o observe the motions of our
disorganised fleet. Had we been a sound company we might have held our
own against the two of them. But crippled as we were, with our guns
unmanned, our ammunition lost, and part of our crew lying wounded on
deck, while the rest were prisoners below, we might as well have hoped
to capture Rotterdam.

Fate, however, determined our destiny in her own way. Just as we were
coming about, and those at the guns were blowing their matches for a
first and possibly a last broadside, the _Zebra_ gave a sudden shiver in
every timber, there was a dull growl, followed an instant later by a
terrific explosion which rent the vessel in twain, and dimmed the sky
overhead with spars and smoke, and set the ship reeling on her beam-
ends. At the moment, I was in the act of firing the charge of the gun
in my care, and remember nothing but the tremendous noise, and finding
myself hurled, as it seemed, clear over the breech of the weapon out
into the boiling sea.

Instinctively I clutched at a spar within reach, and clung to it. All
else I saw and heard as in a dream--the ship heeling over further and
further, and the waves leaping on her as she plunged down; the cries and
shrieks of the imprisoned wretches who sought to escape from the
consequences of their own desperate revenge; the sea strewn with
wreckage and struggling swimmers; the first lieutenant's dying
malediction flung into the wind from the quarter-deck; the looming hulls
of the two Dutchmen as they hung in the wind and watched our fate. All,
I say, passed like a grim nightmare. What woke me was an arm suddenly
flung across me, and the white face of Mr Midshipman Gamble looking up
at me out of the water.

I hauled him up on to the spar; and the effort to keep him afloat, and
save myself from his wild struggles, helped me to find my wits.

"Easy, lad!" said I; "you're safe enough here. Keep quiet!"

The sound of a voice steadied him, and he ceased his struggles, and let
me lash him as best I could to the spar.

The Dutchmen, who had, no doubt, witnessed with anything but pleasure
their prey snatched out of their hands, were humane enough to make a
show of lowering a boat for the succour of those who still lived. But
the heavy sea rendered this a very difficult and dangerous task, and
after very little trying we had the dismay of seeing them abandon the
attempt and haul off on their course, leaving us to our fate.

You may fancy with what