about one
o'clock in the morning
This , and the clearing away of the wreck of her top-hamper , had , as might have been expected , greatly exhausted the crew , the result being that , on the night of her capture , the look-out was not quite so keen as perhaps it should have been . But after all , as the captain remarked , there really did not appear to be any necessity for the maintenance of an especially bright look-out beyond what was required to provide against their falling foul of any of the other ships belonging to the convoy , and although he admitted that he had noticed both the brigantine and the _ Dolphin _ , which he had immediately set down as privateers , he did not consider them as enemies , and even if any such suspicion had entered his mind he would not have deemed himself liable to attack within sight and reach of eight men-o ' - war . Therefore , when night came on , he allowed his exhausted crew to get what rest they could , keeping only a sufficient number of men on deck to meet any ordinary emergency . He was thus profoundly astonished and chagrined at being awakened about one o'clock in the morning to find his crew overpowered and safely confined below , and his ship in possession of a crew of thirty Frenchmen . How they had contrived to get on board , in the height of so heavy a gale , and with so tremendous a sea running , he had been unable to ascertain , the Frenchman in charge resolutely refusing to explain . Such was the extraordinary story told by the captain of the _ Manilla _ ; and that it was absolutely true there could be no doubt , for we had ourselves seen enough to assure us of that . I was greatly disappointed , however , at the captain 's inability to explain by what means the Frenchmen had contrived to board the ship in the face of such formidable difficulties ; for that was precisely the point that had puzzled me all through , and I resolved to find out , if I could , for such a secret was quite worth the knowing .