A Pirate of the Caribbees

  Produced by Nick Hodson of London, England

  A Pirate of the Caribbees

  By Harry Collingwood________________________________________________________________________A very well-written book about the efforts of a young officer,Courtenay, to bring to book a wicked pirate, Morillo. It all seems verylikely and believable, despite the usual ration of shipwrecks, captures,hurricanes, founderings, and so forth.

  Makes a very good audiobook. NH.

  ________________________________________________________________________A PIRATE OF THE CARIBBEES

  BY HARRY COLLINGWOOD

  CHAPTER ONE.

  A FRIGATE FIGHT IN MID-ATLANTIC.

  "Eight bells, there, sleepers; d'ye hear the news?--Rouse and bitt, myhearties! Show a leg! Eight bells, Courtenay! and Keene says he willbe much obliged if you will relieve him as soon as possible!"

  These words, delivered in a tone of voice that was a curious alternationof a high treble with a preternaturally deep bass--due to the fact thatthe speaker's voice was "breaking"--and accompanied by the recklessbanging of a tin pannikin upon the deal table that adorned themidshipmen's berth of H.M. frigate _Althea_, instantly awoke me to thedisagreeable consciousness that my watch below had come to an end,especially as the concluding portion of the harangue was addressed to mepersonally, and accompanied by a most uncompromising thump upon the sideof my hammock. So I surlily growled an answer--

  "All right, young 'un; there's no occasion to make all that hideous row!Just see if you can make yourself useful by finding Black Peter, willyou, and telling him to brew some coffee."

  The lad was turning away to do my bidding when a pattering of naked feetbecame audible as their owner approached, while a husky voiceejaculated--

  "Who's dat axin' for Brack Petah? Was it you, Mistah Courtenay?" Andat the same instant the shining, good-natured, grinning visage of agigantic negro appeared in the narrow doorway, through which the fellowinstantly passed into the berth, bearing a big pot of steaming hotcoffee.

  "Ay, you black demon, I it was," answered I. "Is that coffee you havethere? Then find my cup and fill it, there's a good fellow, and I'llowe you a glass of grog."

  "Hi, yi!" answered the black, his eyes sparkling and his teeth gleaminghilariously, "who you call `brack demon,' eh, sah? Who eber hear ofbrack demon turnin' out at four o'clock in de mornin' to make coffee foryoung gentermen, eh? And about de grog, Mistah Courtenay; how manyglasses do dis one make dat you now owe me, eh, sah? Ansah me dat, sah.You don' keep no account, I expec's, sah, but _I_ do. Dis one makesseben, Mistah Courtenay, and I'd be much obleege, sah, if you'd pay someof dem off. It am all bery well to say you'll _owe_ 'em to me, sah, butwhat's de use ob dat if you don' nebber _pay_ me, eh?"

  "_Pay_ you, you rascal?" shouted I, as I sprang to the deck and beganhastily to scramble into my clothes, "do you mean to say that you havethe impudence to actually expect to _be paid_? Is it not honour andreward enough that a gentleman condescends to become _indebted_ to you?Pay, indeed! why, what is the world coming to, I wonder?"

  "Bravo, Courtenay, well spoken!" shouted young Lindsay, the lad who hadso ruthlessly interrupted my slumbers, "how well you express yourself;you ought to be in Parliament, man! Give it him again; bring him to hisbearings. The impudence of the fellow is getting to be past endurance!Now then, you black swab, where's the sugar? Do you suppose we candrink that stuff without sugar?"

  After a search of some duration the sugar was eventually found in alocker, in loving contiguity to an open box of blacking, some bootbrushes, a box of candles, a few fragments of brown windsor,--one ofwhich had somehow found its way into the bowl,--and a few other fragranttrifles. In my haste to get on deck, and betrayed by the feeble lightof the purser's dip, which just sufficed to render the darkness visible,I managed to convey this stray morsel of soap into my coffee along withthe sugar wherewith I intended to sweeten it, and only discovered what Ihad done barely in time to avoid gulping down the soap along with thescalding liquid into which I had plunged it. A midshipman, however,soon loses all sense of squeamishness, so I contented myself withmuttering a sea blessing upon the head of the unknown individual who haddeposited this "matter in the wrong place," and dashed up the hatchwayto relieve the impatient Keene.

