gainst the masts. Still the breeze favoured them.
I felt very queer, I confess. I had no intention of going below till I
was wanted, and it did not occur to me that I might be turned into a
patient myself. The delight of the sailors at seeing the French thus
boldly approaching was excessive, nor did they fail to praise them for
their courage.

"Bravo! Johnny Crapaud. That's more than I thought of you. Come
along! Don't leave us again. We won't hurt ye more than we can help.
You are brave fellows, that you are; we always thought so. Now you show
it. Bear a hand, though."

I heard such and similar expressions from most of the men as I passed
along the decks. Suddenly there was a gloom from one end of the ship to
the other. The breeze which had been bringing the Frenchmen along
suddenly dropped. It had served, them, however, well enough to bring
them pretty close up to us.

"Now," I thought to myself, "I shall see what a regular stand-up
sea-fight is like."

Still I could not help feeling all the time that my vocation was one of
peace, and that I had no business to be where I was. That is not a
pleasant sensation. The great thing for a man to feel in time of danger
is that he is at his post and doing his duty. As I was in for it, I
determined to do my best to be of me, and to trust to the God of mercy
for protection. The enemy soon showed us that they had no intention of
being idle. A shot came whistling over our heads, and fell a
considerable distance on the other side of us. This showed them that we
were within gunshot range of each other, and immediately they opened
fire in earnest. Some of the shot flew over our heads, others on one
side or the other, but hitherto none had struck us. I had a hope that,
after all, there would be no bloodshed. We meantime had commenced
firing, but either the Frenchmen's powder was better or their guns
longer, for our shot mostly appeared to fall short, greatly to the
vexation of our crew. The enemy also having had the last of the wind,
while we were becalmed, were able to take up a better position than we
had, and continued warmly engaging us, we often being scarcely able to
return a shot.

As I had nothing to do below, I remained on deck. More than once,
however, I could not help ducking my head as a shot whistled above it.
Possibly it might have been too high to have struck me. However, I soon
got accustomed to that, and as no one had as yet been hurt, I