agined what a raging fever of
indignation and fury I was thrown into by what I had heard; and it was
made all the more unendurable by the circumstance that I was utterly
powerless to interfere. For what could I and my four fellow-countrymen
say or do to restrain some eighty lawless ruffians animated by all the
vilest and most evil passions that the human breast ever harboured?
Absolutely nothing! not even though we should resolve to lay down our
lives in the attempt. We might destroy some twenty or thirty of the
Frenchmen, perhaps, before we ourselves went under, but that would in
nowise serve the unhappy Spaniards, who would still be at the mercy of
the ruthless survivors. A thousand schemes suggested themselves to me,
but there was not a practical one among them all, not one that offered
the remotest prospect of success; and, with a bitter execration at our
helplessness, I was at length obliged to admit that things must take
their course, so far as we were concerned. But, although helpless to
intervene just then, I saw that there was a possibility of the
Frenchmen's excesses bringing retribution in their train. For every man
who had thus far come from the Spanish ship had been almost helplessly
drunk; and I saw no especial reason why the rest should not be in the
same condition. And, if they were, what might not five resolute,
reckless Englishmen be able to do?

I had observed that, when the carpenter found himself compelled to bribe
what I may term the sober half of the schooner's crew to remain aboard,
by producing a quantity of rum, my four English shipmates exhibited no
backwardness in accepting and swallowing the very liberal allowance that
had been offered to them; I also accepted mine; and, upon the pretence
of being thirsty and therefore desiring to add water to it, I took it
aft to the scuttle-butt, deftly hove the spirit overboard, and filling
the pannikin with water, drank the contents with the greatest apparent
gusto. And now, as certain vague possibilities began to present
themselves to my mind, I contrived to draw Hardy, Green, Anstey, and
Sendell away from the crowd of excited, chattering Frenchmen that
swarmed in the waist and around the hatchway; and, getting them down
into the deserted forecastle, I briefly and rapidly explained to them
all that I had discovered relative to the real character of the _Jean
Bart_ and her crew, as well as the nature of the doings aboard the
Spanish ship; and, hav