  I shivered and instinctively buttoned my jacket closely about me as Istepped out on deck, for, mild and bland as the temperature actuallywas, it felt raw and chill after the close, stifling atmosphere of themidshipman's berth. It was very dark, for it was only just past thedate of the new moon, and the thin silver sickle--which was all that thecoy orb then showed of herself--had set some hours before; moreover,there was a thin veil of mist or sea fog hanging upon the surface of thewater, through which only a few of the brighter stars could be faintlydistinguished near the zenith. There was no wind--it had fallen calmthe night before about sunset, and we were in the Horse latitudes--andthe frigate was rolling uneasily upon a short, steep swell that had comecreeping up out from the north-east during the middle watch, theprecursor, as we hoped, of the north-east trades--for we were in thevery heart of the North Atlantic, and bound to the West Indies. I dulyreceived the anathemas of my shipmate Keene at my tardy appearance ondeck, hurled a properly spirited retort after him down the hatchway, andthen made my way up the poop ladder to tramp out my watch on the leeside of the deck--if there can be such a thing as a lee side when thereis no wind.

  It was dreary work, this tramping fore and aft, fore and aft, withnothing whatever to engage the attention, and nothing to do. Itherefore eagerly watched for, and hailed with delight, the first faintpallid brightening of the eastern sky that heralded the dawn; for withdaylight there would at least be the ship's toilet to make--the decks toholystone and scrub, brasswork and guns to clean and polish, thepaintwork to wash, sheets and braces to flemish-coil, and mayhapsomething to see, as well as the possibility that with the rising of thesun we might get a small slant of wind to push us a few miles nearer tothe region where the trade wind was merrily blowing.

  The dawn came slowly--or perhaps it merely _seemed_ to my impatience todo so--and with daylight the mist that had hung about the ship all nightthickened into a genuine, unmistakable fog, so thick that when standingby the break of the poop it was impossible to see as far as the jib-boomend.

  The fog made Mr Hennesey, our second lieutenant and the officer of thewatch, uneasy,--as well it might, for we were in the early spring of theyear 1805, and Great Britain was at war with France, Spain, and Holland,at that time the three most formidable naval powers in the world, nextto ourselves, and the chances were that every second ship we might meetwould be an enemy,--and at length, just as seven bells were beingstruck, he turned to me and said--

  "Mr Courtenay, you have good eyes; just jump up on to the main-royalyard, will you, and take a look round. This fog packs close, but I donot believe it reaches as high as our mastheads, and I feel curious toknow whether anything has drifted within sight of us during the night."

  I touched my hat, and forthwith made my way into the main rigging, gladof even a journey aloft to break the dismal monotony of the blind, grey,stirless morning, and in due time swung myself up on to the slenderyard, the sail of which had been clewed up but not furled. But, alas!the worthy second luff was mistaken for once in his life; it was everywhit as thick up there as it was down on deck, and not a thing could Isee but the fore and mizzenmasts, with their intricacies of standing andrunning rigging, their tapering yards, and their broad spaces of wet anddrooping canvas, hanging limp and looming spectrally through the ghostlymist-wreaths. I was about to hail the deck and report the failure of myexperimental journey, but was checked in the very act by feelingsomething like a faint stir in the damp, heavy air about me;
anothermoment and a dim yellow smudge became visible on the port beam, which Ipresently recognised as the newly risen sun struggling to pierce withhis beams the ponderous masses of white vapour that were now slowlyworking as though stirred by some subtle agency. By imperceptibledegrees the pallid vision of the sun brightened and strengthened, andpresently I became conscious of a faint but distinct movement of the airfrom off the port quarter, to which the cloths of the sail against whichmy feet dangled responded with a gentle rustling movement.

  "On deck, there!" I shouted, "it is still as thick as a hedge up here,sir, but it seems inclined to clear, and I believe we are going to havea breeze out from the north-east presently."

  "So much the better," answered the second luff, ignoring the first halfof my communication; "stay where you are a little longer, if you please,Mr Courtenay."

