University of Virginia Library

8. CHAPTER VIII.
THE FLIGHT.

`You will hoist your colors again, Captain,' was the command of the young
privateersman as he placed his foot upon the deck.

The Captain of the prize ship stared at his youthful visitor for a moment
with surprise and then replied—

`I have struck, sir, to the corvette, and I do not wish to have another broadside
into me, which I should be sure to have if I obeyed your order.'

`Do not fear, my good sir, `answered Freemantle with a smile. `I will, if
you please, take the responsibility upon myself.'

And going aft he seized the ensign halyards on which the American flag
was still bent, and the next instant the striped bunting was gaily fluttering in
the air on its ascent to its former place at the peak. The Captain of the merchantman
looked at this bold act with astonishment and visible alarm. Freemantle
made the halyards fast, and then turning to him said cooly—

`My good Captain will you give the order to brace round and fill away
again.'

`With the greatest pleasure in the world, my fine fellow,' answered Captain
Niles, catching something of his spirit. `I never lowered a flag with more
reluctance, nor saw it go up again with more fear; but I will save my ship if I
can.'

`You can do it. The corvette lies at the mercy of my schooner's sixty-four
pounder if she dares to fire, and besides she has as much as she can do to look
after herself and get safely off again into blue water.'

`Square away the yards,' shouted the American in a loud, cheery tone.

The men sprung with alacrity to the lifts and braces, and the heavy main
yard, with the three sails above it, swung round to their place all together, and
the pilot of the privateer taking his post at the helm by Freemantle's order, in
a minute or two more, the ship was again in motion standing towards the entrance
of the inner channel in the direction of her port.

The Captain could not help keeping a wary eye fixed upon his enemy, the
corvette, from whom he was escaping, under the supervision of the daring
young privateersman, each moment looking to see the flash of a dozen cannon
issue from her ports.

`You watch her closely, Captain,' said Freemantle placing himself by his

side. `But if you take your glass you will see that her ports are down.'

`True! I did not see that.'

`They closed them to make sure that I would not let my Long Tom trouble
them while they are getting off. Be assured, worthy Captain Niles, that the
commander of that corvette is far more anxious to escape than you are. He
would give a thousand pounds had he Boston light bearing west by north five
leagues.'

`You are a remarkable young man,' ejaculated the Captain, looking him
full in the face. `Is it possible you are the commander of the schooner that
has acted so noble a part to save my ship.'

`I have but done my duty. You have sailed and manœuvred your vessel well,
Captain, or I could not have been of the service I have proved to you.'

`You have saved my ship.'

`I meant to do so,' answered the young sailor in a very positive tone.

`And, sir, that you have been successful I have now no further doubts,' said
Mr. Forrest, who was standing by surveying in silence the youthful appearance,
and yet bold, determined air of their deliverer. The corvette is standing
seaward with the best of her ability. You are a brave man and permit me
to grasp you hand. You have done what was never done before, and which
no other man but you would have thought of doing. As owner in part of this
ship and possessor of no little amount of treasure on board, allow me, my
young Captain, to thank you sincerely for your perseverance and the good result
it has brought to all. By and by you shall have more tangible assurance
of my gratitude.'

`You are very kind,' answered the privateer captain, modestly. I have done
nothing worthy of praise, for the result has shown, I have done only what I
had the power to do.'

`Your vessel is a privateer?' asked or rather remarked Mr. Forrest after a
moment's silence.

`Yes, sir.'

`She has received some damage. I wish her to be repaired at my expense
in port, and it is my wish to give to each of your men fifty dollars, and to each
officer one hundred, in token of my appreciation of their services.'

`I have more than a hundred men, and when they learn this, sir, they will
all be likely to report themselves as officers. You know how democratic privateers
are, sir,' said Freemantle, laughing.'

`From what your pilot says, sir, and from what I have seen of you and
the manœuvering of your vessel,' said Captain Niles, with a shrug of the
shoulder, `I don't think there is much democracy in your craft. I expect that
every man aboard of her knows who's captain.'

`Are your telegraphic signals on deck?' abruptly asked the young sailor
without making any reply.

`Yes, sir.'

`Allow me to make use of them to communicate with my schooner.'

