tion, of congratulation at our
escape from being run down, or of objurgation, it was quite impossible
to tell; but, from the threatening character of their actions, I judged
it to be the latter. There was only one calm individual among the
whole, and he was the first lieutenant. He stood by the mizzen-rigging
on the port side, clinging to a belaying-pin, and he vouchsafed us not
so much as a passing glance, his whole attention being given to his
spars and rigging, on which he kept his eyes anxiously fixed. The
skipper, on the other hand, seemed to be more excited than any one else.
When my eye lighted upon him he was grasping the poop-rail with his
right hand and shaking his left fist at us. Just then our eyes met,
when, to my surprise and disgust, he turned to a marine near him and
pointed at me, at the same time apparently giving the man an order. The
fellow raised his piece and fired, and the next instant I felt a violent
blow accompanied by a sharp burning pain in my left arm, which dropped
helplessly at my side, broken between the elbow and the shoulder.

All this passed in a single moment of time; the next instant we were
vividly recalled to a sense of our own danger. As we rose upon the next
wave our port quarter was exposed to its advancing crest, and there was
only time to shout to all hands to "Hold on for your lives!" before it
came hissing up, and, arching over us quite six feet above our low
bulwarks, tumbled on board, a regular comber, filling us to the gunwale,
bursting in the companion-doors, flooding the cabin, smashing one of our
boats to atoms, and washing away everything that was not securely
lashed. By something approaching a miracle, none of the men were swept
overboard; and as soon as I had ascertained this by a hasty glance round
the deck, directly I got my head above water, I gave the order for the
fore-lug to be loosed and set. The men wanted no second bidding; they
knew that if we got pooped a second time it would be all over with us;
and in an incredibly short space of time we had the sail set, and were
bowling away to leeward after the Frenchman.

Our position was now very much the reverse of an enviable one; as, being
compelled for safety's sake to run dead before it, we were exactly in
the line of fire between the two ships, which continued to bang away at
each other from time to time, quite regardless of the possible
consequences to us; and their shot came hissing past us and over