"
"What now, Peter?" cried the young Somerset mariner. "Lord, man,
what is there here to fret you? Surely 't isn't the thought of
Rivarol!"
"No," said Blood thickly. And for once he was communicative. It
may well be that he must vent the thing that oppressed him or be
driven mad by it. And Pitt, after all, was his friend and loved
him, and, so, a proper man for confidences. "But if she knew! If
she knew! O God! I had thought to have done with piracy; thought
to have done with it for ever. Yet here have I been committed by
this scoundrel to the worst piracy that ever I was guilty of.
Think of Cartagena! Think of the hell those devils will be making
of it now! And I must have that on my soul!"
"Nay, Peter- 't isn't on your soul; but on Rivarol's. It is that
dirty thief who has brought all this about. What could you have
done to prevent it?"
"I would have stayed if it could have availed."
"It could not, and you know it. So why repine?"
"There is more than that to it," groaned Blood. "What now? What
remains? Loyal service with the English was made impossible for me.
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