heart
melted, and as there was now no fear, he asked Mesty for his knife, and
cut loose the two Spaniards, pointing to the breakfast, and requesting
that they would join them. The Spaniards made a bow, and the ladies
thanked Jack with a sweet smile; and the captain of the vessel, who
still lay pinioned against the gun, looked, as much as to say, Why the
devil don't you ask me? but the fact was, they had had such trouble to
secure him, that Jack did not much like the idea of letting him loose
again. Jack and the seamen commenced their breakfast, and as the ladies
and prisoners did not appear inclined to eat, they ate their share and
their own too; during which the elderly man inquired of Jack if he could
speak French.

Jack, with his mouth full of sausage, replied that he could; and then
commenced a conversation, from which Jack learned as follows:--

The elderly gentleman was a passenger with the young man, who was his
son, and the ladies, who were his wife and his two daughters, and they
were proceeding to Tarragona. Whereupon Jack made a bow and thanked
him; and then the gentleman, whose name was Don Cordova de Rimarosa,
wished to know what Jack intended to do with them, hoping, as a
gentleman, he would put them on shore with their effects, as they were
non-combatants. Jack explained all this to Mesty and the men, and then
finished his sausage. The men, who were a little elevated with the wine
which they had been drinking, proposed that they should take the ladies
a cruise, and Jack at first did not dislike the idea, but he said
nothing; Mesty, however, opposed this, saying, that ladies only made a
row in a ship, and the coxswain sided with him, saying, that they should
all be at daggers drawn. Whereupon Jack pulled out the "articles of
war," and informed the men, that there was no provision in them for
women, and therefore the thing was impossible.

The next question was, as to the propriety of allowing them to take
their effects; and it was agreed, at last, that they might take them.
Jack desired the steward to feed his master the captain, and then told
the Spanish Don the result of the consultation; further informing him,
that as soon as it was dark, he intended to put them all on board the
small vessel, when they could cast loose the men and do as they pleased.
The Don and the ladies returned thanks, and went down to pack up their
baggage; Mesty ordering two men to help them, but with a caution, that
the