pronounce the words
he says."

We could hear the French guns thundering away at the fort, and those of
the fort replying, hour after hour, without intermission, but the
signals made by General Fraser were not supposed to be satisfactory.

At last, one day, we saw the flag hauled down; the guns at the same time
ceased, and we knew that all was over, and the gallant garrison had been
compelled to capitulate. Information of this was sent on board to the
admiral, with a flag of truce, by the Marquis de Boullie.

That evening we sailed on a cruise to ascertain the movements of the
French fleet. We had not been to sea many hours when we saw them
standing in for Nevis Point, where they came to an anchor; and counting
them, we found that they numbered no less than twenty-four sail of the
line, several ships having lately joined them. We at once returned with
the information to Sir Samuel Hood. It was now discovered that the
French had been throwing up gun and mortar batteries on a hill, which
would completely command the fleet.

We were seated in the berth after we had brought up, discussing the
state of affairs.

"We're in a nice position," said Chaffey. "We shall be pounded at from
the shore, and shall have the French fleet, with half as many more ships
as we possess, down upon us before long, and it will be a tough job to
fight our way out from among them."

"Just trust our admiral," answered Tom; "he knows what he's about,
depend on that; he won't let us be caught like rats in a trap."

As he was speaking, Nettleship came into the berth.

"The captain was sent for on board the flag-ship, and he's just
returned," he said. "I hear that he met all the captains of the fleet
on board, and the admiral told them to set their watches by his
timepiece, and directed all the ships to slip or cut their cables at
eleven o'clock. The sternmost and leewardmost ships are to get under
weigh first, and so on in succession, and we're to stand on under easy
sail, in sight of each other, till we receive further orders from the
admiral."

No one turned in; the crews were at their stations; not a sign was shown
which might allow the French--who were of course watching us from the
shore--to discover that any movement was in contemplation. At the
appointed time, the _Alfred_, the most leeward of our ships, was seen to
get under weigh, followed in rapid succession by the _Canada_ the
_President_, and the rest of the line-of-battle