s about him, and gave exact instructions. As the boats
dashed up, one was to cut the _Chevrette's_ cables; when they boarded,
the smartest topmen, named man by man, were to fight their way aloft
and cut loose the _Chevrette's_ sails; one of the finest sailors in the
boats, Wallis, the quartermaster of the _Beaulieu_, was to take charge
of the _Chevrette's_ helm. Thus at one and the same instant the
_Chevrette_ was to be boarded, cut loose, its sails dropped, and its
head swung round towards the harbour mouth.

At half-past twelve the moon sank. The night was windless and black;
but the bearing of the _Chevrette_ had been taken by compass, and the
boats pulled gently on, till, ghost-like in the gloom, the doomed ship
was discernible. A soft air from the land began to blow at that
moment. Suddenly the _Chevrette_ and the batteries overhead broke into
flame. The boats were discovered! The officers leaped to their feet
in the stern of each boat, and urged the men on. The leading boats
crashed against the _Chevrette's_ side. The ship was boarded
simultaneously on both bows and quarters. The force on board the
_Chevrette_, however, was numerous enough to make a triple line of
armed men round the whole sweep of its bulwarks; they were armed with
pikes, tomahawks, cutlasses, and muskets, and they met the attack most
gallantly, even venturing in their turn to board the boats. By this
time, however, the nine boats Maxwell was leading had all come up, and
although the defence outnumbered the attack by more than two to one,
yet the British were not to be denied. They clambered fiercely on
board; the topmen raced aloft, found the foot-ropes on the yards all
strapped up, but running out, cutlass in hand, they cut loose the
_Chevrette's_ sails. Wallis, meanwhile, had fought his way to the
wheel, slew two of the enemy in the process, was desperately wounded
himself, yet stood steadily at the wheel, and kept the _Chevrette_
under command, the batteries by this time opening upon the ship a fire
of grape and heavy shot.

In less than three minutes after the boats came alongside, although
nearly every second man of their crews had been killed or wounded, the
three topsails and courses of the _Chevrette_ had fallen, the cables
had been cut, and the ship was moving out in the darkness. She leaned
over to the light breeze, the ripple sounded louder at her stern, and
when the French felt the ship under movement, it for the momen