g to her bridle. I sent my charge full into his
chest, and as he tumbled in the snow I dug my spurs to the rowels.

What happened then is still a blurred picture in my brain. I know that
Cynthia was shot from under me before she had taken her leap, and we
fell heavily together. And I was scarcely up again and my sword drawn,
when the villains were pressing me from all sides. I remember spitting
but one, and then I heard a great seafaring oath, the first word out of
their mouths, and I was felled from behind with a mighty blow.

CHAPTER XVIII. THE "BLACK MOLL"

I have no intention, my dears, of dwelling upon that part of my
adventures which must be as painful to you as to me, the very
recollection of which, after all these years, suffices to cause the
blood within me to run cold. In my youth men whose natures shrank not
from encounter with their enemies lacked not, I warrant you, a checkered
experience. Those of us who are wound the tightest go the farthest and
strike the hardest. Nor is it difficult for one, the last of whose life
is being recorded, to review the outspread roll of it, and trace the
unerring forces which have drawn for themselves.

Some, indeed, traverse this world weighing, before they partake,
pleasure and business alike. But I am not sure, my children, that they
better themselves; or that God, in His all-wise judgment, prefers them
to such as are guided by the divine impulse with which He has endowed
them. Far be it from me to advise rashness or imprudence, as such; nor
do I believe you will take me so. But I say unto you: do that which is
right, and let God, not man, be your interpreter.

My narrative awaits me.

I came to my wits with an immoderate feeling of faintness and sickness,
with no more remembrance of things past than has a man bereft of
reason. And for some time I swung between sense and oblivion before an
overpowering stench forced itself upon my nostrils, accompanied by a
creaking, straining sound and sweeping motion. I could see nothing for
the pitchy blackness. Then I recalled what had befallen me, and cried
aloud to God in my anguish, for I well knew I had been carried aboard
ship, and was at sea. I had oftentimes heard of the notorious press-gang
which supplied the need of the King's navy, and my first thought was
that I had fallen in their clutches. But I wondered that they had dared
attack a person of my consequence.

I had no pain. I lay in a bunk that felt gritty and