lanterns, then," said the
captain; for, up to the present, we had been careful not to show any
lights.

It was now plain to see that her men were at their quarters and that she
was prepared for action. When everything was ready on deck, the royals
and flying-jib were set, and we gave chase. The strange vessel was
about three-quarters of a mile on our weather-beam; in half an hour we
had gained upon her considerably, and our sailing was so superior that
we were satisfied, should she prove an enemy, that in an hour more we
should be engaged.

Of course, we might have engaged her at the distance we were from her,
but you cannot be too careful in a night action, and ought never to
engage without first hailing the vessel to make sure that she is an
enemy, as circumstances may, and have occurred by which an English
vessel may not be able to answer the private signal, and, of course, a
vessel belonging to a neutral power would be in the same position.

The incertitude which existed as to whether the strange vessel was an
enemy or not created great excitement. My duty, as signal midshipman,
placed me abaft on the quarter-deck, and Bob Cross, who was really a
quarter-master, although doing duty as captain's coxswain, was at the
wheel.

At last we had brought the chase well on our weather quarter, and when
we tacked we found that we lay well up, she being about a point on our
lee bow. Another half-hour brought us within two cables' length of her,
when we kept away, so as to pass her to leeward, close enough to have
thrown a biscuit on board. The stranger still remaining on the opposite
tack, Captain Delmar then hailed from the gangway--

"Ship, a-hoy!"

There was a death-like silence on board of both vessels, and his voice
pierced sonorously through the night wind.

"Ah! yaw!" was the reply.

"What ship is that?" continued Captain Delmar.

During this time every man was at his gun; the captains, with the
lanyards of the locks in their hands, ready to pour in a broadside.

The reply from the other vessel was--"Vat chip is dat?"

"His Britannic Majesty's ship Calliope," replied Captain Delmar; and
then he repeated--"What ship is that? Let every man lie down at his
quarters," said Captain Delmar. The order was hardly obeyed, when the
stranger frigate poured in her broadside, and as we were then very
close, with great execution to our hull and rigging: but as the men had
been lying down, very few of them were hu