Chapter VIII (3)

"How fares it with thee, my child?" he cried, with anxiety, pressing her to his breast.

"Safe from all but terror!"

"God bless thee! we will die together; there is no hope. Come on, ye fiends, now," he cried, turning upon his foes with one arm entwined about her, and brandishing his cutlass in the calm defiance of despair.

They rushed upon him with a shout.

"Back!" cried the clear, commanding voice of their young leader, in a tone that arrested every advancing foot and suspended every cutlass mid-air. "Look! there lies your late captain in his blood! Your first lieutenant is slain. I am now your leader. Obey me. Stand back, all of ye!" The men sullenly dropped their weapons and retreated to the foot of the stairs. "Earl of Bellamont! you and your niece are, from this moment, safe. Your yacht shall be instantly cleared of every man but its own crew, and you shall be at liberty to sail on your course. Call upon your captain for a cessation of hostilities on deck, while I draw off my men."

The astonished earl immediately obeyed.

"Who are you, mysterious young man?" he asked, turning to him after communicating his request to the captain. "Your voice and air are familiar."

"It matters not, my lord. I have saved thy niece from violence, and would, had I the power, earlier have put an end to this scene of bloodshed. Bid your captain call his crew to the quarter-deck, while I pass to my own vessel with my men."

The order, with the object of it, was repeated to the captain.

"Ay, ay!" he replied from the deck. "Let them go, with a left-handed blessing. But what has changed the devils about so? Have they had fighting enough?"

"We have mistaken the character of your vessel," said the young leader, evasively.

"Ha! you are there, my lion's cub, and can speak like a Christian, too. A little fighting always makes a man feel more civilized, is my maxim, my lord," he said, looking down upon them through the skylight.

"To your own vessel, men!" said the youth, sternly. "Throw down that casket! Take not with you the value of a groat. Go as you came, with only your arms in your hands."

The men looked at each other, and surveyed their athletic young chief, who stood like a youthful Mars, with the look and bearing of resolute command. His eye rested for an instant on each man, as he saw their hesitation, with a searching and terrible glance, and, as each one encountered it, he turned his eyes away and silently obeyed. As the last man left the cabin, he said,

"Some of you return, and bear your captain's body to the decks of your own vessel. Lay him decently along the quarter-deck."

Four of the pirates came back, and raised it without a word, while he stood quietly by, leaning on his sabre.

"Michael," he said, to one who seemed to take the lead of the rest, "I make you, for the present, second in command. Have the wounded conveyed to the lugger, and the dead thrown into the sea. Be ready to cut clear of the yacht at a moment's warning; and, with what time you have, repair damages and get sail on. Work will keep the men from thinking of mischief. Go! and see that I am obeyed. I shall instantly follow you."

The bucanier departed with ready obedience to the will of the lofty spirit that had at once assumed such irresistible power over his mind. The earl and Grace listened with surprise to the stern authority with which he governed such fierce men, and witnessed with wonder the entire control he seemed to possess over their wills. The former gazed on him for a few seconds as he stood beneath the swinging lamp, his features thrown into the deepest shadow by the falling brim of his bonnet and his drooping plume, and then spoke:

"Mysterious and wonderful young man, whoever you are, we owe you much. This life of crime and horror is not your sphere. There is humanity about you. Tell me," he added, with irresistible curiosity, "who are you?"

"A _bastard_!"

It is impossible to convey the manner and emphasis with which this word was articulated. It expressed volumes to both uncle and niece. It told a dark history of shame, scorn, and disgrace; explained why, being so above them by nature, he herded with the basest. A painful tale of moral wrong and suffering it unfolded to their imaginations, save that they knew not his name or family. They read from his brief confession all that could have been told them. The earl sighed, shook his head, and was silent. Grace looked upon him with pity.

He contemplated for a moment the effect of this disclosure, and then, turning haughtily away, said,

"The service I have done you is cancelled by your discovery of the baseness of the instrument. There is debt on neither side. Adieu, my lord--adieu, Lady Grace Fitzgerald."

"How know you my name and rank?"

"And _mine_!" simultaneously exclaimed both.

"It matters not. Thou wilt learn full soon enough to scorn as well as pity me."

With these words he departed. The yacht was cleared of its piratical horde, and the two vessels separated, and soon were steering on opposite courses.

END OF BOOK I.

BOOK II.

THE EFFECT.

"'Twas in the third King William's time,
When many a pirate bold
Committed on the seas the crime
Of shedding blood for gold."

"My name is Captain Kyd,
As I sailed, as I sailed:
My name is Captain Kyd,
And so wickedly I did,
God's laws I did forbid
When I sailed."

OLD BALLAD.