  "Ay, ay, sir!" answered I, settling myself more comfortably upon theyard. And while the words were still upon my lips the stagnant airabout me once more stirred, the great spaces of canvas beneath meswelled sluggishly out with a small pattering of reef-points from thethree topsails, and a gentle creak of truss and parrel, as the strain ofthe filling canvas came upon the yards; and I saw the brightening discof the sun begin to sweep round until it bore broad upon our larboardquarter. Then some sharp words of command from the poop, in MrHennesey's well-known tones,--dulcet as those of a bullfrog with a badcold,--came floating up to me, followed by the shrill notes of theboatswain's pipe and his hoarse bellow of, "Hands make sail!" A fewminutes of orderly confusion down on deck and on the yards below me nowensued, and when it ceased the _Althea_ was running square away beforethe languid but slowly strengthening breeze, with studding-sails set onboth sides.

  Meanwhile the log was gradually clearing, for it was now possible to seeto a distance of fully three lengths of the ship on either hand, beforethe curling and sweeping wreaths of vapour shut out the tiny dancingripples that seemed to be merrily racing the ship to port and starboard.Occasionally a break or clear space in the fog-bank swept down upon andovertook us, when it would be possible to see for a distance of aquarter of a mile for a few seconds; then it would thicken again and beas blinding as ever. But every break that came was wider than the onethat preceded it, showing that the windward edge of the bank was rapidlydrawing down after us; and as these breaks occurred indifferently oneither side of, or sometimes on both sides at once, with now and then aclear space right astern to give a spice of variety to the proceedings,my eyes, as may be guessed, were kept pretty busy.

  At length an opening, very considerably wider than any that had thus farreached us, came sweeping down upon our starboard quarter, and as Ipeered into it, endeavouring to pierce the veil of fog that formed itsfarther extremity, I suddenly became aware of a vague shape indistinctlyperceptible through the intervening wreaths of mist that were nowsweeping rapidly along before the steadily freshening breeze. I saw itbut during the wink of an eyelid, when it was shut in again, but I knewat once what it was; it could be but one thing--a ship, and I forthwithhailed--

  "On deck, there! there's a strange sail about a mile distant, sir, broadon our starboard quarter!"

  "Thank you, Mr Courtenay," promptly responded the "second."

  "What do you make her out to be?"

  "It is impossible at present to say anything definite about her, sir," Ianswered. "I saw her but for a second, and then only very indistinctly,but she loomed up through the fog like a craft of about our own size."

  "Very well, sir," answered Hennesey; "stay where you are, and keep asharp lookout for her next appearance."

  Once more I returned the stereotyped, "Ay, ay, sir!" as I sent myglances searching round the ship for further openings. The next thatovertook us swept down upon our port quarter; it was fully a mile and ahalf wide, and when it bore about four points abaft the beam anothershape slid into it, not vague and shadowy this time, as the other shapehad been, but clearly distinct--a frigate, unmistakably, under a similarspread of canvas to our own, and as nearly as possible our own size. Soclose indeed was the resemblance that for a second or two I was disposedto fancy that by some strange trick of light and reflection the fog wastreating me to a picture of the old _Althea_ herself, but a moresteadfast scrutiny soon dispelled the illusion. There were certainunmistakable points of difference between this second apparition andourselves, some of which were so strongly characteristic that I at onceset her down as a French frigate.

  The plot was thickening, and it was not wholly without a certain feelingof exhilaration that I again hailed the deck--

  "A frigate broad on our port quarter, sir, with a very Frenchified lookabout her!"

  "Thank you again, Mr Courtenay," answered Hennesey, with anunmistakable ring of delight in his jovial Irish accent, which, by theway, had a trick of growing more pronounced under the influence ofexcitement. "Ah, true for you, there she is," he continued, "I haveher! Mr Hudson, have the kindness to jump below and fetch me my glass,will ye, and look alive, you shmall anatomy!"

  A gentle ripple of subdued laughter from the forecastle at this sally ofour genial "second" floated up to me from the forecastle, a glimpse ofwhich I could just catch under the foot of the fore-topsail, and I couldsee that the men were all alive down there with pleasurable excitementat the prospect of a possible fight. Young Hudson--a smart littlefellow, barely fourteen years old, and the most juvenile member of ourmess--was soon on deck again with the second lieutenant's telescope; butby this time the fog had shut the stranger in again, so, for the moment,friend Hennesey's curiosity had to remain unsatisfied. Not for long,however; the presumably French frigate had not been lost sight of morethan two or three minutes when I caught a second glimpse of the othercraft--the one first sighted--on our starboard quarter.

  "There is the other fellow, sir!" I shouted. "You can see herdistinctly now. And she too is a frigate, and French, unless I amgreatly mistaken."

