408 NIGHTS IN THE GALLEY. 



captain was always foremost, fighting like an Englishman ; at last 

 the first-leaftenant cut him down. ' There dies as brave a feller as 

 ever lived/ say the first-luff. ' Forward, lads, she must be ours now.' 

 And so she was, but we had a devil of a pull for it; they fought like 

 brave fellers as they were, and it was half an hour before we got pos- 

 session of her, and not till the decks were actually covered with dead 

 men, French and English. Well, after we took possession of her, we 

 went down to search her hold; for the first-luff said it was a very com- 

 mon plan for about twenty of the best men to conceal themselves in 

 the hold, that they might take us by surprise,and recapture themselves; 

 and a devilish good thing it was we looked, for just as we were in 

 the bread-room, the reefer, who was with us, sung out, ' I've caught 

 them ; who's that behind?' ' Murray, Sir,' says I. ' Well, call the 

 rest of the party.' They soon came down, and we hauled fifteen fel- 

 lers out from among the bread-bags where they had stowed themselves. 

 We walked them off, and when we got them on the lower deck they 

 made an attack upon us. There were only nine of us, and they had 

 fifteen ; the reefer spoke French, so he told them the ship had struck, 

 and their officers had laid down their arms, and if they attempted to 

 make any resistance after that, they should be treated as murderers. 

 They said they didn't care if the officers had struck, they hadn't so 

 they rushed upon us. We defended ourselves for a short time, when 

 the noise was heard on deck, and down came a party of marines ; the 

 reefer ordered them to present their muskets ; and ' now,' said he, 

 ( unless you lay down your arms I will give orders to fire.' They saw 

 it was no use holding out any longer, so they gave in, and we took 

 them on deck, and the reefer told the first-luff that they had made a 

 mistake, and thought the ship hadn't struck ; when he said this, he 

 looked at us, as much as to say, ' Let's save the poor fellers,' 

 so we didn't say nothing, and it all passed off very well. The third- 

 leaftenant, with a party of men and three reefers, was put on board. 

 We were both a good deal shattered, and had sustained a heavy loss 

 of men, so we took some time to repair damages. We had seventy- 

 one men killed, and thirty-two wounded, and she had ninety-two 

 killed and forty wounded. After we had got our damages pretty 

 well repaired, our dead buried, and our sick hung up in their ham- 

 mocks, we made sail. The captain had told the first-luff to throw 

 him overboard ; but this he didn't do ; he was put into spirits, and 

 carried into Portsmouth, where we arrived in five days after the 

 action. The captain was then taken on shore to be buried ; all the 

 ship's company followed him to the grave, and a braver feller never 

 stepped betwteen decks, I'll swear. There you are, lads, I've done 

 my yarn, and I never talked so much afore in my life ; I can tell 

 you that I shall beat the sarjeant of marines if I go on this way." 



" Ay, Jack," said Tom Bennet, " this is a good long yarn sure 

 enough ; but you haven't told us half what I expected ; whether you 

 called on Lord Vaudeville - what he said to you, and what became 

 of Yarnio and Zuthea let's have it all, Jack." 



" Some time or other, lads, when I'm in a humour, I'll spin you 

 another yarn as long as the maintop-bowline, that will tell you all you 

 want to know ; but I am tired of talking now, I have said enough to 



