ountry you mean."

"I fear not!" quickly returned the Rover. "Were they known, as they should
be, by you and others like you, the flag I mentioned would soon be found
in every sea; nor would the natives of our country have to succumb to the
hirelings of a foreign prince.

"I will not affect to misunderstand your meaning for I have known others
as visionary as yourself in fancying that such an event may arrive."

"May!--As certain as that star will settle in the ocean, or that day is to
succeed to night, it _must._ Had that flag been abroad, Mr Wilder, no man
would have ever heard the name of the Red Rover."

"The King has a service of his own, and it is open to all his subjects
alike."

"I could be a subject of a King; but to be the subject of a subject,
Wilder, exceeds the bounds of my poor patience. I was educated, I might
almost have said born, in one of his vessels; and how often have I been
made to feel, in bitterness, that an ocean separated my birth-place from
the footstool of his throne! Would you think it, sir? one of his
Commanders dared to couple the name of my country with an epithet I will
not wound your ear by repeating!"

"I hope you taught the scoundrel manners."

The Rover faced his companion, and there was a ghastly smile on his
speaking features, as he answered--

"He never repeated the offence! 'Twas his blood or mine; and dearly did he
pay the forfeit of his brutality!"

"You fought like men, and fortune favoured the injured party?"

"We fought, sir.--But I had dared to raise my hand against a native of the
holy isle!--It is enough, Mr Wilder; the King rendered a faithful subject
desperate, and he has had reason to repent it. Enough for the present;
another time I may say more.--Good night."

Wilder saw the figure of his companion descend the ladder to the
quarter-deck; and then was he left to pursue the current of his thoughts,
alone, during the remainder of a watch which to his impatience seemed
without an end.

Chapter XXII.

"She made good view of me; indeed so much,
That sure, methought, her eyes had lost her tongue,
For she did speak in starts, distractedly."

_Twelfth Night._

Though most of the crew of the "Dolphin" slept, either in their hammocks
or among the guns, there were bright and anxious eyes still open in a
different part of the vessel. The Rover had relinquished his cabin to Mrs
Wyllys and Gertrude, from the moment they entered the ship; and w