to find himself on the deck, with
his arms free to use his cutlass with advantage. Instead of that, he
discovered that he had fallen into a net spread out over the quarter to
dry. Here he could neither stand nor use his weapon, and in this
position a Frenchman thrust a pike towards him, which wounded him in the
thigh. Happily he got his cutlass sufficiently at liberty to cut the
net. Then he dropped once more into the boat, into which he found that
Tim Fid and the rest of the men had been thrust back, several severely
wounded.

It would never do, however, thus to give up the enterprise; so, in a low
voice telling the men to haul the boat farther ahead, he once more
sprang up over the brig's bulwarks. Most of the Frenchmen, fancying
that the attacking boat was still there, had rushed aft.

The clash of British cutlasses, and the flash of pistols in the waist,
quickly brought them back again. True Blue, Fid, and two or three more
stood on the bulwarks, bravely attempting to make good their footing;
but one after the other, and as many more as came up, were hurled back
headlong, some into the water, and others into the boat, till True Blue
stood by himself, opposed to the whole French crew.

Undaunted even then he kept them at bay with his rapidly whirling
cutlass, till those who had fallen overboard had had time to climb into
the boat; then he shouted, "All hands aboard the French brig!"

"Ay, ay," was the answer, "we'll be with you, bo'sun. True Blue for
ever! Hurrah!"

Once more the undaunted seamen, in spite of cuts and slashes, and broken
heads, were climbing up the brig's sides. Fid was the first who joined
True Blue, in time to save him from an awkward thrust of a
boarding-pike; and, dragging it out of the hands of the Frenchman who
held it, he leaped with it down on the deck. A few sweeps of True
Blue's cutlass cleared a space sufficient to enable more of his party to
join him; and these driving the Frenchmen still farther back, all the
boat's crew at last gained the brig's deck. The Frenchmen now fought
more fiercely than before, and muskets and pistols and pikes were
opposed to the British cutlasses; but the weapons of cold steel proved
the most effective.

On the British went. Some of the enemy jumped overboard, the rest
leaped into the cabins, or threw down their weapons and cried for
quarter. The after part of the vessel was gained. A group on the
forecastle still held out. Another furio