l
privateers respect neutrals), he had no doubt that she was the pirate
vessel, stated, when they were at St. Helena, to be cruising in these
latitudes. Newton was of the same opinion; and it was with a heavy
heart that he returned to the cabin, to communicate the unpleasant
intelligence to Mrs Enderby and Isabel.

There is nothing more annoying in this world than the will without the
power. At any time, a vessel becalmed is considered a very sufficing
reason for swearing by those who are on board of her. What then must
have been the feelings of Newton, lying on the water in a state of
compelled inaction, while his friends were being plundered, and perhaps
murdered by a gang of miscreants before his eyes! How eagerly and
repeatedly did he scan the horizon for the coming breeze! How did Hope
raise her head at the slightest cat's paw that ruffled the surface of
the glassy waters! Three successive gales of wind are bad enough; but
three gales blowing hard enough to blow the devil's horns off are
infinitely preferable to one idle, stagnant, motionless, confounded
calm, oppressing you with the blue devils, and maddening you with the
fidgets at one and the same time.

At last, as the sun descended, the breeze sprung up, first playing along
the waters in capricious and tantalising airs, as if uncertain and
indifferent in its infancy to which quarter of the compass it should
direct its course. The ship again answered her helm; her head was put
the right way, and the sails were trimmed to every shift which it made,
to woo its utmost power. In a quarter of an hour it settled, blowing
from a quarter which placed them to-windward of, and they carried it
down with them to within two miles of the stranger and the neutral, who
still remained becalmed. But, as the wind freshened, it passed a-head
of them, sweeping along the surface, and darkening the colours of the
water, until it reached the vessels to leeward; one of which, the one
that Newton was so anxious to get along-side of, immediately took
advantage of it, and, spreading all her canvas, soon increased her
distance. When the Windsor Castle arrived abreast of the neutral, the
stranger was more than two miles to leeward. A little delay was then
necessary to ascertain what had occurred. Newton, who perceived
Monsieur de Fontanges on the deck, shouting to them and wringing his
hands, rounded to, lowered down a boat, and pulled on board of the
neutral. The intelligenc