voice that sent every tone it
uttered to his heart.

"Abide the shock!" was the shout of those who came to the succor; and
"abide the shock!" was echoed by the crew. The mysterious image glided
along the deck, and Ludlow knew the athletic frame that brushed through
the throng at its side.

There was little noise in the onset, save the groans of the sufferers. It
endured but a moment, but it was a moment that resembled the passage of a
whirlwind. The defendants knew that they were succored, and the assailants
recoiled before so unexpected a foe. The few that were caught beneath the
forecastle were mercilessly slain, and those above were swept from their
post like chaff drifting in a gale. The living and the dead were heard
falling alike into the sea, and in an unconceivably short space of time,
the decks of the Coquette were free. A solitary enemy still hesitated on
the bowsprit. A powerful and active frame leaped along the spar, and
though the blow was not seen, its effects were visible, as the victim
tumbled helplessly into the ocean.

The hurried dash of oars followed, and before the defendants had time to
assure themselves of the completeness of their success, the gloomy void of
the surrounding ocean had swallowed up the boats.

Chapter XXXII.

"That face of his I do remember well;
Yet, when I saw it last, it was besmear'd
As black as Vulcan, in the smoke of war."

What You Will.

From the moment when the Coquette fired her first gun, to the moment when
the retiring boats became invisible, was just twenty minutes. Of this
time, less than half had been occupied by the incidents related, in the
ship. Short as it was in truth, it seemed to all engaged but an instant.
The alarm was over, the sound of the oars had ceased, and still the
survivors stood at their posts, as if expecting the attack to be renewed.
Then came those personal thoughts, which had been suspended in the fearful
exigency of such a struggle. The wounded began to feel their pain, and to
be sensible of the danger of their injuries; while the few, who had
escaped unhurt, turned a friendly care on their shipmates. Ludlow as often
happens with the bravest and most exposed, had escaped without a scratch;
but he saw by the drooping forms around him, which were no longer
sustained by the excitement of battle, that his triumph was dearly
purchased.

"Send Mr. Trysail to me;" he said, in a tone that had little of a victor's
ex