ve
heard say, that as you walks the streets, you'll see dozens of fellows
sometimes, tarry breeches and all, hanging up in the butchers' shops.
There was the whole crew of the _Harpy_ sloop, taken off here, treated
in that way--that I know of to a certainty. The Captain was a very fat
man, so his flesh fetched twice as much a pound as the others; and when
they served him up at dinner, they ornamented the dish with his epaulets
and the gold lace off his coat."

Gipples opened his eyes very wide, and did not at all like the
description.

Fid continued, "I hope, if they take us, they won't serve us in the same
way; but there's no saying. We'll fight to the last; but all these
gunboats and that big schooner are great odds against our little brig.
Maybe Sir Henry would rather blow up the brig and all on board. I hope
as how he will, and so we will disappoint the cannibals."

While Tim Fid and his companions were running on with this sort of
nonsense, poor Gipples wishing that he was anywhere but on board the
_Rover_, the enemy were gradually stealing out towards her.

True Blue saw that the contest, if carried on in a calm, would be a very
severe one, and anxiously looked out for the signs of a breeze. As the
schooner drew near, it was clear that she was the French privateer of
which they were in search.

"We must take her somehow or other, there's no doubt about that,"
thought True Blue. "We have got some long sweeps; we'll get these all
ready to rig out as soon as she comes near to lay her on board. I'll
hear what the Captain has to say to the idea."

The boatswain on this went as near aft as etiquette would allow, knowing
that the Captain would call him up and talk to him about the approaching
conflict. Sir Henry had himself intended to board the enemy, but
feared, from their being so close in under the land, that before the
contest was over the vessels might drift on shore.

The sweeps were, however, got ready. Just then a light air from off the
land sprang up, and the brig, making all sail, stood away from it--much,
probably, to the satisfaction of her enemies, who fancied that her crew
were afraid of fighting, and that, should they come up with her, she
would prove an easy conquest. They began, therefore, briskly firing
their bow-guns at the _Rover_, a compliment which she as warmly returned
with her after-guns.

The breeze dying away, the sweeps were got out, and the _Rover_ still
kept ahead of her