anationofthieves:

“Number of years back, […] Flint had us hunting a merchant ship, the Maria Aleyne. […] We tracked that bitch for months, without refitting, or careening, ‘till finally we spotted her. We lost good men taking her for a haul nowhere near what Flint had promised. While I was exploring the hold, I chanced upon a cabin. and that’s when I heard it – ‘twas a man and a woman, begging for their lives. “Spare us, and our fortune’s yours.” For a moment, I thought all our shares were gonna be worth a whole lot more. But that’s when the screams began. And when I watched the murderer leave, I saw him plain. […]
Days later we come ashore. I see a lady waiting for Flint. The rest of the crew thought she’s just some fancy bit of Puritan tail, but when Flint reaches her, two words escape his lips:
“They’re  d e a d  .“ 
Hunting the Maria Aleyne was never about money. It was an  e x e c u t i o n . All those men we lost taking her, they died so Flint could settle some personal  v e n d e t t a  for her.”

“I’ve told you my father is a reasonable man, and that is true about most things. At one point,
he was even reasonable about the issue of quelling piracy, until I received a letter from him years ago, in which he recounted to me the story of a ship, headed for Charles Town, attacked by pirates. The ship which was attacked was named the Maria Aleyne. The ship was set upon by Captain Flint and his men and, in the midst of the bloody assault, there was one particular victim, a very important man, traveling under an assumed name. His name was Alfred Hamilton. Given the lengths to which this man had gone to protect himself, the fact that he fell under Captain Flint’s sword suggested he’d been  h u n t e d , p u r s u e d , and then  e x e c u t e d  in cold blood and with great malice aforethought. The motive unclear, but the intent apparently dark and awful… monstrous.”

“It was my fault. I’m the one who learned Alfred Hamilton was a passenger on that ship.
I knew, the moment I told you, what it would drive you to do.
I knew the danger it would put you in; knew the horrors it would incite.
I told myself to remain silent and spare him, spare you those horrors… and yet I told you anyway.
If you’re going to face judgment behind those walls, then so should I, for if anyone is  r e s p o n s i b l e  for what happened that day, it’s me.”