with provisions; but that was easily remedied. Ships bound for
Africa sailed at regular intervals, laden with provisions, from the
English colonies. These met the pirate by a concerted agreement, allowed
themselves to be plundered, apparently by force, and yielded up one or
two ships' cargoes. The buccaneers paid well for them.

Once the young pirate chief ran into the harbor of St. Barthelemy and
went on shore with his whole crew. The inhabitants illuminated their
city, the governor came to meet him with a band of music and ordered
fireworks in their honor, while the ladies gave them a ball.

The buccaneers knew how to entertain. True, with them dancing was very
apt to close with an orgy, and the orgy to end in a brawl; but fair
women feared kisses as little as broken heads; for the pirates scattered
gold with lavish hands in every direction.

The pirates were gallants; they wore silk garments, gold lace, and
plumed hats, the chains of two or three gold watches hung from their
pockets, and diamonds and rubies flashed on their fingers. True, the
gold lace was perfumed with rum and brandy, the breath of the flatterers
reeked with the odor of onions and tobacco, pistols and blood-stained
knives were carried in their pockets with the gold watches, and the
hands on which diamonds glittered were black with the smoke of powder.
But fair women did not shrink from these things, for they knew that the
pirates never left a place until the last ring had vanished from their
fingers and the last watch from their pockets.

The buccaneer obtained nothing by cajolery, he paid cash for everything,
and his hands were as full of gold as his lips of oaths. So why was it
so great a marvel that the governors opened their doors, and those who
ought to have led them to the gallows invited them to their tables.

The governor of St. Christopher tried to drive Barthelemy out of his
harbor--what did he gain by it? Barthelemy burned his ships and
bombarded his city; the governor of St. Barthelemy was wiser, he
introduced the corsair to his wife and became a rich man. There are as
many customs as there are countries. We should think such proceedings
very strange.

* * * * *

The governor's wife was a beautiful Creole, whose eyes fired men's
hearts. Her face was pale, but when the sun of passion glowed upon it,
her cheeks at first flushed faintly with the rose-hue of dawn, then
deepened into crimson.

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