1830.] The Demon Ship. 645 



for de sleeping Lyon dere, it were almost pity to cut his troat in any 

 case. He ver coot faillow ; like we chosen speerit. Sacre-bleu ! I knew 

 him a boy." 1 had never seen the fellow until I was on the wrong side 

 of my thirtieth birth-day.] " Alvays for de mischief, stealing apples, 

 beating his schoolfellows, and oder little speerited tricks. At last he 

 was expell de school. I say not dis praise from no love to him ; for he 

 beat me one, two time, when I secretaire to his uncle j and den run oft 

 vid my soodheart so I ver well pleased make him bad turn." " Well, 

 then, suppose the men come on deck, half at a time/' said the captain ; 

 and we'll keep the prisoners Heaven help us ! the passengers till the 

 sea be clear, may be till sunset/' " Look, look !" said Jack, " the 

 frigate gains on us ; I partly see her hull, and the wind slackens." I 

 now put my own glass, which was a remarkably good one, through my 

 little window, and could distinctly see the sails and rigging and part of 

 the hull of our late convoy. I could perceive that many of her crew 

 were aloft ; but the motion of our own vessel was so great that the frigate 

 was sometimes on and sometimes off the glass ; and I was therefore 

 unable to discover whether she were hoisting or taking in sail. It was a 

 comfortable sight, however, to see a friendly power apparently so near ; 

 and there was a feeling of hopeless desolation when, on removing the 

 glass, the vessel, whose men I could almost have counted before, shrank 

 to a dim, grey speck on the horizon. The captain uttered an infernal 

 oath, and called aloud to his sailors, " Seamen ahoy ahoy ! Make all 

 the sail ye can. Veer out the main-sheet top-sails unreefed royals 

 and sky-sails up" Q&c. &c.]. " Stretch every stitch of canvass. Keep 

 her to the wind keep her to the wind !" I was surprised to find that 

 our course was suddenly changed, as the vessel, which had previously 

 driven before the breeze, was now evidently sailing with a side-wind. 



The noise of rattling cables, the trampling of sailors' feet on deck, 

 and the increased blustering of the wind in the crowded sails, now over- 

 came every other sound. The Demon Ship was, of course, made for 

 fast sailing, and she now drove onward at a rate that was almost incre- 

 dible. She literally flew like a falcon over the waves. Once more I 

 turned to the horizon. God of mercy ! the frigate again began to sink 

 upon the waters. 



And now shall I waste words in telling what were my feelings during 

 the hour of horror I have described ? I felt as one who had dreamed 

 himself in security, and awoke in the infernal regions. I felt that in a 

 few hours I might not only be butchered in cold blood myself, but might 

 see Margaret that was the thought that unmanned me. I tried to 

 think if any remedy yet remained, if aught lay in our power to avert 

 our coming fate. Nothing offered itself. I felt that we were entirely 

 in the power of the Demon buccaneers. I saw that all that Girod could 

 do was to gain a few hours' delay. Oh ! when we stand suddenly, but 

 assuredly, on the verge of disembodied existence, who can paint that 

 strange revulsion of feeling which takes place in the human bosom ! I 

 had never been one who held it a duty to conceal from any human being 

 that approaching crisis of his destiny which will usher hi^n before the 

 tribunal of his Maker ; and my earnest desire now was to inform Mar- 

 garet as quickly as possible of her coming fate. But after Girod's parting 

 injunction, I feared to precipitate the last fatal measures by any step 

 that might seem taken with reference to them. I therefore lay still 

 until morning was farther advanced. I then arose and left my cabin. 



