t in till the next day, after having been twenty times upon the
point of perishing by fire and tempest."

Thus ended the great fight of Renee Du Guay-Trouin, whose blood, you
see, was quite as blue as his breeches.

* * * * *

"Again," wrote His Majesty the King, "do I offer you a commission in
the Royal Navy, Du Guay-Trouin. Will you accept? This time it is a
Captaincy."

"I do," replied little Renee,--quite simply--and, at the next dinner
of the officers of the Royal Marines, they sang a chorus, which ran:

"Oh, yes, he's only a Democrat, his blood is hardly blue,
Oh, Sacre Nom de Dieu! Sapristi! Eet is true!
But he's a jolly tar dog, with dirk and pistol, too,
He fights like William the Conqueror, he fights!
Egad! that's true!
A health to Renee the terrible; soldier and sailor too."

EDWARD ENGLAND

TERROR OF THE SOUTH SEAS

(1690?-_about_ 1725)

"A Privateer's not a Buccaneer, but they're pretty chummy friends,
One flies a reg'lar ensign, there's nothing that offends.
One sails 'neath Letters Legal, t'other 'neath Cross-Bones,
But, both will sink you, Sailor, or my name's not Davy Jones."

--_Old Ballad._

EDWARD ENGLAND

TERROR OF THE SOUTH SEAS

(1690?-_about_ 1725)

"If England wuz but wind an' paint,
How we'd hate him.
But he ain't."

--_Log of the Royal James._

"Hit him with a bottle, he deserves it, th' brute!"

The man who spoke was a thick-set sailor of some forty-five summers,
with a swarthy skin, a brownish mat of hair, a hard visage, and a cut
across one eye. He stood upon the deck of a good-sized brig, which was
drowsily lolling along the coast of Africa.

"Yes, he treated us like dogs aboard th' _Cuttlefish_. Here, give me a
shot at 'im."

Thus cried another sailor--a toughish customer also--and, as his voice
rang out, a dozen more came running to the spot.

Cringing before the evil gaze of the seamen stood the Captain of a
Bristol merchantman--the _Cadogan_--which lay a boat's length away,
upon the glassy surface of a rocking sea.

Again rang out the harsh tones of him who had first spoken.

"Ah, Captain Skinner, it is you, eh? You are the very person I wished
to see. I am much in your debt, and I shall pay you in your own coin."

The poor Captain trembled in every joint, and said, with a curious
chattering of his teeth,

"Yes, Edwa