“If you have meat and drink,” he cried, “bestow it freely upon my men, tired of the unsavoury food on shipboard, and if they transgress the laws of hospitality then I, their captain, shall be your avenger; we want none of your goods or money, having enough in our well-laden vessel to satisfy all your necessities, if ye have them, and to feel it not.”

The men strolled along the street, swarmed into the two little taverns, soon making away with their small stores of ale and spirits, and accepting everything eatable offered them by the shivering citizens; but as to violence there was none, for every man of the rascally crew bore enmity against most of the others, and held himself ready for a chance to report a shipmate or to break his head.

Black Paul was a powerful aid in the preservation of order among the disorderly.  Conflicts between factions of the crew were greatly feared by him, for the schemes which happy chance had caused to now revolve themselves in his master mind would have been sadly interfered with by want of concord among the men of the Revenge.

Captain Bonnet, followed at a short distance by Dickory and Ben, was interested in everything he saw.  A man of intelligence and considerable reading, it pleased him to note the peculiarities of the people of a country which he had never visited.  The houses, the shops, and even the attire of the citizens, were novel and well worthy of his observation.  He looked over garden walls, he gazed out upon the fields which were visible from the upper end of the street, and when he saw a man who was able to command his speech he asked him questions.

There was a little church, standing back from the thoroughfare, its door wide open, and this was an instant attraction to the pirate captain, who opened the gate of the yard and walked up to it.

“That I should ever again see Master Stede Bonnet goin’ into a church was something I didna dream o’, Dickory,” said Ben Greenway, “it will be a meeracle, an’ I doubt if he dares to pass the door wi’ his sins an’ his plunders on his head.”

But Captain Bonnet did pass the door, reverentially removing his hat, if not his crimes, as he entered.  In but few ways it resembled the houses of worship to which he had been accustomed in his earlier days, and he gazed eagerly from side to side as he slowly walked up the central aisle.  Dickory was about to follow him, but he was suddenly jerked back by the Scotchman, who forcibly drew him away from the door.

“Look ye,” whispered Ben, speaking quickly, under great excitement, “look ye, Dickory, Heaven has sent us our chance.  He’s in there safe an’ sound, an’ the good angels will keep his mind occupied.  I’ll quietly close the door an’ turn the key, then I’ll slip around to the back, an’ if there be anither door there, I’ll stop it some way, if it be not already locked.  Now, Dickory boy, make your heels fly!  I noticed, before we got here, that some o’ the men were makin’ their way to the boats; dash ye amang them, Dickory, an’ tell them that the day they’ve been longin’ for, ever since they set foot on the vessel, has now come.  Their captain is a prisoner, an’ they are free to hurry on board their vessel an’ carry awa wi’ them a’ their vile plunder.”