the captain they so particularly wanted went home in the last mail.  The corvette which had chased and been cheated by the ‘D——­n’ the day before was lying in the port into which she was taken.  Her captain, when he saw the prize, said:  ’I must go on board and shake hands with the gallant fellow who commands that vessel!’ and he did so, warmly complimenting C——­ on the courage he had shown, thus proving that he could appreciate pluck, and that American naval men did not look down on blockade-running as a grievous sin, hard work as it gave them in trying to put a stop to it.  They were sometimes a little severe on men who, after having been fairly caught in a chase at sea, wantonly destroyed their compasses, chronometers, &c., rather than let them fall into the hands of the cruiser’s officers.  I must say that I was always prepared, had I been caught, to have made the best of things, to have given the officers who came to take possession all that they had fairly gained by luck having declared on their side, and to have had a farewell glass of champagne with the new tenant at the late owner’s expense.  The treatment received by persons captured engaged in running the blockade differed very materially.  If a bona fide American man-of-war of the old school made the capture, they were always treated with kindness by their captors.  But there were among the officers of vessels picked up hurriedly and employed by the Government a very rough lot, who rejoiced in making their prisoners as uncomfortable as possible.  They seemed to have only one good quality, and this was that there were among them many good freemasons, and frequently a prisoner found the advantage of having been initiated into the brotherhood.

The ‘D——­n’s’ crew fell into very good hands, and till they arrived at New York were comfortable enough; but the short time they spent in prison there, while the vessel was undergoing the mockery of a trial in the Admiralty Court, was far from pleasant.  However, it did not last very long—­not more than ten days; and as soon as they were free most of them went back to Nassau or Bermuda ready for more work.  C——­ came to England and told me all his troubles.  Poor fellow!  I am afraid his services were not half appreciated as they ought to have been, for success, in blockade-running as in everything else, is a virtue, whereas bad luck, even though accompanied with the pluck of a hero, is always more or less a crime not to be forgiven.

CHAPTER XV.

RICHMOND DURING THE SIEGE.

After the excitement of the last six or eight months I could not long rest in England, satisfied with the newspaper accounts of the goings on in the blockade-running world.  So I got the command of a new and very fast paddle-wheel vessel, and went out again.  The American Government had determined to do everything in its power to stop blockade-running, and had lately increased the force of blockaders on the southern coast by some very fast vessels built at New York.  Being aware of this, some of the first shipbuilders in England and Scotland were put, by persons engaged in blockade-running, on their mettle, to try and build steamers to beat them, and latterly it became almost a question of speed, especially in the daylight adventures, between blockaders and blockade-runners.