"Fire away as you load," again shouted the captain. "Let each gun fight for itself. Take sight at his poles, and bring his huge mainsails down without giving him the trouble to let go his halyards. Give your foe a lift when you can, is my maxim, my lord. There, he returns it," he cried, as a flash illuminated the open decks of the pirate. "Down all!"
The hurricane of iron passed high above their heads, cutting the rigging and splintering long, slender pieces from the spars. The smoke from the guns, at the same time, rolled sullenly towards the yacht, hid the pirate from them, and enveloped the brig in an impenetrable cloud of sulphurous smoke.
"Stand by, boarders, to repel boarders!" shouted the captain, in a loud, quick tone. "He will be down upon us in his smoke before we know it. I thought there was more powder than iron in those guns, my lord, and suspected there was an object in it. Boarders, all!"
"Boarders!" answered the lieutenant.
"Keep good look-out through the smoke. There it lifts. By the rood! see, he is close upon us! Put a shot into his fore foot. Lame him, or he'll be thrusting his snub nose between our ribs."
As the captain spoke, Mark sprang towards the after gun, and levelled it against the bows of the pirate, who, having made sail under cover of his smoke towards the yacht, was now within twenty fathoms of her. He applied the flaming linstock and fired the piece. The shot, taking a slightly ascending course, struck beneath the bowsprit, tore it from its bed with its jib, and lodged in the mainmast ten feet from the deck, nearly severing it in two. Deprived of her jib, the lugger broached to, and once more presented her broadside to the yacht.
"Give it to him, my lads, before he brings his guns to bear!" shouted the captain. "Pour in your iron! That's my hearties! You knocked her a foot out of the water that shot, boys! Quit your guns now; there is no time to reload! Take to your cutlasses and pistols. We have the rest of it, lads, at close quarters. We'll show them what it is to board a king's ship. If your muskets are in the way in the fight, throw 'em aside and use your English fists! We'll whip them yet! If we believe we can do a thing, we can do it; that's my maxim, my lord. Your lordship will now have the pleasure of cutting a score or two of these murderer's throats, with the advantage of exercise to the muscles. Pleasure with business is my maxim. Stand ready all! When I give the word, each of you bring down one of those red devils that are crowding about her bows."
The men replied with loud cheers, and prepared resolutely to receive the attack.
The pirate, after the loss of his jib, being no longer able to hold a direct course, drifted towards the yacht, which, being at leeward and disabled both by the storm and action, was in no situation to choose her own position, and had, therefore, no other alternative than to lie passive as she was, and repel as she best could the expected attack.
The bucanier had now ceased firing, not being able to bring any of his side guns to bear, and converted all his crew into boarders, who crowded about the forepart of the lugger, ready to leap cutlass in hand on the deck of the yacht when they should have drifted near enough. The brig had also ceased her fire, her opponent having skilfully worked out of the range of her guns, by coming down, as well as his crippled condition would let him, upon her quarter.
The deck of the pirate was crowded with men, numbering eighty or ninety, apparently, in all, while the crew of the yacht, exclusive of the wounded, consisted of less than forty-five. But cool courage and confidence in the right, opposed to fierce and sanguinary passions in an evil cause, count to the righteous side in a battle for twice the number of opponents. The earl trembled for the issue. But the brave Kenard, with his knowledge of the spirit of his men, and his confidence in their English courage and in their contempt for pirates, whom he gave them the credit of despising as cordially as he himself did, gave not an anxious thought about the result, assured that, if each man did his duty, victory would side with the honest and brave. During the exchange of broadsides, he had kept his place on the quarter-deck, encouraging his men by his cheering voice: the earl was also beside him, scarcely less energetic in inspiring the crew with his own spirit. The first lieutenant was actively engaged, sword in hand, in directing the fire of the battery; while Mark, who was in a new element, flamed with the fierce fire of war, and seemed, amid the smoke and roar of battle, to have been suddenly endued with a new and sublime character. He was everywhere where his presence was most needed, encouraging and cheering on the men both by his voice and example; but, notwithstanding his animation and fire, was as cool and collected in the sagacious orders he gave as the oldest veteran.
