“A brazen witch, and one whose saucy eye and pert figure might lead any honest mariner into contraband, or even into a sea-robbery!” half-whispered Trysail, perhaps afraid to trust his voice within hearing of a creature that seemed almost endowed with the faculties of life.  “Ay, this is the hussy!  I know her by the book, and her green jacket!  But where are her people?  The vessel is as quiet as the royal vault on a coronation-day, when the last king, and those who went before him, commonly have the place to themselves.  Here would be a pretty occasion to throw a boat’s-crew on her decks, and haul down yon impudent ensign, which bears the likeness of this wicked lady, so bravely in the air, if------”

“If what?” asked Ludlow, struck with the plausible character of the proposal.

“Why, if one were sure of the nature of such a minx, Sir; for to own the truth, I would rather deal with a regularly-built Frenchman, who showed his guns honestly, and kept such a jabbering aboard that one might tell his bearings in the dark.—­The creature spoke!”

Ludlow did not reply, for a heavy crash of thunder succeeded the vivid glow of a flash of lightning, and glared so suddenly across the swarthy lineaments as to draw the involuntary exclamation from Trysail.  The intimation that came from the cloud, was not to be disregarded.  The wind, which had so long varied, began to be heard in the rigging of the silent brigantine; and the two elements exhibited unequivocal evidence, in their menacing and fitful colors of the near approach of the gust.  The young sailor, with an absorbing interest, turned his eyes on his ship.  The yards were on the caps, the bellying canvas was fluttering far to leeward, and twenty or thirty human forms on each spar, showed that the nimble-fingered top-men were gathering in and knotting the sails down to a close reef.

“Give way, men, for your lives!” cried the excited Ludlow.

A single dash of the oars was heard, and the yawl was already twenty feet from the mysterious image.  Then followed a desperate struggle to regain the cruiser, ere the gust should strike her.  The sullen murmur of the wind, rushing through the rigging of the ship, was audible some time before they reached her side; and the struggles between the fabric and the elements, were at moments so evident, as to cause the young commander to fear he would be too late.

The foot of Ludlow touched the deck of the Coquette, at the instant the weight of the squall fell upon her sails.  He no longer thought of any interest but that of the moment; for, with all the feelings of a seaman, his mind was now full of his ship.

“Let run every thing!” shouted the ready officer, in a voice that made itself heard above the roar of the wind.  “Clue down, and hand!  Away aloft, you top-men!—­lay out!—­furl away!”