Free The Book of Pirates and Highwaymen by Cate Ludlow

came to blows amongst themselves; they drew their weapons generally; and ill-directed blows and ineffectual stabs were given and received in the flashing and unsteady light.
    De Tracy, gliding like a spectre amongst them, thrust one of them through and through; a second, a third, and a fourth dropped from his sword, ere they saw who was amongst them; in the mean time Dugald’s arm had been faithful, and three of the wretched miscreants had fallen beneath his trusty weapon. La Force, on the first recognition of De Tracy, and Dugald fighting at his side, leaped upon an arm chest, and discharged his pistols. De Tracy and Dugald, with one impulse, but still in deadly silence, sprang upon him, and in a few moments he was also stretched among the slain. Three yet remained unhurt; but dispirited by their loss, and terrified at the unexpected visitation, they were quickly lying with their infamous companions.
    De Tracy and Dugald now barricaded the gangway, and secured the cabin and the hatches; and after returning thanks to God for his merciful interposition, De Tracy, with a fainting and a heavy heart, inquired of his faithful servant for his wife and children! The honest and affectionate heart of Dugald melted as he gave the narrative. The convulsive sobs and groans of the wretched husband audibly told his agony and distress, and seemed to threaten the termination of his own existence. Of the brutal dishonour of his wife and daughters, he was already too well informed; but he had yet to be told their ultimate fate. His tortured brain had yet to learn, that his youngest daughter had not survived the horrible treatment she had received; that his eldest son had, in youthful indignation, lifted a weapon against La Force in his mother’s defence, and had been literally hewn to pieces by the barbarian before her eyes! That his wife, with his youngest son and the infant, had been forced into a small canoe with his mulatto servant, and set adrift during the height of the gale; and that at the moment of their departure, his eldest daughter, in a state of exhaustion and insensibility, had been thrown into the sea to her raving mother, in mockery of her cries for her remaining child, and had there perished, in her sight! The possibility of a slight and crazy boat out-living the hurricane of the preceding night was all the hope that remained to the unhappy De Tracy of the wretched remnant of his family.
    As dawn approached, the storm increased in violence; the gale roared through the rigging; and the sea, upturned by sudden and heavy gusts of wind, showed, as far as the eye could see, the dark and tremendous furrows so fatal to the mariner. Heavy billows now rolled around the ship, nearly as high as her mast-head, and now flashed and swept over the deck; the vessel hurried onwards with a terrific rapidity; her seams admitted water, and on every side symptoms manifested themselves of her speedy destruction; the only chance of safety lay in standing out to sea, by keeping the ship before the wind; and Dugald, with that view, determined to lash himself to the helm. In this attempt, a sudden lurch of the vessel shifted the rudder violently, and he was laid prostrate and senseless on the deck, by a blow from the tiller, and De Tracy hastened to his assistance.
    At this moment a figure, that crouched amongst the slain, and seemed one of their number, started on its feet before the astonished De Tracy, vigorous and unhurt; it was La Force, who had escaped his fate from the swords of De Tracy and Dugald, by a breast-plate of mail, which he wore beneath his clothes, as a measure of precaution against the treachery of his own crew; and who, to avoid a personal encounter with two determined men, had sunk, unhurt, among his companions at their first attack. Before De Tracy had recovered himself from the surprise at his appearance, the miscreant had fired a pistol-shot, which, unhappily, took effect in his right shoulder, and before he could either