urse to the southward. Of course it was the object of
our admiral to escape if possible; for, fire-eater as he was, he had no
wish to expose his ships to the risk of being surrounded and sunk, as he
knew, well enough might be the case should the French get up with us.

After this we twice tacked, and then we saw the French north division
tack to the southward, when the wind shifted to the northward, and this
enabled that division to weather on us, and the south division to lie
well up for our squadron.

The first division now bore east by north about eight or nine miles, and
the south division south-east, distant about ten miles on our larboard
quarter. Night soon came on, and we could not tell but that before it
was over we might have the French ships close aboard, and thundering
away at us, "Well, if they do come," cried Dick, "we'll give them as
good as we take, although we may have three to fight; but what's the
odds if we work our guns three times as fast as they do?"

To our surprise the watch was piped down as usual, for the admiral knew
better than we did, that the enemy could not be up with us until the
morning while the wind held as it then did.

We slept like tops, not troubling our heads much about the battle we
might have to fight before another day was over, but I doubt whether
many of the officers turned in.

The middle watch got their sleep like the first. After that the
hammocks were piped up, and every preparation made for battle. Two of
our ships, the _Bellerophon_ and _Brunswick_, which were always looked
upon as fast sailers, had, somehow or other, got out of trim, and during
the night had to cut away their anchors and launches, and to start a
portion of their water and provisions. The old "Billy Ruffian,"
however, do all they could, would not move along, and they were
compelled to heave overboard her four poop carronades with their
carriages, and a large quantity of shot. Notwithstanding this, and that
they were carrying every stitch of canvas they could set, we and the
other ships had to shorten sail occasionally to keep in line with them.
It may be supposed that we had been keeping a bright look-out for the
French fleet, and when daylight broke we saw it coming up very fast,
formed in three divisions.

The weather division, consisting of three ships of the line, and five
frigates, was nearly abreast of our ships. In the centre division we
counted five ships of the line and four friga