converts to the Faith they were
warmly cherished, and tears of thanksgiving were profusely shed
over them by the Hounds of God. So much for their heresy. They were
completely purged of it, having done penance in proper form at an Auto
held on the Rocio at Lisbon, candle in hand and sanbenito on their
shoulders. The Church dismissed them with her blessing and an injunction
to persevere in the ways of salvation to which with such meek kindness
she had inducted them.

Now this dismissal amounted to a rejection. They were, as a consequence,
thrown back upon the secular authorities, and the secular authorities
had yet to punish them for their offence upon the seas. No offence could
be proved, it is true. But the courts were satisfied that this lack of
offence was but the natural result of a lack of opportunity. Conversely,
they reasoned, it was not to be doubted that with the opportunity the
offence would have been forthcoming. Their assurance of this was based
upon the fact that when the Spaniard fired across the bows of the
Swallow as an invitation to heave to, she had kept upon her course.
Thus, with unanswerable Castilian logic was the evil conscience of
her skipper proven. Captain Leigh protested on the other hand that his
action had been dictated by his lack of faith in Spaniards and his firm
belief that all Spaniards were pirates to be avoided by every honest
seaman who was conscious of inferior strength of armaments. It was a
plea that won him no favour with his narrow-minded judges.

Sir Oliver fervently urged that he was no member of the crew of the
Swallow, that he was a gentleman who found himself aboard her very much
against his will, being the victim of a villainous piece of trepanning
executed by her venal captain. The court heard his plea with respect,
and asked to know his name and rank. He was so very indiscreet as to
answer truthfully. The result was extremely educative to Sir Oliver; it
showed him how systematically conducted was the keeping of the Spanish
archives. The court produced documents enabling his judges to recite to
him most of that portion of his life that had been spent upon the seas,
and many an awkward little circumstance which had slipped his memory
long since, which he now recalled, and which certainly was not
calculated to make his sentence lighter.

Had he not been in the Barbados in such a year, and had he not there
captured the galleon Maria de las Dolores? What was that but an act