{"product_id":"2940013117228","title":"CAPTAIN BLOOD","description":"CONTENTS\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e     I.       THE MESSENGER\u003cbr\u003e     II.      KIRKE'S DRAGOONS\u003cbr\u003e     III.     THE LORD CHIEF JUSTICE\u003cbr\u003e     IV.      HUMAN MERCHANDISE\u003cbr\u003e     V.       ARABELLA BISHOP\u003cbr\u003e     VI.      PLANS OF ESCAPE\u003cbr\u003e     VII.     PIRATES\u003cbr\u003e     VIII.    SPANIARDS\u003cbr\u003e     IX.      THE REBELS-CONVICT\u003cbr\u003e     X.       DON DIEGO\u003cbr\u003e     XI.      FILIAL PIETY\u003cbr\u003e     XII.     DON PEDRO SANGRE\u003cbr\u003e     XIII.    TORTUGA\u003cbr\u003e     XIV.     LEVASSEUR'S HEROICS\u003cbr\u003e     XV.      THE RANSOM\u003cbr\u003e     XVI.     THE TRAP\u003cbr\u003e     XVII.    THE DUPES\u003cbr\u003e     XVIII.   THE MILAGROSA\u003cbr\u003e     XIX.     THE MEETING\u003cbr\u003e     XX.      THIEF AND PIRATE\u003cbr\u003e     XXI.     THE SERVICE OF KING JAMES\u003cbr\u003e     XXII.    HOSTILITIES\u003cbr\u003e     XXIII.   HOSTAGES\u003cbr\u003e     XXIV.    WAR\u003cbr\u003e     XXV.     THE SERVICE OF KING LOUIS\u003cbr\u003e     XXVI.    M. DE RIVAROL\u003cbr\u003e     XXVII.   CARTAGENA\u003cbr\u003e     XXVIII.  THE HONOUR OF M. DE RIVAROL\u003cbr\u003e     XXIX.    THE SERVICE OF KING WILLIAM\u003cbr\u003e     XXX.     THE LAST FIGHT OF THE ARABELLA\u003cbr\u003e     XXXI.    HIS EXCELLENCY THE GOVERNOR\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCHAPTER I. THE MESSENGER\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003ePeter Blood, bachelor of medicine and several other things besides,\u003cbr\u003esmoked a pipe and tended the geraniums boxed on the sill of his window\u003cbr\u003eabove Water Lane in the town of Bridgewater.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSternly disapproving eyes considered him from a window opposite, but\u003cbr\u003ewent disregarded. Mr. Blood's attention was divided between his task and\u003cbr\u003ethe stream of humanity in the narrow street below; a stream which poured\u003cbr\u003efor the second time that day towards Castle Field, where earlier in\u003cbr\u003ethe afternoon Ferguson, the Duke's chaplain, had preached a sermon\u003cbr\u003econtaining more treason than divinity.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThese straggling, excited groups were mainly composed of men with green\u003cbr\u003eboughs in their hats and the most ludicrous of weapons in their hands.\u003cbr\u003eSome, it is true, shouldered fowling pieces, and here and there a sword\u003cbr\u003ewas brandished; but more of them were armed with clubs, and most of them\u003cbr\u003etrailed the mammoth pikes fashioned out of scythes, as formidable to\u003cbr\u003ethe eye as they were clumsy to the hand. There were weavers, brewers,\u003cbr\u003ecarpenters, smiths, masons, bricklayers, cobblers, and representatives\u003cbr\u003eof every other of the trades of peace among these improvised men of war.\u003cbr\u003eBridgewater, like Taunton, had yielded so generously of its manhood to\u003cbr\u003ethe service of the bastard Duke that for any to abstain whose age and\u003cbr\u003estrength admitted of his bearing arms was to brand himself a coward or a\u003cbr\u003epapist.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eYet Peter Blood, who was not only able to bear arms, but trained and\u003cbr\u003eskilled in their use, who was certainly no coward, and a papist only\u003cbr\u003ewhen it suited him, tended his geraniums and smoked his pipe on that\u003cbr\u003ewarm July evening as indifferently as if nothing were afoot. One other\u003cbr\u003ething he did. He flung after those war-fevered enthusiasts a line of\u003cbr\u003eHorace--a poet for whose work he had early conceived an inordinate\u003cbr\u003eaffection:\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Quo, quo, scelesti, ruitis?\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAnd now perhaps you guess why the hot, intrepid blood inherited from the\u003cbr\u003eroving sires of his Somersetshire mother remained cool amidst all this\u003cbr\u003efrenzied fanatical heat of rebellion; why the turbulent spirit which had\u003cbr\u003eforced him once from the sedate academical bonds his father would\u003cbr\u003ehave imposed upon him, should now remain quiet in the very midst of\u003cbr\u003eturbulence. You realize how he regarded these men who were rallying to\u003cbr\u003ethe banners of liberty--the banners woven by the virgins of Taunton, the\u003cbr\u003egirls from the seminaries of Miss Blake and Mrs. Musgrove, who--as the\u003cbr\u003eballad runs--had ripped open their silk petticoats to make colours for\u003cbr\u003eKing Monmouth's army. That Latin line, contemptuously flung after them\u003cbr\u003eas they clattered down the cobbled street, reveals his mind. To him they\u003cbr\u003ewere fools rushing in wicked frenzy upon their ruin.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eYou see, he knew too much about this fellow Monmouth and the pretty\u003cbr\u003ebrown slut who had borne him, to be deceived by the legend of\u003cbr\u003elegitimacy, on the strength of which this standard of rebellion had\u003cbr\u003ebeen raised. He had read the absurd proclamation posted at the Cross\u003cbr\u003eat Bridgewater--as it had been posted also at Taunton and\u003cbr\u003eelsewhere--setting forth that \"upon the decease of our Sovereign Lord\u003cbr\u003eCharles the Second, the right of succession to the Crown of England,\u003cbr\u003eScotland, France, and Ireland, with the dominions and territories\u003cbr\u003ethereunto belonging, did legally descend and devolve upon the most\u003cbr\u003eillustrious and high-born Prince James, Duke of Monmouth, son and heir\u003cbr\u003eapparent to the said King Charles the Second.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIt had moved him to laughter, as had the further announcement that\u003cbr\u003e\"James Duke of York did first cause the said late King to be poysoned,\u003cbr\u003eand immediately thereupon did usurp and invade the Crown.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHe knew not which was the greater lie.","brand":"SAP","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47182881390832,"sku":"2940013117228","price":0.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940013117228_p0.jpg?v=1763577168","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940013117228","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}