h had attacked us,
that we had at length knocked away her main-topgallant mast and had done
considerable damage to her rigging. To our great satisfaction we saw
her sheer off and drop astern.

"Hurrah! there's one done for," cried Dick Hagger.

"So there is, my boy, but one down another came on," remarked a wag
among the crew of our gun, pointing as he spoke to a French
seventy-four, which, crowding all sail, was approaching to open directly
afterwards a brisk cannonade on our larboard quarter.

"Never mind, lads, we will treat her as we did t'other, and maybe we'll
capture both of them," cried Dick.

I did not see there was much chance of that, considering that the whole
French fleet was at hand to support the crippled ships. Had we been
more nearly matched we might have done it.

We were now getting pretty severely mauled. First one and then another
got up under our quarter, and blazed away at us. More men were wounded,
and our fore-topsail yard was badly damaged, in addition to our
main-topsail yard, while we had to cut away the stern galleries the
better to train our guns, run through the after ports. The other
ships--especially the _Triumph_, Sir Erasmus Gower--were keeping up a
tremendous fire from their stern-ports. Notwithstanding this, the
French were getting closer and closer.

Four hours thus passed away. While we were thus engaged, it must be
remembered we were pressing on with all sail, so that we kept ahead of
the enemy. While our sticks stood we had no fear of making our escape,
but we well knew that at any moment a shot might carry away one of our
masts, and then, too probably, our brave chief would have to leave us to
our fate for the sake of the safety of the rest of the squadron, not
that we supposed for an instant that he would do so until compelled by
the most dire necessity. Strange to say, I had not the slightest fear
of being shot, but I did dread the thought of being captured and shut up
in a French prison, to be treated as we heard that English prisoners
were treated by the French Republicans. The wretches who had cut off
the heads of their king and beautiful queen, and had guillotined
thousands of innocent persons, until the very streets of Paris ran with
blood, were not very likely to be over kind to the English they got into
their power. As yet, to be sure, they had not made many prisoners, but
those they had made we heard were treated barbarously.

The expectation of what