A VOYAGE IN THE NORTH SEAS. 



lustily to the truth of. It went to charge Arundel and Black Bill 

 with the deepest treachery in leaving them there to perish. Though 

 this tale never received credit from the crew of the Labrador, still, as 

 they had no evidence to the contrary, they were obliged to smother 

 their suspicions. From this time Bellamy had been almost con- 

 tinually intoxicated, and had at the same time won over his har- 

 pooners, who live in an apartment near the cabin, entirely to his 

 interest. At the time that the French officer took possession of the 

 Labrador, Bellamy was, as usual, in a state of besotted drunkenness. 

 He gave up the keys of his lockers, &c. to the officer, and, while his 

 men were rummaging for plunder, sat glaring on them with an ap- 

 pearance of idiocy. But when they burst open his trunk and dis- 

 covered the large bag of doubloons belonging to Flora, he had 

 slipped out unnoticed to his harpooners, while the Frenchmen were 

 examining their prize, and, by promising to divide the whole sum 

 among his men, prevailed on them to attempt the massacre of the 

 captors with their lances. Maddened with the loss of their voyage, 

 embittered against the foe who had taken them, and deeming it still 

 possible to escape the frigate by boring through the ice, some of the 

 men accepted the offer, and, rushing out armed with their deadly 

 weapons, attacked the Frenchmen, who, taken by surprise, had been 

 well-nigh all despatched. It was at this moment that Frank entered 

 the cabin : two or three of the crew of the Blanche lay on the floor 

 amid pools of blood, which had flowed from the ghastly wounds 

 made by the weapons of the harpooners, while one or two of their 

 own number had been stretched on the ground by the pistol-shots. 

 The remainder had come to close quarters, and, struggling furiously, 

 were giving and taking stabs with terrific rapidity. In one corner 

 of the cabin upon the contents of a chest, the lid of which had been 

 broken in, stood Bellamy ; he had a large carving-knife in one hand, 

 the arm of which was grasped firmly by the French officer, and held 

 innocuous aloft. The wretch's eyes were reeling with rage and in- 

 toxication, and his teeth gnashed together in impotent rage, as he 

 attempted to drive down the weapon into the bosom of his foe. The 

 moment Arundel entered, his features underwent a change, from the 

 extremity of rage to that of the most abject terror. The knife dropped 

 from his relaxed grasp, a deadly lividity shot into his features, and 

 muttering "The dead risen against me!" he fell utterly insensible 

 upon the floor. The struggle was soon concluded by those of the 

 boat's crew, who had followed Arundel, cutting down with their cut- 

 lasses the harpooners that still wrestled with their comrades ; and then 

 the affair being investigated, and found to arise from the treachery of 

 Bellamy alone, an account of it was transmitted to the captain of the 

 Blanche. The order brought back was that Bellamy should be run 

 up to the yard-arm, the remainder of the crew brought on board the 

 frigate, and the Labrador burnt. These orders were presently exe- 

 cuted ; the seamen disposed themselves with their chests and ham- 

 mocks in their own boats, and pulled sullenly away to their prison ; 

 the ship was set fire to in various places, and then the wretch Bel- 

 lamy brought up bound to suffer the death he so well merited. 



Terror had now sobered him, and it was plain that he was to die 



