ms and stood still,
waiting for her to go down; when what did we see but two boats lowered
from the 'Blanche' and dropped into the sea, which was then running
mountains high. _Feu d'enfer!_ they don't know where there is danger and
where not, these English; and that's the reason they seem so brave!
For a minute or two we thought they were swamped, for they were hidden
entirely; then we saw them on the top of a wave, balancing, as it might
be; and again they disappeared, and the huge dark swell seemed to have
swallowed them. And so we strained eyes after them, just as if our own
danger was not as great as theirs; when suddenly a fearful cry for'ed
was heard, and a voice called out. 'She is sinking by the head!'

"And so it was. A crash like falling timber was heard above the storm
and the sea, and the 'Torch' rolled heavily from side to side, and then
plunged bowsprit down, and the boiling surf met over her. There was
a wild yell; some said it was a cheer; I thought it like a drowning
cry,--and I remember no more. That is, I have a kind of horrid dreamy
remembrance of buffeting in the waves, and shaking off a hand that
grasped me by the shoulder, and then feeling the water gathering over me
as I grew more and more exhausted. But the end of it was, I came to
my senses some hours after, and found myself in a hammock on board the
'Blanche,' with twenty-eight of my comrades. All the rest--above two
hundred and fifty--had perished, the captain and the officers among
them.

"The 'Blanche' was under orders for St. Domingo, and was in no way
anxious to have our company; and before a week was over we were drafted
into a small sloop of war, carrying eight guns, and called the 'Fawn,'
She was bound for England with despatches from Nelson,--one of their
English admirals they 're always talking about. This little craft could
sail like the wind, but she was crowded with sick and invalided men from
some foreign station, and there was not a place the size of a dog-kennel
on board of her that was not occupied. As for us, we were only
prisoners, and you may think they were n't very particular about
our comforts; and so they ranged us along under the bulwarks to
leeward,--for they would n't spoil her sailing trim by suffering us to
sit to windward; and there we were, drenched to the skin, and shivering
from day to dark.

"Four days went over in this way, when, on the fifth, about eight
o'clock in the morning, the lookout announced sever