ng directions for the foresail to be taken
off, when the seaman who was stationed to look out on the lee-gangway,
cried out, "A sail on the lee-beam!"

"A sail on the lee-beam, sir!" reported the officer of the watch to the
captain, as he held on by a rope with one hand, and touched his hat with
the other.

"Here, youngster, tell the sentry at the cabin door to give you my deck
glass," said Captain M--- to Merrick, who was one of the midshipmen of
the morning watch.

"She's a large ship, sir--main and mizen masts both gone," reported
Hardy, who had mounted up three or four ratlines of the main-rigging.

The midshipman brought up the glass; and the captain, first passing his
arm round the fore-brace, to secure himself from falling to leeward with
the lurching of the ship, as soon as he could bring the strange vessel
into the field of the glass exclaimed, "A line-of-battle ship, by
Heavens! and if I am any judge of a hull, or the painting of a ship, she
is no Englishman." Other glasses were now produced, and the opinion of
the captain was corroborated by that of the officers on deck.

"Keep fast the foresail, Mr Hardy. We'll edge down to her.
Quarter-master, see the signal halyards all clear."

The captain went down to his cabin, while the frigate was kept away as
he directed, the master standing at the conn. He soon came up again:
"Hoist Number 3 at the fore, and Number 8 at the main. We'll see if she
can answer the private signal."

It was done, and the frigate, rolling heavily in the trough of the sea,
and impelled by the furious elements, rapidly closed with the stranger.
In less than an hour they were within half a mile of her; but the
private signal remained unanswered.

"Now then, bring her to the wind, Mr Pearce," said Captain M---, who
had his glass upon the vessel.

The frigate was luffed handsomely to the wind, not however without
shipping a heavy sea. The gale, which, during the time that she was
kept away before the wind, had the appearance, which it always has, of
having decreased in force, now that she presented her broadside to it,
roared again in all its fury.

"Call the gunner--clear away the long gun forward--try with the rammer
whether the shot has started from the cartridge, and then fire across
the bows of that vessel."

The men cast loose the gun, and the gunner taking out the bed and coin,
to obtain the greatest elevation to counteract the heel of the frigate,
watched the lurch,