NIGHTS IN THE GALLEY. 603 



such a good swordsman nobody could hit him ; at last he made a 

 tremendous blow at Watts, who was fighting at the head of his men ; 

 he couldn't have guarded the blow off, it would have knocked his 

 guard in. Luckily my father saw him lift his arm ; he immediately 

 threw himself before the youngster, and received the blow on his left 

 arm, at the same time hitting the skipper on his head, which he had 

 left unguarded for the moment ; down he fell as dead as a door nail. 

 ' The devil's dead, the day is ours ; forward, lads,' shouted young 

 Watts ; the men gave a cheer, and rushed aft. The privateer's men 

 began to give way ; they appeared to have lost heart at the death of 

 their skipper. Watts' party had now gained the quarters. ' I'll 

 have their ensign now,' said he, and just as he made a spring for- 

 ward a pistol-bullet, fired from the poop, entered his right breast, 

 and backwards he fell into my father's arms. ' The poor boy is 

 gone/ said my father, ' but I'll be damned if I don't make those 

 fellers repent having killed as fine a feller as ever lived ;' so he gave 

 Watts to one of the men that was wounded, and rushed forward, 

 followed by the rest of the men. After a short struggle they laid 

 down their arms, and my father commanded the schooner. There 

 was a little gig on the booms, so my father said ' Come, my lads, we 

 must get this gig out at once, and four of you must pull to the frigate 

 with all your might, and take Mr. Watts with you, for he's warm 

 yet, and perhaps he's not dead ; I've known people brought to life 

 after being in this here state for more than twelve hours,' says he, 

 ' and please God/ says he, ' my brave boys, that I hopes the captain 

 won't die yet awhile. The men warnt long, you may be sure, in get- 

 ting a little eight-oared gig out. One of the mess tables was brought 

 up from below and laid in the stern sheets, covered over with flags, 

 and young Watts, lowered gently into the boat, was laid upon them ; 

 they gave way cheerly, and were soon alongside the frigate. Watts 

 was taken up, and laid on the table in the skipper's fore-cabin ; and 

 after the surgeon had probed and examined the wound, he said 

 ' It's very lucky he was wounded so much, had it been a little less 

 he would have died, but as it is I have no fear for him.' ( I'm glad 

 of that/ says the skipper, ' but how do you make it out that he 

 would have died had he been wounded less?' and my father told me 

 that he gave some reason for it, but he did not remember what it 

 was, something about his fainting and the heart ceasing to beat, by 

 which means the artery that was cut contracted again, and some stuff 

 o' that sort ; but howsomenever that's neither here nor there, 'cause 

 it's no matter how it was ; he lived, and that's enough. Directly the 

 skipper had time to speak to the man who brought him on board, he 

 sent some fresh hands with a midshipman to bring the schooner out. 

 By the time they got on board my father had pretty well got her to 

 rights, thrown all the dead men overboard, and put the prisoners 

 under hatches ; got his boarding nettings down, and buoy'd both 

 his anchors ready for slipping; but when the midshipmen got on 

 board he said ' Now we're got fresh hands we won't slip, we'll 

 weigh, and run out handsomely ; so they manned the capstan, run 

 both anchors up, made sail, and brought her to the wind, for 

 it was just a soldser's wind for them; so they soon got to the 



