float, they are the most
impertinent people that swim on the seas. They cannot be content with
minding their own business, although they have plenty on their hands,
but they must interfere in that of others. They board you, and insist
upon knowing where you come from, whither you are bound and what you
have on board; examining you with as much scrutiny as if they had been
the delegated custom-house officers of the whole world.

Now it did not exactly suit our captain to submit to such a rigorous
search; he therefore made all sail for an island about seven miles
distant, and anchored under the protection of a battery. Austria--the
nation to whom the island belonged--was not at war with England; she was
preserving what is called an "armed neutrality."

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"Pray what is the meaning of an armed neutrality?" demanded the pacha.

"It varies according to circumstances, your highness, but, generally
speaking, it means a charge of bayonets."

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The frigate followed; and being prevented by the shallowness of the
water from approaching sufficiently near to us herself, sent her boats
to examine us: but as there were six of them full of men, and each
mounting a gun at her bow, our captain thought it advisable to refuse
them permission to come on board. As a hint that he disapproved of
their measures, he poured his whole broadside of round and grape into
them, when they were about a quarter of a mile distant: upon which they
gave three cheers, and were obstinate enough to pull faster towards us
than ever.

We received them with all the honours of war, in the shape of cutlasses,
pistols, and boarding pikes but they were very determined. As soon as
one was knocked down, another jumped up in his place; and somehow or
another they had possession of the ship in less time than I have been
telling the story. I was on the poop when an English sailor, with a
pigtail as thick as a cable, made a cut at me; I ran back to avoid the
blow, and, in so doing, came with such force against another of their
men, that we both tumbled overboard together. I lost my cutlass, but he
had not parted with his; and as soon as we rose to the surface, he
seized me by the collar, and presented the point to my breast. It
seemed to be all the same to him whether he fought on the deck or in the
water. Fortunatel