ppose the
signals were to tell her to come to an anchor, for see, she is
shortening sail."

Presently the French frigate rounded to and brought up. It was just
what we wanted, for if she had stood on, she might have run up the river
and escaped us. All we now had to do was to get up alongside her, and
we trusted to our guns to make her ours. We carried on, therefore, as
we had been doing to reach her.

This probably made her suspect that all was not right, for in a few
minutes, letting fall her topsails, she stood away to the southward.

"She has cut her cable, and is off again," cried Dick; "however, she
can't get up the river, that's one comfort, and we shall have her before
long."

The French ship was now under all the canvas she could spread, standing
to the southward. We had the lead going, for we were running through a
narrow channel, with a lighthouse on one side on some rocks, and a
sandbank on the other. We had a pilot on board, however, who knew the
coast, and our captain was a man of firm nerve. The men in the chains
were singing out all the time. For my part, I know I was very glad when
we cleared the danger, and once more ran off before the wind, followed
by the commodore in the _Pomone_ and the _Anson_ frigate. Meanwhile the
commodore sent off the _Artois_ frigate and _Sylph_ brig to examine two
suspicious ships seen away to the south-west. Night was approaching,
and just before darkness came down on the ocean, we were not more than
two miles astern of the chase. We could still see her dimly through the
gloom ahead, and we hoped to keep sight of her during the night.
Suddenly, however, about nine o'clock, a heavy squall struck us,
accompanied by thunder and lightning, with tremendous showers of rain.
The order was given to shorten sail. We flew aloft; there was no time
to be lost. The thunder rattled, almost deafening us, and the lightning
flashed in our eyes. Between the flashes it was so dark that we had to
feel our way on the yards, for as to seeing six inches from our noses,
that was out of the question. For nearly an hour it blew fearfully
hard, and when we came down from aloft and looked ahead, we could
nowhere see the chase, nor were either of our consorts visible astern.
We, however, continued standing to the southward as before. What had
become of the other ships we could not tell.

"The weather seems to be clearing," observed Dick; "if we keep a sharp
look-out, the chances ar