they could
for him, the captain refusing to supply salve, lint, or in fact anything
else with which to dress his wounds.

At dinner that evening the captain was urged by some of the passengers
to represent to the commodore of the convoying squadron the
insubordinate condition of the crew, and to request his assistance.
This, however, he positively refused to do, roundly asserting his
ability to command his own ship; but, as a matter of fact, the only
reason for his reluctance to take this step arose out of the conviction
that an inquiry would certainly follow as to the causes of the
insubordination, from which inquiry, as he was very well aware, he and
his officers could hope for nothing but a complete revelation of their
own culpability.

At the moment that this course was being urged upon the captain in the
saloon, the incident of the flogging, and, indeed, the whole question of
their treatment by their officers, was being discussed on the forecastle
by the men; and, singular to relate, although Talbot was believed by his
officers to be at that instant in irons below, if either of them had
walked forward just then, they would have found him snugly seated on
deck, free, on the fore-side of the windlass, taking an active part in
the discussion. By the time that eight bells had struck, they had fully
made up their minds as to their course of action, and the assembly
quietly dispersed.

The next day was that on which the gale burst upon the fleet.

On the signal being made by the _Tremendous_ to "Shorten sail and
prepare for bad weather," the _Princess Royal_ was one of the first to
manifest signs of obedience. She was at the time under every stitch of
canvas she could spread, not because she was a sluggish sailer, for she
was the reverse of that, but because, there being a flat calm, it
mattered not how much or how little canvas was set, it could make no
possible difference in the movements or position of the vessel; and the
captain, seeing here a fine opportunity to impose upon his crew--"by way
of punishment," as he put it to himself and his officers--a great deal
of unnecessary work, ordered all sail, even to the studding-sails, to be
set, for the purpose, as he averred, of giving them an airing.

The first thing to be done in the way of shortening sail, therefore, was
to take in the studding-sails, which the crew, not being then aware of
the danger which threatened the ship, proceeded to do in a very
leisurel