gust of wind lifted the two flags before the anxious spectators, who
saw that one was a British and the other their own ensign. As soon as
the eager watchers grasped the fact that the red cross of St. George
was beneath the stars and stripes, they broke into spontaneous cheers
of rejoicing. Immediately after, the field-gun on the quarterdeck was
fired, and the report reverberated over the water and across the island
on the one side, and through the streets of the town on the other, with
sufficient volume to call every belated and idle citizen to the
river-front at once.

Immediately after, a small boat was dropped into the water and manned
by four stout seamen, into which two officers rapidly descended,--one
in the uniform of a soldier, and the other in naval attire. When they
reached the wharf at the foot of High Street, they found themselves
confronted by an excited, shouting mass of anxious men, eager to hear
the news they were without doubt bringing.

"It's Lieutenant Seymour!" cried one.

"Yes, he went off in the Ranger about two weeks ago," answered another.

"So he did. I wonder where the Ranger is now?"

"Who is the one next to him?" said a third.

"That's the young Continental from General Washington's staff, who went
with them," answered a fourth voice.

"Back, gentlemen, back!"

"Way for the general commanding the town!"

"Here, men, don't crowd this way on the honorable committee of
Congress!" cried one and another, as a stout, burly, red-faced, honest,
genial-looking man, whose uniform of a general officer could not
disguise his plain farmer-like appearance, attended by two or three
staff-officers and followed by several white-wigged gentlemen of great
dignity, the rich attire and the evident respect in which they were
held proclaiming them the committee of Congress, slowly forced their
way through the crowd.

"Now, sir," cried the general officer to the two men who had stepped
out on the wharf, "what ship is that? We are prepared for good news,
seeing those two flags, and the Lord knows we need it."

"That is the transport Mellish, sir; a prize of the American
Continental ship Ranger, Captain John Paul Jones."

"Hurrah! hurrah!" cried the crowd, which had eagerly pressed near to
hear the news.

"Good, good!" replied the general. "I congratulate you. How is the
Ranger?"

"We left her about one hundred leagues off Cape Sable about a week ago;
she had just sunk the British sloop of wa