A message from Minister Dayton was brought off by his son, who with difficulty obtained permission from the French admiral of the district to visit the Kearsarge. He told Captain Winslow that it was his opinion that Captain Semmes would not fight, but admitted that the general opinion in Cherbourg was contrary to his own. On returning to the shore, Mr. Dayton was informed by the admiral that Captain Semmes would go out to the attack the next morning, and he spent a considerable part of the night endeavoring to communicate this intelligence to Captain Winslow, but the vigilance of the Cherbourg police prevented him from accomplishing his object. He stayed in Cherbourg the next day, witnessed the battle from a convenient height, and telegraphed the result to his father in Paris. Meanwhile the coaling of the Alabama was completed. Some of the officers were given a banquet by admiring friends in the town on Saturday night, and the party broke up with a promise to meet again in a similar way to celebrate the victory which none seemed to doubt would soon be theirs. Sunday morning came. The weather was fine, the air slightly hazy and a light westerly breeze rippled the harbor. Sunday was esteemed the Alabama's lucky day. On Sunday Captain Semmes had assumed the command of her and the Confederate ensign first appeared at her mast head. On Sunday many of her most important captures had been made. On Sunday she halted the mighty Ariel, and on Sunday she sunk the Hatteras. It was inevitable that there should grow up between decks a belief that any important enterprise begun on Sunday had the best chance of success. As a factor in the coming contest, a feeling in the minds of the men who were to do the fighting that a lucky day had been pitched upon for the battle, was not to be despised. And so on Sunday, June 19th, 1864, the Alabama sallied forth to meet the Kearsarge. The French iron clad frigate Couronne accompanied her to the three-mile limit in order to make sure that no fighting should take place in French waters. A private English steam yacht, the Deerhound, followed in the wake of the Couronne and took a position affording a good view of the battle, and several French pilot boats did likewise. The taller buildings, the rigging of vessels, the fortifications, and the heights above the town, were lined with people, many of whom had come from the interior and even from Paris to view the extraordinary spectacle. It is said that more than fifteen thousand people had gathered for this purpose. The great majority sympathised with the Alabama, but there was quite a contingent of Union adherents, among whom were the captains of the Tycoon and the Rockingham, with their families and crews, eager that vengeance at last might fall upon the destroyer. CHAPTER XX. BATTLE WITH THE KEARSARGE.