t were midnight, provided he could be the bearer of tidings
of some dreadful sea robbery to the ears of those whom he well knew would
throng around him, at his return, to hear the tidings from the port. "And
is he, in truth, so much feared and sought for, as people say?"

"Is he sought for! Is Tophet sought by a praying Christian? Few there are
on the mighty deep, let them even be as stout for, battle as was Joshua
the great Jewish captain, that would not rather behold the land than see
the top-gallants of that wicked pirate! Men fight for glory, Pardon, as I
may say I have seen, after living through so many wars, but none love to
meet an enemy who hoists a bloody flag at the first blow, and who is ready
to cast both parties into the air, when he finds the hand of Satan has no
longer power to help him."

"If the rogue is so desperate," returned the youth straightening his
powerful limbs, with a look of rising pride, "why do not the Island and
the Plantations fit out a coaster in order to bring him in, that he might
get a sight of a wholesome gibbet? Let the drum beat on such a message
through our neighbourhood and I'll engage that it don't leave it without
one volunteer at least."

"So much for not having seen war! Of what use would flails and pitch-forks
prove against men who have sold themselves to the devil? Often has the
Rover been seen at night, or just as the sun has been going down, by the
King's cruisers, who, having fairly surrounded the thieves, had good
reason to believe that they had them already in the bilboes; but, when the
morning has come, the prize was vanished, by fair means or by foul!"

"And are the villains so bloody-minded that they are called 'Red?'"

"Such is the title of their leader," returned the worthy tailor, who by
this time was swelling with the importance of possessing so interesting a
legend to communicate; "and such is also the name they give to his vessel;
because no man, who has put foot on board her, has ever come back to say
that she has a better or a worse; that is, no honest mariner or lucky
voyager. The ship is of the size of a King's sloop, they say, and of like
equipments and form; but she has miraculously escaped from the hands of
many a gallant frigate; and once, it is whispered for no loyal subject
would like to say such a scandalous thing openly, Pardon, that she lay
under the guns of a fifty for an hour, and seemingly, to all eyes, she
sunk like hammered lead to the bot