’It is far from my wish, Miss Armstrong, to harm even a hair of your head; but you must, (and mark me, I speak not unmeaningly,) you must, I repeat, answer my question, fairly, and without equivocation.  Do you love Arthur Huntington?’

Ellen shuddered, and averted her head, but answered not.  Finding his fair prisoner was not disposed to reply, Blackbeard, exclaimed with a horrid oath,

’I tell you, girl, that the pirate of the Roanoke, is not to be tampered with.  Again, and for the last time, I command you to answer my question.  Will you do so?’

‘No,’ replied Ellen firmly, ‘I will not.’

‘Then your blood be upon your head!’ exclaimed the pirate, as springing suddenly forward, he inflicted a severe wound upon the person of sweet Ellen Armstrong, with his poniard, which caused her to fall fainting and bleeding upon the floor of the cabin.

‘My God, what have I done,’ muttered Blackbeard, as he gazed upon his prisoner’s prostrate form.

‘Murdered your sister!’ exclaimed a shrill female voice, which emanated from a person who had entered the cabin unperceived, just after Ellen was wounded.

‘Ha, who is that, that speaks of murder!’ exclaimed the Pirate involuntarily.

’It is your mother, Elvira, who accuses you of having murdered that beautiful girl, who now lays gasping at your feet,’ replied the strange female, who although she was far advanced in years, beyond the prime of life, still possessed a tall and commanding form, together with features, which, though they were somewhat wrinkled and withered, had once been pre-eminently fair and beautiful.

‘Avaunt! hag,’ exclaimed Blackbeard, as Elvira ceased speaking, ’begone I say, and if ever thou darest to call thyself, my mother, in my hearing, I will stab you to the very heart.’

‘Am I not thy father’s wife, Herbert?’ replied the female.

‘You say so, and it may be so,’ rejoined Blackbeard, ’but at any rate you are only a social one.’

‘If even that is allowed,’ answered Elvira, ’you must own that it legally puts me in your mother’s place.’

’By the bones of Captain Kid, it sounds well and appropriate for you, to talk about legality,’ replied Blackbeard, ironically, ’you, who hast been born and bred amongst those, who acknowledge no laws, except those of their own making.  Go to, you’re an idiot.’

‘But I am not a murderess,’ replied Elvira.

‘That is more than I could swear for,’ said Blackbeard.

‘At least I never killed my sister,’ rejoined Elvira.

‘What do you mean to insinuate by that?’ asked the Pirate as his muscular frame trembled with a sort of indefinable emotion.

‘I mean,’ replied Elvira earnestly, ’not only to insinuate, but to solemnly assert, that, that unfortunate girl, who now lies bleeding before your eyes, is your only sister.’

‘What!’ exclaimed Blackbeard, driven by these singular words almost to frenzy, ‘Witch of Bedlam, thou liest.’