lianas, jewel-colored, idle as weeds of the sea, ran in tangles and
gaudy mazes from tree to tree. He sat himself down in the green gloom,
broke seal, unwrapped the silk, and read the letter, which he had
acutely guessed could not fail of being sent by so responsible a hand as
the friar's from one dignitary of the order to another. Much stateliness
of Latin greeting, commendation of the returning missionary, mention of
a slight present of a golden dish wrought in alacrity and joy by Indian
converts; lastly, and with some minuteness, the gossip, political and
ecclesiastical, of the past twelfth month. The sinking of the Spanish
ships and the sacking of the town of Nueva Cordoba by English pirates,
together with their final defeat, were touched upon; but more was made
of the yield to the Church of heretic souls, in all of whom Satan stood
fast. The Holy Office had delivered them to the secular arm, and the
letter closed with a circumstantial account of a great _auto-de-fé_ in
the square of Cartagena. Without the wood, upon the edge of white sand,
the men of the _Sea Wraith_ waited for their Captain. At last he came,
so quiet of mien and voice that only Robin-a-dale stared, caught his
breath, and gazed hard upon an ashen face.

Ferne's orders were of the curtest: Begone, every man of them, to the
_Sea Wraith_, and lie at anchor waiting for the morning. For himself, he
should spend the night ashore; they might leave for him the cockboat,
and with the first light he would come aboard. The two prisoners,--place
them in the ransacked bark and let them go whither they would or could.
He glanced in their direction, then turning sharply, crossed the sand to
stand for a moment beside the Franciscan.

"Prithee, thou brown-robed fellow, how looked he in a _sanbenito_--that
tall, fierce, black-bearded Captain that your Provincial mentions here?"
The parchment rustled in his hand.