nd she put it upon his breast."

"Not this one, sir," said Fra Antonio, "but its fellow. There were two
sisters in the family of Zerega. There were two crosses made, one for
each. In an evil hour the elder sister married you----"

"We did, indeed, go through some mockery of a ceremony," muttered
Morgan.

"You did, sir, and 'twas a legal one, for when you won her--by what
means I know not, in Maracaibo--you married her. You were forced to do
so before you received her consent. One of my brethren who performed the
service told me the tale. After you took her away from Maracaibo her old
father, broken hearted at her defection, sought asylum in Panama with
the remaining daughter, and there she met the Governor, Don Francisco de
Guzman. He loved her, he wooed and won her, and at last he married her,
but secretly. She was poor and humble by comparison with him; she had
only her beauty and her virtue for her dower, and there were reasons why
it were better the marriage should be concealed for a while.

"A child was born. You were that child, sir. Thither came this man with
his bloody marauders. In his train was his wretched wife and her own
boy, an infant, born but a short time before that of the Governor. De
Guzman sallied out to meet them and was killed at the head of his
troops. They burned Panama and turned that beautiful city into a hell
like unto La Guayra. I found means to secrete Isabella de Guzman and her
child. The plague raged in the town. This man's wife died. He gave
command to Hornigold to take the child away. He consulted me, as a
priest whose life he had spared, as to what were best to do with him,
and I advised Cuchillo, but his child died with its mother before it
could be taken away.

"Isabella de Guzman was ill. I deemed it wise to send her infant away. I
urged her to substitute her child for the dead body of the other,
intending to provide for its reception at Cuchillo, and she gave her
child to the sailor. In the confusion and terror it must have been
abandoned by the woman to whom it was delivered; she, it was supposed,
perished when the buccaneers destroyed the place out of sheer wantonness
when they left Panama. I fell sick of the fever shortly after and knew
not what happened. The poor mother was too seriously ill to do anything.
It was months ere we recovered and could make inquiries for the child,
and then it had disappeared and we found no trace of it. You, sir,"
pointing to Hornigold, "had go