the
brigantine a sudden flashing of lights appeared on board her, and before
we could get alongside a broadside of four guns, loaded with grape, was
hastily discharged at us. Luckily, beyond revealing the fact that we
had been discovered, the broadside did us no harm; and, with a cheer,
our tars bent to their oars and, with a few lusty strokes, sent us
alongside with a rush.

The brigantine, a long and exceedingly rakish-looking craft, sat very
low in the water, so that it appeared to be one of the easiest things in
the world to scramble in over her bulwarks from the boats; but we found
those bulwarks lined from stem to stern with as resolute-looking a set
of fellows as one need wish to see, and their reception of us, as
regards warmth, left absolutely nothing to be desired. They evidently
knew and fully appreciated the advantage they possessed over us in
having a good roomy deck to fight upon, and they seemed fully resolved
to retain that advantage as long as possible. Three separate and
distinct attempts did we make to surmount the low barrier; and as many
times were we forced back into the boats, each occasion being marked by
the accession of some three or four to the number of our wounded. On
the fourth occasion, however, I determined that gain the deck of that
brigantine _I would_, by hook or by crook; so calling Collins, the
coxswain of my boat, and another man to my aid, I ordered them each to
seize me by a leg and _fling_ me on board, which they did with a regular
man-of-war's-man's "one--two--three--heave!" and away I went in over the
bulwarks like a rocket, alighting fairly on the shoulders of a great
burly fellow who had already lodged a pistol bullet in the fleshy part
of my left arm--and to whom I consequently owed a grudge--beating him
down to the deck, only to find myself in the very thickest of the crowd,
every man of which seemed more anxious than the others to get a fair
blow at me. I was, however, by this time no mere novice in the use of
the sword, and I no sooner felt myself fairly on my feet than I made the
weapon spin about my adversaries' heads in such good earnest that they
were compelled to recoil. Meanwhile my lads had no sooner launched me
into space than they sprang after me, and, pressing forward to my side
with their cutlasses advanced, we soon made room enough for the rest of
our party to follow. But though we had gained the deck we had by no
means won the ship, our antagonists ral