d do your heart good to see those our captain has among the
Cornish rocks; such comfortable dwellings, where you could stow away
twenty people, never to chirrup to the sun again; such hiding-holes,
with neat little trains of gunpowder, winding like snakes in summer, so
that, to prevent discovery, one crack of a good flint would send the
caverns and the cliffs high into the air, to tell stories to the stars
of the power of man's skill to destroy the most sublime as well as the
most beautiful works of nature."

"Robin, you ought to have been a preacher."

"No," said Robin mournfully, and shaking his head, as was his custom,
"for I know nothing of your book-holiness; only I can't bear anything
moulded and made by the hand of God to be ruined by that of man."

"What ails ye, lad?" inquired the Buccaneer; "I thought ye had got over
all your shadows, as ye used to call them."

"Not all of them; only they do not come upon me as often as they used,"
he replied gravely; for poor Robin had one time been subject to
periodical fits that bordered on insanity, and during such afflictions
wandered about the country, without seeking repose or speaking word to
any one. Constance Cecil, with her usual kindness, had him frequently
taken care of at Cecil Place; and Barbara's kind attention to him during
such fearful trials was the source of as strong, as unvarying, and
devoted an attachment as ever human being manifested towards another.

By degrees the conversation sunk into low confidential whispers, as if
caution, even there, was necessary. It was near four o'clock in the
morning before the Buccaneer departed for his ship, and then Robin
escorted the Cavalier to his usual chamber in the Gull's Nest.

CHAPTER VIII.

When thirsty grief in wine we steep,
When healths and draughts go free,
Fishes that tipple in the deep
Know no such liberty.

LOVELACE.

"A blessing and a salutation, reverend sir! and may the sun, moon, and
stars be sanctified unto you!"

"Ah! Solomon Grundy, would that the Lord had given thee sense to
understand, as he hath bestowed upon thee talent to speak according to
thy understanding! As it is, Solomon, I lament that thou art a fool,
Solomon, a very fool, except in what regardeth the creature-comforts;
and, of a verity, thou art worthy to send up a dinner even unto Hugh
Peters, after he hath delivered a soul-converting oration before the
chosen from among God's people."