Retribution
The foaming wine is drained from the cup, nothing remains but the dregs,
which we will also empty.
During the battle Captain Hill released himself and his ship and, taking
possession of the pirates' money, sailed away.
The buccaneers, prisoners on board their own ship, were taken to Cape
Corso, but not even this disaster could subdue them. The injured men
would not allow their wounds to be bandaged, and when they were put in
irons, beat their aching, bleeding wounds with their chains, and died
uttering imprecations, reconciled neither to God nor man. The others
sang wild buccaneer songs and irritated their guards with sneering
jests.
Weighing the ration of bread in his hand one of them said, laughing:
"You want us to dry up to save hemp; we shall get so thin on this fare
that you can hang us by a thread of yarn."
They were chained together in couples. One began to sing and pray; his
companion gave him a violent thrust in the side.
"What do you expect to gain by that?" he asked.
"The Kingdom of Heaven," replied the other humbly.
"You? The Kingdom of Heaven? You passed that port long ago with the rest
of us. We're sailing for hell. The captain is already waiting for us,
and we shall enter according to our rank, and when we run into harbor
there we'll salute him with a salvo of thirteen shots. Hurrah for
Barthelemy and his luck."
The poor, penitent sinner did not stop singing and praying, spite of the
oaths of his companion, till the latter, in all seriousness, begged the
captain of the ship to relieve them from this fellow, whose howling
disturbed the good-humor of the others, and who had proved himself
unworthy of such distinguished company; or at any rate, for the
maintenance of order, to take away his prayer-book.
The most dangerous members of the pirate band were kept prisoners on the
Swallow, and among them were Moody and Asphlant. The latter formed a
plot to escape from their confinement some night, kill both the
captains, and form a still more powerful buccaneer crew.
One of them, however, deemed it advisable to save himself at the expense
of the others and betrayed the plan. The prisoners had already managed
to file through their chains. Afterwards they were watched day and
night.
Scudamore had been left on the Royal Fortune, where he was permitted
liberty to move about to care for the wounded pirates, so far as they
would permit.
One night Scudamore instigated them to free themselves with his aid, and
die fighting rather than be executed. The conspiracy was discovered at
the moment of the outbreak and, that it might not be repeated, on
reaching the land a trial was held at once in order to make short work
of the pirates.
They were divided into two classes, one containing the officers, the
other the men; the former had ordered everything, the latter had merely
executed their commands. The first was jestingly called the Upper House.
The trial of the Upper House ended badly. All were condemned to death;
among them Moody, Asphlant, Simpson and Scudamore. Only one was
acquitted--Henry Glasby. His noble character was known by reputation;
many owed their lives and property to his intercession; he had often
attempted, at the risk of his life, to escape from the pirates, but was
always captured. The court released him. At last he could join his
promised bride.
* * * * *
The end of the notorious band of pirates was noised abroad throughout
the entire world. Three young girls went in turn to every church in
Dublin, offering grateful thanks to Heaven for having heard their
petitions and sunk the terrible corsair king in the sea. Then, in a
whisper, they added: "And protect our beloved William, restore him to
us."
Robert Barthelemy lay a hundred fathoms beneath the waves amid the coral
and sea-shells.
The End
[Transcriber's Note: The original edition of this text was typeset with
unindented paragraphs, making it sometimes unclear whether a sentence
begins a new paragraph or not.
The following typographical errors present in the original text have
been corrected.
In Chapter I, "Scudaamore's treachery" was changed to "Scudamore's
treachery", and "we do need a surgeon" was changed to "We do need a
surgeon".
In Chapter II, "What eyes?" was changed to "What eyes!", a missing
period was added after "cried the young chief", a quotation mark was
added after "we can approach the brigantine unsuspected", "There can be
no discrimination, captain, We need one another" was changed to "There
can be no discrimination, captain, we need one another", and "to all the
details for the hundreth time" was changed to "to all the details for
the hundredth time".
In Chapter III, a missing quotation mark was added after "It is the
Swallow."]