his look appeared fastened on some one of the light fleecy clouds that floated in the blue vacuum above him, there gathered about his brow a gloom like that which is thought to be the shadowing of intense thought.  Indeed, so dark and threatening did this lowering of the eye become, at times, that the fair hair which broke out in ringlets from beneath a black velvet sea-cap, from whose top depended a tassel of gold, could no longer impart to his countenance the gentleness which it sometimes was seen to express.  As though he disdained concealment, and wished to announce the nature of the power he wielded, he wore his pistols openly in a leathern belt, that was made to cross a frock of blue, delicately edged with gold, and through which he had thrust, with the same disregard of concealment, a light and curved Turkish yattagan, with a straight stiletto, which, by the chasings of its handle, had probably originally come from the manufactory of some Italian artisan.

On the deck of the poop, overlooking the rest and retired from the crowd beneath them, stood Mrs Wyllys and her charge, neither of whom announced in the slightest degree, by eye or air, that anxiety which might readily be supposed natural to females who found themselves in a condition so critical as in the company of lawless freebooters.  On the contrary, while the former pointed out to the latter the hillock of pale blue which rose from the water, like a dark and strongly defined cloud in the distance, hope was strongly blended with the ordinarily placid expression of her features.  She also called to Wilder, in a cheerful voice; and the youth, who had long been standing, with a sort of jealous watchfulness, at the foot of the ladder which led from the quarter-deck, was at her side in an instant.

“I am telling Gertrude,” said the governess, with those tones of confidence which had been created by the dangers they had incurred together, “that yonder is her home, and that, when the breeze shall be felt, we may speedily hope to reach it; but the wilfully timid girl insists that she cannot believe her senses, after the frightful risks we have run, until, at least, she shall see the dwelling of her childhood, and the face of her father.  You have often been on this coast before, Mr Wilder?”

“Often, Madam.”

“Then, you can tell us what is the distant land we see.”

“Land!” repeated our adventurer, affecting a look of surprise; “is there then land in view?”

“Is there land in view!  Have not hours gone by since the same was proclaimed from the masts?”

“It may be so:  We seamen are dull after a night of watching, and often hear but little of that which passes.”

There was a quick, suspicious glance from the eye of the governess, as if she apprehended, she knew not what, ere she continued,—­

“Has the sight of the cheerful, blessed soil of America so soon lost its charm in your eye, that you approach it with an air so heedless?  The infatuation of men of your profession, in favour of so dangerous and so treacherous an element, is an enigma I never could explain.”