Waterbury evening Democrat., 1888-04-04


 whafeyer tEl.t could trace ii his eycs or inc ey1,ression of his counlcnance; and haiaey wislful to show thGt 1 bore no malice [ talked of pirates and their usages, and asked if the Boca del Dragon fought under the red or black flag.
 oWhv, the black flag, certainly said he: ssbnt, if we met with resistance it was on. custom to haul it down and hoist the red flag. to let our opponents know we sbould give no quarter"
 "There is your flag locker9' said T.
 ssIn my bertl,n he answered.
 CT sboI,ld like to see the black faonT av- claimed: s'tis the one piece of bunting. I be- ieve. have never viewed"
 ssI,ll fetch it.n said he, and taking the Ian tern went aft very quietly, but with cer- tain stagger in his walk, Which l should have put down to the wine If 1t was not that his behavior was free from all symptoms of inebriation. The change in him surprised me, but not so greatly as you might suppose; indeed, it excited my suspicious rather than my wonder. Fear worked in him unques- tionably; but what seemed to see best was some malignant design which he hoped to conceal by an air of conciliation and a quality of respectful bon homie.
 He came back with flag in his hand, and we spread it between us; it was black, with yellow skull grinning in the middle; over this an hour glass, and beneath a cross bones.
 'tWhat consternation has this signal caused and does still causer' said I, surveying it, while hundred fancies of the barbarous scenes it had flown over, the miserable cries for mercy that had swept up past it to the ear of God, crowded into my mind q think Mr. Tassard,n said I, ''that our first step, should we ever find ourselves afloat iD this ship, must be to commit this and all other flags of like kind on board to the deep. There is evidence ill this piece ot drapery to hang an angelF'
 He let fall his end of the flag, and sat down suddenly.
 "Yes," he answered, sending a curious roll ing glance around the cook room, and at the same time bringing his hand to the back of his head, "this is evidence to dangle even an honester man than you, sir All flags but the ensign we resolve to sail under must go all flags, and all the wearing apparel, and and-but'-hcre he muttered a curse-''we arc fixed; there is to be no sailing.n
 He shook his head and covered his eyes. His manner was strange, and the stranger for his quietude.
 l said to hIm, "Are you ill.n
 If he heard he did not heed me, but fell a. muttering and crying to himself And now 1 did certainly remark a quality in his voice that was new to my ear; it was not, as he had said, a labor or thickness of utterance, but dryness and parchedness of old age, with many breaks from high to low notes, and lean noise of dribbling threading every word. He sweated and talked and muttered but this was from sheer terror; he did not swoon, but sat with a stoop, often pressing his brows and gazing about him like one whose senses are all abroad.
 "GraciOus mother of all angelsn he ex- claimed, crossing himself several times, but with feeble, most agitated hand, and speak ing in French and English, and sometimes lnterjecting an invocation in Italian or Spanish, though give you what he said in my own tongue-''surely am dying. Oh Lord, how frightful to die! Oh holy Virgin, be merciful to me! I shall go to hell. Oh Jesu, am past forgiveness? For the love of heaven, MT. Rodney, some brandy! Oh, that some saint would interpose for me! Only few years longer-grant me few years longer-l beseech for that time that may repentn' and he extended one quivering hand for the brandy (of which a draught stood melted ill the Oven), and made the sign of the cross upon his breast with the other, while he continued to whine out in his cracked pipes the widest appeals for mercy. saying vast deal that I dCrst not venture to set down, so plentiful and awful were his clamors for time that he might repent, though he never 1apsed into blasphemy, but on the contrary discovered an agony of religious horror.
 was much astonished and puzzled by this illness that had come upon him. for, though he talked of darkness and faintness and of dying, he continued to sit up on his bench and to take pulls at the can of brandy had handed to him. It might be, indeed, that a sudden faintness had terrified him nearly out of his senses with prospect of approaching death; but that would not account for the peculiar note and appearance of age that had entered his figure, face and voice. Then an extraordinary fancy occurred to me: Had the whole weight of the unhappy wretch s years suddenly descended upon him? Or, if not wholly arrived, might not these indi- cations in him mark the first stage of a gradually increasing pressure? The heat the vivacity, the ierceness, spirits and temper of the life had been instrumental in restoring to him probably illustrated his character as it was eight and forty years since; they had fourished artifcially from the moment of his awakening down to the present hour, but now the hand of Time was upon this man, whose age was above 100. He might be de- caying and wasting, even as he sat there, into aspect as he would possess and submit to had he come without a break into his present age!