his head, and a fierce stern stroke cut him down. It was the last blow of Cruel Coppinger. He and his boat’s crew boarded the vessel, and she was out of sight in a moment, like a spectre or a ghost. Thunder, lightning, and hail ensued. Trees were rent up by the roots around the pirate’s abode. Poor Dinah watched, and held in her shuddering arms her idiot-boy, and, strange to say, a meteoric stone, called in that country a storm-bolt, fell through the roof into the room at the very feet of Cruel Coppinger’s vacant chair. FOOTNOTES: [90] From _All the Year Round_, vol. xvi. pp. 537-540. 1866. For the historical basis of this article, see Appendix F. [91] In the original form of this article, a second verse was added, and the first was slightly different. “Will you hear of the bold, brave Coppinger? How he came of a foreign kind? He was brought to us by the salt water; He’ll be carried away by the wind. For thus the old wives croon and sing, And so the proverbs say, That whatsoever the wild waves bring The winds will bear away.” [92] See p. 38. [93] Hawker himself used a seal engraved with the one word, “Thorough,” the motto, as he said, of Archbishop Laud. [94] Mr. Baring-Gould, in his “Vicar of Morwenstow” (Edition 1899, p. 110), gives another reason for Coppinger’s wrath:--“The Kilkhampton parson hated rook-pie. Coppinger knew it. He invited him to dine with him one day. A large rook-pie was served at one end of the table, and roast rooks at the other, and the parson, who was very hungry, was forced to eat of them. When he departed he invited Coppinger to dine with him on the following Thursday. The smuggler arrived, and was regaled on pie, whether rabbit or hare he could not decide. When he came home he found a cat’s skin and head stuffed into his coat pocket, and thereby discovered what he had been eating.” THOMASINE BONAVENTURE[95]