directly in for the batteries, as advised
by Swinburne, who now sat alongside of me.

As soon as we were well in-shore, I pulled out of the harbour, with
feelings not by any means enviable. Swinburne said to me in a low
voice, "This will be a hard blow for the captain, Mr Simple. I've
always been told, that a young captain losing his men without bringing
any dollars to his admiral, is not very well received."

"I am more sorry for him than I can well express, Swinburne," replied I;
"but--what is that a-head--a vessel under weigh?"

Swinburne stood up in the stern of the cutter, and looked for a few
seconds. "Yes, a large ship standing in under royals--she must be a
Frenchman. Now's our time, sir; so long as we don't go out
empty-handed, all will be well. Oars all of you. Shall we cast off the
launch, sir?"

"Yes," replied I, "and now, my lads, let us only have that vessel, and
we shall do. She is a merchantman, that's clear (not that I was sure of
it), Swinburne, I think it will be better to let her pass us in-shore;
they will all be looking out of the other side, for they must have seen
the firing."

"Well thought of, sir," replied Swinburne.

We lay on our oars, and let her pass us, which she did, creeping in at
the rate of two miles an hour. We then pulled for her quarter in the
three boats, leaving the launch behind us, and boarded. As we premised,
the crew were on deck, and all on the other side of the vessel, so
anxiously looking at the batteries, which were still firing occasional
random shot, that they did not perceive us until we were close to them,
and then they had no time to seize their arms. There were several
ladies on board: some of the people protected them, others ran below.
In two minutes we had possession of her, and had put her head the other
way. To our surprise we found that she mounted fourteen guns. One
hatch we left open for the ladies, some of whom had fainted, to be taken
down below; the others were fastened down by Swinburne. As soon as we
had the deck to ourselves, we manned one of the cutters, and sent it for
the launch; and as soon as she was made fast alongside, we had time to
look about us. The breeze freshened, and, in half-an-hour we were out
of gun-shot of all the batteries. I then had the wounded men taken out
of the launch, and Swinburne and the other men bound up their wounds,
and made them as comfortable as they could.

CHAPTER FORTY FIVE.

SOME REMARK