moment, was almost staggered at the press of sail we were carrying. My
astonishment was, however, of short duration, for when I saw on our bow
the distant lights of the English coast, glimmering like stars on the
horizon, I knew at once that we must overtake the chase directly, or
abandon her altogether. We were already in dangerous proximity to the
enemy’s shores, and every minute lessened the distance betwixt them and
the Fire-Fly. Yet the skipper maintained his course. The chase was a
large brig, running in towards the land with every rag of her canvass
strained to the utmost; while we were endeavoring to get to windward of
her, and thus force her out to sea. It soon became evident that we were
succeeding in our aim. Indeed I had rarely seen the little Fire-Fly do
better. Before fifteen minutes, we were well in on the land side of the
chase, and had every apparent chance of capturing her without the firing
of a shot. Hitherto she had been doggedly silent. But finding now that
we had beat her on the tack she had chosen, and seeing no chance of
escape but in going off dead before the wind, and spreading the pyramid
of light sails in which a brig has always the advantage of a schooner,
she put her helm suddenly down, and, throwing out rag after rag, was
soon seen speeding away through the twilight like a frightened bird upon
the wing. At the same instant she began firing from her signal guns, to
warn the coasters, if any there were, in her vicinity.
“By my faith,” said Westbrook, “she makes noise and flutter enough; one
would think her a wounded gull, screaming as she flew. But her alarm
guns won’t save her. See how our old growler will pick off her fancy
yards—there goes one now!” and, as he spoke, a shot from our long gun
cut away the maintopmast of the brig just by the cap. She fell behind at
once. Another ball or two, sent with unerring aim, was attended with
like success, and before twenty minutes we were ranging alongside of the
chase, with our ports up, our lanterns lighted, the men at the guns, and
everything, in short, prepared to pour in a broadside if the Englishman
did not surrender. We saw her ensign come down as we drew alongside, but
a jack was still left flying at the fore.
“Have you surrendered?” asked the skipper, leaping into the
main-rigging, as we ranged up by the quarter of the foe.
There was a dogged silence of a minute, and the skipper was about waving
his hand as a signal to open our fire, when a voice from the
quarter-deck of the brig answered—
“We’ve hauled down our flag.”
We took possession of the chase, and found her indeed a prize. She was
deeply laden with silks, but we were most pleased with a booty of specie
to the amount of several hundred thousands of dollars. I never saw a
more cowardly set of men than her crew. They had run below hatches, in
spite of all the master could do, almost as soon as we opened our fire
on them; and when we boarded her, there was no one on deck except her
skipper, a surly, obstinate old Englishman, who was doggedly biting off
a piece of pigtail as long as the tiller by which he stood. He told us
that he had spoken, but the day before, several outward bound vessels,
and that nothing was talked of along shore but the Yankee schooner that
was scouring the channel, a craft that, it was whispered, was sailed on
account of Davy Jones, and which it would be as impossible to escape
from as from a _pampero_ off Buenos Ayres. We could not but smile at
this flattering picture of ourselves and craft. The old skipper told us,
in conclusion, that no less than two men-of-war, besides the usual
channel cruisers, had been despatched in pursuit of us, and he even
hinted, coolly turning his quid, that he had little fear of a long
imprisonment, for we would be sure to be caught before twenty-four hours
should elapse.
As it would be impossible to carry off the prize, and as the conflict
had doubtless been heard on shore, the skipper determined to end the
adventure as boldly as he had begun it, and, accordingly, he ordered the
brig to be set on fire, when we should have removed whatever of the
cargo was most valuable and portable. It was accordingly done. When we
filled away to leave the chase, the smoke could just be seen, curling in
light wreaths up her hatchways, but she presented no other evidence of
the ruin that was so soon to overtake her. Her forward sails had been
left standing, and her helm lashed down, and she now lay to beautifully,
drifting bodily off to leeward like a line-of-battle ship. The utter
desertion of her decks, her slow, majestic movements as she rose and
fell, the twilight into which she was gradually fading, and the
glittering line of lights behind her, along the hostile coast,
associated inseparably in our minds with ideas of danger to ourselves,
contributed to form a scene as imposing as it was beautiful, and one
that raised a feeling of interest in our bosoms, tinged in no slight
degree with that awe which always accompanies a sensation of peril.
