very attempts at concealment
only rendered them more palpable to everyone on board. Captain Oughton,
who was very partial to Newton, rejoiced in his good fortune. He had no
objection to young people falling or being in love on board of his ship,
although he would not have sanctioned or permitted a marriage to take
place during the period that a young lady was under his protection.
Once landed on Deal beach, as he observed, they might "buckle to" as
soon as they pleased.

The _Windsor Castle_ was within two hundred miles of the Mauritius, when
a strange vessel was discovered on the weather beam, bearing down to
them with all the canvas she could spread. Her appearance was warlike;
but what her force might be, it was impossible to ascertain at the
distance she was off, and the position which she then offered, being
then nearly "end on."

"Can you make out her hull, Mr Forster?" cried Captain Oughton, hailing
Newton, who was at the mast-head with a glass.

"No, sir; her fore-yard is but now clear of the water, but she rises
very fast."

"What do you think of her spars, Forster?" said Captain Oughton to
Newton, who had just descended to the last rattling of the main-rigging.

"She is very taut, sir, and her canvas appears to be foreign."

"I'll bet you what you please it's that damned fellow Surcoeuf. This is
just his cruising-ground, if the report of that neutral vessel was
correct."

"Another hour will decide the point, sir," replied Newton; "but I must
say I think your surmise likely to prove correct. We may as well be
ready for him: a cruiser she certainly is."

"The sooner the better, Mr Forster. He's but a `rum customer,' and `a
hard hitter' by all accounts. Clear up the decks, and beat to
quarters."

The strange vessel came down with such rapidity that, by the time the
captain's orders were obeyed, she was not more than two miles distant.

"There's `in studding-sails,'--and in devilish good style too!" observed
Captain Oughton. "Now we shall see what he's made of."

The vessel rounded to the wind as soon as she had reduced her sails, on
the same tack as the _Windsor Castle_, displaying her broadside, as the
French would say, _herisee des canons_.

"A corvette, sir," said Newton, reconnoitring through his glass;
"two-and-twenty guns besides her bridle ports. She is French rigged;--
the rake of her stern is French;--in fact, she is French all over."

"All Lombard Street to a China orange, 'tis