"One evening, several privateer captains were dining together. There was a leg of mutton for dinner, and a discussion arose as to whether French mutton was superior or inferior to English. Fourmentin said the only way to decide the question was to have the two kinds on the table; they had French mutton, they only wanted a specimen of the English mutton--he would go and fetch it. Forthwith he proceeded to the harbour, and, according to his custom, summoned his crew by beating with a hammer on the bottom of a saucepan. Making sail, he landed in the middle of the night on the English coast, seized a customs station, and bound the officers, except six, whom he directed, pistol in hand, to conduct him to the nearest sheep-fold. Choosing the six finest sheep in the flock, he made the six customs officers shoulder them and take them on board his vessel. He gave his six involuntary porters a bottle of rum by way of reward for their trouble, and straightway made sail for France. He had left on the flood-tide--he returned on it, with the required sheep, which he and his colleagues were thus able to appreciate and compare with the others." A very good family story, and probably quite as true as many another! These Frenchmen of whom we have been discoursing were certainly fine seamen, and intrepid fighters; they had, no doubt, the faults common to privateers, but they were able and formidable foes, and left their mark in history. CONCERNING THE FRONTISPIECE On July 27th, 1801, capture was made of a remarkable vessel. There was no fighting, but the ship herself excited a good deal of interest at the time. We learn from the captain's log of the British frigate _Immortalité_ that, in the small hours of the morning, a large ship was observed, and sail was made in chase. At daylight the chase proved to be a four-masted vessel, fully rigged upon each mast--a common enough object nowadays, but then almost unique. This was the French privateer _Invention_, a ship built under the special supervision of the man who commanded her--M. Thibaut. She was brand-new, having sailed upon her first voyage only eight days previously, and had already eluded one of our frigates by superior speed. She was probably a very fast vessel, and might quite possibly have outsailed the _Immortalité_; but, very unhappily for Captain Thibaut, another British frigate, the _Arethusa_, Captain W. Wolley, appeared right in her path. Thus beset, Thibaut's case was hopeless, and so the _Invention's_ very brief career as a privateer came to an end, the _Immortalité_--commanded by Captain Henry Hotham--taking possession at eight o'clock. Captain Wolley, as senior officer, reported the circumstances to the Admiralty: