Swinburne said to me in a low voice,
"This will be a hard blow for the captain, Mr Simple. I've always been
told, that a young captain losing his men without bringing any dollars
to his admiral, is not very well received."

"I am more sorry for him than I can well express, Swinburne," replied I;
"but--what is that a-head--a vessel under weigh?"

Swinburne stood up in the stern of the cutter, and looked for a few
seconds. "Yes, a large ship standing in under royals--she must be a
Frenchman. Now's our time, sir; so long as we don't go out empty-handed,
all will be well. Oars, all of you. Shall we cast off the launch, sir?"

"Yes," replied I; "and now, my lads, let us only have the vessel, and we
shall do. She is a merchantman, that's clear (not that I was sure of
it). Swinburne, I think it will be better to let her pass us in-shore;
they will all be looking out of the other side, for they must have seen
the firing."

"Well thought of, sir," replied Swinburne.

We laid on our oars, and let her pass us, which she did, creeping in at
the rate of two miles an hour. We then pulled for her quarter in the
three boats, leaving the launch behind us, and boarded. As we premised,
the crew were on deck, and all on the other side of the vessel, so
anxiously looking at the batteries, which were still firing occasional
random shot, that they did not perceive us until we were close to them,
and then they had no time to seize their arms. There were several ladies
on board; some of the people protected them, others ran below. In two
minutes we had possession of her, and had put her head the other way. To
our surprise we found that she mounted fourteen guns. One hatch we left
open for the ladies, some of whom had fainted, to be taken down below;
the others were fastened down by Swinburne. As soon as we had the deck
to ourselves, we manned one of the cutters, and sent it for the launch;
and as soon as she was made fast alongside, we had time to look about
us. The breeze freshened, and, in half an hour, we were out of gun-shot
of all the batteries. I then had the wounded men taken out of the
launch, and Swinburne and the other men bound up their wounds, and made
them as comfortable as they could.

Chapter XLV

Some remarkable occurrences take place in the letter of marque--Old
friends with improved faces--The captor a captive; but not carried away,
though the captive is, by the ship's boat--The whole chapter a mixture
of love,