That he should ever meet her again had not entered his calculations,
had found no place in his dreams. They were, he conceived,
irrevocably and for ever parted. Yet, in spite of this, in spite
even of the persuasion that to her this reflection that was his
torment could bring no regrets, he had kept the thought of her ever
before him in all those wild years of filibustering. He had used
it as a curb not only upon himself, but also upon those who followed
him. Never had buccaneers been so rigidly held in hand, never had
they been so firmly restrained, never so debarred from the excesses
of rapine and lust that were usual in their kind as those who sailed
with Captain Blood. It was, you will remember, stipulated in their
articles that in these as in other matters they must submit to the
commands of their leader. And because of the singular good fortune
which had attended his leadership, he had been able to impose that
stern condition of a discipline unknown before among buccaneers.
How would not these men laugh at him now if he were to tell them
that this he had done out of respect for a slip of a girl of whom
he had fallen romantically enamoured? How would not that laughter
swell if he added that this girl had that day informed him that she
did not number thieves and pirates among her acquaintance.
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