my arms have grown
stiffer than they used to be. The sooner we can get on shore the
better, and we can wait there till the tide turns, when perhaps we shall
find some hooker running up to Waterford which will take us in tow.
I'll pull in for Portala Bay, which you see just inside Red Head."

"As you please," said Mr Ferris. "By climbing to the top of the Head
we shall, I fancy, be able to watch the proceedings of the two ships."

The captain pulling on, the boat soon reached a small bay just to the
northward of a headland at the western side of the entrance of Waterford
harbour. Ellen was eager at once to climb to the summit of the height.
The captain and Mr Ferris having drawn up the boat, they set off, and
were not long in gaining it. From thence they could command a view of
the whole coast of Waterford as far as Youghal Bay, towards which the
_Coquille_ was standing. Her boats had been hoisted up, but she was
still, even with a favourable tide, making but slow progress. The ship
to the eastward had now come completely into view. The captain took a
steady look at her.

"She is a sloop of war--I thought so from the first," he exclaimed, "and
from the cut of her canvas I have little doubt that she is English."

As he spoke, the stranger's ensign blew out from her peak.

"Yes, I knew I was right--she is the _Champion_, depend on it. If the
breeze favours her, far as she is to leeward, she'll be up to Captain
Thurot before noon," he continued. "If she once gets him within range
of her guns, she'll not let him go till he cries peccavi."

Ellen was seated on a rock which formed the highest part of the
headland. Even under ordinary circumstances she would have watched the
two vessels with much interest, but the intensity of her feelings may be
supposed, as she thought of one who was on board the British ship; for
although the gallant lieutenant had not yet spoken, she fully believed
that he had given her his heart, and she could not avoid confessing to
herself that she had bestowed hers in return. In a few short hours he
might be engaged in a deadly strife with a ship equal in size and the
number of her crew to the _Champion_; and though she could not doubt
that the British would come off victorious, yet she well knew the risk
to which each of her gallant crew would be exposed. The _Champion_ had
stood within a mile of the mouth of the harbour, when she tacked and
steered for the French ship. The breeze, as