He sang his boast over his grog; but he was mistaken. Captain Wickes, after a brief cruise in the Bay of Biscay, sailed north to intercept a fleet loaded with linen on the Irish coast. He missed the linen ships, but he sailed twice around Ireland, and captured fifteen prizes, which were sent into port. On coming back to the French coast the little fleet fell in with a British ship of the line--a big three-decker--that at once gave chase. The three Americans separated, and the Englishman followed the flagship _Reprisal_. That was a close call for the _Reprisal_. Her crew at the last felt so hard pressed that they threw their guns overboard to lighten her, and “sawed her bulwarks and even cut away some of her timbers; expedients that were much in favor among the seamen of the day.” She arrived safely at the last, but the sawing of her timbers was a mortal wound, as will appear further on. Not in years had the British commerce received such a blow, although this was only a trifle to what followed. A storm was raised in France by the British agents. The two countries were nominally at peace, and the French king was not yet ready for war. So the _Reprisal_ and the _Lexington_ were ordered to leave France, “while the prizes were ordered to leave port.” As to the prizes, they were taken out of port and sold as others had been sold. The _Reprisal_ sailed for America, but in a storm off the banks of Newfoundland she foundered, no doubt because her frames had been weakened by the sawing when she was fleeing before the British ship of the line. One man, the cook, was picked from the wreckage by a passing vessel. [Illustration: _Engraved by Ridley from a Miniature by Tho^s. Langdon._ IOHN BAZELY _ESQ^R._ _Vice Admiral._ of the Red Squadron]