rpses lay smoking in the remnants of
their clothes, emitting an overpowering ammoniacal stench. Some were
only wounded in the arm or leg; but the scathed member was shrivelled
up, and they were borne down the hatchway, howling with intolerable
pain. The most awful effects were at the guns. The captains of the two
carronades, and several men that were near them, were dead--but had not
the equipoise of the bodies been lost by the violent motion of the ship,
their dreadful fate would not have been immediately perceived. Not an
injury appeared--every muscle was fixed to the same position as when the
fluid entered--the same expression of countenance, the eye like life, as
it watched the sight on the gun, the body bent forward, the arm
extended, the fingers still holding the lanyard attached to the lock.
Nothing but palpable evidence could convince one that they were dead.

The boy attending with his powder-box, upon which he had sat by the
directions of the captain of the gun, was desired by Captain M--- to
jump up and assist the men in carrying down the wounded. He sat still
on his box, supported between the capstan and the stanchions of the
companion hatchway, his eyes apparently fixed upon the captain, but not
moving in obedience to the order, although repeated in an angry tone.
He was dead!

During the confusion attending this catastrophe, the guns had been
deserted. As soon as the wounded men had been taken below, the captain
desired the boatswain to pipe to quarters, for the drummer, when called
to beat the "fire-roll," had been summoned to his last account. The
guns were again manned, and the firing recommenced; but a want of
energy, and the melancholy silence which prevailed, evidently showed
that the men, although they obeyed, did not obey cheerfully.

"Another pull of the fore-staysail, Mr Hardsett," cried Captain
M--- through his speaking-trumpet.

"Ay, ay, sir; clap on him, my lads," replied the boatswain, holding his
call between his teeth, as he lent the assistance of his powerful frame
to the exertions of the men. The sheet was aft, and belayed, and the
boatswain indulged in muttered quotations from the Scriptures:--"He
bringeth forth the clouds from the ends of the world, and sendeth forth
lightnings, with rain; bringing the winds out of his treasuries. He
smote the first-born of Egypt."

The first-lieutenant and master were in close consultation to windward.
The captain stood at the lee-gangway