, every gun telling. Then the helm was put
a-port, the after-yards braced up, and again we were after them.

"Again and again we practised the same manoeuvre, never allowing the `Ca
Ira' to get a shot at us with one of her broadside guns. The enemy,
however, were not idle with their after-guns, though it was not till we
had torn her sails almost to ribbons that the French frigates began to
open their fire upon us. Then down came more of the enemy's ships
towards us. The captain seemed only the better pleased at seeing this,
and it's my opinion he would have hove to to meet them, and still
managed to come off victorious by some means or other, even if the
admiral had not made the signal of recall. Though our sails and rigging
were much cut up, we had only seven men wounded, while the `Ca Ira' lost
one hundred and ten that day.

"The next day we were again at it, for we managed to cut off the `Ca
Ira,' and the `Censeur,' which had her in tow. This time we got one on
each side of us, and both of them fought well; but we fought better, and
at length both struck, and our boats were sent on board to take
possession. I never before had witnessed such a scene as that I saw on
board the `Ca Ira.' On her decks lay three hundred brave fellows, dead
or dying, or badly wounded, besides those she had lost the day before,
while the `Censeur' had lost three hundred and fifty. Our captain
wanted to follow up the enemy, and it's my belief, if we had, we should
have taken every one of them; but the admiral would not let him, and
said we had done very well as it was. So we had; but, you see, our
captain was the man who always wanted to do something better than well.
_Do well_ sits on the main-top--_Do better_ climbs to the truck.

"The `Agamemnon' had been so knocked about, that the captain now shifted
his flag into the `Minerva' frigate, and took me and many other men with
him. One of our first duties was to carry off the English garrison and
privateers and merchantmen from Corsica, which had declared for the
French. We soon afterwards fought several actions with the enemy, and
then war broke out between England and Spain, and we had a narrow escape
from an overwhelming force of Spanish ships. We had just sailed from
Gibraltar, when two Spanish line-of-battle ships followed us. We were
keeping pretty well ahead when a man fell overboard. To let a man drown
without trying to help him was against our captain's nature. A
jo