ent he is
stupified by the shock of the blow, but, in a few minutes, he will
probably ask for water, or wine and water; I wish, sir, you would indulge
him in his wishes, for you can have no duty to call you on deck. This will
be a lucky hit for Clements, who will run off with more than half the
credit of the battle, though I fancy the Frenchman has as much as he
wants already."

And so it turned out, literally, in the end. About twenty minutes after I
went below, during which time the Briton did most of the fighting, we
heard the cheer of victory on deck. These sounds appeared to cause the
wounded man to revive.

"What means that, Wallingford?" he asked in a stronger voice than I could
have thought it possible for him to use, "What do these cheers mean, my
young friend?"

"They mean, Captain Rowley, that you have conquered--that you are master
of the French frigate."

"Master!--am I master of my own life? Of what use is victory to me, now? I
shall die--die soon, Wallingford, and there will be an end of it, all! My
poor wife will call this a melancholy victory."

Alas! what I could say? These words were only too true as respects
himself, and, I dare say, as respected his wife, also. Die he did, and in
my presence, and that calmly, with all his senses about him; but, I could
see, he had his doubts whether a little lustre like that which attended
his end, was fulfilling all the objects of his being. The near view of
death places a man on a moral eminence, whence he commands prospects
before and behind, on each side and on every side, enabling him to
overlook the whole scene of life from its commencement to its close, and
to form an opinion of his own place in a drama that is about to close.
Like many of those who exhibit themselves for our amusement, and to
purchase our applause, he is only too apt to quit the stage less satisfied
with his own performances, than the thoughtless multitude, who, regarding
merely the surfaces of things, are too often loudest in their approbation
when there is the least to praise.

I shall pass over the next ten days, with a very brief allusion to their
events. The first proof I had of Mr. Clements being commanding officer,
was my being transferred from the cabin to the gun-room. It is true, there
was no want of space in my new apartment, for officering and manning the
prize had left several state-rooms vacant in the Briton's gun-room, which
fell to the shares of the French prisoners an