Macbeth.
When Appadocca with his party had gained the schooner, he immediately ordered the prisoner Willmington to be taken to the torture-room and to be there kept in custody: at the same time the men were summoned to the main deck, and the booty of the previous night, was distributed in the same manner as we have described at the beginning of this tale.
In the meantime the morning dawned more brightly, and the waters of the gulf lay smooth and shining before the piercing rays of the morning sun, unbroken as they were by the faintest breath.
The heavy sails of the man-of-war were still seen to ascend one by one, and fall, as they were spread, heavily against the masts.
They reflected the sunbeams from their white and clear surface, far and wide: and amidst the number of vessels in the harbour, the huge ship-of-war, with all its canvass spread, and its stern decorated with the fiery ensign of England, looked like a gigantic monarch of the sea that floated at the head of its smaller subjects.
She was now ready to weigh anchor, and was now evidently only waiting for the wind which was certain to spring about the hour of ten in the forenoon.
When Appadocca had superintended the division of the spoil amongst his followers, he ordered the young midshipman to be brought before him.
That individual, in a few moments, made his appearance. He had scarcely as yet recovered from the effects of his torture; he was pale, and appeared still weak and emaciated. Yet in his eye there could now be read a more earnest seriousness—the fruit of the self dependent position in which he had for some time so accidentally found himself, and the consequence of the example to whose power he had been exposed, in the stern and manly society into which he had been thrown.
From a boy whose yearnings had been continually after excitement and pleasure, he was suddenly transformed into a man, whose thoughts began to be characterised by the seriousness of purpose which alone can be worthy of the highest of the animal creation.