strong breeze, indicated long familiarity with the sea.

His naturally dark complexion was rendered extremely swarthy by the
long exposure to weather, and tropic weather at that, which he had
undergone. The expression of his face was of that abstract and
thoughtful, nay, even melancholy, cast which we commonly associate with
the student rather than the man of affairs. He was dressed in the
prescribed uniform of a captain of the American navy, in the
Revolutionary period: a dark blue cloth coat with red lapels, slashed
cuffs, and stand-up collar, flat gold buttons (this last a piece of
unusual extravagance); blue breeches, and a red waistcoat heavily
laced; silk stockings and buckled shoes, with a curved cross-hilted
sword and cocked hat, completed his attire. As the men came crowding
aft to the main mast, the idlers tumbling up through the hatches in
response to the command, his indifferent look gave way to one of quick
attention, and each individual seaman seemed to be especially embraced
in the severe scrutiny with which he regarded the mass. In truth, they
were a crew of which any officer might well be proud; somewhat motley
and nondescript as to uniform and appearance, perhaps, and unused to
the strict discipline of men-of-war, but hardy, bold, resolute seamen,
with whom, properly led, all things were possible,--men who would
hesitate at nothing in the way of attack, and who were permeated with
such an intensity of hate for England and for British men-of-war as
made them the most dangerous foes that country ever encountered on the
seas. Several of them, Bentley among the number, had been pressed, at
one time or another, on English war vessels; and one or two had even
felt the lash upon their backs, and bore shocking testimony, in
deep-scarred wounds, to the barbaric method of punishment in vogue for
the maintenance of discipline in the British navy, and, indeed, in all
the great navies of the world,--a practice, however, but little
resorted to by the American navy.

The officers, gathered in a little knot on the lee side of the
quarter-deck, several midshipmen among them, were worthy of the crew
and the commander.

"Men," said the captain, in a clear, firm voice, removing his cocked
hat from his thick black hair, tied in a queue and entirely devoid of
powder, as he looked down at them from the break of the poop with his
piercing black eyes, "we are bound for English waters--"

"Hurrah, hurrah!" cried many v