order, which his
mates, in gruffest of gruff tones, bawled out, of "All hands up anchor!"
In an instant the whole ship was in an uproar, and seemed to me to be
in the most dire confusion. Boatswain's mates were shouting and
bawling, the officers hurrying to their stations, the men flying here
and there, some aloft to loose sails, and others to halyards, sheets,
and braces. I must own that I did not feel myself of any great service
in assisting at the operation going forward, but I ran and shouted with
the rest, and as the men passed me I told them to look sharp and to be
smart, and to hurry along; but what they were about to do I was utterly
unable to discover. I met Toby Bluff hurrying along, looking very much
scared and half inclined to blubber. I asked him what was the matter.

"It's the big man with the rattan," (he alluded to the ship's corporal)
"told me to go aft to the poop and stand by the mizen-topsail halyards,"
he exclaimed. "But, oh, Master Marmaduke, where they be it's more than
my seven senses can tell. What shall I do? what shall I do?"

I saw some other boys running aft, so I advised him to go where they
went, and to do whatever they did. I soon afterwards saw him hauling
away sturdily at a rope, and though he tumbled down very often, he was
quickly again on his feet. The fife and fiddle were meantime sounding
merrily, and, as with cheerful tramp the men passed round the
capstan-bars, the anchor was speedily run up to the bows. What the
lieutenant on the forecastle could mean when he shouted out "Man the
cat-fall," I could not divine, till I saw that some of the crew were
securing the stock of the anchor by means of a tackle to a stout beam,
which projected over the bows of the ship. "Over to the fish," next
shouted out the officer, an order at first equally inexplicable to me,
till I saw the flukes of the anchor hauled up close to the bows--fished,
as it is called.

The sails were let fall and sheeted home, braces hauled taut, and the
Doris, with a rattling breeze, under all sail, stood through the Needles
Passage and down Channel. Those were stirring times. The cruisers of
the various nations then at war with old England swarmed in all
directions; and it was the ardent wish of every one on board the
frigate, from the captain down to my small self, and to the youngest
powder-monkey, that we should before long meet an enemy worthy of our
prowess. A sharp look-out was kept aloft night and