that I had been hit. But on
we swept, the shot flying close over our heads, or just past us on
either side, occasionally striking the water within such near proximity
as to dash a little shower of spray right over the boat, and presently
the musketry bullets came whistling about our ears, yet we remained
unscathed. This opened my eyes, and gave me a juster appreciation than
I had had before of the perils of warfare. I saw that it was by no
means the necessarily deadly thing I had hitherto imagined it to be, and
my courage came back to me, my spirits rising momentarily higher in
response to the increasing excitement of the occasion. For we were now
dashing forward upon our several quarries at racing speed, the men
straining at the oars until the stout ashen staves bent like willow
wands, and the water buzzed and foamed and bubbled, hissing past us in a
regular series of miniature whirlpools, whilst the boats seemed every
now and then as though they were about to be lifted clear out of the
water by the herculean efforts of their panting crews.

Once within musket-shot of the vessels, a very few minutes at this pace
sufficed us to cover the remaining distance, when we dashed alongside--
the first lieutenant ranging up on the brig's starboard quarter, whilst
we in the gig took her in the larboard fore-chains--and a stubborn hand-
to-hand fight immediately commenced. The craft we had attacked proved
to be full of people; and upon our attempting to board, we found that
they had been divided into two distinct parties, one of which was
successfully opposing Mr Reid, whilst the other seemed determined at
all costs to prevent my own little party from gaining a footing upon the
deck. Twice were we forced back into the boat, and I saw that two or
three of the men were bleeding from pike or bullet wounds. A third time
we made the attempt, and as I was scrambling up into the brig's channels
a Frenchman thrust his pike through a port at me. I grasped the weapon,
and partly through my antagonist's efforts to wrench it away again, and
partly with the aid of a friendly push behind from one of our own lads,
I suddenly found myself shot in through the port, and safely landed on
the brig's deck. Springing to my feet in an instant, I laid fiercely
about me with my cutlass, and thus cleared a way for the gig's crew to
follow me. In less than a minute the gigs were in possession of the
fore part of the deck, and so quickly was the thi