ONCLUSION.

I ought to have said that the larger portion of the ship's company and
all the officers had been removed at once on board the _Ville de Milan_.
I, with about sixty or seventy others, remained on board the
_Cleopatra_. I would rather have been out of the ship, I own. I could
not bear to see her handled by the Frenchmen. Often and often I felt
inclined to jump up and knock some of them down, just for the sake of
giving vent to my feelings. Of course I did not do so, nor did I even
intend to do so. It would have been utterly useless, and foolish in the
extreme. I only describe my feelings, and I dare say they were shared
by many of my shipmates.

Nearly a week thus passed, when one morning, as I was on deck, I saw a
large ship standing towards us. What she was I could not at first say.
The Frenchmen, at all events, did not like her looks, for I observed a
great commotion among them. The two frigates had already as much sail
set on their jury-masts as it was in any way safe to carry, so nothing
more could be done to effect their escape should it be necessary to run
for it, by the sail in sight being, what I hoped she was, a British
man-of-war.

How eagerly I watched to see what would be done! The French officers
kept looking out with their glasses, and constantly going aloft.

Soon the two frigates put up their helms and ran off before the wind,
and almost at the same instant I had the satisfaction of seeing the
stranger make all sail in chase.

One, at all events, was certain of being captured, for, knocked about as
they had been, they made very little way. Anxiously I watched to
ascertain to a certainty the character of the stranger. The Frenchmen,
I doubted not, took her to be an English man-of-war, and I prayed that
they might be right, but still I knew that their fears might cause them
to be mistaken.

Most of the English prisoners were sent below, but I managed to stow
myself away forward, and so was able to see what took place. On came
the stranger. Gradually the foot of her topsails, and then her courses
rose out of the water, and when at length her hull appeared I made out
that she was not less than a fifty gun ship, and I had little doubt that
she was English. The Frenchmen looked at her as if they would like to
see her blow up, or go suddenly to the bottom. I watched her in the
hope of soon seeing the glorious flag of Old England fly out at her
peak. I was not long kept in doubt