ls, both
rams, were preparing to make a united and vigorous onset on the
repeller, and the two men-of-war were left hopelessly tossing on the
waves. One of the transports, a very fast steamer, had already entered
the straits, and could not be signalled; but the other one returned and
took both the war-ships in tow, proceeding very slowly until, after
entering the gulf, she was relieved by tugboats.

Another event of a somewhat different character was the occasion of
much excited feeling and comment, particularly in the United States.
The descent and attack by British vessels on an Atlantic port was a
matter of popular expectation. The Syndicate had repellers and crabs
at the most important points; but, in the minds of naval officers and a
large portion of the people, little dependence for defence was to be
placed upon these. As to the ability of the War Syndicate to prevent
invasion or attack by means of its threats to bombard the blockaded
Canadian port, very few believed in it. Even if the Syndicate could do
any more damage in that quarter, which was improbable, what was to
prevent the British navy from playing the same game, and entering an
American seaport, threaten to bombard the place if the Syndicate did
not immediately run all their queer vessels high and dry on some
convenient beach?

A feeling of indignation against the Syndicate had existed in the navy
from the time that the war contract had been made, and this feeling
increased daily. That the officers and men of the United States navy
should be penned up in harbours, ports, and sounds, while British ships
and the hulking mine-springers and rudder-pinchers of the Syndicate
were allowed to roam the ocean at will, was a very hard thing for brave
sailors to bear. Sometimes the resentment against this state of
affairs rose almost to revolt.

The great naval preparations of England were not yet complete, but
single British men-of-war were now frequently seen off the Atlantic
coast of the United States. No American vessels had been captured by
these since the message of the Syndicate to the Dominion of Canada and
the British Government. But one good reason for this was the fact that
it was very difficult now to find upon the Atlantic ocean a vessel
sailing under the American flag. As far as possible these had taken
refuge in their own ports or in those of neutral countries.

At the mouth of Delaware Bay, behind the great Breakwater, was now
collected