ove-to, lowered a boat and put the medico
on board the schooner, going with him myself to see whether I could be
of any service. The deck of the schooner bore eloquent testimony to the
sharpness of the recent conflict, several dead and wounded men lying
about the guns in little pools of blood, while the torn and splintered
woodwork that met one's view on every side was grimly suggestive of the
pandemonium that had raged there a few minutes previously. Captain
Winter was one of the wounded, a splinter having torn a large piece of
skin from his forehead, laying bare the skull over his right eye; but
the gallant old fellow had replaced the skin as well as he could, lashed
up the wound with his silk neckerchief, using his pocket handkerchief
under it as a pad, and was attending to his duty as coolly as though he
had escaped untouched. He instructed me to go on board the brig with
ten men, to take possession, leaving the carpenter in charge of the
lugger, and at the same time signalled the Indiaman--which had hove-to
some two miles to windward--to close.

The new prize was, as may be supposed, terribly knocked about; out of a
crew of eighty-six men and boys she had no less than nineteen killed--
the captain among them--and forty-three wounded; while, in addition to
the damage which had been noticeable before going on board her, I found
that two of her guns had been dismounted, most probably by the lugger's
raking broadsides. Fortunately, her hull was quite uninjured, the whole
of the damage done being to the upper works. Our first task was to
clear away the wreck of the foremast, the skipper hailing me soon after
I had boarded to say that he intended the Indiaman to take us in tow.
The wreck was soon cut away, and just as it was falling dark we got our
tow-line aboard the Indiaman, and proceeded, the uninjured Frenchmen
having meanwhile requested permission to attend to their wounded fellow-
prisoners and make them comfortable below.

More or less disabled as we all were, with the exception of the
Indiaman, it took us until past midnight to reach Weymouth roadstead,
where we anchored for the night, without communicating with the shore;
no one in the town, therefore, was aware of our quick return to port,
and our brilliant success, until the following morning; and as for Mr
Peter White, our owner, the first intimation that he had of the affair
was while he was dressing; when his servant knocked at his door to say
that C