all over and apparently out of his wits.
The doctor ordered him to be put into a hammock in the sick-bay.

Sam, however, first got him washed and cleaned, and gave him some food,
which considerably revived him. After this, when Gipples came to
himself, Sam administered a severe lecture to him for his cowardice.

"But you, Sam--you're afraid, I'm sure, Sam," whimpered the culprit.

"No, I not afraid," he answered indignantly; "but why for I go lose my
head or arm, when I get noding for it? I am paid to play the fiddle and
help the cook. I do my duty and keep out of harm's way. You, Gipples,
are paid to be shot--you must stay where the shot comes, or you not do
your duty. There all de difference."

"Then I'll try and get a rating where I needn't stop and be shot!" cried
Gipples, as if a bright idea had seized him. "If I can't, I'll cut and
run. I can't stand it--that I can't."

Had not the doctor reported the boy Gipples as having met with an
accident, he would have been severely flogged for not having been at his
quarters. As it was, he escaped without further punishment; but he got
the name from his messmates of "Gregory Coal-hole."

The ship without further adventure reached Portsmouth. At this time, in
spite of the destruction of so many ships and magazines at Toulon, the
French Republic was preparing an armament so great that she hoped to be
able at once to crush with it the fleets of Old England. The British
Government, however, had not been idle; and a superb fleet of
thirty-four line-of-battle ships, and numerous frigates, under Lord
Howe, lay at Portsmouth ready to sail to meet the enemy.

Besides fighting, the Admiral had, however, two important objects in
view. One was to intercept a convoy of some three hundred and fifty
merchant vessels coming from the ports of the United States, laden with
provisions and the produce of the West India Islands for the supply of
the people of France, who were threatened with starvation for the want
of them; the other object was to see the British East and West India and
Newfoundland convoys clear of the Channel, where they might be
intercepted by French cruisers.

The _Ruby_ was attached to Lord Howe's squadron. It was a magnificent
sight, when, on the morning of the 2nd of May 1794, a fleet of one
hundred and forty-eight sail collected at Saint Helen's, of which
forty-nine were ships of war, weighed by signal, and with the wind at
north-east, stood out from