ing away
lanterns, boats, and spars, wounding her masts and plunging through her
bulwarks, the scuppers running with blood, her gallant captain, standing
still unharmed amid the dead and dying, refused to yield.

Malignant though he was, I could not help admiring his courage,
regretting that he was not fighting in a better cause. I heartily
wished that he would give in before more damage was done.

He seemed, however, in no way inclined to strike while there was a
chance of escaping.

I feared, indeed, that after all he would get off, but the two
Parliament ships plied him hard. Their commanders were as brave as he
was, and had no intention of letting him escape.

Of this the corsair's crew were at length convinced, and some, unwilling
to encounter certain destruction, cried out to strike the flag.

"Who dares to say that?" shouted Captain Blackleach. Then he cried out
to the boatswain, "Reeve a dozen ropes, and we'll show our enemies how
we treat traitors to our cause."

The boatswain, seizing one of the men who desired to strike, was
actually about to put the order into execution when Martin rushed to the
poor fellow's rescue.

"Avast, master boatswain!" he exclaimed, cutting the rope; "are you not
afraid of committing murder, when, at any moment, you may be sent to
stand before the Judge of all men?"

The boatswain, with an oath, again seized the man, and, aided by his
mates, was forming a noose at the end of a rope, when a shot striking
him on the breast sent his mangled body through a wide gap in the
bulwarks into the blood-stained ocean. Most of the superior officers
had by this time been killed or wounded, the latter being in the hands
of the surgeon below.

"What's to be done?" said Dick, as we were together making our way to
the magazine, being ordered down to fetch up more powder. "Surely the
captain won't hold out longer! If I didn't feel that it was cowardly, I
should like to stow myself away below till all is over."

"To go down with the ship and be drowned," I observed.

"No, no; let us remain on deck while we can, and take our chance," said
Lancelot. "If the captain fights on until the ship sinks, we may get
hold of a plank or spar. The Roundhead seamen will not let us drown,
even though they think we are Malignants."

"Stay for me!" said Dick, as he saw us lifting up our tubs to go on deck
again. To say the truth, I suspected that he had been in no hurry to
fill his.

Just as we