sheet, at which it tugged as though it
would tear away the cleat to which it was secured.

The effect of these additions to the before heavy pressure of canvas
upon the ship was immediate, and, to my inexperience, highly alarming.
The brig now lay over upon her side to such an extent that it was with
the utmost difficulty I could retain my footing upon the steeply-
inclined and slippery plane of the deck. The lee sail was completely
buried in the sea, which boiled in over the lee bow and surged aft along
the deck like a mill-race; while ever and anon an ominous _crack_ aloft
told of the severity of the strain upon the overtaxed spars.

Mr Sennitt kept glancing uneasily upward, as these portentous sounds
smote upon his ear; which Captain Brisac observing, he turned to the
first lieutenant and said,--

"Do not be alarmed, Sennitt; it is only the spars settling into their
berths; they--"

_Crash_! I sprang instinctively aft to the taffrail, out of the way of
the wreck, and then looked up to see both topmasts, snapped off like
carrots just above the caps, go swooping over to leeward, to hang by
their rigging under the lee of the courses; while the ship, with a sharp
shock, as though she had touched upon some unseen rock, recovered
herself and floated once more upon an almost even keel.

Captain Brisac was much too gentlemanly to swear. He simply turned to
the first lieutenant and said, "We have rather overdone it this time,
Sennitt; however, it is no use crying over spilt milk, so turn the hands
up, please, and let them clear away the wreck, and repair damages as
soon as possible."

The boom of a distant gun told us that the crew of the lugger had not
been unobservant of our misfortune, and that they were willing to expend
a charge of powder in acquainting us with their exultation thereat.

By daybreak next morning we had everything ataunt again; the chase,
however, had run completely out of sight, hours before, and was, at all
events for the present, hopelessly lost to us.

The wind had gone down very considerably during the night, and had
hauled round to about due north; the sea went rapidly down; the sky was
cloudless and intensely blue; the air became keen and frosty; and when
the sun rose, it found us standing to the westward under topgallant-
sails, without a single sail of any kind in sight.

CHAPTER THREE.

The "Sans-Culotte."

The adage that "it is an ill wind that blows nobody good" maintained