"The garrison was instantly in arms; the town rose clamorous; she fled like a deer, and mocked pursuit. I barely escaped to my boat, and reached my brig with the loss of every man. By Heaven! I believe a score of b.a.l.l.s struck my person, yet they seemed to fall from my cloak harmlessly like hailstones."

"It was the amulet!"

"True, woman! Yet I was wounded by a pistol in this girl's hand. Your charm here failed."

"No. Did I not tell thee--if not, be it known to thee, Robert Kyd--that ne'er devil wrought a charm a woman may not undo. Ball from men can harm thee not, but if a woman use the weapon the charm is naught. What wilt thou now do?"

"Return to Ireland and lay claim to the earldom. Perhaps, when I leave my present course of life, she will listen to me. By the cross! I am ashamed to woo a n.o.ble maiden whom I have loved, and still love, so roughly."

"I will woo her for thee."

"Nay."

"I will not heed thy nay! She must be thine. Yet I like this determination to a.s.sume your earldom. Go bury your treasures that are here, in some safe place, and sail for Ireland. After thou art become Lord of Lester, they can then be removed, and enable thee to support thy rank with princely state."

"I will take them with me, Elpsy."

"Thou wilt lose them, then, if pursued by a cruiser and forced to desert your vessel. Bury them here, and, when thou art an earl, thou canst come for them thyself, and bear them home without suspicion."

"Perhaps you are right; none will see in the Earl of Lester the outlaw Kyd. Save thyself and Kate of Bellamont, the secret is locked from all human knowledge."

"Her pride will keep her from revealing it, and my projects for thy aggrandizement seal my own lips," said the sorceress. "Here are the treasures which for three years thou hast acc.u.mulated," she added, removing a stone from a crevice in the rock against which her hut was built, and exposing, by a torchlight, a cavity therein filled with vast piles of gold and silver coins, countless rings for the ears and fingers, cups of chased gold set with precious stones, bracelets, ducal coronets sparkling with diamonds, and innumerable jewels of every description. He surveyed the valuable deposite, and then, shaking his head, slowly said,

"They have cost much blood, Elpsy."

"Therefore should they be well kept. Take them with thee, and hide them in some secret place, easy of access from the sea, till thou hast need of them."

"I know a spot where three tides meet, which will be a safe repository for them."

"Call thy men and bear them to thy vessel."

"Wilt thou go with me to perform the rites?"

"I have other things to do in town. I have made a discovery there that has filled my soul with joy! Ho, I will tell it you when you return, for it concerns you, boy. Cusha shall go with thee. Slave, appear!"

From an obscure corner of the hut the hideous African made his appearance, his malicious and cunning features glowing with the hateful look they habitually wore.

"Slave, take with thee thy charms and follow thy master here! See that the gold is buried with all the rites of our mystic art."

He prostrated himself to the floor, and left her to obey her commands.

In a short time the pirate's crew had conveyed the treasure from the hut to their boat, and thence on board the brig, and before daybreak the vessel was many leagues up the Sound, steering an easterly course. The succeeding morning she doubled the easternmost cape of Long Island, and, altering her course to the southwest, stood towards Sandy Hook under a stiff breeze from the southeast. By night she entered the Sound between Sandy Hook and the south side of Staten Island, and, steering directly across the mouth of the Raritan, anch.o.r.ed close to an elevated peninsula that formed the northern sh.o.r.e of the river.

The report of the pistol fired by Kate Bellamont not only alarmed the garrison and the town, but brought out the earl from the library, whither he had just retired with his friends, after having taken the rounds of the threatened town.

"What means this, dearest Kate?" he cried, meeting her flying across the lawn.

"Nothing, nothing, father!" she gasped, flinging herself into his arms.

"My child is not injured? What is this firing and sudden alarm? Why are you here, and flying as if for life?" he asked, with anxious solicitude.

"The Kyd--the pirate!" she exclaimed, with indignation.

"Ha!" he cried, bounding forward towards the Rondeel, and thence instinctively to the nearest sh.o.r.e where he antic.i.p.ated he should meet him. A boat was just putting off. Without delay he hastened back to the Rondeel, and, taking the commander by the arm, led him to the rampart, and said,

"There is the pirate's cutter. Bring your guns to bear upon her."

The result of the fire is already known. When he saw that the boat reached the brig, and that she immediately got under weigh, he left the fort and returned to the Hall to seek his daughter. On his way he met Fitzroy, who had just arrived at the Hall, after having, through the governor, chartered a Bristol ship that was lying in the East Dock ready for sea, with the intention of putting on board of her the guns of the Rondeel, and attacking Kyd as he was at anchor in the harbour.

"She can be got ready for sea in twenty-four hours, my lord," he said with animation, as he met the earl. "But what is this confusion and heavy firing?"

"You are well met, Fitzroy! Go to my daughter, while I return to the fort! The bucanier has landed, so far as I can learn, and like to have carried Kate off, I believe. But I have had no time to inquire."

"I will see her at once," said Fitzroy, leaving him hastily.

"You will find her in her boudoir. I will remain and see that our defences are kept up! Ha! the pirate is under sail, and is moving up the Sound."

"He is going to sea again, doubtless; but, as our guns command both the channels out, he has taken the way by Long Island Sound."

"Heaven grant it be so!" said the earl, as he entered the Rondeel.

Kate Bellamont was walking her room with a rapid pace, a flushed cheek, and a flashing eye as Fitzroy entered.

"Ha, Fitzroy, you have come," she said, with the tone and bearing of Elizabeth of England when insult had touched her pride. "I am glad to see you! I have been insulted."

"Then you shall be avenged!" he said, taking her hand.

"Do you promise it?"

"By the love I bear you, I swear it!"

"Avenge me--wipe out the stain my woman's pride has suffered, and I will be thy slave!"

"Nay, dearest Kate, I would rather thou wouldst be my bride," he said, smiling and kissing her cheek.

"Rupert Fitzroy, touch me not! Think not of love! When thou hast captured this freebooter--when I behold him bound at my feet so low that I can place my foot upon his neck, I will then be thy bride. Ay, to the music of his clanking chains shall be performed the marriage rites."

"If not my own honour, thine at least demands his capture and death.

Catharine of Bellamont," he said, kneeling before her and solemnly elevating his hands, "I swear by the cross that is the emblem of our holy faith that thou shalt be avenged!"

She looked on his animated features a moment steadily with her full black eyes, and then said,

"'Tis enough! By thy urgency in this matter thou wilt show thy love for me, and by my determination to press it to its issue thou mayest construe mine for thee. I am now calm. Here is the flag I have worked for thee. It bears thy initials, with the arms of my house, conjoined.

Take it, and beneath it win thy bride."

"Lady, it shall be done, or I will never see thy face more!"

"Ay, it should be for the world's weal that it should be done," she said, with eloquent fervour, "when every breeze comes tainted with the smell of blood; when wondering crowds, each with a tale that outweighs that his fellow bears, in nimble speech deal out to one another hourly marvels! When in bolts, bars, and locks before unknown in this peaceful land, each household, for leagues along the coast, seeks ill security against midnight dangers! When the fisherman fears to launch his boat, and towns count their strength and weigh the odds (as if a foe were thundering at their gates) against sudden surprise. When he who spreads such terror is captured, I will then be thine!"