“Yes, sir, she certainly did that.  Had she not made sail as you say, nothing could have prevented our getting alongside.”

“Well, then, she ran.  Wind sprung up, enemy made sail—­every attempt to get alongside unsuccessful.  Brave fellows, cheering and doing their utmost.  Not so bad an account, after all, but how about that d—­d felucca?  You see, she is burned to the water’s edge and will go down in a few minutes.”

“Very true, Captain Cuffe, but not a Frenchman entered her while we were there—­”

“Yes, I now see how it was—­threw all hands into the boats in chase, the felucca being too unwieldy and every effort to get alongside unsuccessful.  He’s a devil of a fellow, that Nelson and Bronte; and I had rather hear the thunder of ten thousand tempests than get one of his tempestuous letters.  Well, I think I understand the affair now and shall speak of you all as you deserve.  ’Twas a gallant thing, though it failed.  You deserved success, whatever may have caused you to lose it.”

In this Captain Cuffe was nearer right than in anything else he uttered on the occasion.

CHAPTER X.

     “Oh! ’tis a thought sublime, that man can force
     A path upon the waste, can find a way
     Where all is trackless, and compel the winds,
     Those freest agents of Almighty power,
     To lend them untamed wings, and bear him on
     To distant climes.”

     WARE.

The situation of Ghita Caraccioli, on board the lugger, was of the most unpleasant nature during the fierce struggle we have related.  Fortunately for her, this struggle was very short, Raoul having kept her in profound ignorance of the approach of any danger until the instant le Feu-Follet commenced her fire.  It is true she heard the guns between the felucca and the boats, but this she had been told was an affair in which the privateer had no participation; and the reports sounding distant to one in the cabin, she had been easily deceived.  While the actual conflict was going on, she was on her knees, at the side of her uncle; and the moment it ceased, she appeared on deck, and interposed to save the fugitives in the manner related.

Now, however, the scene was entirely changed.  The lugger had escaped all damage worthy of notice; her decks had not been stained with blood; and her success had been as complete as could be desired.  In addition to these advantages, the result removed all apprehension from the only source of danger that Raoul thought could exist as between his own vessel and the frigate, of a boat-attack in a calm; for men who had just been so roughly handled in an enterprise so well concealed would not be likely to renew the attempt while they still smarted under the influence of the late repulse.  Affairs of this sort exact all the discipline and resolution that a well-regulated service can afford; and are not to be thought of under the temporary demoralization of defeat.  All in the lugger, therefore, considered this collision with the Proserpine at an end, for the moment at least.