the fore-topmast to windward. At this
moment the reserved broadside of the _Aspasia_ was discharged, and the
two frigates heeled over opposite ways, from the violent concussion of
the air in the confined space between them. While yet enveloped in the
smoke, the men flew up on deck, as they had been previously directed by
Captain M---, who leaped upon the quarter-deck hammocks of his own
frigate, and, holding with one hand by the mizen-topmast backstay, with
his sword in the other, waving to encourage his men, waited a second or
two for the closing of the after-parts of the vessels, before he led on
his boarders.

The smoke rolled away through the masts of the French frigate, and
discovered her captain, with equal disregard to his safety, in nearly a
similar position on the hammock rails of his own vessel. The rival
commanders were not six feet apart, when the main-chains of the two
vessels crashed as they came in collision. The French captain drew a
pistol from his belt and levelled it at Captain M---, whose fate
appeared to be certain; when, at the critical moment, a hat, thrown from
the quarter-deck of the _Aspasia_, right into the face of the Frenchman,
blinded him for a minute, and his pistol went off without taking effect.

"Capital shot, that, Willy!" cried McElvina, as he sprang from the
hammocks with his sword, "giving point" in advance, and, while still
darting through the air with the impetus of his spring, passing it
through the body of the French captain, who fell back on his own
quarter-deck, while McElvina, fortunately for himself, dropped into the
chains, for, had he a hundred lives, they would have fallen a sacrifice
to the exasperated Frenchman: but the smugglers had followed McElvina;
and Captain M---, with the rest of his ship's company, were thronging,
like bees, in the rigging, hammocks, and chains of their opponent. From
the destructive fire of the French troops, many an English seaman fell
dead, or, severely wounded, was reserved for a worse fate--that of
falling overboard between the ships, and, at the heave of the sea, being
crushed between their sides. Many a gallant spirit was separated from
its body by this horrid death as the strife continued.

Possession was at length gained of the quarter-deck; but the carnage was
not to cease. The French troops stationed in the boats on the booms,
formed a sort of pyramid, vomiting incessant fire; and the commandant
had had the sagacity to draw