wards the
end, I saw that she was bleeding through her scuppers like a pig, from
the middle deck. They were all packed up there together--sailors and
soldiers and a priest or two; and scarce a ball could pass between the
poop and the forecastle without touching flesh."

The lad stopped a moment and took a pull at his cup, and a murmur of talk
broke out in the room. Anthony was surprised at his accent and manner of
speaking, and heard afterwards that he was the son of the parson at one
of the inland villages, and had had an education. In a moment he went on.

"Well--it would be about noon, just before the Admiral came up from
Calais, that the old _Seahorse_ was lost. We came at the dons again as we
had done before, only closer than ever; and just as the captain gave the
word to put her about, a ball from one of their guns which they had
trained down on us, cut old Dick Kemp in half at the helm, and broke the
tiller to splinters."

"Old Dick?" said a man's voice out of the reeking crowd, "Old Dick?"

There was a murmur round him, bidding him hold his tongue; and the lad
went on.

"Well, we drifted nearer and nearer. There was nought to do but to bang
at them; and that we did, by God--and to board her if we touched. Well, I
worked my saker, and saw little else--for the smoke was like a black
sea-fog; and the noise fit to crack your ears. Mine sing yet with it; the
captain was bawling from the poop, and there were a dozen pikemen ready
below; and then on a sudden came the crash; and I looked up and there was
the Spaniards' decks above us, and the poop like a tower, with a grinning
don or two looking down; and there was I looking up the muzzle of a
culverin. I skipped towards the poop, shouting to the men; and the dons
fired their broadside as I went.--God save us from that din! But I knew
the old _Seahorse_ was done this time--the old ship lurched and shook as
the balls tore through her and broke her back; and there was such a yell
as you'll never hear this side of hell. Well--I was on the poop by now,
and the men after me; for you see the poop of the _Seahorse_ was as high
as the middle deck of the Spaniard, and we must board from there or not
at all. Well, lads, there was the captain before me. He had fought cool
till then, as cool as a parson among his roses, with never an oath from
his mouth--but now he was as scarlet as a poppy, and his eyes were like
blue fire, and his mouth jabbered and foamed; he was so hot, you