The Bedford gazette. [volume] (Bedford, Pa.) 1805-current, 1863-10-16

/ Q) to the power of those desperadoess Ishould
only be murdered, probably; but you would be
reserved for fate far worse than death" and
the captain sighed like a dying bullfrog.
Mrs. Piggles being scrawny- Framed, hatch
ct faced, red-headed vixen Of forty and upwards
the captains solicitation in her be half seemed
altogether uncaled for; but every woman likes
| to be called handsome, and his words wele like
oil upon her troubled spirit. She was about to
make conciliatory reply when the matepu. in
this malopropos remark:
''Besides, ma'am, he aint used to bein took
| by pirates; but he's been 6loped up every day
since he married you'll" And as he spoke, he
leaped down upon the main deck just in time
to avoid Delaying pin which the indignant
Zantippe flung after him.
In the meantime, the schooner had approached
within a few miles of the Pollywog, and Captain
Piggles, whose fears of his wife was lost in the
still greater fear Of the pirate Immediately re-
called the mate to the quarter deck bade him
get out all the small arms and have them care
fully prepared for use, and have some cartridges
brought on deck for the two carriage-guns. The
small arms consisted OF dozen muskets, an G.
quail number of rusty boa rdng-pkes, and six
and distributed among the crew; while Mrs.
Piggles took possession of q boarding-pike and
musket, declaring that she infinitely preferred
'death to dishonor," and would send bull.
let into her bosom sooner than be taken captive
by the pirates. Had she found occasion to at
tempt this method of leaving the world, how
ever, we fear she would have been disappointed; !;
for il is a fact well known to military men that
cotton oreastworks are impenetrable to musket
balls. ,...t.
Captain Piggles himself attended to the load
ing OF the carriage guns-two four Founders,
mounted amid sAips-but, in his fright and con-
fusion, placed the ball first and the cartridge,
in each gun, and rammed them home III a man
ner which did credit to his muscular powers.
As soon as this important operation was com
pleted, the captain ordered the mainbrace to be
spliced, for he felt the need of a little sham
courage himself, and wished to infuse portion
of the same spirit into the bosoms-or rather
the stomachs-of the crow. Mrs Pisgles, OBJ
serving this was suddenly seized with pain
to which she was subject, and which could only
be relieved by stiff glass Of brandy and water
Ia kind of chronic spasm, i'll firct, which al
ways seized her when .'anything to take was
easily procurable Accordingly the steward was
ordered to bring her glass of her favorite med
icine; but, at the first sip, fhe lady declared
that it '.tasted too strong of the water,"-a fuid
she was ready to admit, which had been of great
benefit to navigation, but was nearly useless for
drinking purposes; and, the dccanter having
been brought, she proceeded TO neutralize its
injurious effects by free addition of the more
potent liquid. 81.
BY the time the spirits which the lady had
poured dorm for the purpose of keeping her own
spirits up had produced its due effect the pirate
was almost close aboard the Pollywog, upon the
weather quarter; and Captain Piggles, having
ranged his men along the weather bulwarks,
briefly addressed them to behave like brave men,
to follow his example, and TO let their watch
word be, ''victory or death Though all the
while his teeth chartered in lis head, and his
limbs trembled beneath him. H WI,
Mr.. Barnacle, the mate, with two or three of
the men, had taken upon themselves the duty of
navigating the ship, leaving to their valiant COM
mander the task of defending her.
AS the schooner glidcd nearer and nearer to
the doomed ship, Captain Piggles gazed with
eyes starting from their sockets upon her crowded
decks and his hair bristled up '.like quills upon
the fretful porcupine,' as he observed the muz-
zles of several polished brass six Founders pro-
truding from her main-deck ports. Altogether,
she was wicked-looking craft, painted black
from stem to stern, with high, sharp bows, and
a flush deck that descended upon a gradual in
cline, to the taffrai, with long, slender and rak-
ing spars, and an immense spread of canvas for
vessel of her size, which could not have been
more than one hundred and fifty TONS
Although large portion of the men who
stood upon her decks wore the dress of lands
men, and although they seemed to be armed
with no weapons whatever, Captain Piggles and
most of his men had no longer a doubt as to
their being pirates; but, while the courage of
the men rose in proportion as the danger seem
ed 10 approach and become real, the reverse of
this was the case of Captain Piggles. He grew
paer and paler and trembled more violently as
the schooner drew nearer; and when, at length |
her jib-boom almost touched the inizzen rigging |
of the Poywog, his musket and boarding pike |
dropped from his ''nervelcss grasp" and turn
ing to his wife, with outstretched arms, he cried:
%, Betsey, we're lost Come let me clasp
you to my bosom, and let us die, ike men, in
each others arms!"
But the esprit of '76" had been aroused in
The lady's bosom by the oath or spirit which she
lad taken, and her only response to her husbands
pathetic appeal was an angry ''Let me alone,
will you'll" Then, raising her muskct to her
houlder, she took deliberate aim at the schoon-
RS helmsman and pulled the trigger.
A terrific report followed, for the old musket
lad been heavily charged with buckshot; and
piercing scream from the unfortunate Mrs.
9iggles followed the report, as the buckshot rat
led among the heads of the astonisbed officers
# the sehooner's quarterback. The musket
lad recoiled with terrible force not only capsiz-
ng the poor woman, but knocking her---in
lautical pariaace-''end over end" until she
truck with Q crash upon the skylisht of the
o,,,,o oab;u onI -, J;na,neo,oJ-5 I