e looked, and aft,
And he looked astern at the blank blue sea,
And he looked at the sky--and laughed.

III.

And on through, the summer seas we bore,
Until off stern Cape Clear
Our ship fell in with a sloop-o'-war,
A Yankee privateer.
We hailed for news, and the sloop hove to,
And off her skipper came
And boarded us in a leaky yawl,
With his wrathful cheek aflame;
For "Down to the south'ard he'd been chased
By a powerful English ship
That was just too slow for his flying heels,
And just too big to whip."
We sent him back with a cheerful heart,
And down to the south we swept.
And a sharp lookout o'er the vacant sea
Alow and aloft we kept.

One August evening we bowled along
In a fresh nor'wester breeze,
The rigging sung as along we swung,
And rough were the tumbling seas.
And I was sitting with pipe in hand
Enjoying my watch below,
When the masthead lookout hailed the deck
With a loud and long, "Sail, ho!"
"Now, where away?" the Captain cried,
And into the shrouds sprang we
To gaze at a speck in the distance dim,
Clear white on the blue, blue sea.
She stood along under easy sail,
She made us out and tacked,
She waited there with her headsails full,
And her big maintopsail backed.

We picked her up hand over hand,
We made her colors out--
That proud St. George's Cross we knew,
And we longed for the coming hour.
And Hull sang out, "To quarters, men,
For the foe we seek is there,
By the look of her lines and the cut of her jib
I know the _Guerriere_!"
We shortened sail and for action cleared,
The flags to the breeze we threw,
And at each masthead and the mizzen-peak
The Yankee colors flew.
Up in the tops the topmen lay
With musket and grenade,
But down in the gloamy holds below
The battle-lanterns played.
Stripped to the waist each sailor stood,
His cutlass in his hand,
His long dirk loosened in its sheath,
His feet in the scattered sand;
The gunnels stood beside the guns,
Their matches all aglow,
With their ears bent back to the quarter-deck,
And their eyes upon the foe.

As onward to the _Guerriere_
The _Constitution_ swept,
Between the lines of brawny tars
Our first Lieutenant stepped:
"To save you all from the press, my lads,
For that we make the war,
And each must fight for the flag to-day