received them with all the honours of war, in the shape of cutlasses,
pistols and boarding pikes; but they were very determined. As soon as
one was knocked down, another jumped up in his place; and somehow or
another they had possession of the ship in less time than I have been
telling the story. I was on the poop, when an English sailor, with a
pigtail as thick as a cable made a cut at me: I ran back to avoid the
blow, and, in so doing, came with such force against another of their
men, that we both tumbled overboard together. I lost my cutlass, but he
had not parted with his; and as soon as we rose to the surface, he
seized me by the collar, and presented the point to my breast. It seemed
to be all the same to him whether he fought on the deck or in the water.
Fortunately I shifted a little on one side, and he only drove it
through my jacket. I recollected that I had my razor in my pocket, which
I took out under the water unperceived, and, closing with him before he
could repeat his thrust, I cut his throat from ear to ear, and then made
for the shore as fast as I could. As I swam remarkably well, I had no
great difficulty in reaching it. As soon as I landed, I looked back, and
observing that the English boats were towing our vessel out I made all
the haste I could to the fort, which was close at hand. There I was
hospitably received, and we sat up till past midnight, drinking,
smoking, and abusing the English.

The next morning, a felucca anchored to procure some water, and, as she
was proceeding to Toulon, I requested a passage. We sailed with a fine
breeze; but a heavy gale came on, which tossed us about for many days,
and the master of the vessel had no idea to where she had been driven.
He consoled us, however, by asserting that we could never go to the
bottom, as there was a lady of great sanctity passenger in the cabin,
who had been sent for to assume the office of lady abbess of a convent
near Marseilles, and whom the saints would indubitably preserve.

This was some comfort, although fine weather would have been greater.
The gale continued; and the next morning we thought that we descried
land on the lee beam. The following night we were certain of our
conjectures having been correct, for the vessel was thrown on shore, and
in a few minutes went to pieces. I had the good fortune to save myself
upon a part of the wreck, and lay half-dead upon the beach until the
morning. When the day broke, I looked around me