Page:Demon ship, or, The pirate of the Mediterranean.pdf/23

Rh robbers!' beeamebecame [sic] each instant louder and more triumphant. At length, every sound of opposition from the DcmonDemon [sic] crew seemed almost to cease. But there was still so much noise on deck, that I in vain essayed to make my voice heard;—and for the trap-door, it defied all my efforts—it was immovable. At this crisis, the ship, which had hitherto been springing and reeling with the fierce fire she had received from her adversary, and the motion of her own guns, suddenly began to settle into an awful and suspicious quiescence. But the victors were apparently too busy in the work of retribution to heed this strange and portentous change. I perceived, however, only too clearly that the Demon was about finally to settle for sinking. After the lapse of a few seconds, it scemedseemed [sic] that the conquerors themselves became at last aware of the treacherous gulf that was preparing to receive them; and a hundred voices exclaimed, 'To the sloop!—to the sloop! The ship is going down—the ruffians are sinking her!' I now literally called out until my voice became a hoarse scream. I struck violently against the top of our sinking dungeon. I pushed the trap-door with my whole foreeforce [sic]. All was in vain.—I heard the sailors rushing eagerly to their own vessel, and abandoning that of the pirates to destruction. I took Margaret's hand, and held it up towards heaven, as if it eouldcould [sic] better than my own plead there for us. All was silent. Not a sound was hcardheard [sic] in the once fiercely manned Demon, save the rushing of the waters in at the holes where she had becnbeen [sic] scuttled by her desperatcdesperate [sic] crew. At last, as if she had received her fill, she began to go down with a rapidity which seemed to send us, in an instant, many feet deeper beneath thcthe [sic] wavcswaves [sic], and I now expected every moment to hear them gather over the deck, and then overwhelm us for ever. I uttered a prayer, and clasped Margaret in my arms. But no voice, no sigh, proceeded from the companion of my grave.

At this moment, voices wercwere [sic] heard; weights scemedseemed [sic] to be removed from the trap-door! It was opened; and the words, 'Good heaven! the fellow is right; they areare [sic] hcrehere [sic], sure enough!' met my almost incredulous ear. I bcheldbeheld [sic] a British officer, a sailor or two, and Girod, with his hands tied bchindbehind [sic] him. I hcldheld [sic] up my precious burden, who was received into thcthe [sic] arms of her compatriots, and then, like one in a dream, sprang from my long prison. Perhaps it might be well that Margaret's eye was half-closed in death at that moment; for the deck of the sinking Demon offered no spectacle for woman's eye. I shall never forget the scene of desolation presented by that dcckdeck [sic], lying like a vast plank or raft of slaughtered bodies, almost level with the sea, whose waters dashed