amid a black smoke
that filled the air on every side. Every man about dropped wounded
or terrified on the deck, where they lay amid the falling fire of the
wreck, and the terrible carnage. I wiped the blood from my eyes, for
I was bleeding profusely from a splinter cut, and looked about me. The
deck was a mass of dead and dying; their piercing cries and groans were
maddening to hear. The frigate, however, was flying fast through the
water; the 'Fawn' was gone!"

"_Tete-bleue!_ he blew her up?" said three or four in a breath.

Paul nodded, and resumed:--

"Ay, Comrades, and the half-dozen of her crew who stood alive on our
quarterdeck cheered the explosion as if it was a victory; and one
fellow, as he lay bleeding on the planks, cried out, 'See, there; look,
if our gay flag is not high above yours, as it always will be! 'And that
time he was right, for the spar that bore it was nigh the clouds.

"Well, to finish my story: In eight days we made Brest, and all of us
who were wounded were sent on shore to the naval hospital. A sorry set
we were; most of us disabled by splinter-wounds, and many obliged to
suffer amputation. I was about again sooner than the rest, and was sent
for one morning on board the admiral's ship, to give some account of the
'Fawn,' of which they never could hear enough; and when I came to that
part where I made my escape, they all began a-laughing at my stopping
to take up a book at such a moment. And one of the lieutenants said,
jokingly,--

"'Well, Paul, I suppose it was the Englishman's breviary saved your
life, was n't it?'

"'No, Lieutenant,' said I; 'but you 'd be mighty proud this day to have
that same breviary in your possession.'

"'How so, good fellow?' said the admiral himself, old Villaret Joyeuse,
who always talked like one of ourselves. 'What is this book, then, that
is so precious?'

"'I 'll show it you, sir, because I 've no fear of foul play at your
hands; but there's not another man of the fleet I 'd let see it,' And
with that I took it out of my breast, where I always carried it, and
gave it to him. Ah! if you'd seen his face,--how it flushed up as he
turned over the leaves, and how his eyes sparkled with fire!

"'Paul Dupont,' said he, 'are you aware what this is?'

"'Yes, Admiral,' said I, 'as well as you are.'

"'Your fortune's made, then, my brave fellow,' said he, slapping me on
the shoulder. 'The finest frigate in the English navy is a less prize
than this.'