I consented, while an incomprehensible feeling crept over me; and when
once I had time to recollect myself, I shrunk from him, as a blood
stained brute, with whom even in his extremity it was unfitting for me
to hold any intercourse. When he noticed my repugnance to remain near
him, he addressed me hastily, as if afraid that I would destroy the
opportunity he seemed to desire.
"God did not always leave me the slave of my passions," he said, in a
low, deep, most musical voice. "The day has been when I would have
shrunk as you do--but time presses. You have a mother?" said he--I
assented--"and an only sister?" As it happened, he was right here too.
"And--and"--here he hesitated, and his voice shook and trembled with the
most intense and heart--crushing emotion--"y una mas cara que ambos?"
Mary, you can tell whether in this he did not also speak truth. I
acknowledged there was another being more dear to me than either.
"Then," said he, "take this chain from my neck, and the crucifix, and a
small miniature from my bosom; but not yet--not till I leave the boat.
You will find an address affixed to the string of the latter. Your
course of service may lead you to St Jago if not, a brother officer may."
His voice became inaudible; his hot scalding tears dropped fast on my
hand, and the ravisher, the murderer, the pirate, wept as an innocent
and helpless infant. "You will deliver it. Promise a dying man--
promise a great sinner.
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