pecies; he seemed to take a diabolical pleasure in the
hateful operation which we were compelled to witness. The second
boatswain's mate commenced, with a fresh cat, and gave a lash across
the back of the prisoner, that made _me_ start.

"One," said the master-at-arms, beginning to count.

"One!" roared the captain; "do you call that one? not a quarter of
a one. That fellow is only fit for fly-flapper at a pork shop! I'll
disrate you, by G----d, you d----d Molly Mop; is that the way you
handle a cat; that's only wiping the dirt off his back. Where's the
boatswain?"

"Here," said a stout, gigantic, left-handed fellow, stepping forward,
with a huge blue uniform coat and a plain anchor button, holding his
hat in his left hand, and stroking his hair down his forehead with his
right. I surveyed this man, as he turned himself about, and concluded,
that the tailor who worked for him had been threatened with a specimen
of his art, if he stinted him in cloth; for the skirts of his coat
were ample, terminating in an inclined plane, the corners in front
being much lower than the middle of the robe behind; the buttons on
the hips were nearly pistol shot asunder.

"Give this man a dozen, Sir," said Captain G.; "and if you favour him,
I'll put you under arrest, and stop your liquor."

This last part of the threat had more effect with Mr Pipe than the
first. He began to peel, as the boxers call it; off came his capacious
coat; a red waistcoat--full-sized for a Smithfield ox--was next
deposited; then he untied a black silk handkerchief, and showed a
throat, covered like that of a goat, with long brown hairs, thick as
pack-thread. He next rolled up his shirt-sleeves above his elbow, and
showed an arm and a back very like the Farnese Hercules, which, no
doubt, all my readers have seen at the foot of the staircase at
Somerset-house, when they have been to the exhibition.

This hopeful commentator on articles of war, seized his cat: the
handle was two feet long, one inch and three quarters thick, and
covered with red baize. The tails of this terrific weapon were three
feet long, nine in number, and each of them about the size of that
line which covers the springs of a travelling carriage. Mr Pipes,
whose scientific display in this part of his art, had no doubt
procured for him the warrant of a boatswain, in virtue of which he now
stood as the vindicator of the laws of his country, handled his cat
like an adept, looked at it from top