st attempt at French I could muster. Then, to my own
people, who were at quarters--

"Stand by, starboard guns! Wait until she rolls toward us. _Now,
fire_!"

Our imposing broadside of three guns rang out at the precise moment when
the brigantine rolled heavily toward us, exposing her deck to our fire;
and I heard the shot go crashing through her bulwarks to the
accompaniment of sundry yells and screams, that told me they had not
been altogether ineffective. Almost at the same instant _three_ of her
guns replied; but their muzzles were so deeply depressed, and she was
just then rolling so heavily toward us, that the shot struck the water
between her and ourselves, and we neither saw nor felt any more of them.
Meanwhile, our square canvas being aback, our antagonist swept rapidly
ahead of us; seeing which, I filled upon the schooner and bore up under
the brigantine's stern, raking with our port broadside as we crossed her
stern, immediately hauling my wind and making a half-board across her
stern again to regain my position upon her weather quarter. Our
starboard guns were by this time reloaded, and we gave her the three of
them, double-shotted, as we recrossed her; and the tremendous clatter,
with the howls and shrieks that followed this discharge, showed that we
had wrought a considerable amount of execution among the Frenchmen.

"There's _something_ gone aboard of him, but what it is I can't make
out," exclaimed Lindsay, who was standing close beside me. "Ah!" he
continued, "I see what it is now; it is her mainboom that we have shot
away. I can see the outer end of it towing overboard. And see, she is
paying off; with the loss of their after-sail they can no longer keep
their luff!"

It was even as Lindsay had said; we had shot away the brigantine's
mainboom, and thus rendered her big, powerful mainsail useless; so that,
despite the lee helm that they were giving her, she was gradually
falling off, until within a minute or two she was nearly dead before the
wind. This placed her almost completely at our mercy, for we were now
enabled to sail to and fro athwart her stern, raking her alternately
with our port and starboard guns, and with our nine-pounder as well,
while she could only reply with two guns which her people had run out
through her stern ports. Still, although disabled, she was by no means
beaten, her plucky crew keeping up a brisk fire upon us from these two
guns until by a lucky broadside we