the priest, that he had no fear as to any attempts he might make
to change his own opinions; but the truth was, that Father Mendez
understood him far better than he understood Father Mendez, who, had he
thought it worth his while, would not have made his approaches in a mode
the bailie was at all likely to discover till the foundations of his
fortress had been sapped and undermined. The priest, however, had not
the slightest intention of making an attack on the bailie's religious
principles, whatever might have been his mission to those northern
regions. There were some who did not fail to assert that he had
ulterior views; but he made himself generally so very popular, that the
greater number considered him a very well-behaved, harmless, kind
gentleman, who was ready to smile at all their amusements, even though
he might not partake in them, and was conversable and affable with every
one.

For nearly three weeks or more the "Saint Cecilia" remained at Lerwick,
and while her officers were busy gaining golden opinions from the
people, they spent a good many golden pieces among them.

"And after a' the real goud is the best thing o' the twa," as Bailie
Sanderson observed. "The one, unless, maybe, it's the deil's pay, will
rest in the purse, or bring something substantial in return, and is
muckle like the snow in the spring time; it looks very white and
glittering, but quickly vanishes awa."

At length Rolf Morton arrived from Whalsey with an order from Don Hernan
to Pedro Alvarez to carry the ship back to Eastling Sound. The corvette
was instantly got under weigh, and tide and wind suiting, she stood back
towards Lunnasting Castle. The inhabitants of Lerwick saw her departure
with no little astonishment, as not a word had been said to lead them to
suppose she was going. Some had their misgivings on certain material
points. Bailie Sanderson, especially, was very uncomfortable; he had
furnished a large amount of stores--far more than any one else had done;
but though he had got in his hands several bills, in the shape of long
bits of paper, accepted by Don Diogo Ponti, purser of His most Catholic
Majesty's ship, the "Saint Cecilia," and by Don Hernan de Escalante,
captain of the said ship, he had received very little hard cash, and
several of his friends, when they had looked at those strips of paper,
and turned and twisted them about, in a variety of ways, with an
expression in their countenances which betokened c