r, and felt that I was--a prisoner!

FOOTNOTE:

[E] It will be understood by the reader, hereafter, why I omit the
cruiser's name.

CHAPTER XXX.

After a brief pause, the commanding officers of both divisions
demanded my papers, which, while I acknowledged myself _his_ prisoner,
I yielded to the _senior_ personage who had humanely stopped the
massacre. I saw that this annoyed the other, whom I had so frequently
repulsed; yet I thought the act fair as well as agreeable to my
feelings, for I considered my crew competent to resist the _first
division successfully_, had it not been succored by the consort's
boats.

But my decision was not submitted to by the defeated leader without a
dispute, which was conducted with infinite harshness, until the senior
ended the quarrel by ordering his junior to tow the prize within reach
of the corvette * * * *. My boat, though somewhat riddled with balls,
was lowered, and I was commanded to go on board the captor, with my
papers and servant under the escort of a midshipman. The captain stood
at the gangway as I approached, and, seeing my bloody knee, ordered me
not to climb the ladder, but to be hoisted on deck and sent below for
the immediate care of my wound. It was hardly more than a severe
laceration of flesh, yet was quite enough to prevent me from bending
my knee, though it did not deny locomotion with a stiff leg.

The dressing over,--during which I had quite a pleasant chat with the
amiable surgeon,--I was summoned to the cabin, where numerous
questions were put, all of which I answered frankly and _truly_.
Thirteen of my crew were slain, and nearly all the rest wounded. My
papers were next inspected, and found to be Spanish. "How was it,
then," exclaimed the commander, "that you fought under the Portuguese
flag?"

Here was the question I always expected, and for which I had in vain
taxed my wit and ingenuity to supply a reasonable excuse! I had
nothing to say for the daring violation of nationality; so I resolved
to tell the truth boldly about my dispute with the Dane, and my desire
to deceive him early in the day, but I cautiously omitted the
adroitness with which I had deprived him of his darkies. I confessed
that I forgot the flag when I found I had a different foe from the
Dane to contend with, and I flattered myself with the hope that, had I
repulsed the first unaided onset, I would have been able to escape
with the usual sea-breeze.

The captain looke