But, with all his devotion to the fight, he forgot not that the cabin contained a lovely creature, helpless as she was beautiful, whose life depended on the issue of that night's conflict. Though his heart may have been proof against her charms, being shielded with the proof-plate of another's love, yet he felt an interest akin to love in her fate. She was the cousin of Kate! She had expressed an interest in him that he could never forget! He had saved her life! It was a second time endangered! These were all motives to sympathy; and, properly nurtured, the germes were there from which might spring a tenderer and deeper feeling. But he had no room in his breast for a second love. There was but one polar star to the eye of his affections; and steadily he steered the bark of his hopes towards it, although, like the north star of the mariner, the farther and nearer he sailed in its direction, it would higher and higher ascend the skies, mocking his aspiring ambition. Nevertheless, he resolved to steer steadily onward, even if he should perish at last amid the icebergs of her cold and wintry affections. But whatever a lover, in the warmth of his affections, may sincerely feel and solemnly vow—love unrequited, like the Persian flower, that withers when the sun is hidden by a passing cloud, without the warmth of its sun will speedily die. Time, in the present instance, will test the truth of this proposition.
The vessels were now within twenty feet of each other, the pirate rising heavily on each wave, and surging nearer and nearer at every heave of the sea. Silence was broken only at intervals by a groan from a wounded bucanier, and terrible expectation hung over the two vessels. The moon at length broke from a cloud and lighted up the scene. There were beauty and peace floating on her silvery beams; but the passions of men reigned, and their souls were closed to everything bright and lovely. Yet they hailed her light with a shout, for by it foe was able to see foe nearly with the distinctness of noonday.
"Now pour in your fire!" shouted the cool Kenard to his crew; "aim wherever you can see the glitter of an eye!"
The bows of the pirate vessel were within an oar's length of the yacht's larboard and weather quarter as this order was given, and a dozen half-naked, savage-looking men were just in the act of leaping into the main rigging. The simultaneous discharge of pistols, muskets, and blunderbusses was like the explosion of a volcano, and but one third of the bucaniers succeeded in springing alive into the chains: the remainder plunged, dead ere they struck the surface, into the sea. The fire was answered by a loud yell from the pirates, and a few straggling shots only from pistols; for these demons seemed to trust more to their dangerous cutlasses in their wild conflicts than to firearms. They now pressed forward over the bows in dark swarms. From every part of her that offered any prospect of reaching the yacht, they leaped without waiting for the vessels to come together, with cries and execrations most appalling, into the main chains, or sprang for the bulwarks, catching recklessly by their hands at whatever offered. Many fell short into the sea, or were hurled into it by those who met them; some leaped overboard, swam to the side, and drew themselves up by the rigging that hung over the water, but fell back with curses and cries of pain, leaving their hands, severed at the wrists and dripping with gore, clinging to the rope. Grappling-irons were thrown on deck, but were cast overboard by the crew before they could be entangled; and wherever a pirate struck the side of the yacht with his foot, he was opposed by one of its defenders.
Three times the Earl of Bellamont sheathed his sword in the breasts of as many of these ferocious beings and cast them backward dead into the sea, and as a fourth, who had thrown himself bodily upon the quarter-deck, made a tremendous stroke at him with his yataghan, he blew out his brains with a pistol. Everywhere, in their first daring attempt to board them, were they encountered with equal resolution and success, and of the twenty pirates that by some means or other succeeded in reaching the brig, not one retained a foothold on her decks—every individual of them being either slain outright, or hurled maimed into the water, where several swam about amid dark spots of blood, lifting their handless limbs, and in vain calling to their comrades to take them on board. The fate of these checked for a moment the ardour of the remainder, and they waited till the vessels should come together before making a second attempt.
