Page:Demon ship, or, The pirate of the Mediterranean.pdf/22

22 that the sloop sometimes gained on the Demon, while at others the pirate got fearful head of her pursuer. At length, Girod descended to the hold. 'The die is cast!' he said in his nativonative [sic] language. 'The sloop gains fast on us. We are about to clear the deck for action.'—'God be praised!' I ejaculated.—'Amen!' responded a faint and gentle voice.—'Do not praise him too soon,' said Girod, shrugging his shoulders; 'our captain is preparing for a victory. The DcmonDemon [sic] has mastered her equals, ay, and her superiors, and this sloop is our inferior in size and numbers. The captain has hoisted the Demon flag, and restored her name to the stern.'—'But has his motley crew,' whispered I, anxiously, 'ever encountered a British foe of equal strength?'—'I cannot tell; I have been in her but a short time, and will be out of her on the first occasion,' said Girod, as he hastily quitted us. We now heard all the noise of preparation for an engagement. Cannon were lashed and primed; concealed port-holes opened, and guns placed at them. Seeing ultimate escape impossible, the captain took in sail, and dctermineddetermined [sic] to give his vessel the advantage of awaiting the foe in an imposing state of preparation for action. He harangued his men in terms calculated to arouse their brute courage, and excite their eupiditycupidity [sic]. I hcardheard [sic] the captain retire to that part of the vessel which had been the countess's cabin, and there take a solemn and secret oath of his principal shipmates, that they would, if boarded by a successful enemy, scuttle the Demon, and sink her, and her crew, and her captors, in one common grave. It appeared, then, that either the failure or the success of the sloop would alike seal our destruction.

Not a ray of light now penetrated through the chinks of the trap-door, and, from the heavy weights which had fallen over it, I was inclined to think that shot, or even cannon-balls, had been placed over the mouth of our prison. I listened anxiously for a signal of the sloop's nearing us. At length, a ship-trumpet, at a distance, demanded, safe and unhurt, the persons of Colonel Francillon, the Countess of Falcondale, and two female domestics. It was then evident that the pirate's stratagem at Malta had transpired. The Demon's trumpet made brief and audacious reply:—'Go seek them at the bottom of the sea.' A broadside from the sloop answered this impudent injunction, and was followed by a complement in kind from the Demon, evidently discharged from a greater number of guns. Long and desperately raged the combat above us; but the pirates' yells waxed fainter and fainter; while the victorious shouts of the British seamen, mixed with the frequent and fearful cry, 'No quarter, no quarter to the