nd steam.

Hermann Heideck had become so thoroughly familiar in India with the
horrors of war on land in their various forms, that he believed his
nerves were completely proof against the horrible sight of death and
devastation. But the scenes which were being enacted around him in
the comparatively narrow space of the magnificent flagship during this
engagement, far surpassed in their awfulness everything that he had
hitherto seen. Heideck was full of admiration for the heroic courage,
contempt of death, and discipline of officers and men, not one of whom
stirred a foot from the post assigned him.

As he only played the part of an inactive spectator in the drama that
had now reached its climax, he was able to move freely over the ship.
Wherever he went, the same spectacle of horrible destruction and heroic
devotion to duty everywhere met his eye.

The men serving the guns in the turrets and casemates were enduring the
pains of hell. In the low, ironclad chambers a fiery heat prevailed,
which rendered even breathing difficult. The terrific noise and the
superhuman excitement of the nerves seemed to have so dulled the men's
senses, that they no longer had any clear idea of what was going on
around them. Their faces did not wear that expression of rage and
exasperation, which Heideck had seen in so many soldiers in the land
battle at Lahore; rather, he observed a certain dull indifference, which
could no longer be shaken by the horror of the situation.

A shell struck a battery before Heideck's eyes, exploded, and with its
flying splinters struck down nearly all the men serving the guns.
Happy were those who found death at once; for the injuries of those who
writhed wounded on the ground were of a frightful nature. The red-hot
pieces of iron, which tore the unhappy men's flesh and shattered their
bones, at the same time inflicted fearful burns upon them. Indeed,
Heideck would have regarded it as an act of humanity to have been
allowed with a shot from a well-aimed revolver, to put an end to the
sufferings of this or that unfortunate, whose skin and flesh hung in
shreds from his body, or whose limbs were transformed into shapeless,
bloody masses.

But those who had escaped injury, after a few moments' stupefaction,
resumed their duty with the same mechanical precision as before. Amidst
their dead and dying comrades, about whom nobody could trouble himself
for the moment, they stood in the pools of warm, human blood, w