The pirate, who had some time before dropped his lugsails, to prevent his shooting past the yacht, towards which the waves were slowly urging him, was now lifted and dashed with great violence against it, striking her on her quarter, carrying away her bulwarks, and opening her planks in several places.
"Throw yourselves into her now," shouted the pirate chief, leaping forward and waving his cutlass. "Flesh your blades in their carcasses! Give no quarter to beards—but spare bright eyes! Board! board! clamber over each other's backs—press on, press on! Follow your young leader. He will shame the best of ye!"
Like a crew of demons, yelling and shouting menaces of death, mingled with horrible execrations and oaths of vengeance for their slaughtered comrades, they obeyed the energetic and sanguinary orders of their chief. They were headed by the pirate's first lieutenant and a youth with long fair hair, which, in the light of the moon, shone like silver, who, with strange recklessness of life, cast himself from the bows as they approached the side of the yacht, and fell feet foremost into the midst of a grove of sharp steel, amid a shower of balls, that, while they told in the bodies of his followers, seemed to pass him as if he carried a charmed life. The old pirate captain himself headed another party near the stern of his vessel, which was slowly swinging round towards the yacht's bows, apparently for the purpose, when it should come in contact, of boarding on the forecastle. Here stood Edwards the lieutenant, with a force of fifteen men to oppose him; while midships, and near the companion-way, Mark was stationed at the head of a third of the yacht's crew, and, acting as a reserve, was prepared to throw in the weight of his numbers as should be required, either on the forecastle or the quarter-deck, at which latter point, at the head of an equal number, stood the captain, supported by the earl's good blade, ready to repel the attempt to board from the bows of the pirate.
More like devils incarnate than human beings, the pirates followed their young leader, and cast themselves from the bows, some running over the heads of their comrades and leaping on board; some, more active, flinging somersets through the air into the mêlée; and all rushing, crowding, and falling upon the deck in every possible attitude, seemingly indifferent, so that the yacht's decks received them, whether they landed head foremost or upright on their feet. Such a torrent of desperate men was irresistible. The defenders of the quarter-deck were borne down by the mere weight of the assailants' bodies, or their cutlasses were turned aside like feathers as they were levelled to meet this novel and terrible human storm. Immediately in advance of himself and the earl, the captain had placed half a dozen men with pikes, the bristly points of which served to protect, in some measure, their position by turning to one side the current of boarders.
The conflict now became most terrible and sanguinary. The crew, that had been borne down by the first shock, had recovered their feet, and nearly every man was instantly struggling with a bucanier. Kenard fought like a lion, thrice clearing a space around him in which he could sweep his cutlass. The earl, at length, seeing some of the pirates rushing to the companion-way and attempting to force it, placed his back against it, and met their fierce lunges with well-directed thrusts, turning aside their descending strokes aimed at his head, with the skill of a swordsman and the coolness of a soldier. He fought not only on the defensive, but his eye was quick to see where any of his own party within his reach were being worsted, and his blade was instant in its service of relieving them from their mortal peril. Every sweep of his blade was fatal, for he fought for one dear to his heart whose life and honour were at stake.
For some time the battle was waged with doubtful success. At one moment the pirates, who, after the first wild charge, had formed into a body, would be driven over the side, and at another they would press the defending party towards the stern. Their youthful leader, who was everywhere present, cheering them on with animating cries as often as they were beaten back towards their own vessel, was at length opposed to Kenard face to face.
"I would not slay a youth like thee if I could help it," he said, parrying his attack, and endeavouring to close with him, and wrest the cutlass from his grasp.
"Thou shalt have no space left for compunction if thou shouldst," said the other, avoiding his grasp, and making a lunge at his neck, which he grazed with his blade.
"Have at thee, then, if such be thy play! give as you get, is my maxim, my lord!" he added, looking round as usual when he gave utterance to a maxim, to catch the earl's attention.
