The English then wore short round, and were seemingly on the point of going over the same thing, when Mons. Menneval, finding this a losing game, hauled up, firing as his guns bore, and Le Cerf did the same, with her head the other way, destroying everything like concert in their movements.  The English closed, and, in a minute, all four of the ships were enveloped in a common cloud of white smoke.  All we could now see, were the masts, from the trucks down, sometimes as low as the tops, but oftener not lower than the top-sail-yards.  The reports of the guns were quite rapid for a quarter of an hour, after which they became much less frequent, though a hundred pieces of ordnance were still at work behind that cloudy screen.

Several shot flew in our direction; and two actually passed between our masts.  Notwithstanding, so keen was the interest we continued to feel, that the top-sail was again backed, and there we lay, lookers-on, as indifferent to the risks we ran, as if we had been ashore.  Minute passed after minute, until a considerable period had been consumed; yet neither of the combatants became fairly visible to us.  Occasionally a part of a hull pushed itself out of the smoke, or the wind blew the latter aside; but at no time was the curtain sufficiently drawn, to enable us to tell to which nation the vessel thus seen belonged.  The masts had disappeared,—­ not one remaining above the smoke, which had greatly enlarged its circle, however.

In this manner passed an hour.  It was one of the most intensely interesting of my whole life; and to me it seemed a day, so eager was I to ascertain some result.  I had been several times in action, as the reader knows; but, then, the minutes flew:  whereas, now, this combat appeared drawn out to an interminable length.  I have said, an hour thus passed before we could even guess at the probable result.  At the end of that time, the firing entirely ceased.  It had been growing slacker and slacker for the last half-hour, but it now stopped altogether.  The smoke which appeared to be packed on the ocean, began to rise and disperse; and, little by little, the veil rose from before that scene of strife.

The vessel first seen by us was our old acquaintance, the Speedy.  All three of her top-masts were gone; the fore, just below the cross-trees; and the two others near the lower caps.  Her main-yard had lost one yard-arm, and her lower rigging and sides were covered with wreck.  She had her fore-sail, mizen, and fore-stay-sail, and spanker set, which was nearly all the canvass she could show.

Our eyes had barely time to examine the Speedy, ere the dark hull of Le Cerf made its appearance.  This ship had been very roughly treated,—­nothing standing on board her, twenty feet from the deck, but her foremast:  and the head of that was gone, nearly down to the top.  The sea all around her was covered with wreck; and no less than three of her boats were out, picking up men who were adrift on the spars.  She lay about a cable’s-length from the Speedy, and appeared to be desirous of being still farther off, as she had no sooner got her boats up, than she dropped her fore-sail, and stood off dead before it.