ng with tears, toward the Raker, and pointing to the flag above
her, as if to indicate that there was no one to lower it, she knelt
upon the deck, bowing her head upon her hands. Her long hair fell
over her forehead and trailed upon the blood-stained deck, as she
knelt in mute despair among the dying and the dead. It was a mournful
and singular picture of wo, and there were eyes long unused to tears
that filled to overflowing as they gazed upon her.

A boat was immediately lowered, and Lieutenant Morris with a dozen of
his crew were soon in possession of the pirate's deck. Upon examining
the brig it was found that she was fast filling with water, and after
conveying to the Raker all that they could lay hands on of value,
including a large amount of precious metal, she was left to her fate.
Not one of her crew was found living, so destructive had been the
continual discharge of grape from the Raker. Florette accompanied them
on board, and wept bitterly as she saw the dead body of the pirate
commander lying in front of his slaughtered followers, but suffered
herself to be led below by Julia, who received her with kindness and
gratitude.

All sail was now set upon the privateer, and she bore away from the
sinking craft of the pirate upon her former course. The latter vessel,
traversed in every direction by the Raker's terrible fire, was rapidly
settling into the ocean. Suddenly, with a sound like the gushing of an
immense water-spout, a huge chasm opened in the waves--the doomed brig
seemed struggling as if with conscious life, and then lashing the
waters with her shattered spars and broken masts, went down forever
beneath the deep waters, over whose bosom she had so long rode as a
scourge and a terror, with blood and desolation following in her wake.

Among the effects of the pirate captain which had been conveyed on
board the Raker, a manuscript was found, which seemed to be an
autobiography of his life. For what purpose he had written it can
never be known--most probably from an impulsive desire to give vent on
paper to thoughts and feelings which he could not breathe to any
living person, and which he doubtless supposed would never be perused
by human eye--they show that, savage, and lawless, and blood-thirsty
as he had become, strong and terrible motives had driven him into his
unnatural pursuit, and perchance a tear of pity may fall for him, as
the gentle reader peruses the private records of the scourge of the
oc