rge
number of deck-chairs that had been hurriedly bundled out of the way
behind the companion, probably when it was seen that the brigantine
undoubtedly meant to attack. The main-deck exhibited all the confusion
incidental to a sea-fight, the guns--sixteen twelve-pound carronades--
still unsecured, with their rammers and sponges flung down on the deck
beside them, shot lying in the scuppers, overturned wadding-tubs,
cutlasses, pistols, boarding-pikes, strewed all over the deck, and--
horrible sight--several dark, silent figures lying stark and still in
pools of blood, just as they had fallen in the fight. The ship's davits
were empty, both her gigs having been lowered to facilitate the transfer
of the plunder to the brigantine; her long-boat also was in the water,
as already stated, but there were two fine cutters lying bottom up over
the quarter-deck, their sterns resting on the break of the poop and
their bows-on the gallows. It was a strange sight to look abroad into
the dusky star-lit night and observe the boundless Atlantic stretching
silent and still on every hand, and then to turn one's eyes inboard and
note the noisy, drunken, ruffianly rabble grouped about the hatchway,
naked to the waist, and toiling in the dim lantern light at the tackles
by which they were hoisting the bales of costly merchandise out of the
hold.

But I had not much time to devote to moralising upon the incongruous
sight, for after an absence of some three minutes Simpson re-appeared
from the saloon with the information that the place was clear, and that,
judging from the sounds he had heard, the passengers had all locked
themselves, or been locked, into their cabins.

This being the case, I determined to go below and make a brief
investigation of the condition of the unfortunate passengers, as well as
to afford them such comfort as was to be derived from a communication to
them of my intentions. I accordingly descended the companion-way
leading down from the poop, and found myself in a small vestibule, the
arrangement of which I could not very well see, as it was unlighted,
save for the lamplight that issued from the open door of the saloon; I
caught a glimpse, however, of polished panels of rare, ornamental woods,
with gleams of gilded mouldings and polished metal handrails, and found
my feet sinking into the pile of a soft, thick carpet, which gave me a
hint as to the luxurious appointments of the ship. From this vestibule
I passed