raft rising up, up,
up, until it seemed as though she were about to turn a summersault with
us; there was a _thud_ at her stern, and a heavy _swish_ of water on her
deck as the crest of the sea struck her and broke over the taffrail, and
then Tom Hardy's voice exclaimed,--

"Now--_now's_ your time, sir! Jam your helm hard-a-port, you Dick! hard
over with it, man; that's your sort. Now, sway away upon these here
mizzen halliards; down with your fore-lug; ease up the fore-sheet there,
for'ard; up with the mizzen, lads; bowse it _well_ up; that's well;
belay. Haul your fore-sheet over to wind'ard, and make fast. There!
that's capital. Now let's see what we can do to these here shrouds."

From all of which, and the altered character of the little craft's
motion, I learned that the ticklish manoeuvre of rounding-to had been
safely executed.

A quarter of an hour afterwards the medico finished me off, and I was
able, with Hardy's assistance, to go on deck again and take a look round
before turning into my hammock to nurse my wounded arm.

We were now hove-to upon the starboard tack, with our head to the
southward; the English frigate had passed us, and was by this time some
two miles to leeward, on our port quarter, the Frenchman still leading,
though he had lost ground considerably, and he seemed yet to be in the
thick of his trouble with the wreck of his spars. The bow and stern-
chasers of the two ships were still playing merrily away, but without
any very marked result, as far as we could see; and shortly afterwards
we lost sight of both ships in the thick weather to leeward, and saw no
more of them.

We were not long in getting our larboard mizzen shrouds knotted and set
up afresh; and as soon as this was done we watched our chance and wore
round once more, with our head to the northward--I remaining on deck to
watch the operation--after which I was glad to get into my hammock and
seek relief to my wounded fin.

CHAPTER TWENTY THREE.

THE FRENCH FRIGATE.

The gale lasted through the night and all next day, moderating about
sun-down, however, sufficiently to allow of our setting our fore and
main-lugs close-reefed, and keeping away upon our course. The wind
continued to drop after that all through the night, the sea also going
down rapidly; and next day we were able to shift our canvas, setting the
lateens in place of the lugs; after which we bowled gaily along without
further adventure, passing Ushan