festoons. At last, directly after
another broadside, down came his spanker gaff, shot away in the jaws,
while the mizen topsail braces shared the same fate. In vain the crew
ran aloft to repair the damage; the ship rapidly fell off, and all
prospect of her fetching up to the harbour was lost, unless by a miracle
the wind should suddenly shift round. The instant the sail came down,
the midshipmen gave vent to their feelings of exultation in a loud "Hip,
hip, hurrah!" in which we could not help joining them, and the crew of
the _Phoebe_, whom we could fancy at the moment doing the same thing.

"Don't be too sure that the _Mignonne_ is taken, however," cried
O'Carroll. "I never saw a faster craft, and see, she is keeping away,
and going to try what her heels can do for her, dead before the wind."

The _Mignonne_, however, could not keep away without being raked by the
_Phoebe_, whose shot, now delivered low, must have told with fearful
effect along her decks. This done, the _Phoebe_ instantly bore up in
chase, and not having lost a spar, though her sails had several
shot-holes through them, rapidly gained on her. The Frenchmen, to give
themselves every chance of escape, were now busily employed in getting
out studden-sail booms, in spite of the shot which went whizzing after
them. In a marvellously short space of time a wide spread of canvas was
exhibited on either side, showing that, though many of her men had
fallen, she had a numerous and well-trained crew.

"They are smart fellows, indeed," I remarked. "Many of them fight with
halters round their necks."

"That makes fellows smart in more senses than one," answered O'Carroll.

The _Phoebe_, of course, had to set her studden-sails, and away the two
ships glided before the freshening breeze. We watched them with
breathless interest. Their speed at first seemed so equal that the
chased had still, it seemed, a chance of escaping.

"Trust to our captain, he'll stick to her till he has made her strike,
or he will chase her round the world," said the two midshipmen, in the
same breath.

The _Mignonne_ was firing away all the time with her stern chasers,
while the frigate was replying from those at her bows. They were both
firing at each other's spars, the one hoping, by crippling her opponent,
to escape, the other to prevent her doing so. What had become of our
guards all this time we had not for a moment thought, while we hoped
that they had equally forgo