"What is now to be done with this unhappy man?" inquired Captain Ducie
when order was a little restored.
The misunderstanding was an unfortunate affair for the culprit. Captain
Truck felt a strong reluctance to deliver him up to justice after all they
had gone through together, but the gentlemanlike conduct of the English
commander, the consciousness of having triumphed in the late conflict, and
a deep regard for the law, united on the other hand to urge him to yield
the unfortunate and weak-minded offender to his own authorities.
"You do not claim a right to take him out of an American ship by violence,
if I understand you, Captain Ducie?"
"I do not. My instructions are merely to demand him."
"That is according to Vattel. By demand you mean, to request, to ask for
him?"
"I mean to request, to ask for him," returned the Englishman, smiling.
"Then take him, of God's name; and may your laws be more merciful to the
wretch than he has been to himself, or to his kin."
Mr. Sandon shrieked, and he threw himself abjectly on his knees between
the two captains, grasping the legs of both.
"Oh! hear me! hear me!" he exclaimed in a tone of anguish. "I have given
up the money, I will give it all up! all to the last shilling, if you will
let me go! You, Captain Truck, by whose side I have fought and toiled, you
will not have the heart to abandon me to these murderers!"
"It's d--d hard!" muttered the captain, actually wiping his eyes; "but it
is what you have drawn upon yourself, I fear.
Pages:
692
693
694
695
696
697
698
699
700
701
702
703
704
705
706
707
708
709
710
711
712
713
714
715
716