But with Capt. Boldheart, to throw off his uniform coat, regardless of
the various rich orders with which it was decorated, and to plunge into
the sea after the drowning giant, was the work of a moment. Maddening
was the excitement when boats were lowered; intense the joy when the
captain was seen holding up the drowning man with his teeth; deafening
the cheering when both were restored to the main deck of ‘The Beauty.’
And, from the instant of his changing his wet clothes for dry ones, Capt.
Boldheart had no such devoted though humble friend as William Boozey.
Boldheart now pointed to the horizon, and called the attention of his
crew to the taper spars of a ship lying snug in harbour under the guns of
a fort.
‘She shall be ours at sunrise,’ said he. ‘Serve out a double allowance
of grog, and prepare for action.’
All was now preparation.
When morning dawned, after a sleepless night, it was seen that the
stranger was crowding on all sail to come out of the harbour and offer
battle. As the two ships came nearer to each other, the stranger fired a
gun and hoisted Roman colours. Boldheart then perceived her to be the
Latin-grammar master’s bark. Such indeed she was, and had been tacking
about the world in unavailing pursuit, from the time of his first taking
to a roving life.
Boldheart now addressed his men, promising to blow them up if he should
feel convinced that their reputation required it, and giving orders that
the Latin-grammar master should be taken alive. He then dismissed them
to their quarters, and the fight began with a broadside from ‘The
Beauty.’ She then veered around, and poured in another. ‘The Scorpion’
(so was the bark of the Latin-grammar master appropriately called) was
not slow to return her fire; and a terrific cannonading ensued, in which
the guns of ‘The Beauty’ did tremendous execution.
The Latin-grammar master was seen upon the poop, in the midst of the
smoke and fire, encouraging his men. To do him justice, he was no
craven, though his white hat, his short gray trousers, and his long
snuff-coloured surtout reaching to his heels (the self-same coat in which
he had spited Boldheart), contrasted most unfavourably with the brilliant
uniform of the latter. At this moment, Boldheart, seizing a pike and
putting himself at the head of his men, gave the word to board.
A desperate conflict ensued in the hammock-nettings,—or somewhere in
about that direction,—until the Latin-grammar master, having all his
masts gone, his hull and rigging shot through, and seeing Boldheart
slashing a path towards him, hauled down his flag himself, gave up his
sword to Boldheart, and asked for quarter. Scarce had he been put into
the captain’s boat, ere ‘The Scorpion’ went down with all on board.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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