"Your duty, sir! Is it the duty of a man, a gentleman, to attack the weak and the oppressed?" said a deep voice close to my ear. The melancholy skipper had not spoken, the tones were too feminine for him. I turned, and saw standing near me a lady who had evidently just ascended from the cabin. I started. She was something so unlike what I had expected to see. Her figure, though slight, was tall and commanding, and a black dress set off the brilliant whiteness of her complexion. Her dark eyes flashed with fire as she spoke. Her features also, I saw, were very handsome. I have not often been abashed, such a feeling does not usually run in the blood of the Hurrys, but I was on this occasion completely taken aback. I felt that I should have liked to have jumped into my boat and pulled back to my own craft without saying a word. However, I mustered courage to speak. "Pardon me, madam," I stuttered out, "I obey the commands of my lawful sovereign, though those commands are, I own, often painful." "The excuse all mercenaries make," said the lady, with bitter scorn in her voice. "And now, sir, that we are your captives, may I ask what you purpose doing with us?" This question was rather a poser. I could not let the prize go free, and yet I had no wish to detain any women as prisoners. "I cannot answer the question at once, madam," I replied; "but I will do my best to land you as soon as possible at the nearest point I am able to reach, to wherever you may wish to go." I thought this would satisfy the lady, but not a bit of it. "Oh, then, we are to be compelled to leave the vessel in which we have taken a passage and to be delayed on an errand of importance because George of Brunswick chooses to try and force unjust laws down the throats of a free people!" "The fortune of war, madam," I replied, my choler rising somewhat at her remarks; still I did not forget she was a lady, and that I was an officer and a gentleman. "Such as brigands might be ashamed of," she replied. "Then, sir, we are to consider ourselves as your prisoners?" "Not a moment longer than I can help it, I assure you, madam," I answered, rather inclined to be amused than angry, and hoping to pique her by my replies. "You are free to go in any direction you please directly you have an opportunity." "You speak mockingly, sir," she said, apparently determined not to be on good terms with me.