We had by this time got almost within the ordinary range of a ship's guns.  Suddenly the captain sprang to the helm.  "Haul aft the main and foresheets!" he sung out in a voice of thunder.  "Brace up the yards! Down with the helm!  Keep her as close as she'll go!"  The crew flew to obey these orders.  They knew full well that their lives depended on their promptness.  Already the schooner had approached too near the stranger.  That she was a man-of-war, she no longer left us in doubt. Before the orders issued by Captain Bruno were executed, a line of ports were thrown open, and eight long guns were run out, threatening to send us to the bottom if we showed a disposition to quarrel, and aft at her peak flew the stars and stripes of the United States.