He slipped the cable, however, and made instant sail on the ship; and when he saw the large boat and the gig drop astern of the schooner, the former in a disabled condition, he commenced firing as fast as he could load; not doubting that his captain was in his own boat.
At such short range the shot flew around the pirate schooner like hail; but she appeared to bear a charmed existence; for, although they whistled between her spars and struck the sea all around her, very few indeed did her serious damage.

The shots from Long Tom, on the other hand, were well aimed, and told with terrible effect on the hull and rigging of the frigate.

Gascoyne himself pointed the gun, and his bright eye flashed, and a grim smile played on his lips as the shots whistled round his head.
The pirate captain seemed to be possessed by a spirit of fierce and reckless joviality that day.

His usual calm, self-possessed demeanor quite forsook him.

He issued his orders in a voice of thunder and with an air of what, for want of a better expression, we may term ferocious heartiness.