ss pursuits
and, directed by the mind which had known how to obtain and to continue
its despotic ascendancy over their efforts, they truly formed a most
dangerous and (considering their numbers) resistless crew. Their Commander
smiled in exultation, as he watched the evident reflection with which his
companion contemplated the indifference, or fierce joy, which different
individuals among them exhibited at the appearance of an approaching
conflict. Even the rawest of their numbers, the luckless waisters and
after-guard, were apparently as confident of victory as those whose
audacity might plead the apology of uniform and often repeated success.

"Count you these for nothing?" asked the Rover, at the elbow of his
lieutenant, after allowing him time to embrace the whole of the grim band
with his eye. "See! here is a Dane, ponderous and steady as the gun at
which I shall shortly place him. You may cut him limb from limb, and yet
will he stand like a tower, until the last stone of the foundation has
been sapped. And, here, we have his neighbours, the, Swede and the Russ,
fit companions for managing the same piece; which, I'll answer, shall not
be silent, while a man of them all is left to apply a match, or handle a
sponge. Yonder is a square-built athletic mariner, from one of the Free
Towns. He prefers our liberty to that of his native city; and you shall
find that the venerable Hanseatic institutions shall give way sooner than
he be known to quit the spot I give him to defend. Here, you see a brace
of Englishmen; and, though they come from the island that I love so
little, better men at need will not be often found. Feed them, and flog
them, and I pledge myself to their swaggering, and their courage. D'ye see
that thought ful-looking, bony miscreant, that has a look of godliness in
the midst of all his villany? That fellow fish'd for herring till he got a
taste of beef, when his stomach revolted at its ancient fare; and then the
ambition of becoming rich got uppermost. He is a Scot, from one of the
lochs of the North."

"Will he fight?"

"For money--the honour of the Macs--and his religion. He is a reasoning
fellow, after all: and I like to have him on my own side in a quarrel. Ah!
yonder is the boy for a charge. I once told him to cut a rope in a hurry,
and he severed it above his head, instead of beneath his feet, taking a
flight from a lower yard into the sea, as a reward for the exploit. But,
then, he always extols