My prisoners, most of whom are persons of consideration,
I will retain as hostages until after my departure, sending them
back in the canoes which we shall take with us for that purpose. If
your excellency should be so ill-advised as to refuse these terms,
and thereby impose upon me the necessity of reducing your fort at
the cost of some lives, I warn you that you may expect no quarter
from us, and that I shall begin by leaving a heap of ashes where this
pleasant city of Maracaybo now stands."
The letter written, he bade them bring him from among the prisoners
the Deputy-Governor of Maracaybo, who had been taken at Gibraltar.
Disclosing its contents to him, he despatched him with it to Don
Miguel.
His choice of a messenger was shrewd. The Deputy-Governor was of
all men the most anxious for the deliverance of his city, the one
man who on his own account would plead most fervently for its
preservation at all costs from the fate with which Captain Blood
was threatening it. And as he reckoned so it befell. The
Deputy-Governor added his own passionate pleading to the proposals
of the letter.
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