d against him.
As it was, when he urged the positive knowledge he possessed, and told
them how he had made the examination to which Sir Oliver had voluntarily
submitted, his single word carried no slightest conviction. Not for a
moment was it supposed that this was aught but the subterfuge of one
who had been lax in his duty and who sought to save himself from
the consequences of that laxity. And the fact that he cited as his
fellow-witness a gentleman now deceased but served to confirm his judges
in this opinion. He was deposed from his office and subjected to a heavy
fine, and there the matter ended, for the hue-and-cry that was afoot
entirely failed to discover any trace of the missing Sir Oliver.

For Master Lionel a new existence set in from that day. Looked upon
as one in danger of suffering for his brother's sins, the countryside
determined to help him as far as possible to bear his burden. Great
stress was laid upon the fact that after all he was no more than Sir
Oliver's half-brother; some there were who would have carried their
kindness to the lengths of suggesting that perhaps he was not even that,
and that it was but natural that Ralph Tressilian's second wife should
have repaid her husband in kind for his outrageous infidelities. This
movement of sympathy was led by Sir John Killigrew, and it spread in
so rapid and marked a manner that very soon Master Lionel was almost
persuaded that it was no more than he deserved, and he began to sun
himself in the favour of a countryside that hitherto had shown little
but hostility for men of the Tressilian blood.

CHAPTER VIII. THE SPANIARD

The Swallow, having passed through a gale in the Bay of Biscay--a
gale which she weathered like the surprisingly steady old tub she
was--rounded Cape Finisterre and so emerged from tempest into peace,
from leaden skies and mountainous seas into a sunny azure calm. It was
like a sudden transition from winter into spring, and she ran along now,
close hauled to the soft easterly breeze, with a gentle list to port.

It had never been Master Leigh's intent to have got so far as this
without coming to an understanding with his prisoner. But the wind had
been stronger than his intentions, and he had been compelled to run
before it and to head to southward until its fury should abate. Thus
it fell out--and all marvellously to Master Lionel's advantage, as you
shall see--that the skipper was forced to wait until they stood along