y saved Reginald's life; and, in consideration of
his wound, the captain forgave Reginald for having left the ship without
leave.

I never had a fancy for fighting on shore, and I was not sorry when we
were ordered to Malta, to bring away a party of Maltese marines, engaged
to serve on board the fleet.

We had light and unfavourable winds going, and, on returning with the
soldiers aboard, we met with a succession of strong contrary gales from
the eastward, and a lee current, which prevented us from arriving
abreast of the harbour's mouth till about ten o'clock at night on the
11th of January. The captain, not wishing to run the risk of being
thrown to leeward, considering the number of men we had on board,
determined to sail into the harbour at once. We had no pilot, but the
master felt confident that he could take the ship in without risk. The
hands were at their stations, and the captain ordered Harry and another
midshipman to go forward with night-glasses and look out for the fleet.
We had a moderate leading wind, which sent us under our topsails at a
fair rate through the water. As we neared the outer roads of Toulon we
were somewhat surprised at not seeing any of the fleet, but the captain
concluded that the ships had run for shelter into the inner harbour.

The night, was clear, the moon was shining brightly, and the water
smooth. As we advanced we made out a brig ahead, and beyond her the
lights of several others. The captain, therefore, had no doubt but that
he was right in his conjectures. Having passed the forts, we were
standing on, when we found that we could not weather the brig-of-war we
had seen ahead of us. We were close to her stern, when a hail came from
her, but what was said we could not make out. The captain, however,
supposing that the brig was Spanish, and wanted to know what ship ours
was, answered--

"His Britannic Majesty's frigate _Juno_!"

Again a hail came from the brig, and several people shouted out, "Viva!"
The captain then inquired what English ships were in the harbour, but
we could not make out a word of what was said in reply; still, of
course, taking her for Spanish, this did not surprise us, except that it
seemed somewhat strange that an English vessel should not have been
stationed at the mouth of the harbour. Just as we passed under the
stern of the brig, someone again hailed from her--

"Luff! luff!"

The captain, fearing that we had shoal water aboard, ordered