ut the attack was not to end here. Reid was too old a sailor to
expect that the British, chagrined as they were by two repulses, were
likely to leave the privateer in peace. He well knew that the
withdrawal of the barges meant not an abandonment, but merely a short
discontinuance, of the attack. Accordingly he gave his crew scarcely
time to rest, before he set them to work getting the schooner in trim
for another battle. The wounded were carried below, and the decks
cleared of splinters and wreckage. The boarding-nettings were patched
up, and hung again in place. "Long Tom" had been knocked off his
carriage by a carronade shot, and had to be remounted; but all was
done quickly, and by morning the vessel was ready for whatever might
be in store for her. The third assault was made soon after daybreak.
Evidently the enemy despaired of his ability to conquer the
privateersmen in a hand-to-hand battle; for this time he moved the
brig "Carnation" up within range, and opened fire upon the schooner.
The man-of-war could fire nine guns at a broadside, while the schooner
could reply with but seven; but "Long Tom" proved the salvation of the
privateer. The heavy twenty-four-pound shots from this gun did so much
damage upon the hull of the brig, that she was forced to draw out of
the action; leaving the victory, for the third time, with the
Americans.

But now Capt. Reid decided that it was folly to longer continue the
conflict. The overwhelming force of the enemy made any thought of
ultimate escape folly. It only remained for the British to move the
seventy-four "Plantagenet" into action to seal the doom of the Yankee
privateer. The gallant defence already made by the Americans had cost
the British nearly three hundred men in killed and wounded; and Reid
now determined to destroy his vessel, and escape to the shore. The
great pivot-gun was accordingly pointed down the main hatch, and two
heavy shots sent crashing through the bottom. Then applying the torch,
to make certain the work of destruction, the privateersmen left the
ship, giving three cheers for the gallant "Gen. Armstrong," as a burst
of flame and a roar told that the flames had reached her magazine.

This gallant action won loud plaudits for Capt. Reid when the news
reached the United States. Certainly no vessel of the regular navy was
ever more bravely or skilfully defended than was the "Gen. Armstrong."
But, besides the credit won for the American arms, Reid had
unkn