A Lad of Grit: A Story of Adventure on Land and Sea in Restoration Times

Grief does not for long hold its sway over the buoyant spirit of youth, and, in spite of the heavy blow that I had sustained, my boyish disposition speedily reasserted itself, a...

Directly our prison ship was moored alongside a quay we were summoned on deck, where an escort of soldiers was in waiting to convey us to a place of confinement on shore.

On arriving at Port Royal Captain Poynings decided that the _Gannet_ should be refitted. Accordingly preparations were made to overhaul the ship thoroughly ere she joined her co...

Hardly had the fleet anchored when Captain Poynings boarded the flagship and obtained, with little ado, permission to part company. We then revictualled, took in fresh powder, a...

I must now pass over a space of a year, there being but little of interest to record. All this time it must not be imagined that I had given up the quest for my father's murdere...

I soon accustomed myself to my new home. My Uncle George treated me with every consideration--a fact that ill-disposed persons would have attributed to the legacy left him under...

When I came to, the first vague impressions of consciousness were the excited chatterings of what seemed to me a multitude of people. Then I saw the flashing of the light of a l...

During the whole of the month of May the English fleet remained cruising betwixt Gravelines and Dover, till Albemarle began to revile the Dutch for their cowardice in fearing to...

The excitement of the previous night banished sleep from our eyes, and rising betimes we formed our plans for the day's work. Now that Joyce had gone to his last account there w...

For full five minutes I lay motionless, listening to the zip of the bullets as the pirates kept up a hot fire on my perilous position. Then I raised myself and peered cautiously...

The sun was slowly sinking behind the tree-clad Hampshire Downs. Already the long shadows of Rake Hill lay athwart the misty coombe, and the glimmer of the innumerable forges in...

How long I remained insensible I cannot say, but with the return of my senses I found myself lying on some warm, soft substance, though what the object was the gloom did not per...

The _Gannet_ was bowling along under easy sail some fifty miles south of Majorca. Three years of seatime had made a great difference in her appearance. Her speed was retarded by...

Throughout the first part of the night we held on our course, the poop lights of the _Gannet_ acting as a guide. Watches were set, five men in each, I taking my turn in the firs...

Directly I set foot once more on English soil I hastened to Portsmouth, though on my journey thither I did stay a while at Rake, for the sake of old memories. On my arrival at P...

Punctually to the minute our steeds were brought round, the farewells were said, and with a loose rein we cantered down the narrow cobble-paved street towards the Landport Gate....

Bad weather dogged us during our homeward voyage. Crossing the Bay of Biscay we were battened down for three days, and, save on one occasion, I did not go on deck the whole time...

Once it had been settled that I should go to sea, my uncle lost no time in getting me a ship. Through his influence, his intimacy with Sir Thomas Middleton, and also through the...

With the lengthening days our hopes of effecting an escape increased. The vigilance of our guards had somewhat relaxed, and we were allowed to remain in one another's company fo...

The rest of our journey northward passed almost without incident. The day after our arrival at Godalming we rode quickly through Guildford to London, where we tarried no longer...

Then came a hurried discussion as to the destination of the booty, some, including the parish clerk, Fallowfield, who had gained the upper regions by means of the tackle, urging...

Inch by inch they were driven back . . . . . . Frontispiece I ran at my father's murderer and rained blow after blow upon his head and body They clambered up our sides with the...