Governor Swann did not particularly enjoy being under house arrest, but what really got to him was that they'd taken his wig. He loved his wig. He'd battled with undead pirates, enraged agents from the East India Company and head lice for his wig. He could tweak the curls into place just by feel, he needed no mirror. He bought his clothes to match his wig. And now they'd taken his wig away.
He'd tried wearing a bed-cap, but somehow it wasn't the same.
At about ten-thirty in the evening (he'd been watching the clock gloomily since seven), he heard the distant boom of cannon fire, and he'd wandered wearily over to the window to take a look. Once upon a time he might have been scared, but to be quite frank he was too depressed to feel anything other than mild surprise.
Some brain cell registered that all the cannon fire was directed at the prison walls, and that there seemed to be an awful lot of men falling off the ship doing the firing, as if the captain didn't mind too much what happened to this crew, but Governor Swann was not in the mood to mull this over. All that this observation stirred was a faint sense of relief that Elizabeth had escaped and was not in any danger of being blown to pieces, but then his mind got all morbid over what could be happening to his slender, delicate, impetuous daughter.
As he was brooding over this (he'd just got the bit in his imagination where Elizabeth was surviving on nothing except salted meat and pickled eggs, and was getting very ill as a result), he noticed one of the cannon balls scored a direct hit and a flood of very nasty looking pirates poured out. He vaguely recognised them too- they were the naughty bunch awaiting execution after the Sparrow adventure. They appeared to have recognised someone on board the attacking ship, for they were cheering and plunging into the sea.
Some sensible person had evidently got over the shock of being attacked and were now commanding small ships to give chase, but the pirate ship (Governor Swann noticed for the first time the flag) was having none of this. Boom. Boom. Boom. There seemed to be nothing on this ship except cannon balls and men. Unlucky for the chasers, then.
The newly-freed buccaneers were climbing up ropes draped over the side of the boats with worrying agility. Cries of, "Arrr!" and "Let's go, me hearties!" could be heard even from the Governor's distant position.
He watched the ship sweep off around the cliff, out into the open sea, and for the first time in a week he grinned.
Let's see you negotiate that, Lord Beckett, he thought. And then he thought a rude word, just because he could.