be
up with us."

"Ay, and there goes his bunting, and a gun," answered the mate. "The white
English ensign, a sign the chap is under some admiral, or vice, or rear of
the white, while, if I mistake not, the two frigates show blue flags--if
so, 'tis a sign they're not consorts."

The glass confirmed this, and we were left to suppose that all three
Englishmen did not belong to the same squadron. At this moment, the state
of the game was as follows:--The Dawn was lying-to, with her fore-course
up, main-sail furled, main-top-sail aback, and top-gallant yards on the
caps, jib and spanker both set. The Polisson was flying away on the crests
of the seas, close-hauled, evidently disposed to make a lee behind the two
frigates to windward, which we took for, and which it is probable she
_knew_ to be, French. The ships to leeward were passing; each other within
hail; the one to the eastward tacking immediately after, and coming up in
her consort's wake; both vessels carrying everything that would draw. The
ships to the southward, or the supposed Frenchmen, might then have been
two leagues from us, while those to leeward were three. As for the
corvette, her course seemed to lie directly between our masts. On she
came, with everything beautifully trimmed, the water spouting from her
hawse-holes, as she rose from a plunge, and foaming under her bows, as if
made of a cloud. Her distance from us was less than a mile.

It was now that the corvette made signals to the ships to windward. They
were answered, but in a way to show the parties did not understand each
other. She then tried her hand with the vessels to leeward, and,
notwithstanding the distance, she succeeded better. I could see these two
frigates, or rather the one that led, sending questions and answers to the
corvette, although my best glass would hardly enable me to distinguish
their ensigns. I presume that the corvette asked the names of the English
vessels, communicated her own, and let the fact be known that the ships to
windward were enemies.

A few minutes later, our affairs, as they were connected with the
sloop-of-war, came to a crisis. This ship now came on, close under our
lee, losing a little of her way in passing, an expedient probably thought
of to give her a little more time to put her questions, and to receive the
desired answers. I observed also, that she let go all her bow-lines, which
seemed much to deaden her way, of which there still remained sufficien