OUR ISLAND STORY 159 Margaret — That you would let us go the Land, And there we can together live our life In any humble work or menial toil. Together straining, that the coming time May overgrow the past. Roverbal— (Laughs bitterly) Why not? Among my colonists are choicest thieves, Cut-throats and galley-slaves, and monstrous drabs, Trulls of the camp, and all the market jades, That could be found in all the prisons of . Why not, I say? There's room enough for you/' This is a vivid scene, It enlists the reader's interest and sympathy and excites his imagination. The poet who wrote it was evidently possessed of the rare gift of dramatic power. Mar¬ garet's fate is described by the poet in the following scene between DeRoberval and the captain of the caravel: Captain J. Alphonse — Come ashore, sir, the ships ride at anchor, All three made fast and a clean bill of health. Roberval— Any trouble with your convict crews? Alf. Nothing to speak of; a revolt or two; Occasion to fire down the hatches twice; Two men thrust through a porthole; an attempt To fire the magazine; and by the way, I had to tuck three hands to the yard arm; Some mutiny on board the smaller ships; But on the whole nothing to speak of. Rob . In virtue of the powers conferred on me My clerk shall write you out an amnesty For these most necessary instances, A man and woman, prisoners, who were given With privately sealed orders, what of them? Alf. Alas! Sir—