"We had to do it, sir."
"You should have begged to go below."
"We did, and were ordered to the guns or to be treated as mutineers."
"I will see what can be done."
"Thank you, sir. We shall be happier fighting for our own flag."
When the first boat was filled the first lieutenant of the Macedonian insultingly asked Lieutenant Allen if he was to lose his baggage.
"We are not privateersmen," answered Allen.
"I do not know what you are," sneered the Englishman.
A powder-monkey on board the Macedonian told the story of the fight so graphically that Decatur sent for him and begged him to recount it once again.