Yet if he remained,
it would simply mean that his own and Hagthorpe's crews would
join in the saturnalia and increase the hideousness of events now
inevitable. Unable to reach a decision, his own men and Hagthorpe's
took the matter off his hands, eager to give chase to Rivarol. Not
only was a dastardly cheat to be punished but an enormous treasure
to be won by treating as an enemy this French commander who, himself,
had so villainously broken the alliance.
When Blood, torn as he was between conflicting considerations, still
hesitated, they bore him almost by main force aboard the Arabella.
Within an hour, the water-casks at least replenished and stowed
aboard, the Arabella and the Elizabeth put to sea upon that angry
chase.
"When we were well at sea, and the Arabella's course was laid,"
writes Pitt, in his log, "I went to seek the Captain, knowing him
to be in great trouble of mind over these events. I found him
sitting alone in his cabin, his head in his hands, torment in the
eyes that stared straight before him, seeing nothing.
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