istol-shot. From this awful spectacle Perry turned to speak to
the captain of a gun, when the conversation was abruptly cut short by
a shot which killed the seaman instantly. Perry returned to the
quarter-deck. The first lieutenant came rushing up, his face bloody,
and his nose swelled to an enormous size from a splinter which had
perforated it. "All the officers in my division are killed," he cried.
"For God's sake, give me more!" Perry sent some men to his aid; but
they soon fell, and the cry for more men arose again. One of the
surgeons who served in the cock-pit on that dreadful day states, that,
in the midst of the roar of battle, Perry's voice was heard calling
down the hatchway, and asking any surgeon's mates who could be spared,
to come on deck and help work the guns. Several went up; but the
appeal was soon repeated, and more responded. When no more men could
be obtained, the voice of the commodore took a pleading tone. "Can any
of the wounded pull a rope?" said he; and such was his ascendency over
the men, that several poor mangled fellows dragged themselves on deck,
and lent their feeble strength to the working of the guns.

[Illustration: Commodore Perry At The Battle Of Lake Erie.]

Amid all the carnage, the sailors were quick to notice the lighter
incidents of the fray. Even the cock-pit, filled with the wounded, and
reeking with blood that dripped through the cracks in the deck above,
once resounded with laughter as hearty as ever greeted a middy's
after-dinner joke in the steerage. Lieut. Yarnall received a bad
scalp-wound, which fairly drenched his face with blood. As he groped
his way towards the cock-pit he passed a lot of hammocks stuffed with
"cat-tails" which had been stowed on the bulwarks. The feathery down
of the "cat-tails" filled the air, and settled thick upon the head and
face of the officer, robbing his countenance of all semblance to a
human face. As he descended the ladder to the cock-pit, his owl-like
air roused the wounded to great shouts of laughter. "The Devil has
come among us," they cried.

[Illustration: Perry's Victory--the Battle Of Lake Erie. September 10,
1813 Copyright, 1893, By C. Klackner.]

While talking to his little brother, Perry to his horror saw the lad
fall at his feet, dashed to the deck by an unseen missile. The
commodore's agony may be imagined; but it was soon assuaged, for the
boy was only stunned, and was soon fighting again at his post. The
second lieutenan