eived from a splinter in the
early part of the action. These gentlemen, who had seemed like demons
only a few minutes before, so earnest were they in the discharge of
their duties, were now as tender and devoted as so many women.

Captain Breaker directed his own officers to return to the deck of the
Bellevite and provide for the wounded there; but they were few in number
compared with those strewed about the deck of the prize. While the
Confederate ship had been unable to discharge her guns, and the officers
were using their utmost exertions to repair the disabled steering
apparatus, the Bellevite had had a brief intermission of the din of
battle, during which the wounded had been carried below where the
surgeon and his mates had attended to their injuries.

It was ascertained that only six men had been killed during the action,
and their silent forms had been laid out in the waist. Seventeen men
were in their berths in the hospital or on the tables of the surgeon,
eight of whom had been wounded by the muskets and revolvers of the enemy
as the ship came alongside the prize. Four others had just been borne to
the cockpit with wounds from pikes and cutlasses.

The loss of the enemy was at least triple that of the Bellevite, a
large number of whom had fallen before the murderous discharge of the
thirty-pounder on the quarter-deck, which had been intended to decimate
the ranks of the loyal boarders; and, raking the column as the men
poured into the ship, it would probably have laid low more than one in
ten of the number. This was an original scheme of Captain Rombold; and
but for the coolness and deliberation of Captain Breaker, and the daring
of his chief officer, it must have been a terrible success. As it was,
the Confederate commander, who was the only foreign officer on board,
"had been hoisted by his own petard."

Christy had done all that required his attention on board of the
Bellevite, and he paid another visit to the deck of the Tallahatchie,
where he desired to obtain some information which would enable him the
better to understand the action which had just been fought. He was
especially anxious to ascertain the condition of the Armstrong gun which
had been disabled by the first shot of Blumenhoff with the midship
Parrot. As he went on deck, he saw Captain Rombold, seated in an
arm-chair his cabin steward had brought up for him, with his right
leg resting on a camp stool.

"Good-morning, Mr. Passford," said