The guns in the battery now opened fire upon the fleet of boats, and a hailstorm of shot and shell raged round them; so that the French sailors dared not leave the vessel, but crowded below out of the hot fire, preferring to trust to the tender mercies of their captors rather than to the guns of their countrymen.
"Tow her away under one of our own batteries," was the order, given as coolly as though this leaden rain were nothing but a summer shower.
Humphrey sprang to the side, and cut the cable which anchored her to her moorings.

Just at that moment a glow of light through the fog fell across the deck, and looking up he saw a pillar of flame rising from the water close at hand, and casting strange lights and shadows upon the shifting mists which enwrapped them.
"They have fired the Prudent!" exclaimed Julian.

"Now we shall have light for our task; but we shall be a better target for the enemy's fire.

We must lose no time.

Cut loose the second cable; we should be moving.