he immediately issued the order
to fill her sails, and to steer for the nearest haven of his country. So
long as sight could read the movements of the man who remained on the
decks of the "Dolphin" not a look was averted from the still motionless
object. She lay, with her maintop-sail to the mast, stationary as some
beautiful fabric placed there by fairy power, still lovely in her
proportions, and perfect in all her parts. A human form was seen swiftly
pacing her poop, and, by its side, glided one who looked like a lessened
shadow of that restless figure. At length distance swallowed these
indistinct images; and then the eye was wearied, in vain, to trace the
internal movements of the distant ship But doubt was soon ended. Suddenly
a streak of flame flashed from her decks, springing fiercely from sail to
sail. A vast cloud of smoke broke out of the hull, and then came the
deadened roar of artillery. To this succeeded, for a time, the awful, and
yet attractive spectacle of a burning ship. The whole was terminated by an
immense canopy of smoke, and an explosion that caused the sails of the
distant "Dart" to waver, as though the winds of the trades were deserting
their eternal direction. When the cloud had lifted from the ocean, an
empty waste of water was seen beneath; and none might mark the spot where
so lately had floated that beautiful specimen of human ingenuity. Some of
those who ascended to the upper masts of the cruiser, and were aided by
glasses, believed, indeed, they could discern a solitary speck upon the
sea; but whether it was a boat, or some fragment of the wreck, was never
known.

From that time, the history of the dreaded Red Rover became gradually
lost, in the fresher incidents of those eventful seas. But the mariner,
long after was known to shorten the watches of the night, by recounting
scenes of mad enterprise that were thought to have occurred under his
auspices. Rumour did not fail to embellish and pervert them, until the
real character, and even name, of the individual were confounded with the
actors of other atrocities. Scenes of higher and more ennobling interest,
too, were occurring on the Western Continent, to efface the circumstances
of a legend that many deemed wild and improbable. The British colonies of
North America had revolted against the government of the Crown, and a
weary war was bringing the contest to a successful issue. Newport, the
opening scene of this tale, had been successively