yard
arm, and taken down and round the deck, so that every man may help to
pull.

Bang! A great gun is fired from the flagship. The sound thrills through
every heart, and every eye is turned towards the _Marlborough's_
cat-head. The rope trembles, is tightened, and finally--there is an end.

The mutiny is nipped in the bud, and the fleet is saved.

But thus it must ever be. Mutiny is a monster that must be crushed by
the iron heel of force, ere yet it is fully hatched.

* * * * *

Jack was not sorry when all was over and the boats returned to their
respective ships. To relieve his mind he went to see Murray. The poor
boy smiled feebly, and held out his white worn hand to clasp that of
Jack.

"I've been thinking of home, and my little sweetheart, sir."

"Have you a little sweetheart?"

"Yes; look!"

He took out a miniature from his breast--one of the sweetest young faces
Jack had ever seen.

"That is why I don't want to die, sir."

Jack heaved a sigh. But after this all the spare time he had he passed
by the side of young Murray's cot. And now came the terrible bombardment
of Cadiz.

CHAPTER XV.

BEFORE CADIZ.

"For honour, glory, and the laws,
Is native courage given;
And he who fights his country's cause,
Fights in the cause of Heaven."--DIBDIN.

It may be doubted whether the awful bombardment of Cadiz was a necessity
of war. A bombardment is always a cruel undertaking, and often seems
positively cowardly. But Sir John had one particular reason of his own,
independent of exigency, for this cannonade. There was still a
smouldering fire of disaffection among the seamen of the fleet, and he
therefore determined to keep the sailors busy. Busy with a terrible
busy-ness surely, for day and night, night and day, the firing went on,
while many a daring cutting-out expedition was organized; and in some of
these, deeds of heroism were accomplished that the British nation may
well be proud of, even till this day. In one of these, during a boat
action, Nelson himself was overpowered, and narrowly escaped being
slain. But for his coxswain, who twice or thrice interposed his own body
betwixt the swords of the assailants and the commodore, the battle of
the Nile would never have been fought.[C]

[C] This man was for his gallantry promoted to be a gunner, and not long
afterwards was killed at his gun.

In the cutting-out expeditions and boat a