“Ha! be the immortal powers, this is startling!”
“What is it?” exclaimed Mabel, looking pale and frightened at seeing the evident agitation of Captain O’Loughlin. “Pray do not hide anything from me, Mr. O’Loughlin. You are reading of some mishap to the Diamond?”
Captain O’Loughlin did look not only anxious, but exceedingly excited; but having once incautiously spoken out, he thought the best plan would be to state the facts. So, taking the paper, he read out a rather startling account of the capture of Sir Sidney Smith, Lieutenant Thornton, and Midshipman Westly Wright, in an attempt to cut out the celebrated privateer, Vengeance, from Havre, besides naming several men, either killed, wounded, or prisoners.
“The Diamond cruised for several days off the coast,” continued the paper; “and the night after the unfortunate capture of Sir Sidney, those on board the frigate saw a vessel on fire in-shore; but before the Diamond could stand in sufficiently to make her out, the vessel must have been run ashore or consumed.”
“Ha!” exclaimed Captain O’Loughlin, after a brief pause, “here is later intelligence, headed, ‘Mysterious intelligence respecting the gallant attempt to cut out the Vengeance from the inner port of Havre.’”
“Two days,” continued the paper, “after the capture of the gallant Sir Sidney, and his equally high spirited officer, Lieutenant Thornton, whose name has already been several times before the public for gallant enterprises and fortunate results, the Diamond frigate seized a small fishing lugger out of Havre, for the purpose of gaining some intelligence of Sir Sidney, his officers, and crew.
“The captain of the lugger was very willing to communicate all he knew; but he said he was mystified himself with respect to the cutting out of the Vengeance, though he was on the spot the whole time; he knew that one officer and a young midshipman were landed at Havre, and marched on with their men to Rouen; he did not know whether there was any other officer left on board the Vengeance, but certainly only the captain and midshipman were landed, for he saw them himself.
“‘Late in the evening,’ continued the Frenchman, ‘Captain Gaudet, the skipper of the Vengeance, his mate, and the crew, came ashore, excepting four or five of the men left to take care of the privateer till their return with powder and shot, there being very little on board. About two hours after their arrival, a gun was fired, which gave the alarm to Captain Gaudet and his mate, and they at once started in their boats for their craft, but the vessel was under weigh, and nearly out of port.
“‘They pursued, and fired into her with muskets, and the fort was alarmed; but the lugger got clear away, and Captain Gaudet returned, cursing and swearing at his ill-luck, but giving no explanation that he heard.
“‘The very next day news arrived in Havre that the Vengeance had run ashore on Lyon Head Point in a sheet of flame, and was nearly consumed to the water’s edge, but not a human being was to be seen by the fishermen, who, as soon as it was daylight, clambered down the cliffs, where her entire hull was visible when the tide receded.