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Oh, if
he could but reach the open sea, and square his yards, and make a long
chase of it; perhaps fall in with aid. Wincing under each heavy blow, he
crept doggedly, patiently on towards that one visible hope.
At last, when the ship was choved with shot, and peppered with grape, the
channel opened; in five minutes more he could put her dead before the
wind.
No! The pirate, on whose side luck had been from the first, got half a
broadside to bear at long musket-shot, killed a midshipman by Dodd's
side, cut away two of the _Agra_'s mizen shrouds, wounded the gaff, and
cut the jib-stay. Down fell that powerful sail into the water, and
dragged across the ship's forefoot, stopping her way to the open sea she
panted for. The mates groaned; the crew cheered stoutly, as British tars
do in any great disaster: the pirates yelled with ferocious triumph, like
the devils they looked.
But most human events, even calamities, have two sides. The _Agra_ being
brought almost to a standstill, the pirate forged ahead against his will,
and the combat took a new and terrible form.


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