While we gazed breathlessly, however, on the fast receding brig, dark
clouds of smoke began to puff up her hatchways, and rolling heavily to
leeward, settle on the face of the waters. Directly a forked tongue of
flame shot up into the air, licked around her mast, and then went out as
suddenly as it had appeared. Soon, however, darker masses of smoke
rolled, volume on volume, up the hatchways, and directly, like a flash
of lightning, the fire shot clear and high up from the hold, and
catching to the shrouds, stays, and every portion of the hamper, ran
swiftly across the ship, mounted up the rigging, and licking and
wreathing around the spars, soon enveloped the chase in a pyramid of
flame, which eddied in the breeze, and streamed like a signal banner far
away to leeward. How wild and fantastic, like spirits dancing on the
air, were the attitudes and shapes the fire assumed! Now the flames
would blaze steadily up for a minute; now they would blow apart like
whiffs of smoke; and now they would leap bodily away, in huge and riven
masses, into the dense canopy of smoke to leeward. At times they would
wind spirally around the hamper; again they would taper off far up into
the unfathomable night. On every hand the waves had assumed the hue of
fire. The heavens above were lurid. The crackling and hissing of the
flames could be heard even at our distance from the brig. Millions of
sparks, sent up from the blazing ship, whirled off on the wind, and
showered down to leeward. Occasionally a stray spar fell simmering into
the water. At length the brig fell off from her course, and drifting
broadside on before the wind, came down towards us, rolling so
frightfully as to jerk the flames, as it were, bodily out of her. I was
still gazing spell-bound on the magnificent spectacle, when I heard an
exclamation of surprise over my shoulder, and turning quickly around, I
saw the skipper gazing intently over the burning ship, as if he watched
for something hidden behind her. He saw my movement, and asked,
“Do you not detect a sail to windward, just in the rear of the brig?
Wait till the wind whirls away the fire—there!”
There was no mistaking it. A large man-of-war, to judge by her size and
rig, partially concealed by the brig, was coming down to us, with
studding-sails all spread, and the English cross flying at her main.
“We are already under a press of sail—as much as we can conveniently
spread,” said the skipper, as if musingly, looking aloft; “and the
Englishman will have to give the brig somewhat of a berth. Ah! there
comes the enemy—a frigate, as I live!”
Every one on board had by this time had their attention turned to the
approaching stranger, and now, as she bore away to leave the wreck to
starboard, every eye was fixed on her form. She came gallantly out from
behind her fiery veil, riding gracefully on the long surges, and
seeming, as her white sails reflected back the flames, more like a
spectral than a mortal ship. The momentary admiration with which we
gazed on her, as she emerged into view, soon, however, faded before the
anxious feelings arising out of the extremity of our peril. But there
was nothing to be gained by idle forebodings. The frigate was evidently
gaining on us, and it became necessary to spread every inch of canvass
we had, in order to escape her. Men also were sent aloft, and buckets
whipped up to them, in order that our sails might be kept constantly
wet; the masts were eased, the water started, every useless thing thrown
overboard, and all the exertions which desperate men resort to were
adopted to ensure our escape. After an agitating suspense of five
minutes, we found that we were slowly drawing ahead of the frigate, and
our hopes were still further raised, in a short space afterwards, by the
growing thickness of the fog.
“We are not caught this time yet,” said I to Westbrook, “and now for _la
belle France_.”
“Ay! the skipper’s had enough of such hot quarters as these, I fancy; at
least, after such a haul of specie, he’ll not run any more risks if he
can help it. Depend upon it, we shall be making love to the fair
Parisian _grisettes_ before a fortnight rolls overhead.”
“Not so fast, Mr. Westbrook,” said the old quarter-master, who overheard
us by chance—“do you see that?” and he pointed to a rocket which that
instant shot up from the deck of the frigate, and then arching over in
the sky, broke into a thousand sparkles, which fell shivering to the
water. “If I know anything of such sky-lighters, that bloody Englishman
has a consort somewhere hereabouts—and there he is on our lee-bow, the
varmint.”
We both turned around hastily as he spoke, and, sure enough, a rocket
was seen streaming, comet-like, through the heavens, apparently sent up
from a ship well on our lee-bow.
“By the true cross!” sung out O’Shaughnessy, at this instant, “here’s
another fellow wasting his fire-works to windward. Shure, and, as the
thief said to the hangman when he saw the crowd, we’re beset—ohone!”
