st active. Dick was a short, strongly built, powerful fellow, with a
broad, honest countenance, bright blue eyes, and fair bushy beard and
whiskers,--a truer-hearted, braver seaman than Dick Driver never
stepped.

"If this here cutlass of mine does its duty, we'll thrash the Mounseers,
and gain the King his own again," exclaimed Dick, as he applied his
weapon to the grindstone, feeling that he was a host in himself; and so
he was, provided no treacherous bullet found its way through his sturdy
frame, when, alas, Dick's strength and courage would have availed him
nothing.

The boats at length collected round the _Laurel_; the oars were muffled;
the officers were ordered to maintain a strict silence. It was hoped
that by getting in the rear of the fort it might be taken with a rush,
while the larger party entered the town, and took by surprise any troops
who might be stationed within it.

The night was very dark, for clouds were in the sky, and the water was
smooth.

The first lieutenant of the _Laurel_, who commanded the expedition,
leading in the gig, away the boats pulled, keeping close together, and
looking as they glided along like some huge serpent creeping on his
prey. The entrance to the bay was gained without the boats being
discovered. They dashed on more rapidly than before. In a few minutes
they would be hard at work, the seamen slashing away with their
cutlasses, and the marines firing, and pronging with their muskets and
bayonets at their fellow-creatures.

Strange that men should like such work. Dick confessed he did, though
he could not exactly say why.

The officers did their duty admirably; the marines were landed, and the
blue-jackets were springing on shore before a shot was fired from the
town.

Dick, who belonged to the first division, pushed on in that direction
with his party, while the other two attended to their destined duty.
The gates of the fort, however, being closed, the intended rush could
not be accomplished; and it was evident from the rapid firing that some
hot work was going on there. Instead also of at once entering the town,
the first party found their progress impeded by a somewhat numerous body
of troops, who, quartered near at hand, turned out in time to defend it.
The Frenchmen fought well, Dick acknowledged, though some had neither
boots nor coats on, and many were destitute of other garments. They
were, however, driven back inch by inch, till some turned tail an