four o'clock in the
morning
The help came not a moment too soon , so far as Farmer was concerned ; for the very first act of Mr Douglas , on reaching the deck , was to cleave to the chin a Frenchman whom he saw with both knees on Farmer 's chest and with his sword shortened in his hand about to pin the unfortunate master 's mate to the deck . The Frenchmen were at once driven below and the hatches clapped over them ; after which our lads were sent aloft to loose the topsails ; and , the cable being cut , the ship was got under weigh . Whilst this was doing , I had time to question our gallant `` second '' as to the cause of his opportune appearance ; and I then learned that so complete had been the surprise that the other craft had been taken almost without an effort ; and that as soon as this was accomplished and the crews secured Mr Douglas had hastened to our assistance , rightly surmising that , from the longer warning given to the ship 's crew and their great strength , we should have our hands pretty full with them . The moon , in her last quarter , and dwindled to the merest crescent , was just rising over the hills to the eastward of us as we swept before the land-breeze out of Jean Rabel harbour ; and by her feeble light I was enabled with some difficulty to discern that , by my watch , it was just four o'clock in the morning . Thus satisfactorily terminated this cutting-out expedition ; the most surprising circumstance connected with which was , perhaps , the fact that , when the hands were mustered , not one was found to have received a hurt worthy of being termed a wound . We had scarcely got clear of the land with our prizes -- consisting of one ship and three brigs -- when we discovered three schooners and two sloops standing out from Port au Paix ; and as they , like ourselves , were heading directly for the squadron in the offing , we conjectured -- and rightly , as it afterwards proved -- that they were the vessels which Lieutenant Burdwood had been sent in to attack . Late in the evening of the following day we rejoined the remainder of the squadron , and Captain Pigot at once proceeded on board the admiral to report the complete success of the expedition .