harbour of Heart's Delight, Admiral Ristack and 
 his friendly coadjutor, Vice-Admiral Ruddock, 
 bumped up against the sea-beat piles of Plympton's 
 boat-house, where the receding tide left them, 
 grim offerings of Fate to the household gods of 
 Heart's Delight
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 THE TRAGIC REVOLT OF ALAN KEITH. 
 
 Between the uninhabited island of Nasquappe 
 and Demon's Ridge, on the northern coast of 
 Labrador, lies the sheltered harbour of Wilder- 
 ness Creek, of which Alan Keith had frequently 
 spoken in his talks with Master Plympton about 
 the future of Newfoundland. 
 
 At the main entrance the waves thunder in 
 among boulders and solid rock. The noise of 
 breakers as they pound the iron coast can be 
 heard far out to sea. The exit is a narrow outlet 
 protected by steep cliffs that shelter it from the 
 northern rollers. I speak of entrance and exit 
 
 advisedly, for either way and both are open for 
 
 260
 
 THE TRAGIC REVOLT OF ALAN KEITH. 261 
 
 those who have the courage to navigate them. 
 Alan Keith, piloting the " Avenger, " was the first 
 ship's master who had ever dared to seek the 
 shelter of this secret harbour. The reader will 
 remember how Keith had described its capacity 
 to his neighbour and father-in-law. He had 
 not, however, dreamed that he might one day 
 drop anchor there with such a ship as the " Anne 
 of Dartmouth" after such an adventure as 
 that of her capture and change of name. 
 u Women like to change their names," Keith 
 had remarked, "and this trull o' Ristack's is 
 honoured in her new one, and by all the saints 
 she shall be the virago o' these northern seas ! " 
 Between the entrance from the ocean and the 
 exit was this bay, of which Alan had spoken, 
 ever as still and glassy as a land-locked lake. 
 No kind of weather made any difference to its 
 calm serenity. Salt as the outer ocean, it was 
 a perfect mirror to the surrounding rocks. I
 
 262 UNDER THE GREAT SEAL. 
 
 repeated in its vast depths the yellow sea-sand 
 that fringed its margin. 
 
 On one hand the harbour was bordered by 
 a sandy beach strewn with boulders that climbed 
 up among the foothills of a tall promontory 
 known by the mariner far and wide as a time- 
 honoured warning of danger. On the other hand 
 the shore was a wilderness of jagged rock and 
 stony hollows, a land of salty barrenness dotted 
 with stunted growths of underwood and bracken, 
 the home of sea-birds and other more fearsome 
 fowl in the shape of imps and fiends of the pit, 
 according to well-approved tradition. In spring 
 Wilderness Creek was accessible; and to Keith 
 the entire region was a land of promise and fair 
 weather. 
 
 The promontory was called Demon's Rock. 
 It had at times of storm and tempest cast its 
 awful shadow over sailors wrecked at the very 
 entrance of the unknown harbour into which their
 
 THE TRAGIC REVOLT OF ALAN KEITH. 263 
 
 broken ships with daring helmsmen at the wheel 
 might have been steered and defied the wildest 
 storm ; but this coast of Labrador was to the 
 general voyagers a God-forgotten country. None 
 suspected it of the possibilities which had struck 
 Alan Keith on his first fishing cruise in its dan- 
 gerous waters. At the base of Demon's Rock 
 was a wide-mouthed cavern. Its entrance was 
 a kind of natural hall-way, it might have been 
 the approach to some giant's castle. 
 
 Penetrating its depths you soon became con- 
 scious of a light, like unto a star shining afar off. 
 Then your level path was impeded by an ob- 
 struction of rock and shingle. This was only the 
 first of many natural ridges of rock, steps that 
 led to the light which was an outlet from the 
 cavern into the open country beyond. 
 
 Alan Keith had climbed this stairway, and 
 following a narrow shingly trail, had eventually 
 come upon a stretch of pleasant country where
 
 264 UNDER THE GREAT SEAL. 
 
 the berry-bearing plants of Labrador grew in 
 great variety. They consisted of partridge ber- 
 ries, hurtleberries, wild currants and gooseberries, 
 and as Keith had made his most notable excur- 
 sion in the early days of autumn, he had become 
 acquainted with these riches when most he could 
 appreciate them. Mosses of many colours, ferns, 
 tall grasses and wild flowers made this oasis in 
 the desert a little garden of paradise in summer; 
 and there were days even in the severest winter 
 when the air was dry and exhilarating, and the 
 skies a bright and lovely blue. 
 
