Rinaldo pushed down the helm, and a minute later the Pluto ran alongside the other vessel.

Half a dozen hands, told off for the work, sprang into her rigging, and lashed the vessels together; while Francis, followed by the crew, climbed the bulwarks and sprang on to the deck of the enemy.
Scarce a blow was struck.

The Genoese, astonished at this sudden apparition of armed men on their deck, and being entirely unarmed and unprepared, either ran down below or shouted they surrendered, and in two minutes the Venetians were masters of the vessel.
"Back to the Pluto," Francis shouted.

"The vessels will tear their sides out!" Almost as suddenly as they had invaded the decks of the galley, the Venetians regained their own vessel, leaving the lieutenant with his fifty men on board the prize.

The lashings were cut, the Pluto's helm put up, and she sheered away from her prize.