d awakened, after a stupor of some hours, on board a British
man-of-war. In a few hours, he was conveyed out to sea, along with
several others, and was conveyed immediately to Spithead. Having it
ultimately put to his choice whether he would stand by a gun, or handle
a musket and a sabre, he chose the former, and was regularly entered as
an ablebodied seaman on board His Majesty's ship the Victory. In her,
along with Admiral Nelson, he sailed for the West Indies, and then
crossed the Atlantic, back to the shores of France. The enemy still
eluding the eagle-eye of Lord Nelson, he sailed for the Mediterranean,
and, after various landings and inquiries, came upon the French fleet,
moored closely inland on the coast of Egypt, at the mouth of the Nile.
He was in the dreadful battle of the Nile, and assisted in rescuing
several who were blown up, but not killed, in the L'Orient. After the
battle, he had promotion, and ultimately prize-money, on account of his
brave and humane conduct, and sailed again for Naples, and latterly in
quest of the Spanish fleet on the coast of Spain. He was close by Nelson
when he was shot by a rifleman from the mast of the ship with which he
had grappled, and saw the fellow who did the deed drop on the deck,
being shot through the heart by a marine on board of Lord Nelson's ship.
After the battle, he was returned to Plymouth, having been wounded in
the leg--a musket-ball had passed through the flesh, and somewhat, but
not greatly, injured the bone. He spent some months in the hospital, and
was then despatched to the coast of France on board the Spitfire. There
he had distinguished himself in cutting out and burning several of the
enemy's craft at Havre; and being again wounded, though slightly, in the
arm, he was put upon the pension list, and allowed to dispose of himself
till his country should again require his services. In these
circumstances, he began to think of his home; and, with some hundreds of
pounds in the bank, and a pension order of about two shillings and
sixpence a-day in his pocket, he arrived at Dundee in a sailing vessel,
and was on his way to his _native glen_ when the reader first became
acquainted with him. When this narrative was finished, his father
retired for an instant, and then appeared with some papers, which he had
extracted from his private depositories. He first read a letter which
purported to come from a king's officer, who signed himself William
Wilson, and who inf