slaves. The Dey had derided the English
expedition to a Danish merchant captain who
had had an audience. ("As for their shells,"
he said, pointing to the ceiling, where fruit was
hung for the winter, "I shall hang them up in
my rooms like those melons.") The Dane
replied, quietly, "You don't know the English
shells. I was at Copenhagen when the English
came there, and I know what their shells are.''

A tedious and irritating foul wind continuing
some days, Lord Exmouth employed the time in
arranging a plan of attack, and settling every
one's place round his own vessel — the Queen
Charlotte — the bombs to keep out of gun-shot.
The vice-admirals and captains attended a
council of war on board the flag-ship.
Experiments were also made to test the accuracy
of a new mode of aiming cannon. An empty
bottle was hung inside a frame four feet square,
and fixed on a long rod to the end of the foreyard.
It was then fired at from the quarter-deck
with an eighteen pounder; the object being
to break the bottle without injuring the frame.
This being repeatedly done, his lordship set up
instead a round piece of wood about five inches
in diameter. This round mark was frequently
chipped, and often carried away. The town
of Algiers was a larger bull's-eye; our sailors'
hearts were now braced for the work.

On the 26th, Cape Cazzina came in sight, and
early in the morning of the 27th the town of
Algiers rose into the morning air, its terraces
of white marble and stone rising step by step;
below, the mosque domes, and the lance-like
minarets, spreading in a huge triangle, the
point upwards. Beyond the walls of the pirate
city, on the hill-side, the green plains were
feathered with palm-trees, bushed with olive-
gardens and orange-groves, or spiked with
aloe and wild cactus. Beyond, in the horizon,
faint and blue as fading clouds, and capped with
snow white as a morning vapour, towered the
peaks of the Lesser Atlas.

Salamé, the interpreter to the fleet, a handsome
young Egyptian, not remarkable for
courage, instantly put on an European dress,
and was sent on shore with a flag of truce and
letter, containing Lord Exmouth's demands,
namely:

The instant abolition of Christian slavery,
and the surrender of all Christian slaves.

The restoration of the ransom-money for
slaves that had been paid by the King of
Sardinia and the King of the Two Sicilies.

A peace with the King of the Netherlands.

The liberation of the British consul, and the
two boats' crews of the Prometheus.

Lord Exmouth's vexation at the adverse
winds had been the greater because the Prometheus
had informed him that the Dey was marching
down ten thousand men from the interior,
and throwing up fresh works on the mole and
round both flanks of the town. The fleet being
again becalmed, the admiral sent the Severn into
the bay, the interpreter being pulled into shore
in the Severn's boat. As Salamé went down
the Queen Charlotte's side, the officers called to
him, jokingly: "Salamé, if you bring back word
that the Dey accepts our demands without fighting,
we shall kill you instead of him."

At nine o'clock A.M., Salamé, the first
lieutenant, and six seamen (secretly provided with
muskets, for fear of treachery), pulled towards
the mole. The captain of the fort met them in
a boat; but they would not let him approach
near. He appeared troubled and confused, and
took the letters which were handed him on a
long stick, promising an answer from the Dey
within two hours. The interpreter, by no means
wishing to lose his head, refused to come inside
the mole or to land, though the sun was fiery
hot, and the glare from the water was almost
unbearable.

The boat remained where she was for three
hours and a half. She lay within pistol-shot of
the walls, watched by thousands of fierce
turbaned men; savage negroes, ruddy Kabyles,
gaunt Arabs, insolent Moors, arrogant and sleepy
Turks, who, crowding the walls and leaning
against the embrasures and the sunburnt walls,
taunted them, and handled their matchlocks
and yataghans in a menacing way.

The seamen spent the time in reconnoitering
the triangular city rising on the hill-side. The
pirates' nest bristled with batteries. The forts
on the north side joined the mole, where there
was a semicircular battery with two tiers of
forty-four guns. The lighthouse tower showed
three tiers of forty-eight guns. The Eastern
Battery displayed three tiers of sixty guns, flanked
by two others, with two tiers of sixty guns. On
the south head of the mole there stood two
enormously long sixty-eight pounders. Near the
mole were two small batteries, of twenty
guns, and the Fish-Market Battery. Another
line of batteries joined the large forts against
which the Dutch were to be anchored. The
upper part of the four miles of walls sheltering
a population of one hundred thousand souls, was
also well furnished with guns, and defended by
two castles. Altogether the Dey possessed one
thousand five hundred cannon.

In the mean time the city was on the boil; and
in every market-place and fountain-court men
were arming or soldiers mustering for the blow
that was to be struck at the unbeliever's throat.

Thirty-six gunboats and frigates were being
brought from inside the mole to that side of
the city that was unprovided with batteries.
They had their red silk battle-flags flying, and
were drawn up in a hollow square.

A fine sea breeze just then springing up, the
fleet advanced into the bay, and prepared
its boats and flotilla for service; Lord
Exmouth, seeing the interpreter's boat returning
with the signal flying "That no answer had
been received," hoisted his own signal to know
if all the ships were ready? The answer was
unanimous, and the fleet instantly bore off to
tneir appointed stations: the Queen Charlotte in
the van, according to preconcerted order. When
the interpreter returned, more dead than alive,
havinir expected every moment his boat to be
scuttled by the batteries, he found Lord