foreseen that an attack upon the ship was inevitable;
and it was after the fight was over that he was severely stabbed in
resisting an attempt on the part of one of the _Francesca's_ crew to
force open his daughters' cabin. Probably the poor man would have been
murdered outright but for the opportune appearance of Mendouca, who
sternly ordered every one of his men out of the cabin, except two, whom
he personally supervised as they executed his order to bind all the
survivors hand and foot and confine them in the cabins. Luckily for the
unfortunate passengers, the first thought of the men had been drink, and
the second, plunder; and by the time that these two appetites had been
satisfied, all thought of further violence had passed out of their
heads.

The first thing now to be done was to find the ship's surgeon--if he
were still alive; so, leaving Maxwell in the cuddy to continue his
lock-picking operations, I sallied out on deck and, first softly calling
to the men aloft that they might now venture to come down, hunted up the
steward, and inquired of him whether he knew where the surgeon was to be
found. He answered that the surgeon, purser, and three mates were all
berthed in the after-house, between the main-mast and the main-hatch,
and that probably the man I wanted would be found there, adding that, as
he believed the pirates had flung all the keys overboard, he would take
the liberty of going into poor Captain Mason's cabin, and bringing me a
bunch of spare keys that he knew were always kept there. This he did,
and, finding the key of the after-house, we entered it together, to find
the unhappy surgeon and purser bound hand and foot, and lashed together
in such a manner that neither of them could move, upon the floor of the
cabin. To release the pair was but the work of a moment; after which,
having directed the doctor to hasten to the cuddy and attend to the
colonel's injuries, I made a survey of the decks with the result that
fourteen more of the _Bangalore's_ crew were found, of whom six were
dead, and eight more or less seriously wounded; the latter were removed
to their bunks in the forecastle forthwith and attended to by Mr Grant,
the surgeon, as soon as he had dressed the wounds of Colonel Maynard and
two other passengers. I may as well say here, to save time, that,
thanks to Grant's skill and unremitting attention, all the wounded were
reported to be doing well and, with the exception of Colonel Mayn