brig, when,
with a cry of joy, Terence and Harry leaped down on her deck. The
meeting of the friends was brief indeed, but cordial, and then once more
they separated, each with their followers, to attack in return the junks
which pressed round them. At this juncture the brig's royals were seen
to bulge out for an instant; there was an evident movement among the
junks; the shouts and hurrahs of the British seamen were redoubled; the
shrieks and cries of the Chinese increased. The mass of junks
surrounding the brig began to break away. Those inside now seemed to be
in the greatest hurry to escape. Mr Cherry's countenance, even in the
heat of battle, looking jovial and rosy, was now seen, as he fought his
way with his boat's crew from deck to deck of the junks, driving their
crews into the sea. No quarter was asked by the desperadoes, and the
British seamen were not much inclined to give any.

The roar of guns was heard. It was the frigate which was now coming up
with a rattling breeze, firing at the flying junks. The pirates made
the most desperate efforts to escape. They cut and slashed away with
their axes in the most frantic manner at the grapnels which they
themselves had thrown on board the brig, and at the ropes which secured
them to each other, and, at length, those who could not free their junks
began cutting their throats, blowing out their brains, jumping
overboard, or disembowelling themselves, while others, in the madness of
their desperation, fired into their magazines, or threw torches into the
holds of their vessels, in the hopes of burning their foes with
themselves. In this last amiable intention they did not succeed as well
as they expected, for as the junks were by this time pretty well
separated, though some blew up and some burned, a great number were
captured by the boats. The frigate now got up to the scene of action,
and her shot as she passed them sank several more of the junks which
might have escaped, and crippled others, which the boats succeeded in
capturing.

Jack and Alick had, meantime, with half a dozen followers, boarded a big
junk, the crew of which made a most desperate resistance. While engaged
in driving the enemy overboard, or otherwise disposing of them, the
midshipmen perceived that the junk, which had all her sails set, had got
free from the brig, and was driving rapidly away from her. They had
very severe work, for when the pirates saw themselves free from the brig