tunately, understood not a word of the steward's intelligence; and
the merchant and doctor were of that happy and enviable description of
men, who, when they sit down to a well-furnished table, seem to adopt,
with a slight variation, the sentiment of the poet,

"Far from my thoughts, vain world, begone,
And let my '_eating_' hours alone,"

The two seamen, however anxious they might feel, finished their
breakfast very composedly, and went on deck without hurry; Morton
recommending to his fair deliverer to remain below for some time. In
half an hour the chace was distinctly visible from the quarter-deck, and
from the peculiar darkness of the water in that direction, it was
evident that she had a good breeze. It was then that conjectures as to
the character of the stranger were numerous, wild, and contradictory; no
one thought for an instant that it was the Venganza, because they had
seen her the day before with her fore-yard down and sent on shore--the
idea that there might possibly be found a spare spar in the dock-yard
that would answer _pro tem_. never, for an instant, presenting itself
to their minds. A few minutes more, however, convinced them that it was
indeed that "terrible ship with a terrible name;" and orders were
immediately given to prepare for action as silently as possible. These
orders were obeyed with joyous alacrity. A feeling of romantic gratitude
to their lovely passenger was accompanied by a most chivalrous
determination to "do or die" in her defence, and these sentiments
pervaded the whole ship's company. Added to this exciting cause was that
natural propensity to strife that Flora Mac Ivor says all men feel when
placed in opposition to each other, or, as Titus Livius Patavinus hath
it, they were "suopte ingenio feroces."

The clews of the topsails were lashed to the lower yard-arms; the
topsail-yards slung with iron chains; round, grape, and cannister shot
got up from the hold; the boarding-pikes taken down from the racks and
laid at hand; the arm-chests unlocked, and their murderous contents of
muskets, bayonets, pistols, cutlasses, and tomahawks or pole-axes
produced; powder-horns and flasks, for priming the guns, filled and
placed in readiness; rammers, sponges, and priming-wires distributed to
the guns; preventer braces rove, and stoppers for the rigging sent up
into the tops, or placed in different parts of the deck. The carpenter
got ready his shot-plugs and top-maul; the armorer exa