“I asked that question.  He was doing well when my friend left.  Somehow or another no vital part was injured, and he has had many presents made him for his gallant conduct, and the sergeant was well rewarded also.  Well, my pipe’s out, and it’s not far from midnight; I should think we may just as well try for a little sleep, Tom, for perhaps we may not get any for some time to come.”

Bramble coiled himself up under the bulwark, I did the same; and in a few minutes we both had forgotten whether we were in our beds at our house at Deal or prisoners bound for the French coast.

At daylight the next morning Bramble roused me up.

“Here we are now, Tom! here’s the French coast not four leagues from us; but it’s hazy, and I cannot make it out very clear; however, the sun will soon drive all this away, and we shall have a fine day; but the wind has gone down, and I think we shall have still less of it.”

And so it proved; for, as the sun rose, the wind became very light, so that we did not go through the water more than three knots.  We were looking at the coast, when the report of a gun saluted our ears.  It was from the privateer.  We turned to that quarter, and found that there was a cutter about two miles from the privateer, crowding all sail toward us.

“Tom!” cried Bramble, “there’s a chance for us yet—­that’s an English privateer, and she will try to retake us for the sake of the salvage.  But here’s a boat coming from the Frenchman—­what can that be for?”

The boat rowed alongside of us, and out jumped the captain of the French privateer with twenty of his best men, and the boat was then dropped astern.

The Frenchman immediately cast loose the guns, went down for the powder, and prepared for action.

“I see, Tom,” said Bramble, “he’s a clever fellow, this skipper.  He knows that this ship and cargo is worth a dozen of his little privateer, and his object is to get her in—­so he’s come with all his best men on board of us, leaving his first officer to make the best fight with the privateer that he can.  Well, he’s right; and if it wasn’t that I don’t like to go to prison, I wish he may succeed, for he has got sense as well as courage, I think.”

The ship was now kept away two points more, that she might go through the water as fast as she could; and in the meantime the action commenced between the English cutter and the French privateer, the latter evidently attempting to cripple the masts and rigging of the former.  The cutter, however, steered right for us, and evidently came up fast; the French privateer, weak-handed as she must have been, behaved very well, throwing herself across the cutter’s bows, and doing everything she could to prevent her coming up with us.  Both vessels were very much cut up before the cutter came within three cables’ lengths of us, when the French captain ordered French colors to be hoisted, and, rounding to, poured in a well-directed