"
"Your Excellency, I must have special assurance of this. Do you give me
your knightly word that you will grant me a free pardon for all offences
against the customs, if I tell all you wish to know, even to the most
secret hiding-places of the rovers?"
"I pledge you my full word of honor for that," said the governor, now
deeply interested.
"You will grant me full pardon, under the king's seal, no matter how great
my offences or crimes, if you call them so, may have been?"
"If what you reveal is to the purpose," said Tacon, wondering why his
visitor was so unduly cautious.
"Even if I were a leader among the rovers myself?"
Tacon hesitated a moment, looking closely at the stalwart stranger, while
considering the purport of his words.
"Yes," he said, at length. "If you will lead our ships to the haunts of
Marti and his followers, you can fully depend on the reward and the
pardon."
"Excellency, I know you well enough to trust your word, or I should never
have put myself in your power."
"You can trust my word," said Tacon, impatiently.
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