  "By the powers, Mr Courtenay, I hope you may be right," answeredHennesey. "Ay, there she is," he continued, "as plain as mud in awineglass! And if she isn't French her looks belie her. Mr Hudson,you spalpeen, slip down below and tell the captain that there are abrace of suspicious-looking craft within a mile of us. And ye may callupon Misther Dawson and impart the same pleasant information to him."Then, turning his beaming phiz up to me, he continued--

  "Mr Courtenay, it's on the stroke of eight bells, but all the sameyou'd better stay where you are for the present, until the fog clears,since you know exactly the bearings of those two craft. And I'll thankye to keep your weather eye liftin', young gentleman; there may be awhole fleet of Frenchmen within gun-shot of us, for all that we cantell."

  "Ay, ay, sir!" I cheerfully answered, my curiosity having by this timegot the better of my keen appetite for breakfast; moreover, having beenthe discoverer of the two sail already sighted, I was anxious to add tothe prestige thus gained by being the first to sight any other craftthat might happen to be in our neighbourhood.

  My stay aloft, however, was not destined to be a long one, for the fogwas now clearing fast, and within ten minutes it had all driven away toleeward of us, revealing the fact that there were but the two sailalready discovered in sight--unless there might happen to be others sofar ahead as to be still hidden in the fog-bank to leeward. But beforeI left the royal yard I had succeeded in satisfying myself, by means ofmy glass--which had been sent up to me bent on to the signal halliards--that the two strangers were frigates, and almost certainly French. Theywere exchanging signals at a great rate, but we could make nothing oftheir flags, which at least proved that they were not British. To makeassurance doubly sure, however, we had hoisted our private signal, towhich neither ship had been able to reply. There was no doubt that theywere enemies; and this fact having been satisfactorily established, Iwas permitted to descend and snatch a hasty breakfast.

  And a hasty one it was, for I had scarcely been below five minutes whenwe were piped to clear for action, and I was obliged to hurry on deckagain. But a hung
ry midshipman can achieve a good deal in the eatingline in five minutes, and in that brief interval I contrived to stowaway enough food to take the keen edge off my appetite, promising myselfthat I would make up my leeway at dinner-time--provided that I was stillalive when the hour for that meal came round. This last thought soberedme down somewhat, and to a certain extent subdued my hilarious spirits;but they rose again as, upon gaining the deck, I looked round and sawthe cheerful yet resolute faces of the captain and officers, and notedthe gaiety with which the men went about their duty.

  The strangers had by this time shown their bunting,--the tricolour,--sothere was no further question of their nationality or of the fact thatwe were booked for a sharp fight, for they had the heels of us and wereoverhauling us in grand style; we could not therefore have escaped, hadwe been ever so anxious to do so. And, had we made the attempt, weshould certainly have been quite justified, for it had now beenascertained that they were both forty-gun ships, while we mounted onlythirty-six pieces on our gun deck. Escape, however, was apparently thevery last thought likely to occur to Captain Harrison; for although hekept the studding-sails abroad while the ship was being prepared foraction, no sooner had the first lieutenant reported everything readythan the order was given to shorten sail; and a pretty sight it was tosee how smartly and with what beautifully perfect precision everythingwas done at once, the studding-sails all collapsing and coming intogether at exactly the same moment that the three royals were clewed upand the flight of staysails on the main and mizzen masts hauled down.

  "Very prettily done, Mr Dawson," said the skipper approvingly. "Ourfriends yonder will see that they have seamen to deal with, at allevents, even though we cannot sport such a clean pair of heels as theirown."

  The two Frenchmen were by this time within less than half a mile of us,converging upon us in such a manner as to range up alongside the_Althea_ within the toss of a biscuit on either hand, but neither ofthem manifested the slightest disposition to follow our example byshortening sail. Perhaps they believed that, were they to do so, weshould at once make sail again and endeavour to escape, whereas byholding on to everything until they drew up alongside us, we should fallan easy prey to their superior strength, if indeed we did not surrenderat discretion.

  And, truly, the two ships formed a noble and a graceful picture as theycame sweeping rapidly down upon us with every stitch of canvas set thatthey could possibly spread, their white sails towering spire-like intothe deep, tender blue of the cloudless heavens, with the delicate purpleshadows chasing each other athwart the rounded bosoms of them as thehulls that up-bore them swung pendulum-like, with a little curl of snowunder their bows, over the low hillocks of swell that chased them,sparkling in the brilliant sunlight like a heaving floor of sapphirestrewed broadcast with diamonds.

