dragging forward a young midshipman.

"Monsieur," he said, hearing Sir Henry speak French, "I beg that you
will take this brave boy in your boat. He wishes to be one of the last
to leave the ship, and, as you see, we know not how soon she may go
down, and he may be lost. He is our Captain's son, and where his father
is I cannot say."

"Gladly--willingly," answered Sir Henry. "And you, my friend, come with
the boy."

The lad showed signs of resistance; but True Blue sprang up into the
port, aided by a boathook which he held, and, taking the lad round the
waist, leaped with him into the boat. The officer refused to come,
saying that he had duties to which he must attend; and the boat being
now full, Sir Henry had to return to the frigate.

On hastening back to the ship, the officer again appeared. "I will
accompany you now," he said, leaping in and taking his seat in the
sternsheets. "But I have been searching in vain for our brave Captain
Renaudin. What can have, become of him I do not know. If he is lost,
it will break that poor boy's heart, they were so wrapped up in each
other."

The boat, as he spoke, was rapidly filling with French seamen.

"Shove off! shove off!" cried Sir Henry energetically.

It was time, indeed. There was a general rush from all the decks and
ports of the hapless _Vengeur_. Some threw themselves into the water,
some headlong into the boats; others danced away, shouting as before;
while one, more drunken or frantic than the rest, waved over her counter
the tricoloured flag under which the ship had been so gallantly fought.

The boats shoved off and pulled away as fast as they could move; there
was danger in delay. The men pulled for their lives. The ship gave a
heavy lurch, the madmen shouted louder than ever; and then every voice
was silent, and down she went like some huge monster beneath the waves,
which speedily closed over the spot where she had been, not a human
being floating upwards alive from her vast hull, now the tomb of nearly
a third of her crew.

There were many other desperate encounters that day, but none so
gallantly fought out to the death as that between the _Brunswick_ and
the _Vengeur_. Six line-of-battle ships were secured as prizes. The
total loss of the French in killed, wounded, and prisoners was not less
than 7000 men, of whom fully 3000 were killed.

The whole loss of the English on the 1st of June, and on the previous
days, was 290 killed and