ad a strong presentiment of his death was proved; and
though I had often heard these instances asserted, I never before had it
so clearly brought home to my senses.

The prize was called _L'Aimable Julie_, laden with coffee, cotton, and
indigo; mounted fourteen guns; had, at the commencement of the action,
forty-seven men, of whom eight were killed, and sixteen wounded. The
period of our return into port, according to our orders, happened to
coincide with this piece of good fortune, and we came up to Spithead,
where our captain met with a hearty welcome from the admiral. Having
delivered his "butcher's bill," i.e. the list of killed and wounded,
together with an account of our defects, they were sent up to the
Admiralty; and, by return of post, we were ordered to fit foreign: and
although no one on board, not even the captain, was supposed to know our
destination, the girls on the Point assured us it was the Mediterranean;
and this turned out to be the fact.

A few days only were spent in hurried preparation, during which I
continued to write to my father and mother. In return I received all I
required, which was a remittance in cash. This I duly acknowledged by a
few lines as the ship was unmooring. We sailed, and soon after arrived
without accident at Gibraltar, where we found general orders for any
ship that might arrive from England, to proceed and join the admiral at
Malta. In a few hours our provisions and water were complete; but we
were not in so much haste to arrive at Malta as we were to quit
Gibraltar--hugging the Spanish coast, in hopes of picking up something
to insure us as hearty a welcome at Valetta as we found on our last
return to Portsmouth.

Early on the second morning of our departure we made Cape de Gaete. As
the day dawned we discovered four sail in the wind's eye, and close in
shore. The wind was light, and all sail was made in chase. We gained
very little on them for many hours, and towards evening it fell calm.
The boats were then ordered to pursue them, and we set off, diverging a
little from each other's course, or, as the French would say, _deploye_,
to give a better chance of falling in with them. I was in the gig with
the master, and, that being the best running boat, we soon came up with
one of the feluccas. We fired musketry at her: but having a light
breeze, she would not bring-to. We then took good aim at the helmsman,
and hit him. The man only shifted the helm from his