  They stood on, silent as the grave, until the craft on our larboardquarter--which was leading by about a couple of lengths--had reached towithin a short quarter of a mile of us, when, as we all stood watchingthem intently, a jet of flame, followed by a heavy burst of white smoke,leapt out from her starboard bow port, and the next instant the shotwent humming close past us, to dash up the water in a fountain-like jeta quarter of a mile ahead of us.

  "That, I take it, is a polite request to us to heave-to and haul downour colours," remarked Captain Harrison to the first lieutenant, with asmile. "Well, we may as well return the compliment, Mr Dawson. Try ashot at each of them with the stern-chasers. If we could only manage toknock away an important spar on board either of them it might so crippleher as to cause her to drop astern, leaving us to deal with the otherone and settle her business out of hand. Yes, aim at their spars, MrDawson. It would perhaps have been better had we opened fire directlythey were within range, but I was anxious not to make a mistake. Nowthat they have fired upon us, however, we need hesitate no longer."

  The order was accordingly given to open fire with our stern-chasers, andin less than a minute the two guns spoke out simultaneously, jarring theold hooker to her keel. We were unable for a moment to see the effectof the shots, for the smoke blew in over our taffrail, completely hidingour two pursuers for a few seconds; but when it cleared away a cheerbroke from the men who were manning the after guns, for it was seen thatthe flying-jib stay of our antagonist on the port quarter was cut andthe sail towing from the jib-boom end, a neat hole in her portforetopmast studding-sail showing where the shot had passed. The othergun had been less successful, the shot having passed through the head ofthe second frigate's foresail about four feet below the yard and half-way between the slings and the starboard yardarm, without inflicting anyfurther perceptible damage.

  "Very well-meant! Let them try again," exclaimed the skipperapprovingly. And as the words issued from his lips we saw the twopursuing frigates yaw broadly outward, as if by common consent, and thenext instant they both let drive a whole broadside at us. I waitedbreathlessly while one might have counted "one--two," and then the soundof an ominous crashing aloft told me that we were wounded somewhereamong our spars. A block, followed by a shower of splinters, camehurtling down on deck, breaking the arm of a man at the aftermostquarter-deck gun on the port side, and then a louder crash aloft causedme to look up just in time to see our mizzen-topmast go sweeping forwardinto the hollow of the maintopsail, which it split from head to foot,the mizzen-topgallant mast snapping short off at the cap as it swoopeddown upon the maintopsail yard. Two topmen were swept out of themaintop by the wreckage in its descent, and terribly--one of themfatally--injured, and there were a few minor damages, which, however,were quickly repaired. Then, as some hands sprang aloft to clear awaythe wreck, our stern-chasers spoke out again, the one close after theother, and two new holes in the enemy's canvas testified to theexcellent aim of our gunners; but, unfortunately, that was the extent ofthe damage, both shots having passed very close to, but _just missed_,important spars.

  The French displayed very creditable smartness in getting inboard theflying-jib that we had cut away for them, and by the time that this wasaccomplished they had drawn up so close to us that by bearing away apoint or two to port and starboard respectively, both craft were enabledto bring their whole broadsides to bear upon us, which they immediatelydid, taking in their studding-sails, and otherwise reducing their canvasat the same time, until we were all three under exactly the same amountof sail--excepting, of course, that we had lost our mizzen-topsail withall above it, while theirs still stood intact. As for us, our guns wereall trained as far aft as the port-holes would permit, and as ourantagonists ranged up on either quarter, within pistol-shot, each gunwas fired point-blank as it was brought to bear. And now the fightbegan in real, grim downright earnest, the crew of each gun loading andfiring as rapidly as possible, while the French poured in theirbroadsides with a coolness and precision that extorted our warmestadmiration, despite the disagreeable fact that they were playing havocwith us fore and aft, one of our guns having been dismounted withinthree minutes of the arrival of the enemy alongside us, while the taleof killed and wounded was growing heavier with every broadside that wereceived. But if we were suffering severely we were paying ourpunishment back with interest, as we could see by glancing at the hullsof our antagonists, the sides of which were torn and splintered andpierced all along the broad white streak that marked the line ofports,--some of which were knocked two into one,--while their yellowsides were here and there broadly streaked with crimson as the blooddrained away through their scuppers. It is true they were fighting ustwo to one, but, after all, their advantage was more apparent than real,for, running level with us as they were, they could only fight one oftheir batteries, while we were fighting both ours, and our guns--everyone of them double-shotted--were being better and more rapidly servedthan theirs.

