d; but the
commanders of the galleys, seeing their fellow-commodores flying
signals of distress, let go their prey, and concentrated their attack
upon the frigate. This they surrounded, and after a very hard struggle
the frigate was captured, but not until the English captain had
ascertained that all the fleet of which he had been in charge had
entered the Thames and were safe.

In the above encounter with the English frigate Marteilhe had nearly
lost his life. The bench on which he was seated, with five other
slaves, was opposite one of the loaded guns of the frigate. He saw
that it must be discharged directly upon them. His fellows tried to
lie down flat, while Marteilhe himself stood up. He saw the gunner
with his lighted match approach the touchhole; then he lifted up his
heart to God; the next moment he was lying stunned and prostrate in
the centre of the galley, as far as the chain would allow him to
reach. He was lying across the body of the lieutenant, who was killed.
A long time passed, during which the fight was still going on, and
then Marteilhe came to himself, towards dark. Most of his
fellow-slaves were killed. He himself was bleeding from a large open
wound on his shoulder, another on his knee, and a third in his
stomach. Of the eighteen men around him he was the only one that
escaped, with his three wounds.

The dead were all thrown into the sea. The men were about to throw
Marteilhe after them, but while attempting to release him from his
chain, they touched the wound upon his knee, and he groaned heavily.
They let him remain where he lay. Shortly after, he was taken down to
the bottom of the hold with the other men, where he long lay amongst
the wounded and dying. At length he recovered from his wounds, and was
again returned to his bench, to re-enter the horrible life of a
galley-slave.

There was another mean and unmanly cruelty, connected with this
galley-slave service, which was practised only upon the Huguenots. If
an assassin or other criminal received a wound in the service of the
state while engaged in battle, he was at once restored to his
liberty; but if a Huguenot was wounded, he was never released. He was
returned to his bench and chained as before; the wounds he had
received being only so many additional tortures to be borne by him in
the course of his punishment.

Marteilhe, as we have already stated, was disembarked when he had
sufficiently recovered, and marched through the entire