In the waist stood the Admiral himself to receive them, a handsome, self-sufficient man, very tall and stiff, a little older and greyer than Don Diego, whom he closely resembled.

He was supported by four officers and a friar in the black and white habit of St.Dominic.
Don Miguel opened his arms to his nephew, whose lingering panic he mistook for pleasurable excitement, and having enfolded him to his bosom turned to greet Don Esteban's companion.
Peter Blood bowed gracefully, entirely at his ease, so far as might be judged from appearances.
"I am," he announced, making a literal translation of his name, "Don Pedro Sangre, an unfortunate gentleman of Leon, lately delivered from captivity by Don Esteban's most gallant father." And in a few words he sketched the imagined conditions of his capture by, and deliverance from, those accursed heretics who held the island of Barbados.
"Benedicamus Domino," said the friar to his tale.
"Ex hoc nunc et usque in seculum," replied Blood, the occasional papist, with lowered eyes.
The Admiral and his attending officers gave him a sympathetic hearing and a cordial welcome.

Then came the dreaded question.
"But where is my brother?
Why has he not come, himself, to greet me ?" It was young Espinosa who answered this: "My father is afflicted at denying himself that honour and pleasure.

But unfortunately, sir uncle, he is a little indisposed--oh, nothing grave; merely sufficient to make him keep his cabin.

It is a little fever, the result of a slight wound taken in the recent raid upon Barbados, which resulted in this gentleman's happy deliverance." "Nay, nephew, nay," Don Miguel protested with ironic repudiation.