k the bad news gently to Mrs. Beresford,
and to take her below to the orlop deck; ordered the purser to serve out
beef, biscuit, and grog to all hands, saying, "Men can't work on an empty
stomach: and fighting is hard work;" then beckoned the officers to come
round him. "Gentlemen," said he, confidentially, "in crowding sail on
this ship I had no hope of escaping that fellow on this tack, but I was,
and am, most anxious to gain the open sea, where I can square my yards
and run for it, if I see a chance. At present I shall carry on till he
comes up within range: and then, to keep the Company's canvas from being
shot to rags, I shall shorten sail; and to save ship and cargo and all
our lives, I shall fight while a plank of her swims. Better to be killed
in hot blood than walk the plank in cold."

The officers cheered faintly: the captain's dogged resolution stirred up
theirs. . . .

"Shorten sail to the taupsles and jib, get the colors ready on the
halyards, and then send the men aft. . . ."

Sail was no sooner shortened, and the crew ranged, than the captain came
briskly on deck, saluted, jumped on a carronade, and stood erect. He was
not the man to show the crew his forebodings.

(Pipe.) "Silence fore and aft."

"My men, the schooner coming up on our weather quarter is a Portuguese
pirate. His character is known; he scuttles all the ships he boards,
dishonors the women, and murders the crew. We cracked on to get out of
the narrows, and now we have shortened sail to fight this blackguard, and
teach him not to molest a British ship. I promise, in the Company's
name, twenty pounds prize money to every man before the mast if we beat
him off or out manoeuvre him; thirty if we sink him; and forty if we tow
him astern into a friendly port. Eight guns are clear below, three on
the weather side, five on the lee; for, if he knows his business, he will
come up on the lee quarter: if he doesn't, that is no fault of yours nor
mine. The muskets are all loaded, the cutlasses ground like razors--"

"Hurrah!"

"We have got women to defend--"

"Hurrah!"

"A good ship under our feet, the God of justice overhead, British hearts
in our bosoms, and British colors flying--run 'em up!--over our heads."
(The ship's colors flew up to the fore, and the Union Jack to the mizzen
peak.) "Now lads, I mean to fight this ship while a plank of her
(stamping on the deck) swims beneath my foot and--WHAT DO YOU SAY?"

The reply w