-sail-sheet, Sir; but we shall soon get our
wings spread again. Lash it down, boys, as if it were butt-bolted;--so;
steady out your bowline, forward.--Meet her, you can; meet her you
may--meet her!"

The smoke had disappeared, and the eye of the captain rapidly scanned the
whole of his ship. Three or four top-men had already caught the flapping
canvas, and were seated on the extremity of the fore-yard, busied in
securing their prize. A hole or two was visible in the other sails, and
here and there an unimportant rope was dangling in a manner to show that
it had been cut by shot. Further than this, the damage aloft was not of a
nature to attract his attention.

There was a different scene on deck. The feeble crew were earnestly
occupied in loading the guns, and rammers and spunges were handled, with
all the intenseness which men would manifest in a moment so exciting. The
Alderman was never more absorbed in his leger than he now appeared in his
duty of a cannoneer; and the youths, to whom the command of the batteries
had necessarily been confided, diligently aided him with their greater
authority and experience. Trysail stood near the capstan, coolly giving
the orders which have been related, and gazing upward with an interest so
absorbed as to render him unconscious of all that passed around his
person. Ludlow saw, with pain, that blood discolored the deck at his feet,
and that a seaman lay dead within reach of his arm. The rent plank and
shattered ceiling showed the spot where the destructive missile had
entered.

Compressing his lips like a man resolved, the commander of the Coquette
bent further forward, and glanced at the wheel. The quarter-master, who
held the spokes, was erect, steady, and kept his eye on the leech of the
head-sail, as unerringly as the needle points to the pole.

These were the observations of a single minute. The different
circumstances related had been ascertained with so many rapid glances of
the eye, and they had even been noted without losing for a moment the
knowledge of the precise situation of la Fontange. The latter was already
in stays. It be came necessary to meet the evolution by another as prompt.

The order was no sooner given, than the Coquette, as if conscious of the
hazard she ran of being raked, whirled away from the wind, and, by the
time her adversary was ready to deliver her other broadside she was in a
position to receive and to return it. Again the ships approached each