But his lordship was too busily defending himself and the companion-way against a gigantic and active Frenchman to acknowledge the usual appeal. The turning of his head gave the youthful pirate an advantage, of which he availed himself. With great dexterity, he twisted with his cutlass the weapon out of his grasp, and sent it flying through the air into the sea. He was about to follow up his advantage by sheathing his blade in his breast, when it was struck up by an intervening one, and turning round, the young pirate found himself confronted with the Earl of Bellamont, who, having that instant freed himself from his assailants, was looking round to see where his sword would be of most service, when he discovered the peril of the captain. His presence had an electric effect on the youthful bucanier. He started back with an exclamation of surprise, and half repeated the name of the nobleman. But instantly he checked himself, and successfully parried the pass he made at him, retreating at the same time, and acting wholly on the defensive. The earl wondered at his exclamation and at the sound of his voice, which reminded him of a familiar one. This sudden change in the tactics of one who hitherto seemed to know only how to advance and attack, also surprised him; and, although he surveyed him closely, as the drifting clouds across the moon let it shine brightly at intervals, his features were so shaded by a drooping bonnet, and so black and begrimed by the blood and smoke of battle, that his scrutiny was defeated.
"Nevertheless," thought he to himself, "have I heard that voice and seen that form before!"
Inspired as much by curiosity to ascertain who it was that revived such indefinable associations, as by a desire to put an end to a dangerous foe, he pressed him hard. With all the youthful bucanier's coolness and skill, he had been wellnigh worsted, never returning back a blow for those the earl gave him so freely, when a loud shout from the forecastle caused every combatant on the quarter-deck to suspend his descending stroke, withhold his deadly thrust, or leave, half-sheathed, his sword in the body of his antagonist. As the earl paused to look for the cause of this fresh outcry, he saw that the lugger's stern had at length came in contact with the bows of the yacht, and that the pirates, headed by their old chief, were pouring across the bulwarks and leaping upon the deck, wild with fury and thirsting for blood. Hitherto chafing with inaction, and roused to a fearful pitch of excitement by the spectacle and uproar of the combat from which they were withheld, like tigers chained in an arena panting to mingle in the fierce conflict of their species, terrific and overpowering in proportion to the length and impatience of their restraint, was their first onset. The little band under Edwards, who had reserved their energies for this moment, drew back to the opposite side of the vessel to escape the tumultuous fall of their almost flying bodies on the deck, and poured in upon them a fatal fire of pistols and harquebusses.
"Now at them, my brave fellows, with your cutlasses," he cried; "throw away your pistols, and grapple while they are crowded together! Set upon the rascals, and give a good account of them!"
With a shout, they charged in a body, and a terrific and sanguinary contest ensued. Mark, with his division, hitherto had not been idle. He saw that the fate of the yacht would depend on the reception given to the last boarding-party, headed by the old pirate chief himself, and wished therefore to husband the strength of his men until this crisis. Nevertheless, while he was anxiously watching the lugger as its stern drifted round, he was present with two or three of his best men, to turn the tide of the combat on the quarter-deck, as it went now against the earl, now against the captain; and several times he received, in the hottest of the fight, the warm acknowledgments of both for the promptness in which he effected diversions in their favour. It now came to his turn to enter more closely into the combat.
No sooner did the boarders find themselves in a mass on the forecastle of the brig, than they separated into two bodies, one of which received the charge of, and entered into fierce fight with, the division under Edwards; while the other, consisting of twenty men, headed by the pirate in person, made a rush aft to carry the quarter-deck. Here a few of their comrades were fighting at a disadvantage under their youthful leader, who, taking the advantage of the earl's pause at the shout of the fresh boarders, had again mingled among his few remaining men, who were defending themselves on the opposite side of the deck against a much larger number of their antagonists.
