“Ay, ay, Sir.—­Bear a hand, and turn the glass!” muttered the young man.  “A fine night, Sir, and very smooth water.—­I was just thinking of——­”

“Home and thy mother!  ’Tis the way with us all in youth.  Well, we have now something else to occupy the thoughts.  Muster all the gentlemen, here, on the quarter-deck, Sir.”

“When the half-sleeping midshipman quitted his captain to obey this order, the latter drew near the spot where Trysail still lay in an unquiet sleep.  A light touch of a single finger was sufficient to raise the master on his feet.  The first look of the veteran tar was aloft, the second at the heavens, and the last at his captain.

“I fear thy wound stiffens, and that the night air has added to the pain?” observed the latter, speaking in a kind and considerate tone.

“The wounded spar cannot be trusted like a sound stick, Captain Ludlow; but as I am no foot-soldier on a march, the duty of the ship may go on without my calling for a horse.”

“I rejoice in thy cheerful spirit, my old friend, for here is serious work likely to fall upon our hands.  The Frenchmen are in their boats, and we shall shortly be brought to close quarters, or prognostics are false.”

“Boats!” repeated the master.  “I had rather it were under our canvas, with a stiff breeze!  The play of this ship is a lively foot, and a touching leech but, when, it comes to boats, a marine is nearly as good a man as a quarter-master!”

“We must take fortune as it offers.—­Here is our council!—­It is composed of young heads, but of hearts that might do credit to gray hairs.”

Ludlow joined the little group of officers that was by this time assembled near the capstan.  Here, in a few words, he explained the reason why he had summoned them from their sleep.  When each of the youths understood his orders, and the nature of the new danger that threatened the ship, they separated, and began to enter with activity, but in guarded silence, on the necessary preparations.  The sound of footsteps awoke a dozen of the older seamen, who immediately joined their officers.

Half an hour passed like a moment, in such an occupation.  At the end of that time, Ludlow deemed his ship ready.  The two forward guns had been run in, and the shot having been drawn, their places were supplied with double charges of grape and canister.  Several Swivels, a species of armament much used in that age, were loaded to the muzzles, and placed in situations to rake the deck, while the fore-top was plentifully stored with arms and ammunition.  The matches were prepared, and then the whole of the crew was mustered, by a particular call of each man.  Five minutes sufficed to issue the necessary orders, and to see each post occupied.  After this, the low hum ceased in the ship, and the silence again became so deep and general, that the wash of the receding surf was nearly as audible as the plunge of the wave on the sands.