  I will not attempt to describe the fight in detail, for indeed any suchattempt could only result in failure. And as a matter of fact there wasvery little to describe. We simply ran dead away to leeward, the threeof us, fighting almost yardarm to yardarm, and excha
nging broadsides asrapidly as the guns could be loaded and run out. After the first tenminutes of the fight there was little or nothing to be seen, for thewind was fast dropping again, and the three ships were wrapped in adense white pall of smoke that effectually concealed everything that wasgoing on at a greater distance than some fifty feet from the observer.The most impressive characteristic of the struggle was _noise_--theincessant crash of the guns, the discharge of which set up a continuoustremor of the ship throughout the entire fabric of her; the rending andsplintering of timber as the enemy's shot tore its way through thefrigate's sides; the shrieks and groans of the wounded and dying, cutinto at frequent intervals by some sharp order from the captain or thefirst lieutenant; the curt commands of the captains of the guns: "Stopthe vent! run in! sponge! load! run out!" and so on; the creak of thetackle blocks, the rumble of the gun carriages, the clatter ofhandspikes, the dull thud of the rammers driving home the shot, therattling volleys of musketry from the marines on the poop, theoccasional rending crash of a falling spar, and the terrific babble ofthe Frenchmen on either side of us, sounding high and clear in theoccasional brief intervals when all the guns happened to be silenttogether for a moment,--I can only compare it all to the horribleconfusion raging through the disordered imagination of one in theclutches of a fiercely burning fever. Our people fought grimly and insilence, save for an occasional cheer at some unusually successful shot;but the Frenchmen jabbered away incessantly, sometimes reviling us andshaking their fists at us through their open ports, and more oftensquabbling among themselves.

  At length, when the fight had lasted about half an hour, the winddropped to a dead calm, and the Frenchman on our starboard side, who hadforged somewhat ahead of us, made an effort to lay himself athwart ourbows before he lost way altogether. But we were too quick for him, forhis mainmast was towing alongside and stopped his way; so we did withhim what he tried to do to us, driving square athwart his bows as hisbowsprit came thrusting in between our fore and main masts, when we lostnot a moment in lashing the spar to our main rigging. But, after all,it resolved itself into tit for tat, for the other fellow put his helmhard aport and just managed to drive square athwart our stern, where heraked us most unmercifully for fully five minutes, until he drove clear,bringing down all three of our masts before he left us. Of course wecould only retaliate upon him with our stern-chasers, which we playedupon him with considerable effect; but what we lacked in the way ofadequate retort to him we amply made up for to his consort, raking hertime after time with such good-will that in a few minutes her bows werebattered into a mere mass of torn and splintered timber. Somebody onboard her cried out that they had struck, but as her marines kept uptheir fire upon us from the poop, while her main-deck guns continued toblaze away whenever she swung sufficiently for any of them to bear, nonotice was taken of this intimation; and presently our skipper gave theorder to cut her adrift, so that her people might have no chance toboard--a proceeding that would have proved exceedingly awkward for us inour then weakened condition.

  But it presently became evident that they had no thought of boarding us;on the contrary, their chief anxiety was clearly to escape from the warmberth that they had thrust themselves into; for a few minutes later, thefire on both sides having slackened somewhat, we observed that bothcraft had their boats in the water and were doing their best to tow offfrom us, and almost immediately afterwards the French ceased firingaltogether. I believe our skipper--fire-eater though he was--feltunfeignedly thankful at this cessation of hostilities, for heimmediately followed suit, giving the order for the men to leave theguns and proceed to repair damages. This was no light task, for notonly were we completely dismasted, but the hull of the ship was terriblyknocked about, the carpenter reporting five feet of water in the holdand twenty-seven shot-holes between wind and water, apart from our otherdamages, which were sufficiently serious. Moreover, our "butcher'sbill" was appallingly heavy, the list totalling up to no less thanthirty-eight killed and one hundred and six wounded, out of a total oftwo hundred and eighty!