ange. A few
minutes later she fired again, and this time the shot fell so close that
the spray actually wetted our jib-boom. But we were now close to a
straggling bunch of some thirty or forty vessels, and before the brig
could again fire we were among them, and for fully five minutes it
became impossible for her to fire without running the risk of hitting
one of them. This gave us a very handsome lift, of which we availed
ourselves to the utmost; and the brig to leeward being now well on our
lee quarter, Captain Winter thought he might venture to edge away a
point, which brought the brig to windward broad on our weather quarter.
The critical moment was now fast approaching, for the last-mentioned
vessel was now very nearly as close to us as she would be at all, and if
we could manage to weather out the next twenty minutes without mishap we
might hope to make good our escape. We were soon clear of the cluster
of shipping that had afforded us protection, and the moment that we were
so the brig to windward again opened fire, the conviction of her people,
no doubt, being by this time that we were an enemy, despite the British
ensign streaming from our gaff-end. We heard the shot go humming over
our mast-heads, and although it did no damage I could see that the
skipper was beginning to feel very uneasy, as he kept glancing from the
brig to our own sails, as though debating within himself the
desirability of hazarding the attempt to give the schooner a little more
canvas. Presently we saw the brig luff momentarily into the wind, a
line of flame and smoke burst from her lee broadside, and nine six-pound
shot came skipping along the water toward us. The broadside was
splendidly aimed, but, luckily for us, the moment of firing was badly
chosen, or the guns were too much depressed, for none of the shot
reached us. Almost at the same moment the brig to leeward began firing,
but her shot fell so far short that from that moment she gave us no
further concern whatever. The luffing of the brig to windward gave us a
slight advantage, as by so doing she fell astern several fathoms;
moreover, she had by this time settled so far away on our quarter that a
few minutes more would suffice to bring her almost directly into our
wake, and I felt that, once there, we should have very little more to
fear from her. This impression was quickly confirmed, for after her
late experience she fired no more broadsides, the only guns that she
co