“I will not give him up,” answered MacDonough quietly.
“You dare to tell me that? Why you are not even the captain of this vessel, and you dare to say you will not let me have the man?”
“I will answer to it to my captain,” said MacDonough, “and I will not give him up.”
The captain raged and threatened to turn the frigate’s guns against the “Siren” and blow it out of the water.
“You can do it, no doubt, if you choose,” answered MacDonough, “but as long as this boat is afloat I will never give that man up.”
The captain finding he could gain nothing, got into his boat again and had himself rowed over toward the merchant vessel.
MacDonough feared he might try to kidnap another man, so he entered the cutter and followed close after the British boat. The Englishmen rowed about for some time and then finding they could not shake him off they returned to the frigate. Then, and not till then, MacDonough went back to the “Siren.”
The English officers one and all admired MacDonough’s conduct in this affair, and always afterward spoke of him with great admiration.
But it was in the battle of Lake Champlain that MacDonough won his greatest fame.
Our troubles with England had finally ended in a war with her. MacDonough was put in command of the naval forces on Lake Champlain. He was then a little over thirty years old.