 Travelling a mile or two further afield, Keith 
 had found himself at the head of one of the 
 fiords of the country bounded with noble forest 
 trees, while game was as abundant as the most 
 ardent hunter could desire. Here he had seen 
 an encampment of Micmacs; but both Indians 
 and Esquimaux appeared to be as shy of Wil- 
 derness Creek as were the navigators of the sea.
 
 THE TRAGIC REVOLT OF ALAN KEITH. 265 
 
 It is true there was a trail from the cave of 
 Demon's Rock that entered eventually into the 
 little paradise of berry plants and flowers, but 
 it was vague and uncertain, and had no appear- 
 ance of recent use. Keith, judging from Plymp- 
 ton's information relating to the old country's 
 troubles with the French, came to the conclusion 
 that this trail was a relic of the earliest inhabitants 
 of these latitudes, used afterwards by the Mic- 
 macs, who had during their incursions annihilated 
 the unwarlike aborigines, to become themselves 
 victims of the dominant race. 
 
 The Micmacs were from Cape Breton and Nova 
 Scotia. They were more or less allies of the 
 French, and were supposed to have invaded the 
 island in their interests; but the chief antipathies 
 of the Micmacs appear to have been exercised 
 against the aborigines, whom they slew or 
 starved out of existence. The Micmacs established 
 fishing and hunting grounds, and increased and
 
 266 UNDER THE GREAT SEAL. 
 
 multiplied, but only for a time. The latest 
 historical incident connected with their settlement 
 in Newfoundland is connected with the Gover- 
 norship of Sir Thomas Duckworth, who in 1810 
 was appointed Commander-in-Chief of the island 
 of Newfoundland and the islands adjacent, includ- 
 ing those of St. Pierre and Miquelon, and all the 
 coast of Labrador from the river St. John's to 
 Hudson's Straits, and the island of Anticosti and 
 others adjacent. He made a voyage which 
 extended to the principal northern settlements 
 and also to the little-known country of Labrador. 
 In the latter region he addressed a proclamation 
 to the Micmacs, Esquimaux, and others, assuring 
 them of the protection of the king. He further 
 exhorted them to live peaceably together and 
 avoid all causes of violence and bloodshed. He 
 took great interest in the Indians of Newfound- 
 land, and opened communications with a tribe 
 on the Exploits river. Here, with an expedition
 
 THE TRAGIC REVOLT OF ALAN KEITH. 267 
 
 of a hundred and thirty men, he induced four 
 Indians to go away with him, leaving two marines 
 as hostages. The Indians were to return with 
 presents and pledges of peace. They did return 
 with their escort to find the marines brutally 
 murdered, their bodies bristling with arrows. 
 The English interest in the Indian since that 
 time has no doubt been equally sincere ; but in 
 our day Newfoundland has buried the last of the 
 Micmacs. Had the Home Governments of the 
 time shown anything like a sympathetic interest 
 in the English settlers, the fishery and other 
 claims of France would have been just as com- 
 pletely laid to rest. 
 
 In the early days of his courtship of Hannah 
 Plympton, and after their happy marriage, Alan 
 Keith had speculated upon the advantages of a 
 settlement hereabouts, with such winter arrange- 
 ments of stores and provisions as would make 
 the ice and snow as welcome as the summer sun
 
 268 UNDER THE GREAT SEAL. 
 
 and shower. He had in his mind that safe and 
 sheltered harbour of Wilderness Creek for the 
 laying up of ships and boats, locked in by icy 
 bergs and yet sheltered from the belt of northern 
 storms of sleet and snow, a veritable retreat from 
 the influences of envy, and free from the attacks 
 of avarice. 
 
 Plympton had smiled at Keith's stories of the 
 place, knowing the character it bore, and having 
 had in days gone by some experience of its dan- 
 gers and its icy gales. As for Wilderness Creek 
 affording an entrance for anything larger than a 
 cockle-boat, Plympton paid tribute to Alan's sea- 
 manship in questioning if any other Newfound- 
 land fisherman would risk a smack in the attempt. 
 Any comparison between Wilderness Creek and 
 St. John's — where a chain drawn across the gate- 
 like entrance to the harbour was in old days a 
 simple though effectual defence — was out of the 
 question, seeing that you entered St. John's
 
