Although he found no fault and made no criticisms, Bonnet was very much disgusted.  Such a disorderly vessel, such an apparently lawless crew, excited his most severe mental strictures; and, although the great Blackbeard was to-day a very well-behaved person, Bonnet could not understand how a famous and successful captain should permit his vessel and his crew to get into such an unseamanlike and disgraceful condition.  On board the Revenge, as his sailing-master had remarked, there was the neatness of his kitchen and his store-houses; and, although he did not always know what to do with the nautical appliances which surrounded him, he knew how to make them look in good order.  But he made few remarks, favourable or otherwise, and held himself loftier than before, with an air as if he might have been an admiral entire instead of resembling one only in clothes, and with ceremonious and even condescending politeness followed his host wherever he was led, above decks or below.

Ben Greenway had gone with his master about the ship with much of the air of one who accompanies a good friend to the place of execution.  Regardless of gibes or insults, whether they were directed at Bonnet or himself, he turned his face neither to the right nor to the left, and apparently regarded nothing that he heard.  But while endeavouring to listen as little as possible to what was going on around him, he heard a great deal; but, strange to say, the railing and scurrility of the pirates did not appear to have a depressing influence upon his mind.  In fact, he seemed in somewhat better spirits than when he came on board.

“Whatever he may do, whatever he may say, an’ whatever he may swear,” said the Scotchman to himself, “he is no’ like ane of these.  Try as he may, he canna descend so low into the blackness o’ evil as these sons o’ perdition.  Although he has done evil beyond a poor mortal’s computation, he walks like a king amang them.  Even that Blackbeard, striving to be decent for an hour or two, knows a superior when he meets him.”

When they had finished the tour of the vessel, Blackbeard conducted his guest to his own cabin and invited him to be seated by a little table.  Bonnet sat down, placing his high-plumed cocked hat upon the bench beside him.  He did not want anything more to eat or to drink, and he was, in fact, quite ready to take his leave.  The vessel had not pleased him and had given him an idea of the true pirate’s life which he had never had before.  On the Revenge he mingled little with the crew, scarcely ever below decks, and his own quarters were as neat and commodious as if they were on a fine vessel carrying distinguished passengers.  Dirt and disorder, if they existed, were at least not visible to him.

But, although he had no desire ever to make another visit to the ship of the great Blackbeard, he would remember his position and be polite and considerate now that he was here.  Moreover, the savage desperado of the day before, dressed like a monkey and howling like an Indian, seemed now to be endeavouring to soften himself a little and to lay aside some of his savage eccentricities in honour of the captain of that fine ship, the Revenge.  So, clothed in a calm dignity, Bonnet waited to hear what his host had further to say.