“And yet, despite his brutality, his murderous ways, his utter depravity, Teach apparently was a great favorite with the ladies. At any rate, he was married fourteen times—although history fails to mention divorces—his last wife being, according to those who knew, ‘a beautiful young creature of sixteen.’ It certainly would be interesting to know by what manner of courtship the villainous old wretch could win the hearts of innocent young girls, but perchance in his love-making he was as gentle and as ardent as he was brutal and devilish in his piracy. “For two years Teach ravaged the Caribbean and the coast of the Atlantic states, sailing as far north as Massachusetts and the coast of Maine, and making his headquarters either in the Bahamas or in the waters of Pamlico Sound, North Carolina. Indeed, there was more than good reason to suspect that the governor of Carolina was hand and glove with Teach, and that the pirate paid a goodly tribute to the executive in return for freedom from molestation while in the Carolina waters. “But at last Blackbeard’s activities became too great to be borne longer by the long-suffering mariners and merchants of the colonies. They rose and demanded his apprehension or destruction, and the Governor of Virginia thereupon offered a reward of one hundred pounds sterling ‘for one Edward Teach, otherwise known as Blackbeard, pirate,’ dead or alive, and forty pounds for each and every other pirate. One hundred pounds in those days was a fortune, and Teach, reading a copy of the proclamation, swelled with pride to think that his fame and notoriety were such as to bring forth such an offer. But he had no fear whatever of any one claiming it. His mere name was enough to drive every one scurrying to safety, he had perfect confidence in his ability to look out for himself, and he took the whole matter as a bit of a joke. “Indeed, he thought so lightly of it that he boldly sailed into Pamlico Sound, came to anchor in a little cove at Ocracoke Inlet, and there fell in with an old friend, a merchant skipper, with whom he spent the night drinking and swapping yarns of old days before Teach had gone a-pirating.” CHAPTER XIII THE END OF BLACKBEARD