The captain himself, a short time afterwards, made his appearance. The machine was ordered to be brought to the gangway, where he carefully examined it. It was made of an empty cask, to which something like the keel of a ship was attached. This appendage was covered with heavy sheets of lead, for the apparent purpose of being made to keep downwards, and so to prevent the machine from rolling over. The upper part was provided with a wooden seat, made in the shape of a Spanish saddle, the bows of which rose very high, and were crowned with a piece of flat board, which seemed intended to answer the purpose of a shelf.
When the captain had examined this machine, he ordered that a few biscuits should be secured on the shelf above mentioned, and, at the same time, commanded the prisoner to be led forth.
In the mean time, the deck had become again crowded, for every one knew what would take place at the end of the two hours, which had just expired. But the pirates were not now drawn up in the same order as before. They crowded in the foremost part of the vessel, some lounged on the bulwarks, others bent over the riggings, watching, in moody calmness, what was going on. No one dared assist in the preparations except those who formed the watch of the hour. The captive priest, also, with his beautiful ward, stood leaning on the taffrail of the schooner, isolated, as it were, amidst the many that were on board the vessel.
The prisoner was brought forward to the gangway. He was haggard and worn: the feelings of the two hours which intervened between him and that doom, which was worse than death, concentrated as they were into the intensest agony, preyed like gnawing worms upon his body.
“Hear my last prayer, for mercy’s sake!” he cried, with passion, to the captain, as he threw himself at his feet, “oh! spare me this dreadful death; give me but life, and I shall give you all I have.—Can you treat your father in this manner? Oh, my son—my good son—my beloved son! I shall give you all my property—if—”
“Bind his arms,” said the captain.
The arms of the prisoner were immediately seized; he resisted madly and violently, and, in the strength of desperation, he shook off the first pirate that attempted to lay hands on him. But he was quickly mastered, and his arms were tightly tied with small cord behind his back. The machine was now supported perpendicularly, and it resembled, as it stood in that position, a horse ready saddled.
The prisoner became still more agitated and terror-stricken when his arms were bound, and his cries were more piteous and heart-rending.
“Oh! ask mercy for me, my men,” he cried, imploringly, to the pirates around him, whose coolness seemed to mock his wretchedness, “I shall make you all rich; do not—do not throw me into the sea. Holy father, holy father,” looking towards the priest, “you may succeed, you may move him, you may curse him; ask mercy for me—do not let me be drowned.”
“Put him on,” the captain said.