ing when the party on
board the _London Merchant_, just as they were sitting down to dinner in
the cabin, heard a noise and bustle on deck. Captain Wilson ran hastily
up, and found that his vessel had been boarded by a French boats crew,
who had beaten down the men and taken possession. As there was no help,
all he could do was to go down to the cabin, and inform his passengers
that they were prisoners. The shock of this intelligence was very
great, as may be supposed, but still there was no useless lamentation or
weeping. One thing is certain, that this news quite spoilt their
appetite for their dinner, which, however, was soon despatched by the
French officer and his men, after the boat had left, and the vessel's
head had been put in an opposite direction.

Captain Wilson, who had returned on deck, came down in about a quarter
of an hour, and informed the party, who were silently brooding over this
sudden change in their prospects, that the wind was very light, and that
he thought the fog was clearing off a little, and that if it did so
before it was dark, he was in great hopes that they should be
recaptured. This intelligence appeared to revive the hopes of Mr and
Mrs Campbell, and they were still more encouraged when they heard the
sounds of guns at no very great distance. In a few minutes afterwards
the cannonading became very furious, and the Frenchmen who were on board
began to show strong signs of uneasiness.

The fact was, that a French squadron, of one sixty-gun ship and two
corvettes, had been on the look-out for the convoy, and had come in
among them during the fog. They had captured and taken possession of
several vessels before they were discovered, but the sixty-gun ship at
last ran very near to the _Portsmouth_, and Alfred, who had the watch,
and was on a sharp look-out, soon perceived through the looming fog,
that she was not one of the convoy. He ran down to acquaint the
captain, and the men were immediately ordered to their quarters, without
beating the drum, or making any noise that might let the enemy know they
were so near. The yards were then braced in, to check the way of the
_Portsmouth_, so that the strange vessel might come up with her.
Silence was kept fore and aft, not a whisper was to be heard; and as the
Frenchmen neared them, they perceived a boat putting off from her to
board another vessel close to them, and also heard the orders given to
the men in the French language. This