ail was packed on the ship in chase. The stranger, for
some time, did not appear to be aware of our vicinity; indeed, we could
frequently scarcely make her out through the darkness. At length,
however, she discovered that an ugly customer was near her, and lost no
time in setting every stitch of canvas she could carry, and running
directly off before the wind. By this time we had got near enough to
see that she was a ship, and of considerable size.

"That craft carries a good many hands, I suspect, by the smart way in
which she made sail," I heard Mr Willis observe to the captain. "I
should not be surprised if she proves a privateer, or so-called ship of
war belonging to the rebel government. To my mind, we shall do well to
treat all the rascals we find on board such craft as pirates, and trice
them up to their own yard-arms."

"You forget, Mr Willis, that two can play at that game," answered the
captain. "The rebels have pretty well shown that they are in earnest,
and have established a right to respect at all events. I don't think
hanging them will bring them to reason. Let us treat them as open and
gallant enemies, and if we cannot make them fellow-subjects, at all
events we may induce them to become some day our friends again. I
confess to you I am sick of this sort of warfare. We must do our duty,
and take, sink, and destroy all the craft belonging to the misguided
people we find afloat, but there is neither honour nor glory to be
obtained by the work, and as for the profit, I would rather be without
it. Bah! I'm sick of such fratricidal work."

"I can't say that I see things quite in the light that you do, sir,"
said the first lieutenant. "The British Government make laws, and it is
the duty of British people to obey them; and if they don't, it's our
business just now to force them to it."

"Your logic is unanswerable, Willis," replied Captain Hudson, turning
away with a sigh. "There can be no doubt what our duty is, however
painful it may prove."

I believe that many officers thought and felt like my gallant and
kind-hearted captain, and yet not a more loyal man, or a more faithful
subject of his sovereign, ever stepped the deck of a ship of war.

As the first gleam of day appeared from beneath a dark canopy of clouds,
and shone across the leaden water, its light fell on the royals and
topgallant sails of a large ship, with studden sails alow and aloft,
running before the wind directly for the