midnight
Nor when , on the preceding evening just before sunset , the lookout had sighted and reported the _ Clarice _ , did her appearance excite the least uneasiness . She was so small a vessel compared with the _ Truxillo _ , that nobody condescended to honour her with more than a glance of the most cursory description . Moreover , being discovered on the starboard bow , reaching out from the direction wherein land was known to be , with her yards artfully ill braced , her canvas badly set , her running gear hanging all in bights , and her speed -- retarded by a topmast studding - sail being dropped overboard and towed from her lee quarter -- less than that of the veriest Noah 's ark of a north-country collier , she was at once set down as a harmless coaster , and no further notice taken of her . So skilfully , indeed , had the French skipper managed his approach that even when , shortly after midnight , his vessel dropped alongside the Indiaman , the occurrence was regarded as nothing more than an accident of the most trivial character ; and it was not until his crew were actually swarming up the _ Truxillo 's _ lofty sides that the alarm was given , and the crew , snatching handspikes , belaying-pins , billets of wood from the galley , or any other weapon which they could first lay hands on , too late bestirred themselves in the defence of their ship . Notwithstanding their total lack of preparation the English made a sturdy and protracted resistance , affording the passengers ample time to arm themselves ; and when at length the Indiaman 's crew were driven below , the captain and chief mate retreated to the cabin , which , with the assistance of the male passengers , they successfully held for fully twenty minutes after every other part of the ship was in possession of the enemy . It was during this resistance that the two officers named received such serious wounds as prostrated them on the saloon floor apparently lifeless , and it was only with their fall that the resistance terminated . The fight over , the male passengers were promptly disarmed and secured , and a scene of pillage and violence , the introduction to which was an insult offered to one of the lady passengers and the cruel cutlass - stroke inflicted upon her almost infant son for resenting it , was just commencing , when it was happily cut short by the appearance of the _ Dolphin 's _ boats upon the scene .