THE RED TARTANE. 



upon his lips, and the whole crew remained as if petrified, kneeling 

 upon the deck with fixed and haggardeyes and terror-stricken counte- 

 nances. We have said the sea was calm, the night dark and misty, 

 but at this moment a brilliant red flame burst forth a short distance 

 from the lugger, so powerful that the very atmosphere appeared on 

 fire, and the light reflected by the waves rendered the scene most 

 awful. Fresh bursts of flame ascended in streams every instant, and 

 then again descended in showers of blue and golden light. 



But the object that operated most fearfully on the nerves of the 

 trembling seamen was the Gitano himself, who appeared with his 

 Tartanein the midst of this flood of fire. It was indeed the Rover, sur- 

 rounded oy his black slaves, whose hideous features showed like 

 masks of bronze, reddened by intense heat. The Gitano stood upon the 

 deck as usual, dressed in his sable habiliments, his head covered by his 

 black cap and white plume ; his arms were folded, and, like the whole 

 of his crew, he was motionless and silent. On his right hand stood 

 Fasillo, dressed also in black, his arms resting on a richly ornamented 

 carbine, while in the back ground were ranged Bentek and the negro 

 crew in two equal lines, every third man bearing a slight rod lighted 

 at the extremity, ready to be applied to the small but efficient battery 

 before them. Nothing can well be imagined more imposing than this 

 spectacle, which had every appearance of an infernal assemblage, 

 for the profound silence of the crew of the accursed, their motionless 

 attitudes, the dark vessel with its red sails in the most perfect trim, 

 and which seemed to have sprung from the abysses of the ocean in the 

 midst of volumes of flame and light, at the moment when they believed 

 they had for ever destroyed it the calmness of the Rover, whose 

 countenance bore an expression almost superhuman all combined to 

 terrify the unhappy Massareo, who could see only in this fiery vision 

 the triumph of Satan. 



The Gitano at length broke silence, and the crew of the lugger, 

 who had remained kneeling, at once prostrated themselves on the 

 deck. " Dost thou see, miserable man, that neither fire nor water can 

 injure me that each of thy balls has repaired some part of my 

 damage ? By Satan, my master, wilt thou expose thyself again in 

 the pursuit of the Gitano? Dost thou believe that miserable wretches 

 like those can arrest in his course he who resists the fury of the tem- 

 pest and the will of thy God ?" 



Not a soul on board the lugger felt inclined to reply to these 

 questions, and the Gitano continued : " Begone, and tell the blood- 

 hounds of the Douane and the Governor of Cadiz, that I could have 

 crushed thy vessel like a nutshell, but that I spared thee. Look at 

 me well" placing his finger on his forehead " look at me well, and 

 remember the clemency of the Gitano; but lest to-morrow thou mayest 

 think that it was a dream, I give thee one proof of the reality of thy 

 vision/' Taking a lighted match from Bentek, he pointed a gun at 

 the lugger with great care and precision, then applied the fire j the 

 ball whistled through the air, shattered part of the bulwarks and 

 took the mizen-mast by the board, besides severely wounding three, 

 seamen by the splinters. 



Scarcely had the report died away, than the light on bord the 

 Tartane began rapidly to diminish, and in a few moments so deep 



