Part 17 (1/2)
He made his preparations quickly, and on the morrow the Spanish carack--lately labelled Nuestra Senora de las Llagas, but with that label carefully effaced from her quarter--triated by Captain Jasper Leigh The three galleys under the command of Biskaine-el-Borak crept slowly eastward and ho the coast, as was the corsair habit The wind favoured Oliver so well that within ten days of rounding Cape St
Vincent he had his first glimpse of the Lizard
CHAPTER IV THE RAID
In the estuary of the River Fal a splendid shi+p, on the building of which the ineers had been employed and no money spared, rode proudly at anchor just off Shts crowned by the fine house of Arwenack She was fitting out for a distant voyage and for days the work of bringing stores and ress, so that there was an unwonted bustle about the little forge and the huddle of cottages that went to reat traffic that in future days was to be seen about that spot For Sir John Killigrew see there the foundations of the fine port of his dreas his friendshi+p with Master Lionel Tressilian had contributed not a little The opposition ely at Sir Oliver's suggestion, by Truro and Helston--had been entirely withdrawn by Lionel; one so far in the opposite direction as to support Sir John in his representations to Parliah that just as Sir Oliver's opposition of that cherished project had been the seed of the hostility between Arwenack and Penarrow, so Lionel's support of it beca up between himself and Sir John
What Lionel lacked of his brother's keen intelligence he h at some future time it was possible that Helston and Truro and the Tressilian property there ht come to suffer as a consequence of the developeously situated, yet that could not be in his own lifetime; and meanwhile he must earn in return Sir John's support for his suit of Rosaed with his own This certain iain was to Master Lionel orth the other future possible loss
It must not, however, be supposed that Lionel's courtshi+p had thenceforward run a smooth and easy course The mistress of Godolphin Court showed hiht abstract herself froht and obtained Sir John Killigrew's permission to accompany the latter's sister to France when she went there with her husband, as appointed English auardian had come into force with the decease of her brother
Master Lionel moped awhile in her absence; but cheered by Sir John's assurance that in the end he should prevail, he quitted Cornwall in his turn and went forth to see the world He spent some time in London about the Court, where, however, he seems to have prospered little, and then he crossed to France to pay his devoirs to the lady of his longings
His constancy, the humility hich he an at last to wear away that gentlewo water wears away a stone Yet she could not bring herself to forget that he was Sir Oliver's brother--the brother of the man she had loved, and the brother of the man who had killed her own brother Between thehost of that old love of hers and the blood of Peter Godolphin
Of this she reminded Sir John on her return to Cornwall after an absence of so these matters as reasons why an alliance between herself and Lionel Tressilian ree with her
”My dear,” he said, ”there is your future to be thought of You are now of full age and mistress of your own actions Yet it is not well for a wo as I live, or as long as I reland, all will be well You may continue indefinitely your residence here at Arwenack, and you have been wise, I think, in quitting the loneliness of Godolphin Court Yet consider that that loneliness ain when I am not here”
”I should prefer that loneliness to the coracious speech!” he protested ”Is this your gratitude for that lad's burning devotion, for his patience, his gentleness, and all the rest!”
”He is Oliver Tressilian's brother,” she replied
”And has he not suffered enough for that already? Is there to be no end to the price that he must pay for his brother's sins? Besides, consider that when all is said they are not even brothers They are but half-brothers”
”Yet too closely kin,” she said ”If youyou'll find me another husband”
To this he would answer that expediently considered no husband could be better than the one he had chosen her He pointed out the contiguity of their two estates, and how fine and advantageous a thing it would be to e these two into one
He was persistent, and his persistence was increased when he caain His conscience would not permit him to heave anchor until he had bestowed her safely in wedlock
Lionel too was persistent, in a quiet, al way that never set a strain upon her patience, and was therefore the ave way under the pressure of these race she could summon, resolved to drive from her heart and mind the one real obstacle of which, for very shame, she had made no mention to Sir John The fact is that in spite of all, her love for Sir Oliver was not dead It was stricken down, it is true, until she herself failed to recognize it for what it really was But she caught herself thinking of hi him with his brother; and for all that she had bidden Sir John find her some other husband than Lionel, she knew full well that any suitor brought before her must be sub All this she accounted evil in herself It was in vain that she lashed her mind with the reminder that Sir Oliver was Peter'sexcuses for her sometime lover; she would admit that Peter had driven him to the step, that for her sake Sir Oliver had suffered insult upon insult fro but human, the cup of his endurance had overflowed in the end, and weary of suber and smitten in his turn
She would scorn herself for such thoughts as these, yet she could not dis--as witness how she had dealt with that letter which Oliver sent her out of Barbary by the hand of Pitt--but her thoughts she could not govern, and her thoughts were full often traitors to her will There were longings in her heart for Oliver which she could not stifle, and there was ever the hope that he would one day return, although she realized that fro
When Sir John finally slew the hope of that return he did a wiser thing than he conceived Never since Oliver's disappearance had they heard any news of him until Pitt came to Arwenack with that letter and his story
They had heard, as had all the world, of the corsair Sakr-el-Bahr, but they had been far indeed fro him with Oliver Tressilian Now that his identity was established by Pitt's testimony, it was an easy ive Lionel the coveted inheritance