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Every aquatic bird with which I am acquainted moves much faster when diving than when it is swimming or walking, and its course is generally in a straight line, or nearly so; but the Water Ouzel, when feeding, turns to the right or left, or back again to where it started, stops and goes on again, just as it does when out of the water.
What may be regarded as the separate songs of the Ouzel are exceedingly difficult of description, because they are so variable and at the same time so confluent. Though I have been acquainted with my favorite ten years, and during most of this time have heard him sing nearly every day, I still detect notes and strains that seem new to me.
The captain kept his glass constantly turned towards the approaching ship. When first seen, she was about twelve miles off, while the Ouzel Galley was supposed to be about eight miles from the Hook Tower.
About this she had been engaged for some time, getting some in one place and some in another, so that no suspicions might be raised as to her object. The Ouzel Galley had sailed a fortnight or more, when Pompey announced that all was ready. Mammy packed up all the provisions in bundles, and had obtained two small casks of water, besides a number of gourds filled with the precious liquid.
Unslinging his glass, he directed it towards her. "What does she look like?" asked the captain. "She is flush-decked, and I make out ten ports on a side, sir," answered Owen from aloft. Saying this, he quickly came down on deck, from whence the movements of the stranger, which was standing directly across the course the Ouzel Galley was steering, could be discerned as well as from the mast-head.
Just as Norman and Ellen were about to enter the cabin, Gerald appeared to summon him on board the Champion. After a hasty farewell, he sprang on deck, just in time to see his ship separated from the Ouzel Galley and making sail in chase of the pirate. Not, however, unhappy at the occurrence, he returned to the cabin.
"You should be welcome, but not one of them can swim, nor could I spare you any of my hands; so I am afraid, sir, you must be content to remain on board the Ouzel Galley," answered Owen. "Your presence could not change the fate of the day, and you would be made a prisoner by the French, instead of having a chance of escaping."
He could make out through the gloom several persons swimming away from the ship, but whether or not one of them was O'Harrall, it was impossible to say. Not a pirate now remained alive on the deck of the Ouzel Galley. A dozen or more had been cut down, and so effectually had the British seamen wielded their cutlasses that every one of them had been killed outright.
Ellen had accompanied her father to the dining-hall, which, being in the centre of the house, was less exposed to danger than any other part of the building. So loudly did the wind roar that even there it was necessary to speak in a high tone to be heard. "Oh, what will become of the Ouzel Galley if she is caught in this fearful gale!" exclaimed Ellen.
In the intervals between the flashes, so dense was the darkness that the eye failed to see half across the deck, and had another vessel been overtaken, the Ouzel Galley might have run her down before she could have been perceived.
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