" When they reached the forest their pursuers were still some hundreds of yards in the rear.

Why had the pursuer suddenly become the pursued?

This judgment was a foregone conclusion, the trial being the merest farce, in which the pursuers were the judges, the Papal legate allowing his better reason to be overruled by their passion.

The flag which floats at her peak, bearing the sign of the "skull and cross-bones," explains it all: the "Jack" is a pirate; and you could easily tell by the long, low, black hull, and tall, raking masts that her pursuer is a revenue cutter.

Your pursuer had by that time become a fugitive.