answer, and the dazed look in the Frenchman's eyes startled the
Spaniard.

By this time the two vessels were almost alongside, and at the first
sight of the enemy's crew the General saw that Gomez's gloomy prophecy
was only too true. The three men at each gun might have been bronze
statues, standing like athletes, with their rugged features, their bare
sinewy arms, men whom Death himself had scarcely thrown off their feet.

The rest of the crew, well armed, active, light, and vigorous, also
stood motionless. Toil had hardened, and the sun had deeply tanned,
those energetic faces; their eyes glittered like sparks of fire with
infernal glee and clear-sighted courage. Perfect silence on the upper
deck, now black with men, bore abundant testimony to the rigorous
discipline and strong will which held these fiends incarnate in check.

The captain of the _Othello_ stood with folded arms at the foot of the
main mast; he carried no weapons, but an axe lay on the deck beside him.
His face was hidden by the shadow of a broad felt hat. The men looked
like dogs crouching before their master. Gunners, soldiers, and ship's
crew turned their eyes first on his face, and then on the merchant
vessel.

The two brigs came up alongside, and the shock of contact roused the
privateer captain from his musings; he spoke a word in the ear of the
lieutenant who stood beside him.

"Grappling-irons!" shouted the latter, and the _Othello_ grappled
the _Saint-Ferdinand_ with miraculous quickness. The captain of the
privateer gave his orders in a low voice to the lieutenant, who repeated
them; the men, told off in succession for each duty, went on the upper
deck of the _Saint-Ferdinand_, like seminarists going to mass. They
bound crew and passengers hand and foot and seized the booty. In the
twinkling of an eye, provisions and barrels full of piastres were
transferred to the _Othello_; the General thought that he must be
dreaming when he himself, likewise bound, was flung down on a bale of
goods as if he had been part of the cargo.

A brief conference took place between the captain of the privateer and
his lieutenant and a sailor, who seemed to be the mate of the
vessel; then the mate gave a whistle, and the men jumped on board
the _Saint-Ferdinand_, and completely dismantled her with the nimble
dexterity of a soldier who strips a dead comrade of a coveted overcoat
and shoes.

"It is all over with us," said the Spanish captain coolly. He had e