One of the skippers insisted that she was the _Hornet_,
from the unusual shortness of her lower masts, and the immense
squareness of her yards. But the puzzle was, if it were the _Hornet_,
why she did not shorten sail. Still this might be accounted for, by
her either wishing to make out what we were before she engaged us, or
she might be clearing for action. At this moment a whole cloud of
studdingsails were blown from the yards as if the booms had been
carrots; and to prove that the chase was keeping a bright look-out, she
immediately kept away, and finally bore up dead before the wind, under
the impression, no doubt, that she would draw ahead of us, from her
gear being entire, before we could rig out our light sails again.
And so she did for a time, but at length we got within gunshot. The
American masters were now ordered below, the hatches were clapped on,
and the word passed to see all clear. Our shot was by this time flying
over and over her, and it was evident she was not a man-of-war. We
peppered away--she could not even be a privateer; we were close under
her lee quarter, and yet she had never fired a shot; and her large
swaggering Yankee ensign was now run up to the peak, only to be hauled
down the next moment.
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