out two sloops at his own expense and
manned them with the best fighting men from the war-vessels. One of the
sloops he put under Captain Brand, and the other under Captain Maynard,
both brave and experienced naval officers. All preparations were made
with the greatest secrecy--for if Blackbeard had heard of what was going
on, he would probably have decamped--and then the two sloops went out to
sea with a commission from the Governor to capture Blackbeard, dead or
alive. This was a pretty heavy contract, but Brand and Maynard were
courageous men and did not hesitate to take it.

The Virginians had been informed that the pirate captain and his men
were on a vessel in Ocracoke Inlet, and when they arrived they found, to
their delight, that Blackbeard was there. When the pirates saw the two
armed vessels sailing into the inlet, they knew very well that they were
about to be attacked, and it did not take them long to get ready for a
fight, nor did they wait to see what their enemy was about to do. As
soon as the sloops were near enough, Blackbeard, without waiting for
any preliminary exercises, such as a demand for surrender or any
nonsense of that sort, let drive at the intruders with eight heavily
loaded cannon.

Now the curtain had been rung up, and the play began, and a very lively
play it was. The guns of the Virginians blazed away at the pirate ship,
and they would have sent out boats to board her had not Blackbeard
forestalled them. Boarding was always a favorite method of fighting with
the pirates. They did not often carry heavy cannon, and even when they
did, they had but little fancy for battles at long distances. What they
liked was to meet foes face to face and cut them down on their own
decks. In such combats they felt at home, and were almost always
successful, for there were few mariners or sailors, even in the British
navy, who could stand against these brawny, glaring-eyed dare-devils,
who sprang over the sides of a vessel like panthers, and fought like
bulldogs. Blackbeard had had enough cannonading, and he did not wait to
be boarded. Springing into a boat with about twenty of his men, he rowed
to the vessel commanded by Maynard, and in a few minutes he and his
pirates surged on board her.

Now there followed on the decks of that sloop one of the most fearful
hand-to-hand combats known to naval history. Pirates had often attacked
vessels where they met with strong resistance, but never had a gang of
sea