cied that he heard Lord Claymore hail as he passed. He
hoped that it was his voice. The wind blew stronger and stronger. On
flew the fire-ship. The boom was reached. With a crash she forced her
way through it. She was bearing directly down for the French fleet.

"To the boats!" shouted Ronald.

The cry was repeated by the other officers with him.

"Wait till I give the word to shove off, so that no one may be left
behind. To your stations, and fire the trains," he added. He looked to
ascertain that the helm was properly placed, and that the vessel was
standing the right way. The instant after small snake-like lines of
fire was seen stealing along the decks. Ronald sprang to the side, the
deck, as he did so, seemed to lift beneath his feet. He threw himself
over the bulwarks, and slid down by a rope left there for the purpose,
into the boat.

"Shove off! shove off!" he shouted.

The other officers were leaping into their respective boats. He hoped
that he was, as he intended to be, the last to leave the ship. Flames
were bursting forth on every side of the ship, and climbing up the
masts; rockets were going off, and fiery missiles of all sorts were
rising from the hold, and falling around in every direction. Thus amply
capable of fulfilling her mission of death and destruction, she bore
down on the French ships.

The boats shoved off, but one poor fellow was blown up before he reached
the one to which he belonged, and his mangled form fell close to the
captain's gig.

The rockets, too, were flying in every direction, as many directing
their course towards the retreating boats as towards the ships of the
enemy. No sooner, too, did the French perceive the nature of their
approaching foe than they opened their fire on her, for the purpose of
knocking away her masts, and altering the direction in which she was
coming. Their shot also fell thickly round the boats.

The lights from his fire-ship showed Morton several others approaching
the spot; and now the flames burst forth rapidly from one after the
other; the distance at which they were ignited showing in a certain
degree the amount of courage and judgment possessed by those who
commanded them. Some were close to the boom, others were a mile, and
others nearly two miles further off. On drove the fiery masses, like
huge monsters of destruction, independent of human control.

Every object, far and near, was now lighted up by their flames. On, on