 THE TRAGIC REVOLT OF ALAN KEITH. 269 
 
 from the open sea, while "Wilderness Creek, so- 
 called, was approached through water-ways beset 
 with hidden rocks, by shoals and devilries of all 
 kinds, the creek itself acting as a sucker to drag 
 a boat to destruction. Plympton contended that 
 Alan must have found some other course than 
 that of Wilderness Creek; but Alan knew that 
 the father of Heart's Delight emphasised his ob- 
 jections to Labrador because he loved the settle- 
 ment that was his home; and Alan, finding the 
 northern coast and its inland country so much 
 better than its reputation, was inclined to paint 
 it in exaggerative colours. He had not, however, 
 done Wilderness Creek and its lonely harbour 
 any more than justice. It is true he was a skil- 
 ful navigator, but he was more, he was both wise 
 and cautious. He had made a regular sailings 
 chart of the course into Wilderness Creek, and 
 had sailed his smack over it in all weathers,, 
 after and before the fishing. Summer and early
 
 270 UNDER THE GREAT SEAL. 
 
 autumn were the seasons when he best knew 
 the rock-strewn coast, and in his somewhat exag- 
 gerated way he had declared to his father-in-law 
 that the approach to the creek was " as safe as a 
 canal. " 
 
 If only Plympton had listened with faith to 
 Alan; or Alan had acted upon the instinctive 
 alarm of Plympton as to the future of Newfound- 
 land, what happiness might have been in store 
 for them and for Hannah and the infant, David 
 Keith, whose young life, which had begun with 
 promise of fair weather, was now beset with peri- 
 lous storm and tempest ! 
 
 The romantic and fiery Scotchman's first daring 
 act of reckless courage and loving devotion, after 
 the sanguinary vengeance he and his comrades 
 had taken upon the "Anne of Dartmouth," was 
 to seek the new settlement of Heart's Content. 
 
 At a point or two beyond the neck of land 
 which ran out into the sea like a sheltering
 
 THE TRAGIC REVOLT OF ALAN KEITH. 27 1 
 
 arm of comfort to Heart's Delight, Keith had 
 landed in the disguise of his stubble beard and 
 haggard face, supplemented with some strange 
 garments found on board Ristack's ship, and had 
 made his way to Back Bay Valley, only to find 
 his worst fears fulfilled. He stood on the fringe 
 of the little cemetery that had been marked out 
 by reverent hands, to witness its inauguration 
 with all that remained of the sweet and angelic 
 woman who had blessed him with her wifely 
 companionship and was the mother of his in- 
 fant son. 
 
 The moment he set foot in the new settlement, 
 he knew that the coffin, covered with wild 
 flowers, and resting by an open grave, enshrouded 
 the woman of all others in the world whom it 
 seemed to him the Almighty might have spared — 
 not for him alone, but for the good of all creation, 
 too good and beautiful, he knew, for so worldly 
 and coarse a comrade as himself, but one whom
 
 272 UNDER THE GREAT SEAL. 
 
 he could worship as a type of all that was 
 heavenly, sweet, and true. 
 
 And so he stood on the outskirts of the sor- 
 rowful crowd, and joined speechless, yet with all 
 his aching heart and soul, in the holy service 
 that Father Lavello read and chanted, and lis- 
 tened to his gracious and words of certain 
 prophetic bliss for her holy spirit. Alan did 
 not murmur a single word of prayer or hope, 
 but the tears fell down his sunken cheeks in heavy 
 drops of bitter agony. He had not the heart to 
 speak to a soul then or thereafter, but he al- 
 lowed them to go away — his father-in-law Plymp- 
 ton, the good priest, Pat Doolan, Sally the 
 nurse, and the rest of his friends and companions. 
 
 When night came be crept to the spot where 
 they had laid her, and fell upon his face. " Oh, 
 just heaven! give her back to me!" he cried. 
 "Mother of God, what hae I done to be sae 
 afflicted ? " The leaves rustled in the trees, and
 
 THE TRAGIC REVOLT OF ALAN KEITH. 273 
 
 a night bird called to its mate. " Dear wife — 
 sweetheart, if I could only have held ye in my 
 arms and said good-bye! A sma' mercy that, 
 God knows ! " Then he grovelled by the grave 
 and prayed that he might pass away there and 
 end his woes for ever. 
 
