hese clothes below," said Pickersgill, "and,
observe, that I now command this yacht; and during the time that I am on
board you will pay me the same respect as you did Lord B---: nay, more,
you will always address me as Lord B---. You will prepare dinner and
breakfast, and do your duty just as if his lordship was on board, and
take care that you feed us well, for I will not allow the ladies to be
entertained in a less sumptuous manner than before. You will tell the
cook what I say; and now that you have heard me, take care that you
obey; if not, recollect that I have my own men here, and if I but point
with my finger, _overboard you go_. Do you perfectly comprehend me?"

"Yes,--sir," stammered the steward.

"Yes, _sir_!--what did I tell you, sirrah?--Yes, my lord. Do you
understand me?"

"Yes--my lord."

"Pray, steward, whose clothes has this gentleman put on?"

"Mr--Mr Ossulton's, I think--sir--my lord, I mean."

"Very well, steward; then recollect, in future you always address that
gentleman as _Mr Ossulton_."

"Yes, my lord," and the steward went down below, and was obliged to take
a couple of glasses of brandy to keep himself from fainting.

"Who are they, and what are they, Mr Maddox?" cried the lady's-maid,
who had been weeping.

"Pirates!--_bloody murderous, stick-at-nothing_ pirates!" replied the
steward.

"Oh!" screamed the lady's-maid, "what will become of us, poor
unprotected females?" And she hastened into the cabin, to impart this
dreadful intelligence.

The ladies in the cabin were not in a very enviable situation. As for
the elder Miss Ossulton (but perhaps, it will be better in future to
distinguish the two ladies, by calling the elder simply Miss Ossulton,
and her niece, Cecilia), she was sitting with her salts to her nose,
agonised with a mixture of trepidation and wounded pride. Mrs
Lascelles was weeping, but weeping gently. Cecilia was sad, and her
heart was beating with anxiety and suspense--when the maid rushed in.

"O madam! O miss! O Mrs Lascelles! I have found it all out!--they
are murderous, bloody, do-everything pirates!"

"Mercy on us!" exclaimed Miss Ossulton; "surely they will never dare--?"

"Oh, ma'am, they dare anything!--they just now were for throwing the
steward overboard; and they have rummaged for all the portmanteaus, and
dressed themselves in the gentlemen's best clothes. The captain of them
told the steward that he was Lord B---, and that if he dared