I could scarcely contain my laughter, although by this time rockets were
rising into the air on our three sides, with a rapidity which showed
that we had got somewhere into the midst of the channel fleet, and that
the frigate astern was telegraphing to her consorts of our whereabouts.
Our situation was alarming in the extreme. Beset on all sides, we had
scarcely the slightest chance of escape, our only hope, in fact,
consisting in the darkness of the night, and the ignorance of our
position on the part of the men-of-war ahead. For a moment—and it was
the only one of the kind in his life—our skipper seemed to be at fault;
and he stood near the starboard railing, with his teeth firmly clenched
and his brow contracted, gazing vacantly ahead. Suddenly, however, he
turned to the man at the wheel, and ordered him to bear up towards the
sail on our weather bow. He then sent down into his cabin for a
catalogue of the English navy, which we had taken in a prize but a few
days before.
Meanwhile the frigate astern had vanished in the gathering gloom, while
the man-of-war on our lee-bow was yet unseen. The enemy, however, off
our weather cat-head, began to loom faint and shadowy through the fog,
and just as he became distinctly defined against the horizon, we heard
the roll of the drum beating to quarters, and directly beheld in our foe
a heavy frigate, with her ports open and lighted, and a formidable
battery frowning across the gloom. We had by this time edged away so as
to bring the Englishman a point or two on our lee-bow, and now, running
up the British ensign, we bore boldly towards the foe. Every one saw
that a _ruse_ was intended, though in what manner it was to be executed
we were yet in doubt, and more than one of us trembled for the event. A
few moments of breathless suspense brought us up to the Englishman, and
as we passed on opposite tacks, and looked up at his enormous hull, and
his vast batteries overshadowing us, even the stoutest heart felt a
momentary flutter. The captain of the frigate stood in the mizzen
rigging, looking down on our little craft, while our own skipper, with
hat off, gazed up at his enemy from the quarter-deck larboard gun. It
was luckily too dark to see our uniforms from the frigate’s deck.
“What craft is that?” thundered the English captain.
“The Alert, of his Britannic Majesty’s navy—Captain Sasheby,” answered
the skipper. “What frigate have we had the honor of telegraphing?”
“The Achilles—Captain Norton. Come to under our lee. You were in chase;
at least so we understood the lights. What has become of the enemy?—he
was the same one, we suppose, who fired the vessel whose light we saw up
to windward.”
“Ay! the scoundrel was the Yankee schooner, whom the admiralty has sent
us down specially to overhaul. We lost her in the fog, but thought she
had gone down towards you.”
“You’d better keep less away,” said the English captain. “Fill on your
course again. We shall beat up on your late track, lest the Yankee may
have lain to, as the safest way to get off in this fog. If we throw up
three rockets successively, we shall want you to come up towards us. If
we fire two guns, the rascal will be to windward; if one, to leeward.”
“Ay, ay, sir!—fill away again!” and, with a courteous wave of the hand,
the two captains parted company.
During the whole of this colloquy, we had lain to at but a short
distance from the quarter of the foe, and, at any moment, if our
disguise had been penetrated, we could have been sunk by a single
broadside. Accustomed though we were to peril, our hearts beat at this
dangerous proximity, and when at length we filled away on our course,
and gradually lost sight of the frigate, the relief we experienced was
indescribable. We kept away, cracking on every thing we could, and for
nearly an hour our cheat remained undiscovered. At the end of that time,
to judge by the rockets on the windward horizon, the three frigates
learned that they had been outwitted. They doubtless gave us chase, but
we were now clear of the fleet, and, moreover, had some leagues start of
them. Before daylight we had made the French coast, and we were safely
moored, before forty-eight hours, in the harbor of Brest.
* * * * *
OH! A MERRY LIFE DOES A HUNTER LEAD.
BY GEORGE P. MORRIS.
Oh! a merry life does a hunter lead!
He wakes with the dawn of day!
He whistles his dog and mounts his steed,
And scuds to the woods away!
The lightsome tramp of the deer he’ll mark,
As they troop in herds along;
And his rifle startles the tuneful lark
As he warbles his morning song!
Oh! a hunter’s life is the life for me!
That is the life for a man!
Let others sing of the swelling sea;
But match the woods if you can!
