e chase more by superior helmsmanship
than by the possession of any advantage over him in point of actual
speed.

As the French frigate continued to sweep down towards us I became
exceedingly anxious; for it now seemed as though we had delayed a trifle
too long the act of filling away upon the "Vigilant," and that, at our
low rate of speed, we should be unable to draw out of her immediate
path. The ship, now distant not more than half a mile, came surging on,
with her broad expanse of canvas fully distended by the following gale,
and straining at the stout spars and tough hemp rigging as though it
would tear the very masts themselves out of the hull and come flying
down to leeward like cobwebs before a summer breeze; or as though, when
the ship rose upon the ridge of a sea, lifting her fore-foot and some
forty feet of her keel clear out of the water, she would take flight,
and, leaving the sea altogether, soar away upon her canvas pinions like
a startled sea-fowl. She was rolling heavily, so much so indeed that we
more than once saw her dip her stunsail-boom-ends alternately on the
port and starboard sides into the water.

At length, as we rose to the crest of one mountainous sea, which had
completely hidden the French ship from us, up to her very royal-mast-
heads, we saw her surging madly forward upon the breast of the one which
followed it, the hissing foam-crest which pursued her rearing itself
high and threateningly above her taffrail, while the ship herself, with
her port gunwale deep buried in the water, was taking a desperate and
uncontrollable sheer to starboard which we saw in a moment would hurl
her crashing into the little "Vigilant" somewhere about the mainmast.

A cry, something between a yell and a shriek of horror and dismay, burst
simultaneously from the lips of our crew as this awful danger burst upon
us; and, in a momentary panic, a general rush was made by all hands to
that part of the vessel which appeared likely to receive the
annihilating blow, with the intention of making a spring for life at the
frigate's bowsprit and headgear. Even the helmsman was so infected by
the sight that, abandoning the wheel, he too joined in the rush.

There was no time for remonstrance. Smellie and I were standing near
the companion at the moment, watching the approach of the Frenchman; and
as the rush took place I seized him by the arm, and, shouting in his
ear, "Cut the mizzen-sheet!" sprang to the wheel, and