s seen
endeavouring to pierce the mist; but for a long time the sun appeared to
strive in vain to accomplish that object.

At last the silvery mist was, as it were, torn asunder; and then,
running under all sail, and about to pass between the brig and the land,
appeared a large lugger. The brig under reduced sail, seen through the
fog, looked probably more like a merchantman than a man-of-war. The
lugger ran up the tricolour and fired a round-shot at the brig.

The first lieutenant, springing on deck with his trousers in one hand
and his coat in the other, ordered the brig to be put about, and then
all hands to make sail, and the guns to be cast loose and run out. The
Frenchmen, before they discovered their mistake, had also tacked,--the
wind was from the southward,--and were standing back towards the brig;
but what was their astonishment, when, instead, of the thumping big
merchantman they had expected to make their easy prize, they saw a trim
man-of-war with nine guns looking down on them!

They at the same time had the full taste of the nine guns, and of a
volley of musketry also, to which they, however, in another minute,
responded in gallant style. The brig was to windward. The object of
her commanding officer was to jam the lugger up between her and the
land, so that she could not possibly escape.

The lugger's Captain, unwilling to be thus caught, hauled his tacks
aboard, and made a gallant attempt to cross the bows of the brig. Her
helm, however, at that moment was put down, and a broadside fired right
into the lugger, one shot bringing down her mainyard, and another
knocking the mizen-mast over her side. The escape of the Frenchmen was
now hopeless--they must either conquer or be captured. They made a bold
attempt to win, by immediately running aboard the brig, before the
lugger had lost her way, and securing her with grappling-irons.

"Boarders, repel boarders!" shouted the first lieutenant of the brig.

Among the first to answer the call was True Blue. Seizing a cutlass
from a heap brought on deck,--for there had been no time to buckle them
on,--he sprang to the spot where he Frenchmen were swarming on board.

"Drive them back, for the sake of Old England, our King, and the homes
we love!" he shouted, a dozen arming themselves as he had done, and
following him.

The officers in the same way seized what weapons they could lay hands
on, and met their desperate assailants. In boarding, those wh