 When the dews of morning mingled their tears 
 with his, he kissed the wet earth that lay above 
 her, and went his way, another man; not the 
 chastened sinner, intent on making himself worthy 
 to meet her in Heaven. All the good that was 
 in him when her voice was heard in the land, 
 fell away from him as he strode out for the 
 beach where his boat was lying. He was once 
 more the avenger, his soul tossed upon a sea of 
 passion, as when on the deck of the captured 
 ship he had sworn to make his crew rich with 
 gold and silver, and his own life one of devilish 
 reprisal for the ills that tyranny and misfortune 
 had heaped upon him. 
 
 VOL. I. 18
 
 274 UNDER THE GREAT SEAL. 
 
 No prayer of his or of the priest's, no supplication 
 of Hannah's had been vouchsafed any other an- 
 swer than such as the fiend himself might have 
 made; and henceforth he would repay evil with 
 evil. The soul of Nero had entered his bosom, 
 untempered even by one single thought of his 
 child. It was strange that his love for Hannah 
 should not have made him keenly sensible of that 
 legacy of her love ; but losing her, the great world 
 of good was a blank. 
 
 A natural sympathy with religious hopes and 
 fears should have made him thoughtful of the 
 things that Hannah might have liked him to do, 
 had she been able to guide him with her tender 
 thoughts and human aspirations. But it was as if 
 the devil had taken possession of him. Had 
 Father Lavello been consulted upon Keith's state 
 of mind, he would have proceeded to exorcise the 
 fiend that had entered into the body of his otherwise 
 honest and manly parishioner at Heart's Content.
 
 Keith had given Back Bay Valley this name of 
 happy augury, but it east no sunny light upon 
 his soul; it only breathed to him of the direst 
 misfortune on account of which in his madness 
 he conceived himself entitled to the direst ven- 
 geance, even upon those who had had no hand in 
 the misery that had befallen him. 
 
 Without a word to any living soul, he left the 
 newly-made grave and strode away to the rendez- 
 vous where his boat awaited him. Plympton would 
 hardly have known his familiar friend had he 
 met him wending his way along unaccustomed 
 forest paths, breaking through tangled jungle, 
 now bursting out upon stretches of open shore 
 and shingle, a gaunt giant, pressing forward on 
 some tremendous mission. 
 
 Pride in an angel made the first devil. Unre- 
 quited love has changed gentle natures to bloody 
 murderers. Misfortune will make a hell of a 
 veritable paradise. Injustice and misfortune, twin
 
 276 UNDER THE GREAT SEAL. 
 
 spoilers of happy homes, had turned all that was 
 great, and good, and pure, in Alan Keith's nature 
 to gall and wormwood, to sour and bitter, to 
 devilry and debauch. 
 
 Not alone under the curse of the fishing Admi- 
 rals but under the vengeful action of Alan Keith, 
 both Heart's Delight and Heart's Content became 
 a desolation of Justice and Revenge. Troops 
 from the garrison of St. John's marched upon 
 Heart's Content and took away David Plympton, 
 Patrick Doolan and three other settlers on charges 
 of high treason. They were put on board a war- 
 ship that had come round in defence of the fisheries 
 to be met with the tokens of revolt that Heart's 
 Delight and the Rear-Admiral of the fishing 
 Fleet had found in the mutilated bodies of Ristack 
 and Ruddock, grim and ghastly lodgers in the 
 ooze that rankled round the piles of Plympton's 
 boat-house and fish-stage. Heart's Delight being 
 already broken up, its humble homes in ruins,
 
 THE TRAGIC REVOLT OF ALAN KEITH. 277 
 
 the Governor of St. John's, stimulated by the 
 hope of distinction and reward, concluded to 
 utterly root out the settlement whose traitorous 
 founders had been known to express sympathy 
 with the rebellious colonists, and who were 
 suspected on reliable evidence of leaguing with 
 the mutineers of the "Anne of Dartmouth." 
 The disappearance of John Preedie, the eastern 
 man, Damian the dwarf, Dick the builder, and 
 others the most resolute of the men of Heart's 
 Delight, was a sufficient vindication of the action 
 of St. John's. 
 
 It was in many ways an historic and tragic 
 season, the fishing that last saw the Admirals in 
 full and uncontrolled authority of the coasts and 
 settlements of Newfoundland ; for spite of watchful 
 cruisers, which had plenty to do to hold the English 
 commerce of the seas from the ravages of hostile 
 fleets, the "Pioneer" and her consort with his Rear- 
 Admiral's ensign flying were captured and burnt.
 
 2-jS UNDER THE GREAT SEAL. 
 
