The pilot: a tale of the sea. By J. Fenimore Cooper.

tunies of smloke, as gun afteri gun hurtlcd its ironA
3hissil-s; att their vssel in qtttick successionl.'e
minlutes mithtt have passe.d, the) twto v essels sle er'it18 closer to e'ach other every foot they adv'aneed,
during whict: tite the ere v ot) the Americant er
compeltled, )y their cottnmanderl, to suiffer the fire
tl their'adversarMx, without returning a sIhot.'lhis
short t)ertiod, wxhich seemed,an aget t to tlc: seamtcn.
Was distinouisle'd in their vessel by teet silence.
f-.vctt t~lt@ \\lc~urtdc~i l $Ve s s e y td c) e 1 it. t::.
Even the wounded tand dying, who fell1 in every
Piart of th e ship,p stilled their groans, under te @ iniltence of the} severe disci)pline, which gavev a chatt acter to every man anti eatlch ntlovemltnt of the
vesse*l, and fthose of!ih:ers.v h Ao weil' required to
s)pttak, were. lhear(l only in the lowest tones oft resolu tct preptaration. AXt length the ship slowly eA-.
ti.ered tlhe skirts oft the s1moke that enivelopetdf their
nemty; and (i' rifiith hetard tdhe man I who stood at
his sile whisiper the word " nlow.'
~".,et them havi1 e it U!" cried GC riflith, in a voice
that wtas tthetard int the remotesst parts of the
The shout that brt' friom the seamen, appeartt ed
to lift tht dect8ks of the vesselt, andt thte a;ft'ighIted
friigate trem:bled likse ant asplen, with the recoil of
her own massive artillery, that shot for th a sing;le
sheet of ftlawi, the sailoIs }having disregarded, in
their impatience, the ustal order of firing. Tilhe
efeetct of the broadside on the enemy was still. more
drteadfil, fin' a death-like silelnlee sutcceededt to the
ro1ar' of the guns, wll hich v as: only broken by tlhe
shrieks and execrations that olirst from ler, like
the moanoings of the damned. I)uringi the thx finw )o*
mentslt in which the Americans werIe again loati'ts
their cantnon, and the Enfglistl were tt'ttcovrig fi ore
theirt coftlusion, tihe vessel of the folrmeti' i1novted
dslowty past hIe: antagonist, atnd' -t s talready dlot
artg0 it a n w a s 1