And who made me that? Who made me
thief and pirate?"
"If you were a rebel...?" his lordship was beginning.
"Ye must know that I was no such thing - no rebel at all. It wasn't
even pretended. If it were, I could forgive them. But not even
that cloak could they cast upon their foulness. Oh, no; there was
no mistake. I was convicted for what I did, neither more nor less.
That bloody vampire Jeffreys - bad cess to him! - sentenced me to
death, and his worthy master James Stuart afterwards sent me into
slavery, because I had performed an act of mercy; because
compassionately and without thought for creed or politics I had
sought to relieve the sufferings of a fellow-creature; because I
had dressed the wounds of a man who was convicted of treason. That
was all my offence. You'll find it in the records. And for that I
was sold into slavery: because by the law of England, as administered
by James Stuart in violation of the laws of God, who harbours or
comforts a rebel is himself adjudged guilty of rebellion. D'ye
dream man, what it is to be a slave?"
He checked suddenly at the very height of his passion.
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