I had just closed the telescope, when Captain Drew came on deck, half-dressed, and rubbing his eyes.

"I heard a hail," he said, "just as I was turning for my second nap. Where is the ship? I would not like to have a British cruiser to windward, though that's just where we must expect them, after all."

"She seems too close in for a cruiser," I replied. "The late northwester has blown the enemy's fleet further east, I should think. Her position is more like that of a merchantman hugging the shore to get in unobserved." Captain Drew, meantime, had taken the glass, and was now engaged in carefully scrutinizing the stranger. At last he laid down the telescope.

"She looks like a merchantman: I can now see part of her hull; and I incline to favour your view the more, as, on the African coast, you were right when we were all wrong."

"Ay, ay, sir!" was the response.

I waved my hand to old Taffrail, who was now at the wheel, and immediately he gave the spokes a vigorous whirl, that sent the gallant Yankee dancing up into the wind. "Helm's a lee," I said.

"Helm's a lee," answered the mate of my watch, and immediately the headsheets were let go.

"Raise tacks and sheets."

Nothing was now heard but the tramp of the men, as they hauled the huge sails to their places, the noise of getting the headyards trimmed, and the various busy sounds incidental to the duty, as the brig filled on the opposite tack.

The wind had now freshened considerably, and as the Yankee bent to its force, the spray from the opposing seas came crackling, thick and fast, over the bow, wetting the deck well, forward. The merchantman was rapidly approaching, looming larger and larger every moment, till, but for the absence of ports in her sides, we should have thought her a fullsized frigate.

Meantime, if the stranger had perceived us, which she must have done, she showed no intention of allowing our presence to interfere with her course. I did not like this feature of the case, for it looked as if the sail was no American. But Captain Drew remarked that she might easily suppose us to be a merchantman, taking the opportunity of the late gale to get out of the Sound.

"Or," said he, "he may think we are what we are. In any event, we shall soon know." As we approached the stranger, grew more uneasy, but apparently without cause; for, now that we could more closely examine him, we saw no evidences of an armament. sides were black, with a white streak, without even the fiction of painted ports, and not a soul could be seen about him, except one or two idle lookouts.

His

"We'll soon overhaul him now," said Captain Drew; "and woe be to him if he should happen to be a British trader, or transport from Jamaica,-eh? That last would be grand, Danforth. We'll make a tack and fetch across his forefoot. Call all hands, to be ready for him, if he should prove a prize."

In a moment the whistle of the boatswain rang through the brig, and the men, who always, as they said, slept with one ear open, came tumbling up, ready for their work. the same instant, I cried

"All ready forward?"

At

had convinced us of her pacific character, fell off, like a huge scale of paint, and we saw twenty frowning ports, with their blood-red mouths, through which gleamed the light of as many battle-lanterns.

Caught, by the eternal!" ejaculated Captain Drew, hissing the oath between his teeth. "It's that frigate they disfigure by covering her ports with a strip of canvass, in order to trap our fast-sailing clippers. I've heard of the trick before."

The enemy, for such he evidently was, now almost overlooked us. A light figure sprang into the mizzen-rigging of the frigate, and hailed authoritatively:

"What ship is that?"

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But, meantime, he turned to me.

"Set the men to their stations," he whispered, as we rounded to under the stern of the frigate, "just as if we were going to make sail, dead into the wind's eye. I'll see that they bustle about the quarter-boat."

We were now rocking upon the waves, under the lee of our huge adversary. As we floated astern, I saw we gradually widened the distance between us, heading to the wind, under the influence of a bit of head-sail which I had left up, as if accidentally. I comprehended at once why Captain Drew had been so little depressed, for I saw the bold manoeuvre he was about to attempt; and, as my duty as officer of the deck called on me to execute it, I immediately whispered it to my subordinates, and had every man, on the instant, alert to spring, at the required whistle, to his post. Meantime, the captain was superintending the launch of the boat, which, by some mischance to the tackle, appeared to stick at the davits.

Fortunately it was comparatively dark, and the enemy could only see that there was some delay, without entirely comprehending its cause. We floated apart so imperceptibly, too, that they did not seem to notice it, though our decks must have become less discernible every minute. Officers and men, meantime, were looking at us over the frigate's sides. At last, the royal captain seemed to lose patience.

The men immediately rushed to their severa posts, near which they had stationed theml selves in advance, at my orders. In a second of time, as it were, the sails, which had been hauled up, fell to their places and were sheeted home; the brig bowed before the breeze, and began to make rapid headway; and before the Englishman could understand our design, we already had the weathergage, and were darting to windward, like a duck upon the wing.

Had the frigate been prepared to throw out her light sails, or had her battery been properly manned, she would, notwithstanding this bold manœuvre, have recaptured us; for she could have crippled us before we got out of range. But she had been under easy canvass all along, and knowing us, from the first, to be so much her inferior, she had opened her ports merely for bravado, and then only on the side opposite to that where we now found ourselves. Whether her men even were at their stations, we never knew; most probably they were not.

As we parted from her, after we were once fairly in motion, the impulse that seized us all was irresistible; and, with one accord, officer and man united in a huzza that made the very welkin ring.

She threw a few shots after us from her stern-chasers, but they did little damage, and we were soon out of range of her guns. She did not long persist in a chase, which every minute she saw to be more useless. Before noon the frigate was hull down on the horizon. "The Flying Dutchman, last night, was the enemy's frigate," I said to Taffrail, the day

by the fog, was clearly what we saw."

"Ah, Mr. Danforth," said the old fellow, still incredulous, "tell that to the horse-marines."

HOPE.

BY J. H. BARLOW.

WHо of us has not watched with almost tear

young brood to prove their new-fledged wings? See her dart to and fro, and wheel about her nest, urging, by suasive chirp and example, her timorous nurslings to essay the boundless element embosoming their birthplace. Such pa

"Tis meet I do prepare me for the shaft

Which puts the close to many victories.

Against my wish I leave ye. I have had

BRUTUS.

Ah! bring them to my sight!

Enter LOCRINE, ALBAN, and CAMBRIA.

LOCRINE (kneeling with the rest). My father!

BRUTUS (reviving).

Ah! Locrine-ah! my sons,

Alban and Cambria, ye are here to see The last fight of your father, and his first

These kingdoms, to a full security,

My valiant men have won. Where's Guendolen?

CORINEIUS.

Within, my Brutus.

BRUTUS.

Let her be nigh, my brother!