MONTHLY KEVIEW OF LITERATURE AND ART. 



following up the mischief which the shot had began, in two seconds re- 

 duced the sail to rags The captain regarded the spectacle with a min- 

 gled look of fury and despair, which would beggar all description. He 

 uttered no sound, but stooping down, as I thought to hide his countenance, 

 he patted the head of his spaniel, which was sitting at his feet ; while I 

 heard him say to the helmsman in a husky voice ' Take that poor creature 

 below, and tie her up out of the way of them devil's messengers/ meaning 

 the shots; after which little trait of kindness he took the steerage into his 

 own hand, and cried out in a sullen voice ' All hands shorten sail ! Aft 

 there, Roberts/ and hoist the red ensign.' The studding-sails were now 

 by his orders successively taken in, and the top-gallant-sails clued up, 

 when the ship's canvas being sufficiently reduced, he rounded her to the 

 wind, and hove the main-top-sail aback. After this he called his mate aft, 

 and gave some orders, which the latter executed by placing several of the 

 crew in different stations. I, in the meanwhile, had been lying perdu, as 

 it were, ' among the pots/ wondering not a little that he had never asked 

 for one whose existence so strongly threatened his own. The seventy-four, 

 for such, as Will had pronounced her, she now appeared to be, came ra- 

 pidly up with us ; nor since her last summons had she fired another shot. 

 Before day had well broken, she too had shortened sail, and hove to at the 

 distance of six hvmdred yards upon our quarter. Having us now pretty 

 safe, she lowered down one of her barges, and manning it, sent a lieutenant 

 and a midshipman to board us. How wildly my heart beat at this sight ! 

 my breath seemed to be impeded by my excess of joy at this approaching 

 deliverance. Scarcely did I permit the lieutenant to ascend from the boat 

 and gain a footing on the quarter-deck, where the captain was waiting to 

 receive him, than I rushed forward, threw myself between them, and 

 claimed the officer's protection. At the sight of me, Mackay, who before 

 seemed cowed beneath the weight of his own guilt, now became tran- 

 sported with the most deadly rage. Stepping aside, and swinging round 

 his head an iron bar, a monkey-tail which he had hitherto kept behind 

 his back, I suppose for the demolition of the lieutenant, he struck directly 

 at me. Shrinking myself, however, into as small a space as possible, I 

 darted on one side to escape the blow, which thus fell upon one of Mackay 's 

 own ' gang/ and so effectually was the poor fellow's skull cleft, that he 

 dropped instantaneously dead upon the deck. Incensed at this outrage, 

 the lieutenant's sword was in a moment drawn, and pointed at the cap- 

 tain's throat. ' Sway away the main-yard/' roared Mackay to his crew, 

 who, it seems, had been ready primed for this occasion, and now surrounded 

 the king's officer so closely, that it was impossible for him to get at the 

 chief object of his vengeance. 



The captain flew to the gangway, where one of his men was opposing 

 the entrance of the barge's bowman, and thrusting at the seaman with all 

 his strength, the blow hurled the poor fellow back into his boat ; he at the 

 same time knocking down two of the boat's crew, who were springing up 

 to their officer's assistance. Under these three were thus buried the boat- 

 hooks that had held the barge fast alongside, while the captain's order for 

 swinging the main yard having been instantly obeyed, the ship had, in a 

 few seconds, gathered sufficient sway to drop them ten or twenty yards 

 astern, while all their pulling availed them not to regain their former posi- 

 tion. No sooner, however, did Will Watch, who was on the weather 

 gangway, hear the scuffle to leeward, than he sprang to our assistance ; 

 but not until the barge alongside had been detached by the attack of 

 Mackay. The last-named personage, looking round for me, encountered 

 Will face to face. Between these two a desperate struggle now began. Size 

 was in favour of the captain rather, but youth, strength, and activity, were 



