he gallant ship.

Thus sank the terror of the merchantmen--riddled through and
through--and no cheer arose as her battered hulk went down in
forty-five fathoms of water. Her star had set.

The _Deerhound_ had kept about a mile to windward of the two
contestants, but she now steamed towards the mass of living heads,
which dotted the surface of the sea. Her two boats were lowered, and
Captain Semmes was picked up and taken aboard, with forty others. She
then edged to the leeward and steamed rapidly away.

An officer quickly approached Captain Winslow.

"Better fire a shot at the yacht," he said, saluting. "She's got
Captain Semmes aboard and will run off with him."

Winslow smiled.

"It's impossible," said he. "She's simply coming around!"

But the _Deerhound_ kept on.

Another officer approached the commander of the _Kearsarge_.

"That beastly yacht is carrying off our men," said he. "Better bring
her to, Captain!"

"No Englishman who carries the flag of the Royal Yacht Squadron can so
act!" Winslow replied,--somewhat pettishly. "She's simply coming
around."

But she never "came around," and Captain Raphael Semmes was soon safe
upon British soil. He had fought a game fight. The superior gunnery of
the sailors of the _Kearsarge_ had been too much for him. Nine of his
crew were dead and twenty-one wounded, while the _Kearsarge_ had no
one killed and but three wounded; one of whom died shortly afterwards.

Thus,--the lesson is:

If you want to win: Learn how to shoot straight!

* * * * *

Captain Raphael Semmes died quietly at Mobile, Alabama, August 30th,
1877. His ill-fated _Alabama_ had inflicted a loss of over seven
million dollars upon the commerce of the United States.

A number of wise men met, many years afterwards, in Geneva,
Switzerland, and decided, that, as the British Government had allowed
this vessel to leave their shores, when warned by the American
minister of her character and intention to go privateering, it should
therefore pay for all the vessels which the graceful cruiser had
destroyed. England had broken the neutrality laws.

John Bull paid up.

But,
--Boys--
it
hurt!

EL CAPITAN

"There was a Captain-General who ruled in Vera Cruz,
And what we used to hear of him was always evil news:
He was a pirate on the sea--a robber on the shore,
The Senor Don Alonzo Estaban San Salvador.