d scarcely crawl on deck, when
Devereux reporting his condition to the surgeon, he was placed in the
sick list. Both his old shipmates, Devereux and O'Grady, attended him
with the fondest care, and he would have discovered, had he possessed
sufficient consciousness, how completely he had wound himself round
their hearts. He had done so, not by being proud, or boastful, or
self-opinionated, or by paying them court, by any readiness to take
offence, or by flattery, or by any other mean device, but by his bravery
and honesty, by his gentleness and liveliness, by his readiness to
oblige, and general good-nature and uprightness, and by being true to
himself and true to others--doing to them as he would be done by. They
became at last very sad--that is to say, as sad as midshipmen in a
dashing frigate, with a good captain, can become during war time; for
they thought that Paul was going to die, and the surgeon gave them no
hopes. No one, however, was more sad than Reuben, who for many a watch
below, when he ought to have been in his own hammock, sat by the side of
his cot, administering the medicines left by the doctor, and tending him
with all a woman's care and tenderness. The thoughts of his friends
were for a time, however, called off from Paul by an event which brought
all hands on deck--the appearance of a strange sail, pronounced to be a
French frigate equal in size to the _Proserpine_. All sail was made in
chase. The ship was cleared for action, and Paul with other sick was
carried into the cockpit to be out of the way of shot. The gunner went
to the magazine to send up powder; the carpenter and his mates to the
wings, with plugs, to stop any shot-holes between wind and water; and
the various other officers, commissioned and warrant, repaired to their
respective posts. Paul had sufficiently recovered to know what was
about to take place, and to wish to be on deck.

"Couldn't you let me go, doctor--only just while the action is going
on?" he murmured out. "I'll come back, and go to bed, and do all you
tell me--indeed I will."

"I am sorry to say that you could be of no use, my brave boy, and would
certainly injure yourself very much; so you must stay where you are,"
answered the surgeon, who was busy in getting out the implements of his
calling. "You will have many opportunities of fighting and taking other
prizes besides the one which will, I hope, soon be ours."

The remarks of the surgeon were soon cut