oard us. This suited my plans to a nicety; so
we filled upon the schooner and followed the ship closely, luffing up
for her lee quarter as we did so; and so well had everything worked with
us that I believe none of the Frenchmen had the slightest suspicion that
anything was wrong until we had actually run them aboard and thrown our
grappling-irons. Then the excitement was even more distracting than
before, everybody crying out at once; officers and men vying with each
other in giving the most contradictory orders, and nobody dreaming of
obeying any single one of them. The surprise was complete; and when our
lads followed me over the ship's bulwarks, with drawn cutlasses, we
found as our opponents only a shouting, shrieking, gesticulating mob,
who reviled us for our perfidious mode of fighting in one breath, and in
the next passionately conjured us not to overlook the fact that they
surrendered. It was as amusing a bit of business as I had been engaged
in for many a day.

We lost no time in securing our prisoners--who were only some forty in
number--and then I turned my attention to the ship, which I ascertained
to be the _Caribbean_, of London, of twelve hundred and forty-three tons
register, laden with sugar and rum. She was therefore a valuable
recapture. She carried thirty-two passengers, and by great good luck
her own British crew was also on board. It was not necessary,
therefore, for me to weaken my own force by putting a prize crew on
board her; my chief mate being quite sufficient to represent and watch
over the interests of the _Sword Fish_ and her owners. The individual
who had been put on board her as prize-master, when she was captured by
Monsieur Villeneuve's fleet, happened to be a very talkative fellow, and
accordingly I had not much difficulty in extracting from him the
information that it had been rumoured through the fleet that the
suddenness of Monsieur Villeneuve's departure from the West Indies was
due to intelligence that Lord Nelson was in pursuit. This statement, if
true, exactly bore out my theory; and a little more judicious
questioning enabled me to ascertain that it had further been stated
that, at the time of departure from Martinique, the British fleet was
believed to be not more than four days' sail distant. I thus obtained
something in the shape of a clue as to the direction in which my further
search ought to be prosecuted; and accordingly hauled up to the
southward, close-haul