Mark had anticipated the charge, and had formed his men in a firm phalanx to meet it. The first line consisted of five men, who just filled up the passage between the launch and the forward larboard gun, along which the pirates were advancing. Besides their cutlasses, they were armed with boarding-pikes, which protruded three feet in advance. A second and third line were armed with cutlasses and pistols. Their young leader himself sprung upon the gun as the rush was made, and in a cool, steady tone of voice, said,
"Stand firm, pikemen. Never mind their cutlasses; your comrades behind will take care of your heads. Now they come! Give them your pistols!" he exclaimed, as the bucaniers came upon them like a wedge, as if they would cleave bodily through their centre. They were checked by the advanced pikes, and thrown into confusion by the discharge of a dozen pistols, which they instantly returned with scarcely half as many, without material effect.
"Cut them down. Let not a handful of cowards put ye back. No quarter! Down with them! Strike off the poles of their pikes! Close with them," shouted the old pirate chief.
A second rush was made with better success. The old bucanier shivered with his cutlass, as if they had been pipe-stems, two of the pike-staffs, and the front line of men gave back.
"Drop your pikes and take your blades!" shouted Mark, at the same time discharging his pistols at the pirate chief and wounding him in the shoulder.
The combat was now waged with terrible ferocity.
"Fight hard, or we shall be routed!" cried Mark, with energy. "Stand steady, men! Keep your ground, or you will be cut to pieces. Stand! fly not, on your lives! One good blow—All is lost!" he suddenly cried, as he saw the men give back before the obstinate attack of the pirates.
Leaping from the gun into the midst, he dealt blows as if he had the strength of a Hercules, and essayed to stop, with his single arm and the intervention of his body, their onward and victorious course. But the impetus was already given, and they bore him forward with his men in a dense mass, so crowded together that no man could use his weapon. They were driven aft and upon the quarter deck, where the captain came to his aid and succeeded in rallying them for the defence of this important post. At the same instant the youthful pirate, seeing the success of his party, called his followers from their unequal contest, and leaped down with them among his crew, leaving half his men dead behind him.
On the forecastle Edwards fought for a while with success, and had nearly beaten the pirates back to their vessel, when the victorious shouts of the conquering party gave them renewed spirit, and filled the minds of the crew with sudden panic. The bucaniers, taking advantage of their hesitation, in their turn became the assailants; and the men, completely routed, fled towards the quarter-deck, cutting their way with the desperation of fear through the party that besieged it, and, with the loss of a third of their number, succeeded in reaching it.
The whole of that portion of the yacht forward of the quarter-deck was now in possession of the pirates, a portion of whom began to force open the hatches; while the majority, under the direction of the chief and his youthful lieutenant, prepared to carry this last post, which was elevated four feet above the main deck, by forming their men into two divisions, and attacking it on both sides of the companion-way at the same time.
The earl, Mark, and the captain, though all three were wounded more or less severely, the latter supporting his left arm in a sling, assembled their force, now diminished to twenty men, to meet the escalade. The pirates, with yells of vengeance for their slaughtered comrades, began to bring to the assault loose spars, sails, and whatever they could lay hands on, which they heaped against the wall the deck presented. The harness-casks were rolled up, made firm, and covered with rolls of canvass; and the hatches, which some of them had torn off for the purpose of descending to plunder the hold, were laid against it, to aid them in constructing a glacis.
"Bring along those carcasses! pile them up here!" shouted the old chief, ferociously. "We will yet make a fair run of it."
The bodies of the dead, both of pirates and the crew of the yacht, were eagerly dragged forward and thrown on the pile, and it was soon raised so that the quarter-deck could be gained erect and sword in hand without the danger to which they would be exposed in climbing a barrier so well guarded.
"Now, men, make a run for it and sweep the deck!" he shouted.
The pirates retreated a few steps in two parties, headed by the old chief and his young lieutenant, and, with a yell, rushed forward and up the human glacis to the quarter-deck. But they were met with a resolution that matched their own ferocity, and several of them fell back dead, adding their own bodies to the pile they had the moment before assisted in constructing. A few battled for a few seconds, giving and receiving wounds, but were finally pressed back to the main deck. In the assault, Mark and the young pirate leader had once crossed weapons; but, ere they could exchange passes, the latter was forced back by the retreat of his own party.
