of the
foremost one, waiting for his commander to enter, when just as Paul's
foot was on the gangway, a sudden squall struck all three ships, dashing
the boats against them, and causing indescribable confusion. The squall
ended in a violent gale. Getting his men on board with all dispatch,
Paul essayed his best to withstand the fury of the wind, but it blew
adversely, and with redoubled power. A ship at a distance went down
beneath it. The disappointed invader was obliged to turn before the
gale, and renounce his project.

To this hour, on the shores of the Firth of Forth, it is the popular
persuasion, that the Rev. Mr. Shirrer's (of Kirkaldy) powerful
intercession was the direct cause of the elemental repulse experienced
off the endangered harbor of Leith.

Through the ill qualities of Paul's associate captains: their timidity,
incapable of keeping pace with his daring; their jealousy, blind to his
superiority to rivalship; together with the general reduction of his
force, now reduced by desertion, from nine to three ships; and last of
all, the enmity of seas and winds; the invader, driven, not by a fleet,
but a gale, out of the Scottish water's, had the mortification in
prospect of terminating a cruise, so formidable in appearance at the
onset, without one added deed to sustain the reputation gained by former
exploits. Nevertheless, he was not disheartened. He sought to conciliate
fortune, not by despondency, but by resolution. And, as if won by his
confident bearing, that fickle power suddenly went over to him from the
ranks of the enemy--suddenly as plumed Marshal Ney to the stubborn
standard of Napoleon from Elba, marching regenerated on Paris. In a
word, luck--that's the word--shortly threw in Paul's way the great
action of his life: the most extraordinary of all naval engagements; the
unparalleled death-lock with the Serapis.

CHAPTER XIX.

THEY FIGHT THE SERAPIS.

The battle between the Bon Homme Richard and the Serapis stands in
history as the first signal collision on the sea between the Englishman
and the American. For obstinacy, mutual hatred, and courage, it is
without precedent or subsequent in the story of ocean. The strife long
hung undetermined, but the English flag struck in the end.

There would seem to be something singularly indicatory I in this
engagement. It may involve at once a type, a parallel, and a prophecy.
Sharing the same blood with England, and yet her proved foe in two
w