conclusion that the stranger was aiming to take refuge in Port au
Paix; and, should she succeed in effecting her design, it might prove
difficult if not impossible to capture her. His anxiety to speedily get
alongside her and force her to action accordingly grew almost
momentarily more intense, as also did his acerbity of temper, until at
length he became so nearly unbearable that, had he just then happened to
have been washed overboard, I believe not a single man in the ship--
apart from the officers, that is, of course--would have raised a hand or
joined in any effort to save him.

At noon, however, matters grew a little more tolerable; for it had by
that time become apparent that, unless favoured by some unforeseen
accident, the chase could not possibly escape us. At Jean Rabel the
land begins to trend to the southward and westward, extending in that
direction a distance of some four or five miles, when it bends somewhat
more to the westward, thus forming a shallow bay. It was towards the
bottom of this bay that the chase was now heading; and it speedily
became apparent that, if she would avoid going ashore, there would soon
be only two alternatives open to her; one of which was to go round upon
the starboard tack and make a stretch off the land sufficient to allow
of her fetching Port au Paix on her next board--in which event she would
have to pass us within gun-shot; and the other was to bear up and run to
the southward and westward, when she would have to run the gauntlet of
the whole remaining portion of the squadron; in which case her fate
could only be certain capture. We hoped and believed she would choose
the first of these two alternatives.

We were both nearing the land very rapidly--the chase now only some
three miles ahead of us--and at length Captain Pigot, feeling certain
that the stranger must now very soon heave in stays, ordered our own
people to their stations, resolved to tack simultaneously with the
chase, and thus, by remaining some three miles further in the offing,
retain the advantage of a stronger and truer breeze. Minute after
minute lagged slowly by, however, and still the French ship kept
steadily on, with her bows pointing straight toward the land. Suddenly,
without warning or premonition, her three masts, with all their spread
of canvas, were seen to sway violently over to leeward; and, before any
of us fully realised what was happening, they lay prone in the water
alongside, sna