asse-maree_ dodging between Cherbourg and St. Malo or
Morlaix, with naval stores or munitions of war.

However, Cap'n Dick had very good luck. One morning, about three
leagues N.W. of Roscoff, what should he see but a French privateering
craft of about fifty tons (new measurement) with an English trader in
tow--a London brig, with a cargo of all sorts, that had fallen behind
her convoy and been snapped up in mid-channel. Cap'n Dick had the
weather-gauge, as well as the legs of the French _chasse-maree_. She
was about a league to leeward when the morning lifted and he first
spied her. By seven o'clock he was close, and by eight had made
himself master of her and the prize, with the loss of two men only and
four wounded, the Frenchman being short-handed, by reason of the crew
he'd put into the brig to work her into Morlaix.

This was first-rate business. To begin with, the brig (she was called
the _Martha Edwards_, of London) would yield a tidy little sum for
salvage. The wind being fair for Plymouth, Cap'n Dick sent her into
that port--her own captain and crew working her, of course, and thirty
Frenchmen on board in irons. And at Plymouth she arrived without any
mishap.

Then came the _chasse-maree_. She was called the _Bean Pheasant_,[A]
an old craft and powerful leaky; but she mounted sixteen guns, the
same as the _Unity_, and ought to have made a better run from her;
but first, she hadn't been able to make her mind to desert her prize
pretty well within sight of port; and in the second place her men had
a fair job to keep her pumps going. Cap'n Dick considered, and then
turned to old Jacka.

[Footnote A: Probably _Bienfaisant_.]

"I'm thinking," said he, "I'll have to put you aboard with a prize
crew to work her back to Polperro."

"The Lord will provide," said Jacka, though he had looked to see a
little more of the fun.

So aboard he went with all his belongings, not forgetting his wife's
sausages and the stug of butter and the cinder-sifter. Towards the end
of the action about fifteen of the Johnnies had got out the brig's
large boat and pulled her ashore, where, no doubt, they reached, safe
and sound. So Jacka hadn't more than a dozen prisoners to look after,
and prepared for a comfortable little homeward trip.

"I'll just cruise between this and Jersey," said Cap'n Dick; "and at
the week-end, if there's nothing doing, we'll put back for home and
re-ship you."

So they parted; and by half-past ten Cap'n