the deck, in many instances nearly smothered with
the dead bodies which had fallen upon them, and which their own
exhausted powers would not permit them to remove. The task of
separation of those who were past all mortal aid from those who might
still derive benefit from surgical assistance, was as tedious as it was
afflicting. No distinction was made between the rival sufferers, but,
as they came to hand, English or French, they were carefully conveyed to
the half-decks of the respective ships, the surgeons of which were in
readiness to receive them, their shirt-sleeves turned up to the elbows,
and hands and arms stained with blood, proving that they had already
been actively employed in the duties of their profession.

On the foremost part of the larboard side of the French frigate's
quarter-deck, where Captain M--- and his crew had boarded, the dead and
dying lay in a heap, the summit of which was level with the tops of the
carronades that they were between; and an occasional low groan from
under the mass, intimated that some were there who were dying more from
the pressure of the other bodies, than from the extent of their own
wounds.

Captain M---, although he had lost much blood, and was still bleeding
profusely, would not leave the deck until he had collected a party to
separate the pile; and many were relieved, who, in a few minutes more,
would have been suffocated.

At the bottom of the heap was the body of the gallant French captain;
and Captain M--- was giving directions to the first-lieutenant to have
it carried below, when Willy, who was earnestly looking about the deck,
brushed up against the latter, who said to him--

"Come, youngster, out of the way, you're no use here."

"Has any one seen my hat?" interrogated the boy, as he obeyed the order,
and removed to a short distance.

"Here it is, my bantam," said one of the boatswain's mates, who had
discovered it as they removed the body of the French captain, under
which it had lain, jammed as flat as a pancake.

"Then it was to you that I was indebted for that well-timed assistance;"
said Captain M---, taking the hat from the boatswain's mate, and
restoring it as well as he could to its former shape before he put it on
Willy's head.

Willy looked up in the captain's face, and smiled assent as he walked
away.

"A good turn is never lost," observed Captain M---; "and the old fable
of the mouse and the lion is constantly recurring to make us humbl