racter. We had now got within three miles of them.

"What do you think of them, Grampus?" said I, as I took the glass which
I had just before handed to him.

"I don't like their looks, sir," he answered. "That headmost frigate is
English--so I take it from the look of her hull and the cut of her
canvas--but the others I can't make out by no manner of means. I don't
think the `Bristol' or the `Lowestoffe' are among them."

I had come to the same conclusion that Grampus had; but I wished to
confirm my own opinion by his. We stood on for five minutes longer. My
suspicions of the character of the strangers increased.

"We are running into the lion's jaws, I suspect!" I exclaimed; whereat
Grampus and Rockets opened their eyes to know what I meant. "Hoist our
colours, and let us learn what they are without further delay."

Scarcely had we run our ensign up to the peak than up went the French
flag at that of the headmost frigate which at the same time fired a
warning gun at us.

"Up with the helm! Ease off the main-sheets! Keep her away!" I
exclaimed.

The orders were quickly obeyed, and away we flew with a strong breeze
directly before the wind. I had two very good reasons for endeavouring
to escape by keeping before the wind. In the first place, a
fore-and-aft vessel has generally a great advantage over a square-rigged
ship on that point of sailing, and I might otherwise have drawn the
enemy's squadron towards the station of the Aeolus. As she was so much
inferior in strength to it, she would easily have fallen into their
power, especially as, not being aware that war had broken out, she would
have been taken by surprise.

As soon as I put up my helm and kept away, the headmost of the strangers
crowded all sail in chase, making signals to the rest of the squadron to
follow her--undoubtedly not to allow me any prospect of escaping. She
fired two or three shot, but she was still too far-off to hit me. All
the other vessels hoisted French colours, and any lingering hope I might
have retained, that after all I might have been mistaken, and that the
strangers were English, now vanished. Still my principle has always
been never to give in while life remains, and so I resolved to hold on
till I got completely under the enemy's guns, and then, when I found
that there was a strong probability of my being sunk, to haul down my
colours, but not till then. I had heard of a small vessel escaping even
from under