ile away, laughing softly to
himself, as he sped along the highway which led to quiet Dunkirk.

Things went well with him, also, for his employers--appreciating his
past services--now gave him command of a larger ship than the _Palme_:
the _Dauphin_, with thirty guns and two hundred eager and adventurous
sailors from the northern coast of France.

Sailing forth from Dunkirk harbor, on June 18th, 1678, Jean Bart
eagerly scanned the horizon with his glass. With him were two smaller
privateers, so that he felt well able to cope with any adversary from
Holland. His keen glance was soon to be rewarded, for when but two
days from port he spied a sail upon the starboard bow. It was a Dutch
frigate--the _Sherdam_--of forty guns and manned by many stout dogs of
the sea. Her captain--Andre Ranc--was a keen fighter and a man of
well-tried courage.

"Bear off to leeward!" signalled Jean Bart to his privateer
companion. "Then we will get the stranger between us, fasten to her,
and board her from either side."

The flag of the French privateer dipped back an answering, "All
right!" and, as she was nearest to the Dutchman, she attacked at once.

"_Poom! Poom!_" went the Dutch cannon, like the beating of a churn in
that land of canals and cheese-making. And _piff! piff!_ answered the
little howitzers of the privateer.

But Jean Bart meant to have a quick fight, so he bore down to
starboard, wore ship, and ran so close to the enemy, that his
grappling irons soon held her fast. In a moment more his own vessel
was hauled alongside.

Meanwhile the smaller French privateer had spanked over to larboard;
had run up upon the opposite side of the lumbering Dutchman; and had
also gripped her. A wild, nerve-wracking cheer went up, as--sword in
hand--Jean Bart led his boarders over the side of the Dutch vessel.

Ranc was badly wounded but he led his men to a counter assault with
courage born of desperation. Cutlasses crashed together,
boarding-pikes smashed and hacked, and pistols growled and spattered
in one discordant roar. Back went the Dutch sailors fighting savagely
and bluntly with all the stubbornness of their natures, then back they
pushed the followers of Jean Bart, while Ranc called to them:

"Drive these French curs into the sea!"

[Illustration: "JEAN BART LED HIS BOARDERS OVER THE SIDE OF THE DUTCH
VESSEL."]

But now the other privateer had made fast, and her men came clambering
over the rail, with cutlass, dirk, and pis