 The light of their oily cargoes, the fiery flakes of 
 their flaming ropes and tackle illuminating the 
 desolated shores of Heart's Delight. The crews 
 stripped of everything they possessed were allowed 
 to put off in boats unarmed and unprovisioned, 
 all except the Rear-Admiral of the Fleet, who 
 was. hanged at his own yard-arm, where he swung 
 to and fro in the fire until he fell a crackling 
 mass into the sea. 
 
 But the booty which Alan Keith promised his- 
 comrades had yet to come, and come it did with 
 startling rapidity. He was no respecter of nation- 
 alities; he was a Yankee when it pleased his 
 fancy, and a Britisher when most he honoured a 
 foreign foe. The ship in which he achieved his great- 
 est victories, or, as the Home Government would 
 have described them, his worst outrages, was the 
 "St. Dennis," a French sloop-of-war of thirty guns. 
 The capture was made a few leagues away from the 
 northernmost point of Labrador. The " Avenger, '"
 
 THE TRAGIC REVOLT OF ALAN KEITH. 279 
 
 in response to the Frenchman's salute, hoisted 
 the stars and stripes. The Frenchman put off a 
 boat and invited the Yankee to come aboard. 
 Alan Keith accepted the invitation. He related 
 something of his grievances against the mother 
 country and showed the papers with which Plymp- 
 ton had entrusted Preedie. The Frenchman was 
 hilarious over the successes he had already won 
 at sea in attacks on British commerce, and Alan 
 Keith gave vent to his aspirations for the freedom 
 of the colonies and his glory in the new flag of 
 liberty. Furthermore, Alan spoke of his capture 
 and burning of the fishing ships, and the French- 
 man explained and advocated the rightful claims 
 of his country to all the fishing grounds of New- 
 foundland and to the entire island itself. Keith 
 found it rather difficult to sympathise with his 
 host, in regard to the French pretensions to New- 
 foundland, having listened to many a gallant yarn 
 of Plympton's in which French attacks had been
 
 280 UNDER THE GREAT SEAL. 
 
 gloriously defeated against overwhelming odds. 
 Nevertheless, he drank the ship's wine, praised 
 her prowess, and expressed a hope that France 
 and America would divide between them the great 
 new world. 
 
 One of the Frenchman's prizes was a Bristol 
 merchantman fairly armed and considered safe to 
 hold her own, having on board considerable trea- 
 sures of gold and precious stones ; but in an evil 
 hour she had been compelled to ship a fresh crew 
 in a foreign port, a crew that had not the courage 
 of western men in face of spiteful odds and 
 powerful guns ; and so the best of her cargo was 
 on board the Frenchman. 
 
 When Alan Keith returned to the "Avenger" he 
 held a council of war and strategy, and laid before 
 his officers and men a plan of surprise which 
 should give them not only booty but a new ship 
 with which they might hope to meet a certain 
 British vessel reported by a Yankee scout to be
 
 THE TRAGIC REVOLT OF ALAN KEITH. 28 1 
 
 on her way with specie to pay her troops in Canada. 
 
 The captain of the Frenchman accepted the return 
 courtesy of the rebel, and it was agreed that the 
 two ships should cruise in company and support 
 each other in any operation that might make such 
 alliance desirable. 
 
 Keith had no sentiment about the sacred rights 
 of hospitality. It mattered nothing to him that 
 he had broken bread with the Frenchman, the 
 Frenchman with him; all was fair or foul, he 
 cared not which so that he achieved his end. 
 Indeed, he did not stop to consider what was fair 
 or foul in love or war; and he had infused the 
 same devilish spirit into his men. 
 
 It blew a gale the next day and Keith allowed 
 his ship to get into difficulties. She would not 
 answer her helm. The helmsman took care that 
 she should not, except to let her drift upon the 
 Frenchman in such a way that the booms and 
 rigging of the two vessels became sufficiently
 
 282 UNDER THE GREAT SEAL. 
 
 entangled for carrying out the infamous plot of 
 the English commander. When the Frenchman 
 was most engaged in helping his ally, Keith's 
 crew, armed to the teeth, suddenly sprang upon 
 the unsuspecting Frenchman's deck and made 
 an easy prize of the rich and splendidly equipped 
 cruiser. 
 
 Dismantling his own guns, removing such 
 stores as might be useful on the prize, crippling 
 the "Avenger" either for offence or defence, the 
 foreigners were transferred to the now discarded 
 ship on board of which Admiral Ristack had 
 sailed into the peaceful harbour of Heart's Delight. 
 
