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Updated: June 29, 2025
The attempt at bribery having thus resulted in failure, there remained to me but one other alternative, that of a resort to force myself against Dominguez and the two men who formed his crew. For, come what would, I was firmly resolved never to suffer myself to be delivered alive into Morillo's hands; if it was my doom to die at the end of this adventure, I would die fighting.
Do you mean that you have actually found and captured the fellow?" "Well, no, Mistah Courtenay, I don't dissactly mean that; no such luck, sah! But I'se got de next best t'ing, sah; I'se got a man who says he knows where Morillo's to be foun'," answered Peter. "Um! well that is better than nothing if your friend is to be trusted," said I. "Who is he, and where did you run athwart him?"
But I tell you what it is," I continued; "you may rest assured of this, that if any harm befalls me, if, in short, you deliver me into Morillo's power, the admiral will make you suffer as severely for it as Morillo himself could possibly do.
"Thanks!" answered the stranger, ascending the gallery steps. "I am sorry to hear of my friend Morillo's indisposition. A slight attack of fever, I think you said. Is he too ill, think you, to talk business? If not, you will perhaps have the extreme kindness to tell him that Captain Lenoir of La Belle Estelle has arrived and would like to see him." "Assuredly I will, senor," I answered politely.
"Come up to the house and drink Senor Morillo's health in a jug of sangaree; and then Captain Lenoir wants you to carry down some fruit and vegetables that Senor Morillo has given him for the ship's use." "Bien! we come, monsieur," they answered with one accord; and the next moment they were all slouching toward the house, a pace or two in my wake.
It was scarcely likely, therefore, that the ship was a frigate; and if not that, she must be a merchantman, and doubtless the prize of the brigantine. At this point, the question suggested itself to me: Might not the brigantine be Morillo's craft?
"Just so," commented the admiral, when I had finished singing her praises; "what you have said quite confirms my own opinion of her, which is that, in capable hands, she may be made exceedingly useful. Moreover, she is more nearly a match for Morillo's brigantine than is the little Tern, eh?
"Thanks; your reply to my question leaves nothing to be desired in the way of lucidity. Now, supposing I should happen to feel some repugnance to those delicate attentions on Morillo's part that you have just alluded to, what inducement would be sufficient to persuade you to 'bout ship, and land me on the wharf at Kingston, instead of at Cariacou?"
By the year 1820 the Revolutionists had for the third time perceptibly gained ground, and Morillo's force, spread like a fan at the inland base of the sierra, was gradually yielding to the unceasing pressure; in a word, the Patriots were at length driving their enemies into the sea.
But I by and by made the discovery that my efforts in this direction were doomed to failure; Dominguez was clearly so profoundly impressed with Morillo's power, and with his tenacious memory for injuries, that the conviction had borne itself in upon him that if he yielded to my persuasions it would be absolutely necessary to his safety, not only to buy over the whole of those engaged upon the business of my abduction, but also to place the whole width of the globe between himself and Morillo; and to execute these little matters satisfactorily would, according to his own calculations, necessitate the disbursement on my part of the modest amount of ten thousand pounds sterling, a sum which, as I explained to him over and over again, it was utterly beyond my power to raise.
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