At last the gallant captain came to
grief. He was captured and condemned to death. Now there was an
opportunity for Anne's nature to assert itself, and it did, but it was a
very different sort of nature from that of Mary Reed. Just before his
execution Anne was admitted to see her husband, but instead of offering
to do anything that might comfort him or palliate his dreadful
misfortune, she simply stood and contemptuously glared at him. She was
sorry, she said, to see him in such a predicament, but she told him
plainly that if he had had the courage to fight like a man, he would not
then be waiting to be hung like a dog, and with that she walked away and
left him.
On the occasion when Captain Rackham had been captured, Mary Reed and
her husband were on board his ship, and there was, perhaps, some reason
for Anne's denunciation of the cowardice of Captain Rackham. As has been
said, the two women were good friends and great fighters, and when they
found the vessel engaged in a fight with a man-of-war, they stood
together upon the deck and boldly fought, although the rest of the crew,
and even the captain himself, were so discouraged by the heavy fire
which was brought to bear on them, that they had retreated to the hold.
Mary and Anne were so disgusted at this exhibition of cowardice, that
they rushed to the hatchways and shouted to their dastardly companions
to come up and help defend the ship, and when their entreaties were
disregarded they were so enraged that they fired down into the hold,
killing one of the frightened pirates and wounding several others.
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