 The change from one ship to the other was 
 not made without some trouble, not to say danger, 
 for the men of the "St. Dennis" far outnumbered 
 those of the "Avenger." In the midst of the opera- 
 tion the outlook announced " a strange sail, " 
 and in his next breath pronounced her "a three- 
 decker." Keith took the glass himself and en-
 
 THE TRAGIC REVOLT OF ALAN KEITH. 283 
 
 dorsed the correctness of the look-out's vision. 
 
 "Xoo, my lads, cast off the Alossoos! Is that 
 the last boat?" 
 
 ■ Aye, aye, sir. " 
 
 u Let her go. " 
 
 "She's away, sir," was the answer, as the 
 u Avenger's" whale boat plunged into the foam and 
 made for Ristack's discarded vessel that was 
 lying-to somewhat uncomfortably, the wind still 
 blowing half a gale. 
 
 " Xoo, Scot," shouted Alan, " see if the French- 
 man understands ye as well as the ship ye've 
 just left. Hard up wi' your helm! We'll show 
 the stranger a clean pair o' heels. She carries 
 a real old British Vice- Admiral's flag, and has 
 three rows of teeth just as angry as a shark's. 
 Hard up, man ! What ails ye ? Now, Xicol, my 
 son, all hands, pack on all sail ! From royal to 
 stunsail. Handy, man ! It's cursed strange if a 
 French cruiser doesna answer her helm when she's
 
 284 UNDER THE GREAT SEAL. 
 
 to run before the foe! That's it. Cheerily, my 
 lads, and now for Wilderness Creek with extra 
 grog and a division of booty! " 
 
 The "Avenger" slopped up and down in the 
 foaming waters, waiting to see the capture of 
 the " St. Dennis. " The mountainous Britisher 
 came on under a heavy pressure of canvas. Alan 
 Keith had not deigned to answer her signals. 
 He had made up his mind to get away from her. 
 
 "It's no dishonour, lads," he said, "to show 
 this Vice- Admiral our stern, all the mair that 
 we dinna yet understand our French lassie's ways. 
 By all the saints she's coming down upon us ; we'll 
 barely clear her broadside if she delivers it. Ah, 
 ah, he kens we'll do it! " 
 
 And they did, for the mighty hail of lead 
 hurtled past them. It seemed now as if the "St. 
 Dennis" had herself caught scent of danger 
 and was willing to escape. The next moment 
 bending before the wind that filled every sail,
 
 THE TRAGIC REVOLT OF ALAN KEITH. 285 
 
 she fairly bounded over the waves, her course 
 dead on towards Promontory Rock. 
 
 The warship gave chase, and sent a flying* 
 shot or two in the wake of the cruiser to keep 
 the game alive, but the "St. Dennis" gradually 
 drew out of range. Then the enemy manoeuvred, 
 smartly for so large a vessel, to come by the 
 wind and lay the retreating ship once more 
 under her guns, evidently expecting the "St. Den- 
 nis" to change her course, which otherwise must 
 land her upon the rocks of Labrador. Several 
 of Keith's own men questioned the wisdom of 
 trying to make Wilderness Creek in such a gale. 
 They had made their first entrance through the rocky 
 water-ways in fine weather. The dangers were 
 sufficiently apparent then, but now with the clouds 
 so heavy that it was difficult to say which was 
 sea and which sky, and with a ship that was 
 new to them, even Donald Xicol doubted the wisdom 
 of his chief in steering for Wilderness Creek.
 
 286 UNDER THE GREAT SEAL. 
 
 "Better die fighting our ship than broken to 
 bits on the rocks," said Nicol. 
 
 Keith heard the remark. It was intended for 
 him. He paid no attention to it. While he 
 issued his orders as calmly as if he were piloting 
 a yacht on a calm and sunny lake, he watched 
 intently the chasing ship. 
 
 " She leaves us to our fate, " he said presently 
 to Preedie, who stood by his side. "Ah, ah! 
 my lads, she quits the chase; by the honour o' 
 bonnie Scotland, if she'd raked us once we'd been 
 lost ! " 
 
 The commander of the three-decker was not 
 to be tempted beyond the line of safe navigation. 
 He lay-to and watched the cruiser as she pelted 
 on to what, not he alone, but safer mariners on 
 board the flying ship, regarded as her sure and 
 unavoidable destruction. 
 
 END OF VOL. I.

 
 UNIVERSITY OP ILLINOI9-URBANA 
 
 3 0112 046431927