AN ORNAMENTED BEARD It was about the middle of the afternoon when a large boat, well filled, was seen approaching the Revenge from Blackbeard's vessel.

As soon as it had become known that this chief of all pirates of that day, this Edward Thatch of England, was really coming on board the Revenge, not one word was uttered among the crew on the subject of going ashore, although they had been long at sea.

The shore could wait when Blackbeard was coming.
Even to look upon this doughty desperado would be an honour and a joy to the brawny scoundrels who made up the crew of the Revenge.
It might have been supposed that everything upon Captain Bonnet's vessel had been made ready for the expected advent of Blackbeard, but nothing seemed good enough, nothing seemed as effectively placed and arranged as it might have been; and with execrations and commands, Bonnet hurried here and there, making everything, if possible, more ship-shape than it had been before.
"Stay you two in the background," he said to Ben Greenway and Dickory; "you are both landsmen, and you don't count in a ceremony such as this is going to be.

Station your men as I told you, Bittern, and man the yards when it is time." Captain Bonnet, in his brave uniform and wearing a cocked hat with a feather, his hand upon his sword-hilt, stood up tall and stately.

When the boat was made fast and the great pirate's head appeared above the rail, six cannon roared a welcome and Bonnet stepped forward, hand extended and hat uplifted.
The instant Blackbeard's feet touched the deck he drew from their holsters a pair of pistols and fired them in the air.
"Now then," he shouted, "we are even, salute for salute, for my pistols are more than equal to the cannon of any other man.