At break of day we could gather some true facts of the state of affairs. Under the guns of Port Royal lay a small armed merchant vessel, the _Whitby_, of ten guns, sadly shattered about the hull.  In the offing were five ships that many recognized as belonging to one Lewis, a renegade king’s officer, who, attracted by the glamour of easily acquired wealth, had seduced his crew from their allegiance and turned buccaneer.  Joined by several others of like nature, Lewis had collected a squadron of seven swift vessels; but the _Assurance_ had captured two of the ships, and Lewis, with four of his fellow rogues, formed the party of captives whose fate now hung in the balance as they lay in irons in the castle.