ll; but we fought better, and
at length both struck, and our boats were sent on board to take
possession I never before had witnessed such a scene as that I saw on
board the `Ca Ira.' On her decks lay three hundred brave fellows, dead
or dying, or badly wounded, besides those she had lost the day before,
while the `Censeur' had lost three hundred and fifty. Our captain
wanted to follow up the enemy, and it's my belief, if we had, we should
have taken every one of them; but the admiral would not let him, and
said we had done very well as it was. So we had; but, you see, our
captain was the man who always wanted to do something better than well.
_Do well_ sits on the main-top--_Do better_ climbs to the truck.

"The `Agamemnon' had been so knocked about, that the captain now shifted
his flag into the `Minerva' frigate, and took me and many other men with
him. One of our first duties was to carry off the English garrison and
privateers and merchantmen from Corsica, which had declared for the
French. We soon afterwards fought several actions with the enemy, and
then war broke out between England and Spain, and we had a narrow escape
from an overwhelming force of Spanish ships. We had just sailed from
Gibraltar, when two Spanish line-of-battle ships followed us. We were
keeping pretty well ahead when a man fell overboard. To let a man drown
without trying to help him was against our captain's nature. A
jolly-boat, commanded by Lieutenant Hardy, was lowered, and away she
pulled to try and pick up the poor fellow. The boat was within range of
the enemy's guns: the man was not to be seen. The captain had been
anxiously watching all that took place. `I'll not lose Hardy,' he
exclaimed. `Back the main-topsail!' No order was ever obeyed more
readily, and soon we were dropping back towards our boat, and towards
the enemy. We fully expected to be brought to action, but we did not
care for that; we got back Mr Hardy and our boat, when what was our
astonishment to see the headmost Spaniard shorten sail to wait for his
consort. There can be no doubt he thought we had assistance not far
off. The Spaniards were very timid of us in those days--they had good
reason to be so. With flying colours we sailed out of the Straits,
laughing at our enemy.

"Both officers and men were constantly being shifted from ship to ship
in those days; and, as soon as we reached Cadiz we found ourselves
transferred to the `Captain,' a fine se