"Yes, I have been a pirate," said he; "but I have not been the villain that men have painted me." He looked steadily in the widow's face as he said these words deliberately.
"Do not try to palliate your conduct, Gascoyne," said Mr. Mason, earnestly. "The blackness of your sin is too great to be deepened or lightened by what men may have said of you. You are a pirate. Every _pirate is a murderer_."
"_I am not a murderer_," said Gascoyne, slowly, in reply, but still fixing his gaze on the widow's face, as if he addressed himself solely to her.
"You may not have committed murder with your own hand," said Mr. Mason, "but the man who leads on others to commit the crime is a murderer, in the eye of God's law as well as in that of man."
"I never led on men to commit murder," said Gascoyne, in the same tone, and with the same steadfast gaze. "This hand is free from the stain of human blood. Do you believe me, Mary?"
The widow did not answer. She sat like one bereft of all power of speech or motion.
"I will explain," resumed the pirate captain, drawing a long breath, and directing his looks to Henry now.
"For reasons which it is not necessary that you should know, I resolved some years ago to become a pirate. I had been deceived--shamefully deceived and wronged--by wealthy and powerful men. I had appealed to the law of my country, and the law refused to right me. No, not the law, but those who sat on the judgment-seat to pervert the law. It matters not now; I was driven mad at the time, for the wrong done was not done so much to me as to those whom I loved. I vowed that I should be avenged.
"I soon found men as mad as myself, who only wanted a leader to guide them in order to run full swing to destruction. I seized the Foam, of which schooner I was mate, called her the Avenger, and became a pirate. No blood was shed when I seized the schooner. Before an opportunity occurred of trying my hand at this new profession, my anger had cooled. _I repented_ of what I had done; but I was surrounded by men who were more bent on mischief than I was. I could not draw back, but I modified my plan. I determined to become merely a _robber_, and use the proceeds of my trade to indemnify those to whom injustice had been done. I thought at the time that there was some justice in this. I called myself, in jest, a tax-gatherer of the sea. I ordered the men aft one day, and explained to them my views. I said that I abhorred the name and the deeds of pirates; that I would only consent to command them if they agreed never to shed human blood except in fair and open fight.