`Sir you are master of this ship and all on board, and glad am I that it is

to you I say it, instead of to John Bull, yonder. He is fairly taking himself
off! Well, if I ever expected to see Boston again without paying England a
visit and trying Dartmoor beef and bread for a twelvemonth. You are a devilish
brave fellow and I only wish I was King of England five minutes that I
might make an admiral of you.'

Freemantle went aft and arranging his signals sent them to the mast head.

`Quick Mary, child and examine the signal-book and tell me what it is,'
said Colonel I lood to his daughter, who, after being a while below, had been
driven by her anxiety once more to join her father and brother in the cupola,

`What are the colors, sir?' she asked of her father, who had been watching
the progress of things on the water, his glass at his eye, with unflagging interest,
at times not a little mystified by the proceedings he had beheld from a
distance, seeing with less advantage than we who have been taken immediately
on board the several vessels and shared in the events as they were occurring.

The colors are red, blue and white, with a red square.'

`It is `stand on after the enemy!' '

`There is another flying—the former being taken down. The colors are
white, red, blue, blue. How do they read?'

`Follow her off soundings and then tack for port!'

`Is it possible the corvette is fairly driven away from her prey, and by a little
schooner!' exclaimed Colonel Hood.

`She is really retreating and the schooner is following not half a mile
stren,' said Henry. `The schooner has signals flying. I will make them out,
sister. They read,

`Shall I fire? Look at the answering signal, Mary, as you have the glass.

Mary, was, however, trying to make out, not signals, but the form of her
truant lover for whom she was in the greatest apprehension, though she strove
to conceal it from her father.

`It is blue!'

`The answer is `no!' '

`Then there is a truce really made between the belligerents,' said Colonel
Hood. `I was right in my conjecture that the privateersman offered to cease
firing if he would, after his masts went overboard, and make no further attempts
upon the merchant-man. And see how bravely the merchant-man is
standing towards her port. She is full a mile from where she lay to, and the
wind is fair for her to make her port. Now if I had a boat and rowers, Henry
I would like to pull on board and congratulate her captain and shake hands
with the gallant privateersman, who from the signalizing must have been in
the flag boat which boarded her! I have the strongest impression that my
friend Foster Forrest is on board a passenger.'

`I trust if so, that he may have escaped unharmed,' said Henry.

`And Clara! poor Clara,' added Miss Hood with emotion, and her heart
added, `poor Hebert! rash and cruel Hebert to give me so much pain! I know
that I love you more than you deserve, and I feel that you do not appreciate my

deep attachment to you with that noble consideration for mydevotion to you which
I look for! I know you are not worthy, but my heart will not let my judgment
rule!'

The ship was now standing bravely on towards the point which she had
been so zealously striving to reach when chased by the corvette; the latter
was stretching seaward between the islands on the larbord tack the way she
had come, under her head sails braced up, a stay-sail and a sort of driver made
of a topsail hoisted upon a spare topmast stepped and fidded firmly into the
cavity in the deck which once held the mizzen mast. Under this odd show of
canvass the late victorious Englishman was making the best of his way towards
the nighest port of the provinces. The schooner was sailing to windward of
him and a little more than half a mile astern, under shortened sail to keep from
oversailing her,her foresail being furled,her fore-course clued up, her jib-hauled
down,and running under her heavy mainsail,her large and square fore-topsail and
topgallant-sail only. With her black hull crouching low upon the water, her
tall raking masts and her large yards and breadth of canvass, she presented to
the eye a very beautiful nautical object, at once picturesque and menacing.

To the north were seen a very large schooner and a schooner-brig, standing
E. S. E. close hauled, as if with the intention of cutting off the corvette. The
whole scene seaward, therefore, was singularly lively and replete with interest;
and with the numerous islands of green verdure girding the bay, the bold
promontary to the left of the villa, and the shores and eminences black with
the masses of country-people, who had gathered on every eminence in sight of
the bay to witness the combat and chase, the view, altogether, afforded to those
who were spectators in the cupola, was both novel and imposing, and one long
to be remembered.

While their eyes were directed with most interest towards the escaped
merchantman, to their surprise they saw her suddenly come to the wind, lay
her main-topsail to the mast and become stationary.