h
she tried her best to escape. The _Hector_, which boarded her, took out
her people and several passengers, for so I judged them to be, as they
wore petticoats, and all her cargo, and then a crew being put on board
the prize we made sail for Scilly, where we had been ordered to call on
our way southward. A strong north-westerly gale, however, which caught
us just as we neared the islands, drove us out to sea, and when it
moderated and we were about to beat back, seven large ships hove in
sight, which, as they approached, we saw carried the Parliamentary flag.
As we had no wish to fall into their hands, we made sail to escape, and
succeeded in keeping ahead of them, but during the night we lost sight
of the _Hector_. In what direction she was steering we could not make
out. When morning dawned, however, we caught a glimpse of the enemy's
squadron, and from the way they were steering, we had little doubt that
they were in pursuit of her. By furling all sail we escaped
observation, and three days afterwards managed to get back with the
sloop to Scilly."

"What became of the _Hector_?" I inquired eagerly, at once feeling
certain that the vessel she had captured was the hoy in which Mr
Kerridge and his party were proceeding to Plymouth.

"From that day to this I have heard nothing of her," answered the
boatswain. "My idea is, if she escaped from the Roundhead squadron, and
not managing to get into the Tagus, that she ran up the Straits to do
some privateering on her own account. Her commander, Captain Kerby, was
not a man to let a chance escape him, and he had been in charge of a
trader to all parts of the Mediterranean."

We questioned and cross-questioned Ned Watkins, but he could give us no
further information. Lancelot and I talked the subject over.

"My father and our sisters were not drowned, then, as some suppose, and
may still be alive, though held, I fear, in durance, or they would have
found means of communicating with us," he said. "That the _Hector_ did
not reach the Tagus we may be pretty certain, for if she had, my father
would have contrived to send a message to the admiral. If Watkins is
right in his conjectures, she must then have gone up the Straits, and
she may or may not have afterwards joined the Prince's squadron, though
I am inclined to think she did not, or we should have heard of her from
the prizes we took, and she was certainly not among the vessels we
destroyed. It follows then th