Captain Kyd Volume Ii Part 34

"And who art thou, woman?" asked the wondering earl.

"The fisher's daughter, and the leman of Hurtel of the Red-Hand, and the mother of Robert Kyd!"

"My mother?" repeated the pirate.

"The fisher's daughter?" exclaimed the priest, rising with astonishment.

"Ay, Hurtel of the Red-Hand! I was thy leman! This pirate is the fruit of my illicit love and of your guilt. Ha, ha! do you not know me? Earl of Lester, behold before you, in Father Nanfan, Hurtel of the Red-Hand!

Ho, ho! when I told thee yesterday that Kyd was thy son, and that thou must join me to make him wed the n.o.ble heiress of Bellamont (as the devil has given thee an opportunity of doing), I did not tell thee that I was the mother of him. So, so, thou wilt swing for it!"

"And thou shalt die for it!" he cried, s.n.a.t.c.hing the sword from its sheath at Fitzroy's side and rushing upon her. Ere his hand could be arrested the point entered her bosom.

"If I hang I am well avenged on thee for it!" he cried, drawing forth the reeking blade as she fell, with a curse upon her lips, and expired.

A few words will bring the story to a close. Kyd was sent to England and executed; but Kate Bellamont died of a broken heart ere the vessel that bore him had half crossed the Atlantic.

Fitzroy was not long in discovering in Edwin his secretary no less a personage than Grace Fitzgerald; and, his affection for Kate Bellamont being chilled by her singular marriage with Kyd, he the following year, as Earl of Lester, made her his bride. Thus her true love was rewarded; and it cannot be denied that, although she loved him very much as lowborn, yet she was by no means sorry that he had proved n.o.ble.

THE END.