while reason
held her seat, I could not help thinking that I was just as well where I
was, and that a change of position might not be for the better. About
eight minutes decided the affair, though it certainly did seem to me, in
my then unpleasant situation, much longer. Before it was over I had
fainted, and before I regained my senses the vessel was under weigh, and
out of gun-shot from the batteries.

The first moments of respite from carnage were employed in examining the
bodies of the killed and wounded. I was numbered among the former, and
stretched out between the guns by the side of the first lieutenant and
the other dead bodies. A fresh breeze blowing through the ports revived
me a little, but, faint and sick, I had neither the power nor
inclination to move; my brain was confused; I had no recollection of
what had happened, and continued to lie in a sort of stupor, until the
prize came alongside of the frigate, and I was roused by the cheers of
congratulation and victory from those who had remained on board.

A boat instantly brought the surgeon and his assistants to inspect the
dead and assist the living. Murphy came along with them. He had not
been of the boarding party; and seeing my supposed lifeless corpse, he
gave it a slight kick, saying, at the same time, "Here is a young cock
that has done crowing! Well, for a wonder, this chap has cheated the
gallows."

The sound of the fellow's detested voice was enough to recall me from
the grave, if my orders had been signed: I faintly exclaimed, "You are a
liar!" which, even with all the melancholy scene around us, produced a
burst of laughter at his expense. I was removed to the ship, put to
bed, and bled, and was soon able to narrate the particulars of my
adventure; but I continued a long while dangerously ill.

The soliloquy of Murphy over my supposed dead body, and my laconic
reply, were the cause of much merriment in the ship. The midshipmen
annoyed him by asserting that he had saved my life, as nothing but his
hated voice could have awoke me from my sleep of death. The fate of the
first lieutenant was justly deplored by all of us, though I cannot deny
my Christian-like acquiescence in the will of Providence in this as well
as on a former occasion, when the witnesses of my weakness had been
removed for ever out of my way. As I saw it was impossible to regain
his good opinion, I thought it was quite as well that we should part
company. That he h