“I say, Toby, if, like the boatswain’s acquaintance, you get my head on your shoulders, be honest; don’t go and pass yourself off for me,” I observed.
“Lor, Muster Merry, I wouldn’t so for to go to forget myself,” he answered.
His tone, more than the words, made me burst into a fit of laughter.
“You garçon not laugh long,” observed the captain, as he hurried aft to take a look at the compass. “You merry now, you cry soon.”
“I’ll laugh while I can; it’s my nature to be merry, captain,” I answered, determined to appear as brave as possible. “But I say, captain, what does that big ship want you to do?”
“Ah you von little rogue,” he answered, less angrily than I might have expected; “you go below, or you get head knock off.”
“Thank you,” said I. “But I may have to go lower than I like if I do, so I would rather stay on deck, and see what is going forward.”
The captain merely answered “Bah,” as if he had too much to think of just then to trouble himself about us, and issued some orders to his crew. Two long guns were immediately cast loose and pointed at the frigate. “They can’t hope to contend with her,” I observed to Bluff. But they did though, and began blazing away in right good earnest. They fired high, for their object was to wing her. If they could have knocked some of her spars away they would have had a better chance of escaping.
The lugger was evidently a very fast craft, and held her own wonderfully. This was soon perceived on board the frigate, which began to fire more rapidly than before. Captain Collyer had not spared powder and shot, and, since we left port, the men had been every day exercised at the guns. The result was now apparent by the number of shot which passed through the sails of the lugger, or struck her. Still the Frenchmen seemed in no way inclined to yield. The captain stood aft, issuing his orders with the greatest coolness. His officers were much less collected, and kept running about with ropes in their hands, frequently striking the men if they flinched from their guns. The lugger, which was really a very powerful vessel, of some two hundred and fifty tons, tore through the seas, which came in cataracts over her bows, deluging her fore and aft.
I was glad that Toby and I were near the companion-hatch, that we might hold on tight to it. The scene was stirring in the extreme; rather more than was pleasant indeed. I did not like the state of things, and Toby’s teeth began to chatter in his head. It was very dark. The wind roared through the rigging; the sails, extended to the utmost, would, I thought, burst from the bolt-ropes, or carry the stout mast out of the vessel. The lugger heeled over till the men at the guns were up to their knees in water, and at last they could only fire as she rolled to windward. It must be remembered that the frigate was to leeward. Though she sailed faster than the lugger, the latter was weathering on her. My knowledge of seamanship scarcely enabled me to form a correct judgment as to the Frenchman’s chance of escape, but still I did not fancy that anything could run away from the Doris,—our frigate,—which, I was fully persuaded, was the perfection of naval architecture, and everything a ship should be. The Frenchmen were all this time wonderfully silent, except when a shot whistled past their ears or struck the vessel, and then they gave way to volleys of oaths and execrations, the meaning of which, however, I did not understand. They appeared very resolute, and I thought fully expected to escape.