"Let them maintain the deck if they will," said the chief to his young lieutenant; "we have the command of the cabin and hold. Keep them busy while I force the companion-way, and see what kind of a prize she will prove. I little thought we had engaged with a king's ship, but we must now make the most of it. I have lost men enough for one night's work, and don't care to make a capture of the yacht if I can get anything of value out of her. So keep them employed on the quarter-deck till I take a cruise through the cabins."
As he spoke he gave orders for his men to force a spar from the doors of the companion-way which the earl had braced against it.
"Hold there, fiends!" cried the nobleman, as he saw these demonstrations of the pirate's intentions.
He sprung forward as he spoke, and with a blow of his cutlass clove the scull of a bucanier, who was wrenching the lock with a pike-head, so that it fell in two parts over either shoulder. He aimed a second blow at the pirate chief so suddenly that the point of the blade laid open his cheek, and an active movement to one side only saved his head from flying from his shoulders: at the same instant, a pistol-ball, fired by the chief, struck the earl near the knee, and he fell over into the arms of Mark.
The doors at once were forced open, and the old leader, accompanied by two or three of his men, descended to the cabin.
"To the rescue! To the rescue!" shouted Mark, on seeing them disappear, letting the earl down gently upon the deck.
"Protect or slay her, young man, and I will bless thee!" cried the earl, faintly.
He made no reply to the earl's words; and, heedless whether he was followed or not, leaped, cutlass in hand, through the top of the companion-way, and lighted on his feet at the bottom of the stairs.
The doors of the first cabin were open, and a glance showed him two of the pirates rifling the baggage of the earl, and the chief in the act of forcing the inner door leading to the stateroom occupied by Grace.
Poor maiden! how had she been occupied during the fearful conflict above and around her? How had she borne the terrific sounds of battle? From the first moment of the fight she had been kneeling in silent prayer—bearing on her heart's orisons the names of her uncle, and of one, though of lowly origin, not less dear to her. Of herself she scarcely thought: but at every report of cannon, every discharge of musketry, she shuddered for those who were exposed to the dreadful horrors of the fight. Her maid had become insensible through overpowering terror. Terror, too, was acutely felt by herself, but it was modified and subdued by the bright hopes of religion. She feared not death. "The sting of death is sin." She knew no sin! For her it could have no terrors. Nature, indeed, shrunk at contemplating its violent dissolution; but the glorious certainties of a new life beyond this reconciled her to put this away for that better one. She expected to die within the hour—perhaps by her own hand! The dagger her uncle had given her was hidden in her bosom, and, as she knelt, her grasp was firmly laid upon its hilt. Long, long and terrible had been the conflict to her ears—more terrible, perhaps, than if she had witnessed it. Its sanguinary horrors were indeed hidden from her sight; but her imagination, with its hundred eyes, aided by the horrid sounds that reached her, reflected the scene upon her dizzy brain in colours, if it could be possible, more dreadful than the reality. Who can imagine the effect upon her of the loud roar of the cannon vibrating through every oaken nerve of the vessel, and filling its hollow decks with a noise more awful than the thunder that explodes at her feet. Who can conceive the fearful shrinking of the heart at the rush of the balls—the sound of the crashing decks—the wild and unearthly shrieks of the wounded—the moans of the dying—the fierce yells of the combatants—and all the thousand and terrific sounds that assimilate war to the hellish pastime of accursed spirits. Who is there that, not participating in its mad excitement, calmly witnesses a battle, that will not turn away in disgust and horror, be ready to deny his humanity, and to believe men neither more nor less than demons incarnate?
When the cabin doors burst open, she hurriedly committed her soul to Heaven, and, rising from her knees, held the friendly dagger above her virgin bosom, and stood facing the closed doors of her cabin, feeling that the crisis of her fate was approaching its consummation.
