er their ships or their armies.

The fight had been a brave one, and the English King knew that his
captain had made a bold and desperate resistance, even if he had been
whipped. So he rewarded Captain Pearson, when he at last returned to
England, by making him a Knight, thus giving him the title of "Sir."
When Captain Jones heard of this he laughed, and said: "Well, if I can
meet Captain Pearson again in a sea fight, I'll make him a lord."

The poor _Bon Homme Richard_ was such an utter wreck that she soon sank
beneath the waves. But, even as she went down, the stars and stripes
floated proudly from the mast-head, in token of victory.

Captain Jones, after the surrender, put all his men aboard the captured
_Serapis_, and then off he sailed to the nearest friendly port, with his
great prize and all his prisoners. This victory made him the greatest
sailor in the whole American war, and the most famous of all American
seamen.

Captain Jones took his prize into the Dutch port of Texel, closely
followed by a British squadron. The country of Holland was not friendly
to the Americans, and though they let him come in, he was told that he
could not stay there. So he sailed again, in a howling gale, straight
through the British squadron, with the American flag flying at his peak.
Down through the narrow Straits of Dover he passed, coming so near the
English shore that he could count the warships at anchor in the Downs.
That was his way of showing how little he feared them. The English were
so angry at Holland because it would not give up the Americans and their
prizes that they declared war against that country.

When Captain Jones reached Paris he was received with the greatest
honor, and greeted as one of the ablest and bravest of sea-fighters.

Everybody wished to see such a hero. He went to the King's court, and
the King and Queen and French lords and ladies made much of him and gave
him receptions, and said so many fine things about him that, if he had
been at all vain, it might have "turned his head," as people say. But
John Paul Jones was not vain.

He was a brave sailor, and he was in France to get help and not
compliments. He wished a new ship to take the place of the old
_Richard_, which had gone to the bottom after its great victory.

So, though the King of France honored him and received him splendidly
and made him presents, he kept on working to get another ship. At last
he was made captain of a new ship, ca