le chasing a French privateer, and,
notwithstanding the delay, finally overhauling and capturing the
chase.

When war was declared with England, the "Constellation" was so
thoroughly dismantled, that some months were occupied in refitting
before she was ready to put to sea. In January, 1813, she dropped
anchor in Hampton Roads, expecting to set out on an extended cruise
the next morning. Had she been a day earlier, her career in the War of
1812 might have added new lustre to her glorious record in the war
with France; but the lack of that day condemned her to inglorious
inactivity throughout the war: for on that very night a British
squadron of line-of-battle ships and frigates dropped anchor a few
miles down the bay, and the "Constellation" was fairly trapped.

When, by the gray light of early morning, the lookout on the
"Constellation" saw the British fleet lying quietly at their anchorage
down the bay, he reported to Capt. Stewart; and the latter saw that,
for a time, he must be content to remain in port. Stewart's reputation
for bravery and devotion to his country leaves no doubt that the
prospect of prolonged idleness was most distasteful to him. But he had
little time to mourn over his disappointment. The position of the
frigate was one of great danger. At any moment she might be exposed to
attack by the hostile fleet. Accordingly, she dropped down abreast of
Craney Island, where she was secure from attack by the British
vessels, but still open to the assaults of their boats.

To meet this danger, Capt. Stewart took the most elaborate
precautions. His ship was anchored in the middle of the narrow
channel; and on either side were anchored seven gunboats, officered
and manned by the men of the frigate. Around the gunboats and frigate
extended a vast circle of floating logs, linked together by heavy
chains, that no boarders might come alongside the vessels. The great
frigate towered high above the surrounding gunboats, her black sides
unbroken by an open port; for the gun-deck ports were lashed down, and
the guns housed. Not a rope's end was permitted to hang over the side;
the stern ladders were removed, and the gangway cleats knocked off. An
enemy might as well hope to scale the unbroken front of a massive wall
of masonry, as that dark, forbidding hull. From the bulwarks rose on
all sides, to the ends of the yards, a huge net made of ratlin stuff,
boiled in pitch until it would turn the edge of a cutlass, and fu