with the receipt of this sad news, orders arrived to fire
minute-guns for the deceased head of the naval department. Upon this
occasion the gunner was more than usually ceremonious, in seeing that
the long twenty-fours were thoroughly loaded and rammed down, and then
accurately marked with chalk, so as to be discharged in undeviating
rotation, first from the larboard side, and then from the starboard.

But as my ears hummed, and all my bones danced in me with the
reverberating din, and my eyes and nostrils were almost suffocated with
the smoke, and when I saw this grim old gunner firing away so solemnly,
I thought it a strange mode of honouring a man's memory who had himself
been slaughtered by a cannon. Only the smoke, that, after rolling in at
the port-holes, rapidly drifted away to leeward, and was lost to view,
seemed truly emblematical touching the personage thus honoured, since
that great non-combatant, the Bible, assures us that our life is but a
vapour, that quickly passeth away.

CHAPTER XXXII.

A DISH OF DUNDERFUNK.

In men-of-war, the space on the uppermost deck, round about the
main-mast, is the Police-office, Court-house, and yard of execution,
where all charges are lodged, causes tried, and punishment
administered. In frigate phrase, to be _brought up to the mast_, is
equivalent to being presented before the grand-jury, to see whether a
true bill will be found against you.

From the merciless, inquisitorial _baiting_, which sailors, charged
with offences, too often experience _at the mast_, that vicinity is
usually known among them as the _bull-ring_.

The main-mast, moreover, is the only place where the sailor can hold
formal communication with the captain and officers. If any one has been
robbed; if any one has been evilly entreated; if any one's character
has been defamed; if any one has a request to present; if any one has
aught important for the executive of the ship to know--straight to the
main-mast he repairs; and stands there--generally with his hat
off--waiting the pleasure of the officer of the deck, to advance and
communicate with him. Often, the most ludicrous scenes occur, and the
most comical complaints are made.

One clear, cold morning, while we were yet running away from the Cape,
a raw boned, crack-pated Down Easter, belonging to the Waist, made his
appearance at the mast, dolefully exhibiting a blackened tin pan,
bearing a few crusty traces of some sort of a sea-pie, whi