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Lord! but the poor old 'Bully-Sawyer' were in a tight corner then, what wi' the 'Fougeux' to port, the 'Beaucenture' to starboard, and the great Spanisher hammering us astarn, d' ye see.
Good-by!" So he nodded, turned sharp about and went upon his way. Hereupon the Bo'sun shook his head, took off the glazed hat, stared into it, and putting it on again, turned and stumped along beside Barnabas. "The 'Bully-Sawyer, Trafalgar!" murmured the Bo'sun, as they went on side by side; "you've 'eerd o' the 'Bully-Sawyer, Seventy-four, o' course, young sir?"
I heerd the bones o' his hand and arm crack like so many sticks and down he falls atop o' me in a dead faint, sir." "But the t'gallant were stopped, and the life were kept in this here carcase o' mine. So that's how the poor old 'Bully-Sawyer, Seventy-four, were done for that's how his Honor lost his arm, and me my leg, sir.
't were a grand day for us, a grand day for our Nelson, and a grand day for England that twenty-first o' October though 't were that day as they French and Spanishers done for the poor old 'Bully-Sawyer, Seventy-four, and his honor's arm and my leg, d' ye see.
An' now you tell me as you ain't 'eerd o' the Lord, sir!" and the Bo'sun sighed, and shook his head till it was a marvel how the glazed hat kept its position. "Won't you tell me of her, Bo'sun?" "Tell you about the old 'Bully-Sawyer, Seventy-four, ay surely, sir, surely. Ah!
But, Lord! the old 'Bully-Sawyer' never paid no heed, and still the men stood to the guns, and his Honor, the Captain, strolled up and down, chatting to his flag officer.
"Ay, ay," says Jack, with a shake of his round head, "the poor old 'Bully-Sawyer' But, Lord love me! if you be hungry " "Devilish!" said the Viscount, "but first, Jack what's amiss with Clemency?" "Clemency? Why, where be that niece o' mine?" "She's run away, Jack. I found her in tears, and I had scarce said a dozen words to her when hey presto! She's off and away."
The wind were light that day as we bore down on their line in two columns, d' ye see, sir we was in Nelson's column, the weather line 'bout a cable's length astarn o' the 'Victory. On we went, creeping nearer and nearer the 'Victory, the old 'Bully-Sawyer, and the 'Temeraire' and every now and then the Mounseers trying a shot at us to find the range, d' ye see.
"And every minute their fire grew hotter, and their aim truer down came our mizzen-topgallant-mast, and hung down over our quarter; away went our bowsprit but we held on till we struck their line 'twixt the 'Santissima Trinidado' and the 'Beaucenture, and, as we crossed the Spanisher's wake, so close that our yard-arms grazed her gilded starn, up flashed his Honor's sword, 'Now, lads! cried he, hailing the guns and then why then, afore I'd took my whistle from my lips, the old 'Bully-Sawyer, as had been so patient, so very patient, let fly wi' every starboard gun as it bore, slap into the great Spanisher's towering starn, and, a moment arter, her larboard guns roared and flamed as her broadside smashed into the 'Beaucenture, and 'bout five minutes arterwards we fell aboard o' the 'Fougeux, and there we lay, young sir, and fought it out yard-arm to yard-arm, and muzzle to muzzle, so close that the flame o' their guns blackened and scorched us, and we was obliged to heave buckets o' water, arter every discharge, to put out the fire.
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