surmise likely to prove correct. We may as well be ready for him: a cruiser she certainly is.”

"The sooner the better, Mr. Forster. He's but a rum customer,' and 'a hard hitter' by all accounts. Clear up the decks and beat to quarters."

The strange vessel came down with such rapidity, that, by the time the captain's orders were obeyed, she was not more than two miles distant.

"There's 'in studding-sails ;'-and in devilish good style too!" observed Captain Oughton, "Now we shall see what he 's made of."

The vessel rounded to the wind as soon as she had reduced her sails, on the same tack as the Windsor Castle, displaying her broadside, as the French would say, hérissée de canons.

"A corvette, sir," said Newton, reconnoitring through his glass; "two-and-twenty guns besides her bridle ports. She is French rigged ;the rake of her stern is French; in fact, she is French all over."

"All Lombard Street to a China orange, 'tis

Surcœuf," replied Captain Oughton, who with the rest of the officers had his glass upon the vessel. There goes the tricoloured flag to prove I've won my bet. Answer the challenge. Toss my hat up.-Pshaw! I mean hoist the colours there abaft, Mr. Thomas," continued Captain Oughton, addressing the boatswain, "send the ship's company aft.-Forster, you had better see the ladies down below."

At the summons of the boatswain, the men came aft, and stood in a body on the lee-side of the quarter-deck with their hats off, and impa tience in their looks.

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Now, my lads," said Captain Oughton, “if I am not mistaken, that vessel is commanded by the very best seaman that ever left a French port, and, to do him justice, he's a damnation fine fellow!-a severe punisher, and can take a mauling as well as give one."

"Yes, sir, so can we," replied several of the men together..

"I know you can, my lads; and give and take

is fair play. All I say is, let it be a fair standup fight, and may the best man win.' So now, my lads, if you're ready to come to the scratch, why, the sooner we peel the better-that's all.

Hurrah!" cried the seamen, as they separated to their quarters; and in compliance with the injunctions of the captain, threw off their jackets, and many of them, their shirts, to prepare for the conflict,

The corvette, after she had rounded to, and exchanged colours, reduced her sails to precisely the same canvass as that carried by the Windsor Castle. This was to try her rate of sailing. In a quarter of an hour, her superiority was manifest. She then hauled up her courses, and dropped to her former position on the Windsor Castle's weather-beam.

"The fellow has the heels of us, at all events," observed Captain Oughton; "but, Forster, the ladies are not yet below. Mrs. Enderby, I am sorry to be obliged to put you in confinement for a short time.-Miss Revel, you must do me the

favour to accept of Mr. Forster's convoy below the water-line."

Newton offered his arm to Isabel, and followed Captain Oughton, who escorted Mrs. Enderby. His heart was swelling with such variety of feeling, that he could not at first trust himself to speak. When they had descended the ladder, and were picking their way, stepping over the rammers, spunges, and tackles, stretched across the main-deck, Newton observed-"This is not the first time I have been commissioned to place you in security. I trust I shall again have the pleasure of relieving you from your bondage."

Isabel's lip quivered as she replied, “I trust in God that you may, Mr. Forster!-but-I feel more anxious now than I did on the former occasion.-I-"

"I have a foreboding," interrupted Newton, "that this day's work is to make or mar me! Why, I cannot tell, but I feel more confident than the chances would warrant; but farewell, Isabel God bless you!"-and Newton, pressing

her hand, sprung up the ladder to his station on the quarter-deck.

I have before observed that a man's courage much depends upon his worldly means or prospects. A man who has much to lose, whatever the property may consist of, will be less inclined to fight than another whose whole capital consists of a "light heart and a thin pair of breeches." Upon the same reasoning, a man in love will not be inclined to fight as another. Death then cuts off the sweetest prospect in existence. Lord St. Vincent used to say that a married man was dd for the service. Now, (bating the honey-moon,) I do not agree with his lordship. A man in love may be inclined to play the Mark Antony; but a married man, what will, he has been blessed." Once fairly into action, it then is of little consequence whether a man is a bachelor, or married, or in love; the all-absorbing occupation of killing your fellow creatures makes you for the time forget whether you are a beggar or a prince.

"come