upon sea and land, and to keep the relations
between England and Spain in a state of perpetual ferment, particularly
dangerous in those days when the peace of Europe was precariously
maintained.

Exasperated not only by his own accumulated chagrin, but also by the
reproaches for his failure which reached him from London, Colonel Bishop
actually went so far as to consider hunting his quarry in Tortuga
itself and making an attempt to clear the island of the buccaneers it
sheltered. Fortunately for himself, he abandoned the notion of so insane
an enterprise, deterred not only by the enormous natural strength of the
place, but also by the reflection that a raid upon what was, nominally
at least, a French settlement, must be attended by grave offence to
France. Yet short of some such measure, it appeared to Colonel Bishop
that he was baffled. He confessed as much in a letter to the Secretary
of State.

This letter and the state of things which it disclosed made my Lord
Sunderland despair of solving this vexatious problem by ordinary means.
He turned to the consideration of extraordinary ones, and bethought him
of the plan adopted with Morgan, who had been enlisted into the King's
service under Charles II. It occurred to him that a similar course might
be similarly effective with Captain Blood. His lordship did not omit
the consideration that Blood's present outlawry might well have been
undertaken not from inclination, but under stress of sheer necessity;
that he had been forced into it by the circumstances of his
transportation, and that he would welcome the opportunity of emerging
from it.

Acting upon this conclusion, Sunderland sent out his kinsman, Lord
Julian Wade, with some commissions made out in blank, and full
directions as to the course which the Secretary considered it desirable
to pursue and yet full discretion in the matter of pursuing them. The
crafty Sunderland, master of all labyrinths of intrigue, advised his
kinsman that in the event of his finding Blood intractable, or judging
for other reasons that it was not desirable to enlist him in the King's
service, he should turn his attention to the officers serving under him,
and by seducing them away from him leave him so weakened that he must
fall an easy victim to Colonel Bishop's fleet.

The Royal Mary--the vessel bearing that ingenious, tolerably
accomplished, mildly dissolute, entirely elegant envoy of my Lord
Sunderland's--made a good passage to St.