After escaping from the British fleet, as I have just described, the Constitution went into Boston to refit, and sailed from there on the second of August, in the hope of falling in with some one of the English war-ships that were cruising along the coast between Halifax and Nantucket. Captain Hull, her commander, was particularly anxious to fall in with the Guerrière and fight her single-handed; but it was not his fortune to meet her or any other British war-ship between Boston and the Bay of Fundy. Then Captain Hull cruised eastward, capturing a few merchant vessels, and then turned to the south. On the 19th of August his spirits were cheered by the report of a sail in sight; and he immediately gave chase in her direction. She was soon made out to be a frigate, and the chances were largely in favor of her being British. She showed a willingness to meet the Constitution, and the captain ordered the decks cleared and everything made ready for a fight. The stranger hung out British colors, and was at length made out to be the Guerrière, the very ship that Hull was looking for. The ships maneuvered for nearly an hour, the Englishman endeavoring to get in a position to rake the American, and at the same time avoid being raked himself. Both ships dodged about for a good while, and it was six o'clock in the evening before they got fairly together. CHAPTER XVIII. DESTRUCTION OF THE GUERRIÈRE BY THE CONSTITUTION.--CAPTAIN HULL'S WAGER.--HOW I TRICKED A BRITISH CAPTAIN.--DAVID'S RUSE.--FORTUNE FROWNS. Both of them kept firing, but doing little damage, as they began when they were out of effective range of each other's guns. But as they drew nearer, Hull endeavoring to lay his ship alongside of the Guerrière, the shots of the latter began to tell, the Constitution being struck several times. Hull gave orders to withhold his fire, and he held it so long that Lieutenant Morris, his second in command, came and asked permission to begin. As he did so, the bows of the American ship were opposite the quarter of the Englishman. Hull answered, "Not yet," to the request of Lieutenant Morris. The ships drew nearer and nearer to each other, and Morris repeated his request. "Not yet," said Hull again very quietly. When the Constitution had reached a point where his whole broadside could take effect, Hull, who had been walking the quarter-deck rather silently, suddenly bent himself twice to the deck, and shouted, "Now, boys, pour it into them!"