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All this was, however, but the work of a few minutes. Most of the Frenchmen were killed; our own wounded amounted to only nine seamen and Mr Chucks, the boatswain, who was shot through the body, apparently with little chance of surviving. As Mr Phillott observed, the captain's epaulettes had made him a mark for the enemy, and he had fallen in his borrowed plumes.
In the morning watch a similar circumstance took place. Mr Phillott, went down, and said that several of the convoy were out of sight astern. "Shall we heave-to, Captain Horton?" "O no," replied he, "she will be so uneasy. Let me know if you lose sight of any more." In another hour, the first lieutenant reported that "there were very few to be seen."
There is no twilight: he descends in glory, surrounded with clouds of gold and rubies in their gorgeous tints; and once below the horizon, all is dark. As soon as it was dark, we hauled our wind off shore; and a consultation being held between the captain, Mr Phillott, and O'Brien, the captain at last decided that the attempt should be made.
"Why, didn't you say that the bill had been sent in, through you, seven or eight times, and that the captain had paid it with a flowing sheet?" "Did you dare say that, sir?" interrogated the captain, very angrily. "Mr Phillott mistook me, sir," replied the steward. "He was so busy damning the sweepers, that he did not hear me right.
When I went on deck, I found that the shark had just been hooked, and was hauling on board. Mr Phillott had also come on deck. The officers were all eager about the shark, and were looking over the side, calling to each other, and giving directions to the men.
That the Frenchmen might not suppose that they had taken such good aim, we turned up our hands to reef topsails; and by the time that the men were off the yards, the ties were spliced, and the topsails run up again." Mr Phillott could not stand this most enormous fib, and he replied, "Very odd, indeed, Captain Kearney: but I have known a stranger circumstance.
As Mr Phillott wished to hear the end of the captain's story, he would not contradict him this time, by stating what he knew to be the case, that the captain had sent it on board at Barbadoes; and the captain proceeded. "Well, I gave up my cabin to the old lady, and hung up my cot in the gun-room during the passage home. "We were becalmed abreast of Ceuta for two days.
Now, although certainly there was a want of decorum on the quarter-deck, still the captain having given permission, it was to be excused, but Mr Phillott thought otherwise, and commenced in his usual style, beginning with the marine officer. "Mr Westley, I'll trouble you not to be getting upon the hammocks. You'll get off directly, sir.
"How the devil do you get them over, Captain Kearney?" "There are ways and means of doing everything, Mr Phillott, and the First Consul is not quite so bad as he is represented. The first batch was sent over with a very handsome letter to me, written in his own hand, which I will show you some of these days.
"Starboard the helm, Mr Phillott; keep away four points, and then we will think of it to-night." The frigate was now kept away, and ran out of the fire of the battery. It was then about an hour before sunset, and in the West Indies the sun does not set as it does in the northern latitudes.
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