But the most singular portion of the garniture of this most singular
cave consisted of a number of "Oliver's Acts," pinned or nailed against
the walls. If Dalton had been Lord Chief Justice, he could not have
displayed a more minute attention to the products of legal sittings
than distinguished his private chamber: here was set forth on goodly
parchment, "An Act for the Security of his Highness the Lord Protector,
his Person, and Continuance of the Nation in Peace and Safety;" there,
"An Act for Renouncing and Disannulling the pretended Title of Charles
Stuart, &c. at the Parliament begun at Westminster the 17th day of
September, anno Domini 1656," with the names "Henry Hills" and "John
Field, Printers to his Highness the Lord Protector," in large letters at
the bottom, together with divers others, chiefly however relating to the
excise.
Hugh Dalton rose from his seat, and laid his enormous pipe on a pile of
ebony logs that answered the purpose of a table, when Sir Willmott
Burrell saluted him with more civility than he usually bestowed upon
inferiors: but, despite his outlawry, and the wild course his life had
taken, there was a firm, bold, and manly bearing about the Buccaneer
which might have overawed far stouter hearts than the heart of the
master of Burrell. His vest was open, and his shirt-collar thrown back,
so as to display to advantage the fine proportions of his chest and
neck. His strongly-marked features had at all times an expression of
fierceness which was barely redeemed from utter ferocity by a pleasant
smile that usually played around a well-formed mouth; but when anger was
uppermost, or passion was subdued by contempt, those who came within
reach of his influence, more dreaded the rapid motion or the sarcastic
curl of his lip, than the terrible flashing of eyes that were
proverbial, even among the reckless and desperate men of whom he was the
chief, in name, in courage, and in skill. His forehead was unusually
broad: thick and bushy brows overhung the long lashes of his deeply-set
eyes, around which there was a dark line, apparently less the effect of
nature than of climate. The swarthy hue of his countenance was relieved
by a red tinge on either cheek; but a second glance might have served to
convince the gazer that it was the consequence of unchecked dissipation,
not a token of ruddy health. Indeed, notwithstanding the fine and manly
character of his form and countenance, both conveyed an idea of a mind
ill at ease, of a conscience smitten by the past and apprehensive of the
future, yet seeking consolation in the knowledge of good that had been
effected, and of more that remained to be done. Years of crime had not
altogether obliterated a natural kindness of heart; he appeared as one
who had outraged society and its customs in a thousand forms, yet who
knew there was that within him by which he was entitled to ask and
expect a shelter within her sanctuary; and when a deep flush would pass
over his features, and his blood grow chill at the recollection of
atrocities at which the sufferers in a score of lands had shuddered as
they talked, he endeavoured to still the voice that reproached him, by
placing to the credit of his fearful account some matters to which we
may hereafter more distinctly refer.