his presence of mind in not drowning! Now are his
ideas in a hot ferment; and, if the truth could be known, I would wager a
handsome venture, that the sail in sight is, by some mysterious process,
magnified to six in his fertile fancy."

"He must be thinking, then, of escape."

"Far from it; he is rather plotting the means of surrounding them with the
'Dolphin.' To your true Hibernian, escape is the last idea that gives him
an uneasy moment. You see the pensive-looking, sallow mortal, at his
elbow. That is a man who will fight with a sort of sentiment. There is a
touch of chivalry in him, which might be worked into heroism if one had
but the opportunity and the inclination. As it is, he will not fail to
show a spark of the true Castilian. His companion has come from the Rock
of Lisbon; I should trust him unwillingly, did I not know that little
opportunity of taking pay from the enemy is given here. Ah! here is a lad
for a dance of a Sunday. You see him, at this moment, with foot and tongue
going together. That is a creature of contradictions. He wants for neither
wit nor good-nature, but still he might cut your throat on an occasion.
There is a strange medley of ferocity and bonhommie about the animal. I
shall put him among the boarders; for we shall not be at blows a minute
before his impatience will be for carrying every thing by a coup-de-main."

"And who is the seaman at his elbow, that apparently is occupied in
divesting his person of some superfluous garments?" demanded Wilder,
irresistibly attracted, by the manner of the Rover, to pursue the subject.

"An economical Dutchman. He calculates that it is just as wise to be
killed in an old jacket as in a new one; and has probably said as much to
his Gascon neighbour, who is, however, resolved to die decently, if die he
must. The former has happily commenced his preparations for the combat in
good season, or the enemy might defeat us before he would be in readiness.
Did it rest between these two worthies to decide this quarrel, the
mercurial Frenchman would defeat his neighbour of Holland, before the
latter believed the battle had commenced; but, should he let the happy
moment pass, rely on it, the Dutchman would give him trouble. Forget you,
Wilder, that the day has been when the countrymen of that slow-moving and
heavy-moulded fellow swept the narrow seas with a broom at their
mast-heads?"

The Rover smiled wildly as he spoke, and what he said he uttered with
bi