Swinburne stood up in the stern of the cutter, and looked for a few seconds. "Yes, a large ship standing in under royals--she must be a Frenchman. Now's our time, sir; so long as we don't go out empty-handed, all will be well. Oars all of you. Shall we cast off the launch, sir?" "Yes," replied I, "and now, my lads, let us only have that vessel, and we shall do. She is a merchantman, that's clear (not that I was sure of it), Swinburne, I think it will be better to let her pass us in-shore; they will all be looking out of the other side, for they must have seen the firing." "Well thought of, sir," replied Swinburne. We lay on our oars, and let her pass us, which she did, creeping in at the rate of two miles an hour. We then pulled for her quarter in the three boats, leaving the launch behind us, and boarded. As we premised, the crew were on deck, and all on the other side of the vessel, so anxiously looking at the batteries, which were still firing occasional random shot, that they did not perceive us until we were close to them, and then they had no time to seize their arms. There were several ladies on board: some of the people protected them, others ran below. In two minutes we had possession of her, and had put her head the other way. To our surprise we found that she mounted fourteen guns. One hatch we left open for the ladies, some of whom had fainted, to be taken down below; the others were fastened down by Swinburne. As soon as we had the deck to ourselves, we manned one of the cutters, and sent it for the launch; and as soon as she was made fast alongside, we had time to look about us. The breeze freshened, and, in half-an-hour we were out of gun-shot of all the batteries. I then had the wounded men taken out of the launch, and Swinburne and the other men bound up their wounds, and made them as comfortable as they could. CHAPTER FORTY FIVE. SOME REMARKABLE OCCURRENCES TAKE PLACE IN THE LETTER OF MARQUE--OLD FRIENDS WITH IMPROVED FACES--THE CAPTOR A CAPTIVE; BUT NOT CARRIED AWAY, THOUGH THE CAPTIVE IS, BY THE SHIP'S BOAT--THE WHOLE CHAPTER A MIXTURE OF LOVE, WAR, AND MERCHANDISE.