This desire for revenge obsessed
her. Her Spanish blood burned to repay the insults and indignities
which Montbar had heaped upon her, and she looked forward with pleasure
to the tortures which she promised herself she would inflict upon
Montbar when once she held him in her power.
In order to obtain means to make war upon her enemy, Donna Isabel
persuaded Hartog to embark upon a fresh adventure, which promised to
provide the necessary funds to equip a frigate equal to that owned by
Montbar, so that she might engage him upon equal terms.
The story that Donna Isabel had to tell was one confided to her by her
late husband, Captain Barreto, which she had kept locked in her memory
ever since, waiting for some such opportunity as the present, when the
information she possessed might be turned to account. The story was,
briefly, as follows:
A long time ago a Spanish vessel sailed from Manila for Mexico, and
east of Japan had by a violent storm been driven toward a small but
high-rising island.
When the crew went ashore, the island proved to be a country, strange
and unknown to anyone; the people being of handsome stature, white
skinned, and of good proportions, very affable, and amiably disposed.
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