“I fear the berth I wish is filled,” returned the other, curling his lip: “let draw the fore-sheet, lad; we will take our departure, leaving the fly of the pennant well under our lee. Adieu, brave Captain; when you have need of a thorough rover, and dream of stern-chases and wet sails, think of him who visited your ship at her lazy moorings.” Ludlow bit his lip, and though his fine face reddened to the temples, he met the arch glance of Alida, and laughed. But he who had so hardily braved the resentment of a man, powerful as the commander of a royal cruiser in a British colony, appeared to understand the hazard of his situation. The periagua whirled round on her heel, and the next minute it was bending to the breeze, and dashing through the little waves towards the shore. Three boats left the cruiser at the same moment. One, which evidently contained her captain, advanced with the usual dignified movement of a barge landing an officer of rank, but the others were urged ahead with all the earnestness of a hot chase. “Unless disposed to serve the Queen, you have not done well, my friend, to brave one of her commanders at the muzzles of his guns.” observed the Patroon, so soon as the state of the case became too evident to doubt of the intentions of the man-of-war’s men. “That Captain Ludlow would gladly take some of us out of this boat, by fair means or by foul, is a fact clear as a bright star in a cloudless night; and, well knowing a seaman’s duty to his superiors, I shall leave him to his choice.” “In which case you will shortly eat Her Majesty’s bread,” pithily returned the Alderman. “The food is unpalatable, and I reject it—and yet here is a boat, whose crew seem determined to make one swallow worse fare.”