Suddenly the "Cease fire!" was sounded aboard the French ship, and Jack, leaving Jamie to the care of a seaman for a moment, clambered up the steep deck to see what had happened.
"They're sending a boat, Mr. Rogers!" he cried. "She'll be alongside in a minute, sir. Shall I hail them?"
"Tell them that if they set a foot aboard my ship I'll fire the powder-magazine and blow the vessel up," cried the first officer fiercely.
The boat came quickly alongside, and an officer hailed them. "Do you strike, messieurs? Do you strike?" he called, in a queer accent, half French, half English. "If so, haul down that ensign, messieurs, if you pleeze!"
Jack leapt into the mizzen shrouds. "Stand off, messieurs!" he shouted. "Come aboard at your peril, and we will blow up the ship!" At these words a panic seized the boarders. Those who were climbing up the side hastily dropped back again into the boat, which quickly pulled off, lest the terrible threat should be carried out.
Then Captain Alexandre, seeing that nothing was to be gained, and that the Duncan was on the point of foundering, sent his chief officer with a second boat offering the highest honours of war. His respect for a gallant enemy was such that he did not even ask them to lower that tattered ensign, which still floated proudly at the mizzen-top, where Jamie had made it fast. The carnage had already been dreadful, and he knew that unless he offered honourable terms, men like these would infinitely prefer to go down with a sinking ship than lower their colours.
The terms offered to the Englishmen were as follows: They were to remain prisoners of war aboard the frigate until she reached Quebec, when the captain would mention their honourable and brave conduct to the Governor, and if he were willing, they should then receive their liberty.
"And what is the alternative?" asked Mr. Rogers.
"The alternative," replied the Frenchman, shrugging his shoulders and looking uneasily around the horizon, as though he half expected to see an English cruiser appear in the distance, "is, that you may take your luck aboard this derelict. But come, gentlemen, make up your minds quickly. The Sapphire must sail within half-an-hour."
The mate cast his eyes around and saw but a helpless wreck, with piles of dead and wounded upon her decks. At that instant the vessel gave a sudden lurch as though preparing to descend into the gulfs, and some one cried--