'If Mary Hamilton is your affianced wife, she is certainly in the power
of Blackbeard, the far-famed pirate of the Roanoke.'

'God help her then,' exclaimed Henry, hardly knowing what he said.

'Amen,' exclaimed the pirate, in a tone of cruel mockery.

'If it is true, what you have told me,' said Henry, earnestly, 'only let
her go, free her, Mary Hamilton, from your cruel grasp, and then you may
kill, torture, do anything with my poor body that you will.'

'I shall dispose of her, and you too, just as I please,' answered
Blackbeard, 'but I shall not stop longer here to bandy words with you.'

As he finished speaking, the pirate raised his silver call to his lips,
and as its loud clear whistle rung out upon the still air, three more
desperadoes appeared suddenly upon the scene of action, whom Blackbeard
thus addressed:

'Comrades, convey this young sprig of nobility,' pointing to Henry, 'and
that prostrate Irishman,' pointing to Patrick, (who was just beginning
to recover from the blow which had stunned him,) 'to the cavern, under
the palace, where you will see that they are closely confined.'

So saying, Blackbeard turned quickly away, and soon disappeared through
the adjoining forest.

The cavern to which the pirate had alluded in his last speech, as being
under the 'palace,' was a large, subterranean appartment, which was