em. The line of powder-passers was formed; and the
powder-monkeys gave up skylarking, and began to look sober at the
thought of the business in hand.

The "Guerriere" was not behindhand in her preparations for action.
Capt. Dacres had suspected the character of the American vessel, from
the first moment she had been sighted. On board the English frigate
was Capt. William B. Orne, a Marblehead sailor who had been captured
by the "Guerriere" some days before. "Capt. Dacres seemed anxious to
ascertain her character," wrote Capt. Orne, shortly after the battle,
"and after looking at her for that purpose, handed me his spy-glass,
requesting me to give him my opinion of the stranger. I soon saw, from
the peculiarity of her sails and her general appearance, that she was
without doubt an American frigate, and communicated the same to Capt.
Dacres. He immediately replied, that he thought she came down too
boldly for an American; but soon after added, 'The better he behaves,
the more credit we shall gain by taking him.'

"The two ships were rapidly approaching each other, when the
'Guerriere' backed her main topsail, and waited for her opponent to
come down and commence the action. He then set an English flag at each
masthead, beat to quarters, and made ready for the fight.

"When the strange frigate came down to within two or three miles
distant, he hauled upon the wind, took in all his light sails, reefed
his topsails, and deliberately prepared for action. It was now about
five in the afternoon, when he filled away and ran down for the
'Guerriere.' At this moment Capt. Dacres said politely to me, 'Capt.
Orne, as I suppose you do not wish to fight against your own
countrymen, you are at liberty to retire below the water-line,' It was
not long after this, before I retired from the quarter-deck to the
cock-pit." It may be well here to supplement Capt. Orne's narrative by
the statement that Capt. Dacres, with a chivalric sense of justice not
common in the British navy of that day, allowed ten American sailors
who had been impressed into his crew to leave their quarters and go
below, that they might not fight against their country. Though an
enemy, he was both gallant and generous.

The action was opened by the "Guerriere" with her weather broadside;
the shot of which all falling short, she wore around, and let fly her
port broadside, sending most of the shot through her enemy's rigging,
though two took effect in the hull. In re