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Having arrived at this very logical, and important conclusion, our honest Hibernian flourished his shillalah above his head, but the next moment it was snatched from his grasp by Blackbeard, who cast it away to a considerable distance.

‘Bad luck to yer, for a murthering blackguard,’ exclaimed Pat, as nothing daunted, he closed in with the pirate, and with his superior strength, would have easily crushed him to the earth, had not one of his (Blackbeard’s) comrades struck poor Pat a violent blow on the head with the butt of his pistol, which caused him to let go his hold, and as he afterwards averred, ‘knocked the life from his head down to the inds of his toes.’

Whilst this curious transaction was in progress, Henry Huntington was busily engaged in parrying the thrusts which were aimed at him by the third pirate, with his stout walking stick, (which might, perhaps, be more properly termed a heavy club,) and so lustily did he lay about him, that he soon managed to knock his adversary down, through the agency of a blow, (which, as it was afterwards discovered, fractured the villain’s skull,) when Blackbeard and the other man, who had just got clear of Pat, fell suddenly upon Henry Huntington, and soon disarmed him.

This having been accomplished, Blackbeard addressed him as follows:

‘Dost thou know, rash and fool-hardy man, that you have incurred death, by daring to resist my authority, and wounding one of my comrades?

‘Though I know nothing either of you or your authority, or your comrades, I do know, that as far forth as I could, I have done my duty.’

‘And I still have mine to do,’ answered Blackbeard. ‘Knowest thou that Mary Hamilton is in my power?’

‘What,’ exclaimed Henry, wildly, ‘do I hear aright? Is my affianced in the power of–‘

‘If Mary Hamilton is your affianced wife, she is certainly in the power of Blackbeard, the far-famed pirate of the Roanoke.’

‘God help her then,’ exclaimed Henry, hardly knowing what he said.

‘Amen,’ exclaimed the pirate, in a tone of cruel mockery.

‘If it is true, what you have told me,’ said Henry, earnestly, ‘only let her go, free her, Mary Hamilton, from your cruel grasp, and then you may kill, torture, do anything with my poor body that you will.’

‘I shall dispose of her, and you too, just as I please,’ answered Blackbeard, ‘but I shall not stop longer here to bandy words with you.’

As he finished speaking, the pirate raised his silver call to his lips, and as its loud clear whistle rung out upon the still air, three more desperadoes appeared suddenly upon the scene of action, whom Blackbeard thus addressed:

‘Comrades, convey this young sprig of nobility,’ pointing to Henry, ‘and that prostrate Irishman,’ pointing to Patrick, (who was just beginning to recover from the blow which had stunned him,) ‘to the cavern, under the palace, where you will see that they are closely confined.’

So saying, Blackbeard turned quickly away, and soon disappeared through the adjoining forest.

The cavern to which the pirate had alluded in his last speech, as being under the ‘palace,’ was a large, subterranean appartment, which was generally used by the bucaniers as a place of storage for their ill gotten plunder. This cavern had had many, and various ways of entrance, the principal one of which, was near the outside of the palace, and was opened by removing a broad, flat stone, which had been ingeniously set upright in a small banking, apparently of earth, which surrounded this singular abode.

We might as well say here, as anywhere, that we are well aware that the representation given by us of the pirate’s palace and cavern, will be looked upon by many as unnatural and improbable, but when they consider that the bucaniers of that period were very numerous, and consisted of men of almost every variety of genius, which must, even in its times of relaxation, be employed about something, they will cease, perhaps, to wonder that the ingenuity of such men should be exerted in building convenient, and even elegant structures for their accommodation, and their extensive means of enriching them with ornaments the most costly, with which the numerous Indiamen they captured were freighted, will not be farther questioned.