"I suppose that the demand was for the three men from the Melampus, was it not?" David inquired.
"No, not altogether," said Haines, "as they were after men from other ships, who were supposed to have joined the Chesapeake while she lay at Hampton Roads. There was one man in particular, who had run away from the British man-of-war Halifax, who met his old captain on the street in Norfolk one day and insulted him. The captain put a spy on the man's track, and claimed that he was on board the Chesapeake at the time of the affair with the Leopard; he was the one the English officers were particularly anxious to get hold of.
"The English lieutenant remained on board the Chesapeake about half an hour, when a signal of recall was hoisted on the Leopard and he returned, carrying the answer of Commodore Barron. As soon as he had gone Commodore Barron sent for Captain Gordon, and told him to get the gun-deck clear, but this work had already been commenced an hour before without reference to the Leopard.
"After giving this order Commodore Barron went on deck to examine the Leopard; he then discovered the state of preparation on board the English ship, and that the latter was in a condition to fight at any moment. The Leopard was lying on the Chesapeake's weather quarter, her guns trained, matches burning, people at their quarters, and everything ready to begin a heavy fire; while the Chesapeake was littered and lumbered, her crew had not yet exercised their guns, and they'd only been mustered at quarters three times altogether. The men were busy coiling away cables and moving some cabin furniture and other things, which were all standing aft, and there was a good deal of baggage on the gun-deck.
"Some of the lieutenants had been suspicious of the movements of the Leopard from the beginning, and were pushing the work of clearing the gun-deck as fast as possible. All the guns were loaded and shotted, but while this was being done it was found that there were not enough rammers, wads, matches, gun-locks, and powder-horns.
"Things were in this way when the Leopard's boat pulled back to her. As soon as her people were out of her she was dropped astern, and almost as soon as the lieutenant reached her deck the Leopard's commander hailed the Chesapeake. Commodore Barron answered that he didn't understand the hail, and it was repeated two or three times. Then the Leopard fired a shot ahead of the Chesapeake; and I don't think it was more than twenty seconds after that shot was fired when she gave us a full broadside."
"Did we fire back with our broadside?" I asked.
"Commodore Barron gave the orders to fire, but there wasn't a gun ready. The gunner had been ordered to fill the powder-horns with priming powder, but when they were wanted it was found that he had neglected to do so. After a while some priming powder was brought, but there were no matches lighted, and the loggerheads were not hot enough. While we were trying to fire one of the guns the Leopard kept pouring broadsides into us, and we couldn't reply, because everything was in confusion."
"Didn't we fire a gun at all? I had an impression we did," I remarked.