odds sent a thrill of grim
exultation through Great Britain. Menaced by the combination of so
many mighty states, while her sea-dogs were of this fighting temper,
what had Great Britain to fear? In the streets of many a British
seaport, and in many a British forecastle, the story of how the
Arethusa fought was sung in deep-throated chorus:--

"The fight was off the Frenchman's land;
We forced them back upon their strand;
For we fought till not a stick would stand
Of the gallant _Arethusa_!"

A fight even more dramatic in its character is that fought on August
10, 1805, between the _Phoenix_ and the _Didon_. The _Didon_ was one
of the finest and fastest French frigates afloat, armed with guns of
special calibre and manned by a crew which formed, perhaps, the very
elite of the French navy. The men had been specially picked to form
the crew of the only French ship which was commanded by a Bonaparte,
the _Pomone_, selected for the command of Captain Jerome Bonaparte.
Captain Jerome Bonaparte, however, was not just now afloat, and the
_Didon_ had been selected, on account of its great speed and heavy
armament, for a service of great importance. She was manned by the
crew chosen for the _Pomone_, placed under an officer of special skill
and daring--Captain Milias--and despatched with orders for carrying out
one more of those naval "combinations" which Napoleon often attempted,
but never quite accomplished. The _Didon_, in a word, was to bring up
the Rochefort squadron to join the Franco-Spanish fleet under
Villeneuve.

On that fatal August 10, however, it seemed to Captain Milias that
fortune had thrust into his hands a golden opportunity of snapping up a
British sloop of war, and carrying her as a trophy into Rochefort. An
American merchantman fell in with him, and its master reported that he
had been brought-to on the previous day by a British man-of-war, and
compelled to produce his papers. The American told the French captain
that he had been allowed to go round the Englishman's decks and count
his guns--omitting, no doubt, to add that he was half-drunk while doing
it. Contemplated through an American's prejudices, inflamed with grog,
the British ship seemed a very poor thing indeed. She carried, the
American told the captain of the _Didon_, only twenty guns of light
calibre, and her captain and officers were "so cocky" that if they had
a chance they would probably lay themselves alongside eve