" she cried. "But he was none! My lord, you know he was none!
Your Honor"--

The Governor interrupted her: "He made himself captain of a pirate ship,
lady. He took and sunk ships of Spain."

"In what sort did he become their chief?" she cried. "In such sort,
gentlemen, as the bravest of you, in like straits, would have been
blithe to be, an you had had like measure of wit and daring! Your Honor,
the wind before which our boat drave like a leaf, the waves that would
engulf us, wrecked us upon a desert isle. There was no food or water
or shelter. That night, while we slept, a pirate ship anchored off the
beach, and in the morning the pirates came ashore to bury their captain.
My husband met them alone, fought their would-be leaders one by one, and
forced the election to fall upon himself. Well he knew that if he left
not that isle their leader, he would leave it their captive; and not
he alone! God's mercy, gentlemen, what other could he do? I pray you
to hold him absolved from a willing embrace of that life! Sunk ships
of Spain! Yea, forsooth; and how long hath it been since other English
gentlemen sunk other ships of Spain? The world hath changed indeed if
to fight the Spaniard in the Indies, e'en though at home we be at peace
with him, be conceived so black a crime! He fought their galleons fair
and knightly, with his life in his hand; he gave quarter, and while
they called him chief those pirates tortured no prisoner and wronged
no woman. Had he not been there, would the ships have been taken less
surely? Had he not been there, God wot, ships and ships' boats alike
would have sunk or burned, and no Spanish men and women had rowed away
and blessed a generous foe. A pirate! He, with me and with the minister
and with my Lord Carnal, was prisoner to the pirates, and out of that
danger he plucked safety for us all! Who hath so misnamed a gallant
gentleman? Was it you, my lord?"

Eyes and voice were imperious, and in her cheeks burned an indignant
crimson. My lord's face was set and white; he looked at her, but spoke
no word.

"The Spanish ships might pass, lady," said the Governor; "but this is an
English ship, with the flag of England above her."

"Yea," she said. "What then?"

The circle rustled again. The Governor loosed his wife's fingers and
leaned forward. "You plead well, lady!" he exclaimed. "You might win, an
Captain Percy had not seen fit to fire upon us."

A dead silence followed his words. Outside the s