honour of firing one; Ryan, you take another; Lieutenant Marks and Mr.
Haines, you take the other two, and then England and Ireland will be
equally represented."

The deck of the lugger was crowded with men, and the course she was
steering brought her within a length of the _Sea-horse__. Some of the men
were preparing to lower her boats, when suddenly a thick line of red coats
appeared above the bulwarks, two hundred muskets poured in their fire,
while the contents of the four guns swept her deck. The effect of the fire
was tremendous. The deck was in a moment covered with dead and dying men;
half a minute later another volley, fired by the remaining companies,
completed the work of destruction. The halliards of one of the lugger's
sails had been cut by the grape, and the sail now came down with a run to
the deck.

"Down below, all of you," the major shouted, "the fellow behind will rake
us in a minute."

The soldiers ran down to the hold again. A minute later the brig, sailing
across the stern, poured in the fire of her guns one by one. Standing much
lower in the water than her opponent, none of her shot traversed the deck
of the _Sea-horse__, but they carried destruction among the cabins and
fittings of the deck below. As this, however, was entirely deserted, no
one was injured by the shot or flying fragments. The brig then took up her
position three or four hundred yards away, on the quarter of the
_Sea-horse__, and opened a steady fire against her.

To this the barque could make no reply, the fire of the muskets being
wholly ineffective at that distance. The lugger lay helpless alongside the
_Sea-horse__; the survivors of her crew had run below, and dared not