on with their English assailants. It was impossible
to dispute possession.

"Take to your boats and go ashore, and you shall not be molested,"
was the next cry; and the men were forced to obey, the fighting
having lasted only a very brief space: for it was evident from the
first that the English were masters, and needless carnage was not
desired by them.

Nevertheless the peril to the English sailors was by no means over
yet. The guns in the battery now opened fire upon the fleet of
boats, and a hailstorm of shot and shell raged round them; so that
the French sailors dared not leave the vessel, but crowded below
out of the hot fire, preferring to trust to the tender mercies of
their captors rather than to the guns of their countrymen.

"Tow her away under one of our own batteries," was the order, given
as coolly as though this leaden rain were nothing but a summer
shower.

Humphrey sprang to the side, and cut the cable which anchored her
to her moorings. Just at that moment a glow of light through the
fog fell across the deck, and looking up he saw a pillar of flame
rising from the water close at hand, and casting strange lights and
shadows upon the shifting mists which enwrapped them.

"They have fired the Prudent!" exclaimed Julian. "Now we shall have
light for our task; but we shall be a better target for the enemy's
fire. We must lose no time. Cut loose the second cable; we should
be moving. See that the boats are all ready to tow us along. What a
grand sight that burning ship is!

"Ah, I see now. She is aground with the ebb tide. They could not
move her, so they have fired her instead. There are her boats
rowing for shore with her crew in them!"

It was a strange, grand sight, watching the flames enwrap the
doomed vessel from stem to stern, till she was one sheet of rosy
light. Even the guns from shore had ceased to fire for a brief
space, as though the gunners were watching the weird spectacle of
the illuminated fog, or were perhaps afraid lest their fire should
hurt their own comrades in the boats. But the English sailors took
advantage of the lull to set to their task of towing the
Bienfaisant with hearty goodwill.

"She moves! she moves!" cried Humphrey excitedly, standing at the
wheel to direct her course. "Well pulled, comrades--well pulled
indeed! Ah, their guns are going to speak again! They will not let
us go without a parting salute."

The batteries on shore opened their mouths, and belched f