The entrance of Mark into the forward cabin was not perceived by the pirates nor their chief. With a blow of his cutlass he nearly severed the head of one that was leaning over a chest, and, before the other could rise, the ball of his pistol had laid him across the body of his comrade. The next instant he was opposed to the terrible pirate leader himself.
"Ha, my young fledging!" cried he, his cutlass descending with tremendous force, and with a fatal accuracy of aim, that would have cleft him to the chine had it taken effect; but, with youthful activity, he avoided the stroke which he could not avert, and the point of the pirate's weapon buried itself so deep in the floor of the cabin that he was unable to extricate it. Mark instantly availed himself of this singular advantage, and, quicker than lightning, sheathed his blade in his heart.
"Oh! villain, you have done for me!" he cried, pressing his hand on his side, through which the crimson tide rushed in an irresistible torrent.
He staggered as he spoke, and a lurch of the vessel at the same moment sent him headlong, breaking his sword off close to the floor as he fell with it in his grasp, upon the bodies of his men.
"Courage! my lady!" said Mark, bounding to the door, and speaking in the triumphant tones of success. "Their leader is slain! we shall soon clear the vessel of his base herd! Courage!"
"Bless you for these words of hope! You are safe! and my uncle! how fares my dear uncle?"
Before he could reply the companion-stairway was filled with pirates.
"A female voice!" shouted one, as he entered the cabin.
"Love and ransom," cried another, with a sensual laugh.
"We will draw lots for her, Hans."
"The captain has saved us that trouble," growled a third. "Ho! who have we here?" he cried, seeing Mark, with his dripping cutlass in his hand, standing resolutely with his back against the door of the stateroom.
"Our captain is slain!" cried another, fiercely, now for the first time seeing the body of his chief lying in its gore.
The pirates for a moment forgot Mark, and gathered around their fallen leader. They raised him up, and his head fell back helpless upon his shoulder, and his eyes glared with the fixed stare of death.
"He is dead! His sword is broken. Let us avenge the old man!" they cried, with one voice. "Ha! here is the point of his weapon, that ne'er failed him before, sticking in the deck, and he hath been taken at vantage ere he could draw it out."
"He who hath done this for thee, old man, shall die by my hand!" said one of them, letting him fall again.
With one accord, their glances rested on Mark, and he was fiercely attacked by the one who had last spoken and another, while the remainder commenced breaking open chests in search of treasure. For a few seconds he defended himself with great skill and courage. But, being hard pressed, and twice severely wounded by his fierce opponents, he became faint with loss of blood; his head swam; his eyes became dim; he grew bewildered, and struck at random. His assailants saw their advantage, and one of them made a final lunge at his breast to transfix him. But, ere the blow could take effect, he sunk sideways to the floor, and falling behind the hangings, the blade buried itself within the door of the cabin.
"Curses light on the foul steel! Finish him, Renard."
"He is done for," said the other, sheathing his blade through the curtain.
"Now for the woman! His mistress, I dare say, he fought so like a lion. I will try and console her for his loss," he added, with a laugh.
The fall of its brave defender left the way undisputed to the inner cabin. With united efforts, they forced open the slightly-secured leaves of the door. Grace stood before them in an attitude of sublime self-sacrificing, her eyes raised heavenward full of hope and faith, while the uplifted dagger was in the act of descending into her bosom. The foremost pirate instantly comprehended her purpose. Quick as lightning, he leaped forward, and, with his cutlass, struck the weapon from her grasp as it was entering her bosom.
"By the Virgin! that was skilfully done, Renard!" said the other. "You have won her fairly."
"And he who would have her must win her from me," he continued, with dogged resolution, catching her as, with a shriek of hopeless despair and wretchedness unspeakable, she was falling to the deck.
"A sweet voice, but somewhat loud!" said the other, with a laugh. "Ho! what have we here? Another prize," he exclaimed, descrying the helpless maid. "Smaller game! but not the less welcome. Dead, for a guilder! No, she breathes! We are lucky, Renard. It will cost us some hard knocks to keep possession of our prizes."
