getting alongside."

"Well, then, she ran. Wind sprung up, enemy made sail--every attempt to
get alongside unsuccessful. Brave fellows, cheering and doing their
utmost. Not so bad an account, after all, but how about that d--d
felucca? You see, she is burned to the water's edge and will go down in
a few minutes."

"Very true, Captain Cuffe, but not a Frenchman entered her while we were
there--"

"Yes, I now see how it was--threw all hands into the boats in chase, the
felucca being too unwieldy and every effort to get alongside
unsuccessful. He's a devil of a fellow, that Nelson and Bronte; and I
had rather hear the thunder of ten thousand tempests than get one of his
tempestuous letters. Well, I think I understand the affair now and shall
speak of you all as you deserve. 'Twas a gallant thing, though it
failed. You deserved success, whatever may have caused you to lose it."

In this Captain Cuffe was nearer right than in anything else he uttered
on the occasion.

CHAPTER X.

"Oh! 'tis a thought sublime, that man can force
A path upon the waste, can find a way
Where all is trackless, and compel the winds,
Those freest agents of Almighty power,
To lend them untamed wings, and bear him on
To distant climes."

WARE.

The situation of Ghita Caraccioli, on board the lugger, was of the most
unpleasant nature during the fierce struggle we have related.
Fortunately for her, this struggle was very short, Raoul having kept her
in profound ignorance of the approach of any danger until the instant le
Feu-Follet commenced her fire. It is true she heard the guns between the
felucca and the boats, but this she had been told was an affair in which
the privateer had no participation; and the reports sounding distant to
one in the cabin, she had been easily deceived. While the actual
conflict was going on, she was on her knees, at the side of her uncle;
and the moment it ceased, she appeared on deck, and interposed to save
the fugitives in the manner related.

Now, however, the scene was entirely changed. The lugger had escaped all
damage worthy of notice; her decks had not been stained with blood; and
her success had been as complete as could be desired. In addition to
these advantages, the result removed all apprehension from the only
source of danger that Raoul thought could exist as between his own
vessel and the frigate, of a boat-attack in a calm; for men who had just
been so ro