g lady,
who followed eagerly, not knowing where she was going. All her thoughts
and feelings were concentrated on her father. We placed him on the
sofa, and I then went and called the surgeon to attend him. Mr
Blister's knowledge of his profession was very slight, and his practical
experience limited; but still he had some notion of binding up a wound,
and, at all events, he would treat a patient more gently than any of the
rough hands belonging to the schooner.

While what I have described was going on, the second officer, with a
dozen men under him, had been directed to clew-up the brig's sails, so
as to let her drop as much as possible astern of the rest of the fleet,
no others appearing to be following. This had been done; and we had
hopes that the flash of the pistols had not been seen, or the reports
heard by any of the vessels in advance.

Having obeyed the orders, I again went on board the brig. The deck was
now entirely in our possession. While some of our people were silencing
several of the French crew, who still madly held out below, I followed
the captain into the cabin. While we had been fighting on deck, others
of our crew had found their way there, and, mad with rage at the
opposition they had encountered, had spared neither age nor sex. I
cannot venture to describe the scene of horror and confusion. There
were several ladies, and their attendants, and children--among them,
infants in arms, or just able to lisp their parents' names. Already
they were in the power of my ruffian companions. Shrieks of despair,
cries for mercy rose from among them. Tables and chairs, and furniture
of all sorts, lay broken on the door. Several dead bodies lay at the
entrance of the cabin--officers, as was shown by their uniform; another
lay leaning against the bulkhead, gasping out his last breath. We had
discovered enough to show us why our capture was so crowded with people.
She was a merchantman, in which the governor of one of the islands,
together with his staff and their families, had taken their passage,
while a body of soldiers had likewise been put on board.

Captain Savage, to do him justice, when he found that the brig was
completely in his power, did his best to rescue her unfortunate
prisoners from further molestation, though in this he was but ill
seconded by his officers. Rushing in among the men, he ordered them on
deck, and to carry the dead bodies with them. One man refused to obey
him.