"Wide, indeed," said Don Benito, sadly; "you were with me all day; stood
with me, sat with me, talked with me, looked at me, ate with me, drank
with me; and yet, your last act was to clutch for a monster, not only an
innocent man, but the most pitiable of all men. To such degree may
malign machinations and deceptions impose. So far may even the best man
err, in judging the conduct of one with the recesses of whose condition
he is not acquainted. But you were forced to it; and you were in time
undeceived. Would that, in both respects, it was so ever, and with all
men."

"You generalize, Don Benito; and mournfully enough. But the past is
passed; why moralize upon it? Forget it. See, yon bright sun has
forgotten it all, and the blue sea, and the blue sky; these have turned
over new leaves."

"Because they have no memory," he dejectedly replied; "because they are
not human."

"But these mild trades that now fan your cheek, do they not come with a
human-like healing to you? Warm friends, steadfast friends are the
trades."

"With their steadfastness they but waft me to my tomb, Senor," was the
foreboding response.

"You are saved," cried Captain Delano, more and more astonished and
pained; "you are saved: what has cast such a shadow upon you?"

"The negro."

There was silence, while the moody man sat, slowly and unconsciously
gathering his mantle about him, as if it were a pall.

There was no more conversation that day.

But if the Spaniard's melancholy sometimes ended in muteness upon topics
like the above, there were others upon which he never spoke at all; on
which, indeed, all his old reserves were piled. Pass over the worst,
and, only to elucidate let an item or two of these be cited. The dress,
so precise and costly, worn by him on the day whose events have been
narrated, had not willingly been put on. And that silver-mounted sword,
apparent symbol of despotic command, was not, indeed, a sword, but the
ghost of one. The scabbard, artificially stiffened, was empty.

As for the black--whose brain, not body, had schemed and led the revolt,
with the plot--his slight frame, inadequate to that which it held, had
at once yielded to the superior muscular strength of his captor, in the
boat. Seeing all was over, he uttered no sound, and could not be forced
to. His aspect seemed to say, since I cannot do deeds, I will not speak
words. Put in irons in the hold, with the rest, he was carried to Lima.
During the passa