Then give me my gun—I’ve an eye to mark
The deer as they bound along!
My steed and my dog, and the cheerful lark
To warble my morning song.
* * * * *
THE WIDOW’S WEALTH.
BY E. CLEMENTINE STEDMAN.
Addressed to my little boy, who, on seeing me weep at pecuniary
misfortunes, brought a silver piece which had been presented to him, and
with tears in his eyes, said—“_Mother, will this do you any good?_”
Nay, keep thy gift my precious boy!
It but a drop would be
From the wide ocean of the wants
That are oppressing me.
But blessings on the tender heart
From whence the offering rose—
Which fain would give its ‘little all,’
To soothe a mother’s woes!
Ah! when I gaze on _thee_ my child,
I feel that wealth is mine;
For gems of the “first water,” are
Those guileless tears of thine.
’Tis thy caress, my blessed one!
The hopes in thee bound up,
That bid my thanks ascend to Heaven
O’er sorrow’s bitter cup.
And shall thy noble soul expand
To manhood’s ripened years?
And will a mother’s sorrow _then_,
Have power to move thy tears?
Then come——and whilst I fold thee here,
My widowed heart is blest;
Nor would I for a fortune sell
The “jewel” on my breast.
* * * * *
FLIRTATION.
BY EMMA C. EMBURY.
“Thy words, whate’er their flattering spell,
Could scarce have thus deceived,
But eyes that acted truth so well,
Were sure to be believed.
’Tis only on thy changeful heart
The blame of falsehood lies.
Love lives in every other part,
But there, alas! he dies.”
“My dear Rosa, how could you be so imprudent as to waltz with young
Sabretash last night?—Colonel Middleton looked excessively annoyed:”
said Mrs. Crafts to her beautiful daughter, as they sat together over
their late breakfast.
“I acknowledge the imprudence of the act, mamma; but, really, I could
not help it. I am heartily wearied of this perpetual restraint,” was the
reply.
“I thought you were too well practised in flirtation, Rosa, to find any
character too difficult for you to play.”
“Oh, it is easy enough to suit the taste of everybody, but terribly
fatiguing to be obliged to play propriety and prudery so long. However,
seven thousand a year is worth some trouble.”
“So, then, you count the lover as nothing?”
“I beg your pardon, mamma; the Colonel is handsome and gentlemanly—_un
peu passé_, it is true, but still a very good-looking appendage to a
fine house and a rich equipage.”
“Well, make the most of your time, Rosa; I told you I could only afford
three winters in town, and this is the last, you know.”
“Don’t be alarmed, mamma; I will never return to our dull country
village again. I will marry anybody before I will bury myself for life
in a stupid country place, and I think Colonel Middleton is rapidly
approaching _Proposition Point_.”
“He may steer another course, if you are not more cautious than you were
last evening. I saw him in close conversation with your cousin Grace
while you were dancing.”
“And so you want to make me jealous of poor cousin Grace! Ha, ha, ha!
that would be too ridiculous—a little pale-faced thing, too timid to
speak above her breath, and with manners as unformed as a school-girl’s!
No, no, mamma, the Colonel is welcome to talk to her as much as he
likes; I am not afraid.”
“But you know his taste for poetry and painting—suppose he should
discover her talents for both?”
“Never fear, mamma; she is too bashful to develop the few attractions
which she possesses. He dotes on music and beauty and graceful manners;
is rather particular in his ideas of elegance in dress, and has many of
those _finikin_ fancies which cousin Grace could never satisfy. Indeed I
mean to make use of her to forward my own views.”
“Well, well, Rosa, I dare say you can manage your own affairs; but, at
the same time, I would advise you to avoid Captain Sabretash.”
“I suppose you think he has never forgiven me for my share in the affair
of his sister; but I can assure you he has quite forgotten it. He is one
of those butterflies of fashion who have no sting.”
“You are mistaken, Rosa; he has as much skill as yourself in acting a
part, and I tell you that he never has and never will forgive you.”
“Why, then, does he haunt me so perpetually in society? Why does he seek
to be my partner in the dance, and my companion on all occasions?”
“I cannot answer that question, Rosa; but I have watched him very
closely, and I believe he means you no good.”
“I am not afraid of him, mamma; he is a charming beau, and his gay wit
is a great relief to me after listening to the grave and somewhat heavy
wisdom of the gallant Colonel.”