It
is true the schooner is in the possession of the enemy,
but there is nothing to prove our friends are on board."
"If you had reason to know HIM into whose hands she has
fallen, as I do, you would think differently, Captain
Blessington," returned the governor. "That mysterious
being," he pursued, after a short pause, "would never
have made this parade of his conquest, had it related
merely to a few lives, which to him are of utter
insignificance. The very substitution of yon black flag,
in his insolent triumph, was the pledge of redemption of
a threat breathed in my ear within this very fort: on
what occasion I need not state, since the events connected
with that unhappy night are still fresh in the recollections
of us all. That he is my personal enemy, gentlemen, it
would be vain to disguise from you; although who he is,
or of what nature his enmity, it imports not now to enter
upon Suffice it, I have little doubt my children are in
his power; but whether the black flag indicates they are
no more, or that the tragedy is only in preparation, I
confess I am at a loss to understand."
Deeply affected by the evident despondency that had
dictated these unusual admissions on the part of their
chief, the officers were forward to combat the inferences
he had drawn: several coinciding in the opinion now
expressed by Captain Wentworth, that the fact of the
schooner having fallen into the hands of the savages by
no means implied the capture of the fort whence she came;
since it was not at all unlikely she had been chased
during a calm by the numerous canoes into the Sinclair,
where, owing to the extreme narrowness of the river, she
had fallen an easy prey.
Pages:
609
610
611
612
613
614
615
616
617
618
619
620
621
622
623
624
625
626
627
628
629
630
631
632
633