"We have no captain now, and each man is for himself."
"Not quite. Our new fighting lieutenant will command us now; and suppose he should, as he is like to do, take a fancy to your bit of womankind?"
"He will first have to fancy me!" said the other, menacingly. "Nor shall he command me while men older than he are in the lugger."
"He will have a word to say on that score, and here he comes to speak for himself."
He had scarcely spoken ere the young pirate made his appearance in the cabin. The shriek of Grace had drawn him from the deck, where he had been defending the entrance to the companion-way against the whole force of the yacht, under the captain and the earl—the danger menacing his niece having suddenly restored the latter to almost supernatural strength, and a fierceness of spirit that rose superior to physical suffering. With his wound hastily bound up, he had once more joined in the fight, and was foremost in battling with those who opposed his passage to the cabin. Repeatedly his life was exposed, but saved by the voice of the young leader, forbidding his men to harm him; and even in the heat, and noise, and fury of battle, their wild spirits involuntarily yielded obedience to a voice that seemed formed to command and to be obeyed.
With flashing eyes he entered the stateroom, and his glance rested on the lifeless form of Grace, clasped in the arms of the pirate Renard.
"I am right! It is she!" he cried. "Release your prize, villain!"
"You say well, boy; she is my prize," he answered, with a menacing look.
"Ha!" shouted the youth.
Quicker than thought he sprang upon him, got within his sword arm, seized him by the throat, closed with him, and buried his sabre to its hilt in his chest.
"So have I washed out the pollution of thy touch on this fair creature," he said, attempting to disengage Grace from his hold as he fell backward.
But his arm so firmly encircled her, that he was forced to sever the tendons of it with his cutlass before he could release her from this horrible embrace of lust and death.
"Oh God!" he said, involuntarily, "that I should be an actor in such a scene as this. Yet my presence here has been her preservation. I will save her and protect her now, even with the life of the captain!"
"His life is already ended," said the bucanier, who, on witnessing the fate of his comrade, had quietly dropped the lifeless form of the maid where he had found her.
He pointed as he spoke to his body.
"Dead!" exclaimed the youth. "Then am I chief here. I will save, for her sake, all that are left alive. But she shall not know me! She shall ever be ignorant to whom she is indebted. Yet methinks I would like to send by her a message to the haughty daughter of the house of Bellamont." This was spoken with bitter irony. "But I must try to restore her."
He poured a vase of water over her forehead, and moistened her lips, and she revived.
"Where am I? What has transpired? Who—how—where—"
She glanced wildly around, and everything that had passed flashed upon her mind. She bounded from him with a deplorable cry, and covered her face with her hands. "Mercy, oh God! mercy!"
"Grace!" he said, in a gentle tone.
"Who speaks? who?"
"Grace!"
"Thou art no enemy! Bless thee for the sound of thy voice. Tell me what has happened? Where is my uncle? Oh, speak as if life hung on thy words."
"The Earl of Bellamont is living."
"Heaven, I thank thee! And this dead body?"
"I have protected thee from a fate worse than death, with the life of this man."
"Who—who art thou? I should know that voice," she exclaimed, with returning confidence and hope, gazing upon his now swarthy and disfigured features which defeated her scrutiny, deeply shaded, too, as they were by his bonnet, which he pulled farther over his brows.
"An outcast, unworthy a thought from innocence and purity like thee."
"Yet you are my friend. How came you here?"
"To save thee!"
"I am confused, puzzled, perplexed! your voice, your air! I know not what to think or say. A pirate boarded us, and you—you are not a pirate. Oh, my uncle! my dear uncle! Heaven be thanked, you are safe!" she cried, darting forward and flinging herself into his arms as he entered the cabin, literally covered with blood, while behind him crowded a dark mass of pirates, through whom he had cut his way.
"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.