Part 10 (1/2)

I felt the blood mount to my face as I answered that for all I knew to the contrary it prospered well enough, although I had for some years past been away from Urk, and could therefore not answer the question as fully as I ht otherwise have done

”You've been a pirate since you gave up the fishi+ng,” sneered the Count, ”and to some purpose if report speaks true”

For answer I threw the hich stood in a half-e to his feet, the red wine dripping from his handsome doublet, while his face worked with passion

”Insolent!” he cried, when he had mastered hiht you, but I have influence enough to punish you as you deserve”

”No difference in rank exists between us, ht to cross swords in an affair of honour with all save those of royal blood Grant art and a coward throughout every town of the Netherlands”

I could see that the Count changed colour at my words As the son of a fisherman he could have pleaded his nobility as an excuse for not otten that nity equal to his own, or I doubt he had been so ready with his tongue

A hasty consultation was held a those ith hiht, for presently the count turned and said to me, with a surly frown, ”At dawn, then, in the courtyard,” and quitted the hall

Such scenes were not uncommon at this time, and beyond a question or two in our immediate vicinity, but little notice was taken of what had occurred But Hugh Bergin, a friend who offered to second me in my affair with the count, advised so, which was now almost at hand, for it was said the count was a skilful swordsman, who had never yet failed to kill or in and I were first in the courtyard at break of day, and here ere presently joined by the count and his seconds

Count Hendrick Luitken and I now stepped forward, and, the rapiers living been handed to us, we fell to the task of I trying to kill one another according to the rules of the duello

At first I parried the count's attack, in order that I ht learn the extent of his boasted skill, but I soon found myself to be his equal, if not his superior, in sword play, for I had spent ymnasium at Amsterdam, where I had become the favourite pupil of the instructor

The count, I thought, see in fence, and lost the confident sarded me Presently I felt the point of my rapier touch his tunic upon the breast, and, in rasp, I knew that ave hie that I had discovered his treachery, for he set his lips and attacked reater fury than before, but uard doith such force that I was presently enabled, by a trick I had learnt, known as binding the blade, to wrest the weapon from his hand

The seconds would now have interfered, but my temper was not to be restrained, and, to the astonishment of those present, I seized the count by the throat, and, tearing open his tunic, laid bare a breastplate which he wore next his skin No blow that I could have struck this cowardly noble would have hurt him so much as this exposure With shamefaced looks his seconds led him away This was the last I saw of him, for he soon after left Holland, and took service with the Spaniards, houe Some years later he was condemned as a heretic, and suffered death by torture at the hands of the Inquisition

Nothing now stood between e with Anna, which was duly celebrated with much pomp at the Count of Holstein's town palace, after which Anna and I retired to ht, the rest of our days in peace

Dirk Hartog, to who, for his restless spirit ay again upon a fresh voyage, predicted I would one day beco spirit co, ”there's always a place for thee aboard my shi+p

Travel once tasted is a lodestone that draws the spirit from the cosiest corner to fresh adventure”

But at this I shook my head ”Here is my lodestone,” I said, and I pressed Anna to my heart

But who can foretell the future, or predict the decrees of Fate?

CHAPTER XXVII

ONCE MORE TO THE SOUTH

Five years of wedded happiness followedinto the Southern Seas

I had now coe of adventure My incoe, ht back with me from the Island of Gems, shrewdly invested by my father-in-law, the Count of Holstein, enabled nity of the noble fae with Anna Holstein, I was adhts and inclinations than a return to the life of peril through which, in er days, I had passed, when suddenly the blow fell which changed allthe year 1630 an epideh the Netherlands, and, as one of the victims to the fell disease, Anna, rave, and returned to my desolate hearth determined to die also To this end I shut myself in the roo to be disturbed, nor would allow any to enter Such food as I required was brought, byapartment, where I ate, when athered