were being hanged? Do you remember Captain Night?"

A Light broke in upon me. I recognised my earliest Protector. I seized
his Hand. I was fairly blubbering, and would have rushed into his Arms;
but there was something Cold and Haughty in his Manner that repulsed me.

"'Tis well," he said. "I am a Knight of the most Illustrious Order of
St. John of Jerusalem, and an Italian Cavalier of Degree. You----"

"I am a Spy," I cried out half-sobbing. "What was I to do? My Malignant
Fate hath ever been against me. I am despicable in your Eyes, but not
so despicable as I am in mine own."

"There, there," he cries out, very placably. "There's no great harm
done, and there's much of a muchness between us. When you first came
across me, was I not stealing the King's Deer in Charlwood Chase,
besides being in trouble--I don't mind owning to you now--on account of
King James? 'Twixt you, Jack Dangerous, Flibustier, Saltabadil, and Spy,
and Captain Night, now called Don Ercolo et cetera, et cetera di San
Lorenzo, and a Knight of Malta, there is not much, perhaps, to choose.
The World hath its strange Ups and Downs, and we must e'en make the best
of them. Sit you down, Jack Dangerous, and we will have t'other Flask."

We had t'other Flask, and very good Wine it was; and for the rest of the
time I remained in Malta, Don Ercolo continued to be my Fast Friend,
even as he had been in my Youth. And yet 'twas mainly through his
Instrumentality that I quitted the Island; for he sent his Page to me
with a Letter, written in our own dear English Tongue, in the which he
instantly desired me, as I valued my Life and the Interests of my
Employers, to put the Broad Seas between myself and the Grand Master;
for that an Inkling of my Errand had got wind, and that the Party
unfavourable to France being then uppermost, I ran immediate risk of
being cast into a Dungeon, if not Hanged. For this Reason, said Don
Ercolo, he must forbear any further Commerce with me (not wishing to
draw Suspicion on himself, for the Knights are very jealous in Political
Affairs); but he assured me of his continued Friendship, and desired if
I stood in Need of any Funds for my Journey, to inform the Page, that he
might furnish me secretly with what Gold I needed. But I wanted nothing
in this way, having ample Credits; so making up my Valises with all
convenient Speed, the Chevalier Escarbotin bade adieu to Malta.

I took a passage in a Speronare that was bound to Candia, w