shore, which he soon reached, and having landed, made the best of his
way to the palace, where we will for the present leave him, whilst we
look further after the fortunes of our heroine.

No sooner had the pirate, taken his departure from the cabin, than the
strange female hastened to the assistance of the wounded girl, whom she
supported in her arms, and then conducted her into a small but neatly
furnished state-room, which was Elvira's own apartment, where she had
partly overheard the altercation which took place, as before related,
between Blackbeard and Ellen, and from which she had noiselessly and
unperceived entered the main cabin just after our unfortunate heroine
had fallen to the floor. Here Elvira gently laid her fair charge upon
her own soft couch, and proceeded immediately to examine her wound,
which, although it had bled copiously, was but slight, then, after
carefully dressing it, this strange woman, by the aid of appropriate
restoratives soon succeeded in restoring 'sweet' Ellen Armstrong once
more to consciousness.

As a confused sense of her situation began to dawn upon her mind, our
heroine, after casting a wild glance around the state-room, addressed
Elvira as follows:

'Good woman, for the love of Heaven, tell me where I am, and into whose
hands I have fallen?'

'You are at present on board of a piratical vessel called the Fury, and
in the hands of a merciless and cruel set of black-hearted villains.'

'And you,' exclaimed Ellen, hardly knowing what she said, 'how came you,
a woman, to be in this horrid place?'