for the ship. Evidently
exasperated at this quite unexpected exhibition of determination on the
part of the pirates, the little band on the poop now opened a smart and
very galling fire with their muskets upon the boats, and I saw three or
four pairs of arms tossed skyward as the discharge rattled forth. But
before the weapons of this little party of volunteers could be reloaded
the boats were alongside the ship, the pirates dropped their oars, and
made a simultaneous dash for the fore and main channels, and there
instantly ensued a desperate _melee_ in which the popping of pistols was
for the first half-minute or so a very prominent feature. I fully
expected to see Mendouca and his crew driven back into their boats with
a very heavy loss; but, to my astonishment and sorrow, I soon saw that
they were more than holding their own, and in less than three minutes
they had actually forced their way inboard, and the right was
transferred to the ship's decks. It was evident that the British crew
were now making a most determined and desperate resistance, for the
fight was protracted to fully a quarter of an hour, the clink and clash
of steel, the shouts of the combatants, and the cries of the wounded
being distinctly audible to us on the deck of the _Francesca_. Then the
hubbub suddenly lulled, and I heard cries for quarter, cries which, to
my bitter grief, I knew to be the sure indication of defeat on the part
of the British crew. Then utter silence fell upon the unfortunate ship
for a few minutes, to be broken by the muffled sound of women's shrieks,
men's voices uplifted in fierce, impotent anger and denunciation, two or
three pistol-shots that sounded as though they had been fired in the
ship's cabin, and then silence again; an ominous, dreadful silence that
to my foreboding mind might mean the perpetration of horrors to which
those already enacted on the blood-stained decks were as nothing.

This silence prevailed for fully an hour, during which no sign of life
was visible on board the ship; then arose the sound of hilarious shouts
and drunken laughter; there was a sudden stir and commotion about the
decks; a crowd of men gathered on the poop, many of them with their
hands bound behind them--as I could see with the aid of a telescope--
while others had their heads swathed in blood-stained bandages; a long
plank was rigged out over the taffrail; and then Mendouca appeared to be
making some sort of a speech. If such