ife to Nassau. Then the chase began in earnest. The
"Young Republic" was one of those long, sharp steamers built on the
Clyde expressly for running the blockade. Her crew knew that a long
holiday in port, with plenty of money, would follow a successful
cruise; and they worked untiringly to keep up the fires, and set every
sail so that it would draw. On the cruiser the jackies saw visions of
a prize worth a million and a half of dollars; and the thought of so
much prize-money to spend, or to send home, spurred them on. For
several hours the chase seemed likely to be a long, stern one; but
then the freshening wind filled the sails of the gunboat, and she
began to overhaul the fugitive. When within a mile or two, she began
firing great shells with her pivot-gun. Then the flying
blockade-runner began to show signs of fear; and with a good glass the
crew could be seen throwing over bale after bale of the precious
cotton, to lighten the vessel. In the last thirty miles of the chase
the sea was fairly covered with cotton-bales. More than three hundred
were passed floating in the water; and the jackies gnashed their
teeth, and growled gruffly, at the sight of so much wealth slipping
through their fingers. On the high paddle-wheel box of the
blockade-runner, the captain could be seen coolly directing his crew,
and now and again turning to take a look through his glass at the
pursuer. As the chase continued, the certainty of capture became more
and more evident. Then the fugitives began throwing overboard or
destroying every thing of value: furniture, silver-ware,
chronometers, the fittings of the cabin, every thing that could
benefit their captors, the chagrined blockade-runners destroyed. The
officers of the gunboat saw that if they wished to gain any thing by
their capture, they must make haste. At the risk of an explosion, more
steam was crowded on; and the gunboat was soon alongside the "Young
Republic," and in a position to give her an enormous broadside. The
blockade-runner saw that he was caught and must submit. For lack of a
white flag, a pillow-case was run up to the masthead, and the beating
of the great wheels stopped. The davits amidships of the "Grand Gulf"
are swung out, and a boat's crew, with a lieutenant and dapper
midshipman, climb in. A quick order, "Let fall there," and the boat
drops into the water, and is headed for the prize. Another moment, and
the stars and stripes supplant the pillow-case waving from the