It was in vain to attempt to withstand his authority. He
was not exactly quarrelsome, but boisterous and peremptory, like one
accustomed to tyrannize on a quarter deck; and there was a dare-devil
air about every thing he said and did, that inspired a wariness in all
bystanders. Even the half-pay officer, so long the hero of the club,
was soon silenced by him; and the quiet burghers stared with wonder at
seeing their inflammable man of war so readily and quietly
extinguished.
And then the tales that he would tell were enough to make a peaceable
man's hair stand on end. There was not a sea fight, or marauding or
free-booting adventure that had happened within the last twenty years
but he seemed perfectly versed in it. He delighted to talk of the
exploits of the buccaneers in the West-Indies and on the Spanish Main.
How his eyes would glisten as he described the waylaying of treasure
ships, the desperate fights, yard arm and yard arm--broadside and broad
side--the boarding and capturing of large Spanish galleons! with what
chuckling relish would he describe the descent upon some rich Spanish
colony; the rifling of a church; the sacking of a convent! You would
have thought you heard some gormandizer dilating upon the roasting a
savory goose at Michaelmas as he described the roasting of some Spanish
Don to make him discover his treasure--a detail given with a minuteness
that made every rich old burgher present turn uncomfortably in his
chair.
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