“For five years they sailed. Battling right nobly with the Dons, escaping annihilation a thousand times, beset by tempest and storm and meeting enough adventures at every turn to satisfy even the Prince’s ardent soul. A book might be written on the romantic, harebrained, reckless deeds performed by that hot-blooded young scion of royalty, but in the end, in a terrific hurricane, Prince Rupert’s fleet was driven on the treacherous reefs off Anegada. Prince Maurice in the Defiance was lost, the Honest Seaman was battered to pieces and her few survivors reached the low, desolate land more dead than alive, but the Swallow, by chance or Providence, managed to escape by driving through a narrow entrance in the jagged reef to the sheltered water within. Battered and leaking, badly crippled, the poor Swallow was far from seaworthy when the storm was over and the gay Prince, saddened and sorrowful at the loss of his brother and his men, sailed dolefully for England. He was a changed man thereafter and settled down to a very quiet life in a little house at Spring Gardens. All his brave deeds were forgotten, even his name passed into oblivion and in 1682 he died, almost unknown, in his English home.” CHAPTER XII PICTURESQUE PIRATES “I’d like to read all about him,” said Jack. “I’ll bet he had an exciting life. I’ll never hear of Captain Kidd without thinking of Prince Rupert by contrast.” “You’ll find the whole story in this book,” said his father. “But you’ll always find these old volumes dry reading in a way. They pass over the most exciting events very casually, as if they were matters of course, but you’ll be amused at the quaint language and naïve remarks.” “Weren’t there any other old buccaneers who were as romantic and gallant as Prince Rupert?” asked Fred. “He was not strictly a buccaneer,” his uncle corrected him. “Nor was he really a pirate. His deeds took place before the buccaneers were really organized, and ostensibly he was more of a privateer than a pirate. In a way he was in the same category as Drake and Hawkins, and the same is true of another most romantic figure who ravaged the Caribbean and was a thorn in the side of the Spaniards. Perhaps he should not be included among stories of buccaneers, but he was such a picturesque figure that a brief account of him may interest you boys.” “Yes, do tell us about him,” cried Jack. “Even if he wasn’t really a buccaneer.”