the poor quartermaster at my
feet.

I was dimly conscious of a din and smoke, like the opening of the gate
of hell. Then, through a drift in the smoke, I could see the tall form
of the Dutch admiral standing almost alone on his quarter-deck, as cool
as if he were on the street at Amsterdam, passing a word of command
through his trumpet. Beyond him I caught a glimpse of the low Dutch
sand-hills, not two leagues to leeward. Then, away to our right, came
the faint noise of British cheers above the firing. Then some one near
me exclaimed, "Struck, by Saint George!" and almost directly after the
firing seemed to cease, and our fellows, springing on to the yards and
bulwarks, set up such a cheer that the _Venerable_ shook with it. I
tried to get up my head to see what it was all about, but as I did so I
tumbled all in a heap on the deck--and the battle of Camperdown was
finished for me.

It was nearly dark when I came to between decks, with a burning pain in
my shoulder and my mouth as dry as a brick. The place was full of
groaning men, some worse hit than myself, and one or two past the help
of the surgeon, who slowly went his round of the berths. By the time he
reached me I did not much care if he were to order me overboard, so long
as he put me out of my misery.

But, after all, mine was a simple case. There was a bullet in me
somewhere, and a few bone-splinters were wandering about my system.
Apparently I could wait till my neighbour, whose thigh bone was crushed,
was seen to. So while he, poor fellow, was having his leg cut off, and
beginning to bleed to death (for he didn't outlive the operation an
hour), I lay, with my tongue glued to the roof of my mouth, groaning.

"Ah, Mr Gallagher," said the first lieutenant, as he came the round,
"they picked you out, did they? Nothing much, I hope? It's cost us a
pretty penny in dead and wounded already."

"And we beat them?" groaned I.

"Beat? We made mincemeat of them! Haven't we the Dutch admiral a
prisoner on board this moment, playing cards with Admiral Duncan in his
cabin as comfortably as if he was in his own club at the Hague?"

"Could you give me some water?" I asked, with a sudden change of the
subject.

"Surely; and, Mr Gallagher, I'll see you again before we land, and
won't forget to put your name forward."

When at last the doctor came, I saved him a good deal of trouble by
swooning away the moment he touched my wound, and remained in that
c