ntained in
the berth, restored order.

This scene took place on the first evening that the members of the berth
all met together.

The frigate was now standing down between the mainland and the wooded
shores of the Isle of Wight. Calshot Castle--then held as a fortress,
with a governor and a garrison--was seen on the right. On the left hand
was the little town of Cowes, surrounded by woods, among which, here and
there, a few cottages peeped out. Then Lymington became visible on the
Hampshire shore, and, beyond it, the long shingly beach of Hurst. Many
eyes on board were turned in that direction. Lord Reginald and Voules,
using their spy-glasses, thought that they could catch a distant view of
the hall, while forward, Dick Hargrave, Ben, and several other men were
turning their gaze on well-known spots. Dick felt more sad than he had
done since he came on board. He was thinking how anxious his father,
mother, and poor Janet would be about him; even should Mrs Simmons have
conveyed his message to them, they would only know that he had been
carried off in the tender, and would remain ignorant of the ship on
board which he had been sent. He had not written, for he possessed
neither pens, ink, nor paper, and would have found it a difficult matter
to indite an epistle with the uproar going on around him. Poor Dick
gazed on until the tears came to his eyes. Though it was greatly owing
to his own fault that he was being carried away from home and those he
loved, he was not the less to be commiserated. While he thus stood,
scarcely conscious of what was going on around him, Lord Reginald, who
had been sent forward with a message to the third lieutenant on some
duty, passed him.

"What makes you stand idling there, boy?" exclaimed the midshipman,
looking at him as if he had never seen him before, giving him a blow
with the end of a rope. "You have no business on deck; go and attend to
your duty below."

Dick's first impulse was to raise his arm to defend himself. It was
with difficulty he could refrain from retaliating.

"I have no duty that I know of to attend to, and I have a right to look
towards yonder shore, which neither you nor I may see for some time to
come," he answered. "What! You are a sea lawyer, are you?" exclaimed
Lord Reginald, angrily, Dick's words adding intensity to the vindictive
feelings he already entertained towards him.

"I'll report you to the first lieutenant, and he'll soon find me