breeze came; the order was given to trim sails. Never did
men fly to their stations with more alacrity.

The days were long, and as night came down at last on the world of
waters, we could hear the firing more distinctly than ever, but still we
could not see the flashes of the guns.

Next morning a sail was sighted to the south-east. She was standing
towards us, but alone.

"She may be the _Venus_, or she may be an enemy which has captured her,
and is now coming on to fight us," I observed to Dick Hagger.

He laughed heartily. "No, no, Will," he answered. "Depend upon it, the
_Venus_, if she is taken, which I don't believe, would have too much
knocked about an enemy to leave her any stomach for fighting another
English ship."

"But suppose she is not the ship with which the _Venus_ engaged, but a
fresh frigate standing out to fight us."

"I only hope she may be; we'll soon show her that slip has caught a
Tartar. Depend on't, we'll not part company till we've taken her."

The matter was soon set at rest, when, the stranger nearing us, we
observed her crippled state, and recognised her as our consort.

"She's had a pretty tough fight of it," said Hagger as we gazed at her.
Her fore-topgallant main and cross-jack yard were shot away, her yards,
rigging, and sails sadly cut up, but what injuries her hull had received
we could not make out.

On closing with each other, both ships hove-to, and our third
lieutenant, Mr Pellowe, whose name curiously enough was very like that
of our captain (we used to call the one the Owe, the other the Ew), went
on board, accompanied by Commander Israel Pellew. I was one of the
boat's crew. We found, on getting up to her, that no small number of
shot had struck her hull, some going through her sides, others her
bulwarks, besides which she had received other damages.

Her people told us that they had had an action, which had lasted the
best part of three hours, with a French frigate of forty guns, the
_Semillante_; and that, though they had suffered sharply, the Frenchman
had been much more knocked about.

After engaging her for two hours, they had got up to within half a
cable's length of her, when, trimming their sails as well as they were
able, they ranged up alongside with double-shotted guns and gave her a
broadside.

Having shot ahead, they were going about to repeat their fire, when they
discovered to leeward a large ship under French colours. The
_Semillante_, rec