set on his legs. Many a day, however,
passed before the sound of his once merry fiddle was heard on the
forecastle of the _Fame_, for the crew loved their gallant commander too
well to allow them to foot it as had been their constant custom during
his lifetime.

Little rest had the crews of any of the ships that night after the
battle. Not far from the _Fame_ lay the _Caesar_, which had been so
gallantly defended, now a prize to the _Centaur_. One of the
lieutenants of the _Centaur_, with the boatswain and fifty of her men,
were on board the prize, fully four hundred Frenchmen not having yet
been removed.

Suddenly flames were seen to burst forth from the lower ports of the
_Caesar_. How the fire originated no one could tell. In vain must have
been the efforts of those on board to extinguish it. Boats put off from
all the ships near to rescue the unfortunate people on board; but before
they could reach her the fire had entered her magazine, and with a
dreadful explosion she blew up, hurling every one on board to
destruction. The English lieutenant and boatswain, with fifty men, and
the four hundred Frenchmen remaining on board, all perished.

For this most important and gallant victory Sir George Rodney was
created a peer of Great Britain, Sir Samuel Hood a peer of Ireland, and
Admiral Drake and Commodore Affleck baronets of the United Kingdom.

CHAPTER EIGHT.

Among the ships forming the squadron under Admiral Graves, ordered to
proceed to England, was the _Hector_, 74, captured from the French in
the glorious battle of the 12th of April 1782. Captain Bouchier, who
had commanded the _Zebra_ sloop, had been appointed to her to take her
home; and although her complement had been filled up chiefly by
invalids, and French and American prisoners, who had volunteered to
serve in her, it was necessary also to have a certain number of prime
seamen on board. These were drafted from several ships, and, to the no
small satisfaction of Paul Pringle, he with Abel Bush, Peter Ogle, and
Tom Snell were taken from the _Fame_.

As the _Fame_ had already a fiddler, and the _Hector_ had none, they got
leave for Sam Smatch to accompany them.

Paul was anxious to let Billy live a little more on shore than he had
hitherto done. "D'ye see, Abel," he observed to his chum, "it's time,
to my mind, that he should begin to get his ribs lined with true honest
English beef, and sniff up some of the old country's fresh sharp air