"Take from me the Revenge!" he cried, "my own vessel, bought with my own money! And how say you I am not a pirate?
From Massachusetts down the coast into these very waters I have preyed upon commerce, I have taken prizes, I have burned ships, I have made my name a terror." Now his voice grew stronger and his tones more angry.
"Not a pirate!" he cried.

"Go ask the galleons and the merchantmen I have stripped and burned; go ask their crews, now wandering in misery upon desert shores, if they be not already dead.

And by what right, I ask, do you come to such an one as I am and declare that, having put me in the position of a prisoner on your ship, you will take away my own ?" Blackbeard gazed at him with half-closed eyes, a malicious smile upon his face.
"I have no right," he said; "I need no right; _I_ am a pirate!" At these words Bonnet's legs weakened under him, and he sank down upon the bench.

As he did so he glanced at Ben Greenway as if he were the only person on earth to whom he could look for help, but to his amazement he saw before him a face almost jubilant, and beheld the Scotchman, his eyes uplifted and his hands clasped as if in thankful prayer..