I was imprisoned for killing your father, Erris Boyne, and that separates us like an abysss.

It matters little whether I killed him or not; the law says I did, and the law has taken its toll of me.

I was in prison for four years, and when freed I enlisted in the king's navy, a quota man, with my servant-friend, Michael Clones.

That was the beginning of painful and wonderful days for me.

I was one of the mutineers of the Nore, and-- Here followed a description of the days he had spent on the Ariadne and before, and of all that happened down to the time when he was arrested by the admiral in the West Indian Sea.