who
care to live, there's your ground,' said he, pointing to the frigate.
'Such as like to die on a British deck, remain with me.' The boarders
sprang up the side of the 'Creole' before the crew could fasten the
grapples. _Tonnerre de Dieu!_ what a moment it was! The fellows cheered
like madmen, as they poured in to certain death; the lieutenant himself
was one of the first on board, and fell back the same instant, dead upon
his own deck. The struggle was a bloody but brief one; for a few
minutes the English pressed our men back, and gained a footing on
the quarterdeck, but a murderous fire from the tops cut them down in
numbers, and they now fought, not for victory, but vengeance.

"'Now, Captain, now!' screamed a youth, in a lieutenant's uniform, but
all covered with blood, and his face gashed with a cutlass-wound, as he
leaned over the bulwark of the 'Creole,' and waved his cap in the air.

"'I'm ready,' replied the English commander, and sprang down the main
hatchway as he spoke, with a pistol in his hand. At the same instant,
a fearful cry burst forth from the prisoners; for, with the instinct of
despair, they guessed his desperate resolve was to blow up the vessel.
We were tied, wrist to wrist, and the rope run through the blocks at our
back in such a way as to prevent our moving more than a few inches. But
what will not the fear of a dreadful death do? With one unanimous effort
we tore the lashings in pieces, and got free. I was myself the first
at liberty, and sprang towards the 'Creole.' Alas! they had divined
the awful doom awaiting us, and were endeavoring to shove off at once.
Already there were some ten or twelve feet between the vessels. I rushed
forward to gain the bowsprit, a vague hope of escape suggesting the
effort. As I did so, my eyes caught sight of a book, which, with his
hat, the captain threw from him as he hastened below. I stooped down
and put it in my bosom,--why, I know not. Life, and life only, was my
thought at that moment. Then, with lightning's speed, I ran along the
deck, and out on the bowsprit.

"At this instant, the frigate shot ahead of us; I made a leap, the last
effort of despair, and caught the fluke of the anchor; a friendly
hand threw me a rope and dragged me on the deck. As I gained it, a
thunderclap, louder than ten broadsides, broke forth, and the frigate
fell over on one side as if sinking; while over her rigging and her
masts flew spars and timbers, blazing and burning,