ere uninjured. One of the men in the larboard
battery had his cheek slightly lacerated by a splinter, but with that
trifling exception none of us were any the worse. The frigate, however,
did not escape quite so easily. When we again looked at her it was seen
that we had knocked away her jib-boom close to the cap, and had cut away
her flying-jib halliards and stay, with the result that the sail was
towing under her forefoot; her fore-topsail tye had also been cut, and
the yard was down on the cap, rendering their plight worse than ever.
This loss of head sail occurring at a moment when, having partially
luffed to fire at us, the wind was well on her starboard quarter, the
frigate now showed symptoms of flying up into the wind altogether; and
although it was evident, from the sluggish way in which she did so, that
the tendency was being strongly counteracted by her helm, I soon saw
that her crew were powerless, and that fly into the wind she _would_, in
spite of them.

"Ready about again, lads!" cried I. "Now, Mr Marchmont, it is your
turn. By the time that we are fairly round the frigate's stern will be
turned directly toward you, offering an excellent mark. Let us see how
many of your shot you can send in through her cabin windows, will you?"

"Ay, ay, sir, we'll do our best," answered the lad, in high glee; and
then I saw him pass rapidly from one captain of a gun to another, and
heard him mention distinctly, in his excitement, something about
"bottles of grog."

The men grinned, turned their quids, hitched up the waistbands of their
breeches; squinted along the sights of their guns; looked at the
frigate, as though measuring her distance, and then adjusted the
elevation of their pieces with evidently the nicest judgment and the
very best of intentions.

Watching the frigate carefully, the helm was put down at just the right
moment; and as our topsail swept round and was braced
up--_bang_!--_bang_!--_bang_!--_bang_! roared our eighteens, away
skipped the shot, and crash went all four of them slap into the stern of
the disabled Frenchman, playing the very mischief with the gilt-ginger-
bread work with which that part of the ship was profusely decorated. A
rattling broadside from the brig now drew our attention to her, and we
saw that she was standing toward us, close-hauled on the larboard tack,
under topsails and topgallant-sails; and that she also had taken
advantage of the frigate's helpless situation to