To which the irritable Frenchmen would answer, “Ah! Yes! He will be gobbled up like Jonah by the whale. Pouff!”
The French privateer sailed out to meet the foe, and soon her white canvas had disappeared from view around a jutting headland. The stranger ran off. The Frenchman pursued, and soon both were lost to the eager gaze of the population of Malta, which crowded every headland, eager and expectant for the bloody battle. The shore was black with people.
Hours passed. Another day came and with it the news that two vessels had been sighted off the entrance to the harbor. Hundreds rushed to the headlands and cliffs in order to see the victor and the vanquished, for two cruisers were approaching, the one towing the other.
“Huzzah!” shouted an enthusiastic Frenchman. “We have won! See—up go the French colors upon the first vessel. The other—poof—eet ees a jelly. Eet ees pounded to ze shreds.”
“Huzzah!” shouted all of his compatriots, and they danced about, shaking hands, embracing, and waving their hats and their handkerchiefs.
“Ce cher Wright!” cried they. “He ees een the soup, eh?”
And what of the Englishmen?
They—of course—said nothing, but bit their lips, looked at their Austrian friends, and hung their heads dejectedly.
Here is the most beautiful part of all this story, for Fortunatus Wright, my boys, was a joker—a real, true end man in a minstrel show—and he was having his fun with “the Frenchies.” His vessel—indeed—had come off victorious, in spite of the fact that she had been much more shattered than the other contestant. Therefore, Wright had put her in tow of the captured Frenchman, which he, himself, was steering, with the crew of his opponent down in the hold, as prisoners of war.
Seeing the crowded headlands and swarming ramparts in the harbor, he could not resist the temptation of hoisting the flag of France. He chuckled as he saw the effect it produced upon the crowd, then—as the vessels rounded a fort at the entrance to the harbor—down came the colors of France and up went the English flag to the peak, with the French flag below.