the fellow has a quickish pair of heels, he'll very soon cut us off."

While I was speaking, the square-headed sails of the lugger were run up
on her short, stumpy masts. Above them quickly appeared their topsails,
almost as big as the lower sails, and away she came bowling after us, at
a rate which gave us not the slightest hope of escape, if she should
prove an enemy, unless some bigger friend might appear to assist us.

Now we more than ever felt the desertion of the _Nautile_. Had she
remained with us, we two together might have been able to give a very
good account of so small an enemy,--indeed, we should probably not have
been attacked. Our only resource was, however, to put as bold a face on
the matter as we could. The Frenchmen had not yet come on deck, so Mr
Randolph ordered them to be kept down below that they might not make any
signs to the enemy. He took the helm, and ordered us to stand to our
guns. Each of us had a musket by our sides, and he ordered us first to
let fly a volley, and then, without a moment's delay, to fire a
broadside.

We hoped thus to prevent the enemy from discovering the smallness of our
numbers, and we trusted that we might by chance knock away some of his
spars and prevent him from following us. I could not help admiring the
gallant way in which the little craft dashed on towards us. It looked
as if we might have run over her, and sent her to the bottom without the
slightest difficulty.

"Be ready, my men," shouted Mr Randolph, as she got within musket-shot
of us. Leaving the helm, he sprang on the taffrail, and, cap in hand,
waved the lugger off, pointing to his guns as if he was about to fire.

We had meantime hoisted the English ensign to our peak. The lugger paid
not the slightest heed to his signals, but stood on edging up to us.
Again he waved. A musket-ball came whizzing by and very nearly knocked
him over. Had it been sent from a rifle his moments would have been
numbered. I never saw a cooler or braver young man.

"Give it them, then, my lads, and with a will," he shouted. "They
think, perhaps, we are not in earnest."

We each of us took steady aim, and, as the men were exposed on the
decks, we believed that we had knocked several of them over. Some of us
had a couple of muskets, and as we fired one after the other as rapidly
as we could, we hoped that we had given the enemy a respectful idea of
our numbers. Mr Randolph had three muskets, and as soon