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Notwithstanding the care which the strokesman had paid to his shipmate Wilson, in attempting, by a rude external ligature, to stanch his bleeding arm, the good intention was only in the most trivial way successful. The bullet had, in its passage, partially divided the brachial artery, and though all hands knew that a tourniquet stopped the effusion of blood, none of them were aware of the principle of partial pressure on which that instrument acts; and, still more important, none of them would even then have possessed the ability of turning such knowledge to account, since their ignorance of anatomy did not permit them to determine what particular vessel was wounded, or where that vessel lay.

Stretched out on the stern-sheets, therefore, the kindhearted sailor lay, with the blood slowly trickling from his arm, despite of every effort of his shipmates. The pallid hues of the grave were rapidly stealing over his bronzed and still cheerful countenance, and over him bent, with all the revolting wildness of strong fear, the consciencestricken Sneak, who had to answer for the blood of a fellow-creature so unnecessarily shed.

"Pull, my men !—for me!--for God's sake, pull! Stretch out heartily! give way, my lads! we may yet get on board time enough for the surgeon to save him! How are you, Wilson, my good fellow-less faint?"

Such were the passionate, fearful, and repentant exclamations and questions of the lieutenant, as he witnessed the result of his guilty hastiness. Every time, however, that Wilson attempted to make a reply to this entreaty, his words endeavoured to impart a comfort little deserved by him for whom it was intended; while, at the same time, his voice grew less able to convey, and in truth most fatally contradicted it. Still the attached shipmate hung over him, keeping the wounded arm in an upright position, and multiplying wrapper after wrapper on the limb in vain. Neither were the rest of the crew deficient on their part. Though heartily despising an officer who had proved himself as ready to exult over the misfortunes of another, as to sink beneath his own, they could have been urged in their exertions by no stimulous so powerful, as the increasing pallor of him, who an hour since, leaped into their boat with as much irrepressible gaiety, as strong health, a kind heart, and a mind void of offence, could give to a British

seamen.

Again and again they cheered each other on, as they

swiftly shot along from crest to crest, and the frigate appeared more and more near.

"Here they get aboard of her, my boys! Another stroke! Now stretch to it! Another, my hearties! One like that again! There she goes! Hold your heart up, Wilson, my boy-a few minutes more!"

Such were the cheering cries of the crew, as their stout ash oars bent like so many withes in their powerful grasp. Away flew the boat right on, as if the senseless timbers themselves knew that the life of a "true-hearted sailor" were worth some struggles to preserve-the water crisping and curling up under her fore foot, like the feathering of an arrow in its rapid flight. Even Sneak began to hope that his fears magnified the danger. But one glance at the wounded man as soon sank his spirit to despair.

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Heavens, he looks very pale! Wilson, my boy, cheer up! Steward, have you not a drop of rum-not one drop?" "No, sir; Mr. Ramsay had everything in the basket.” "Is there no spirit in the boat-nothing of any sort to revive him? One moment, only one moment more, and he might be saved! Give way, my men, give way. Ha! the frigate sees something is the matter. See-she fills her maintop-sail, and bears up for us! Wilson, my fine fellow-Wilson, I say, cheer up! here's the frigate at last." "The frigate! echoed the wounded man, in little better than a whisper, endeavouring at the same time to lift his head and see her.

"Here, Bo, I'll shove ye up to have a squint at her," said the spokesman, propping up his shipmate's heavy shoulders.

The glazing eyes of the rude tar unclosed once more upon the noble ship, as, running free of the wind, she came dashing down towards them in all the glory of her element. A happy smile broke over the cold features of the sailor, as he recognised a sight familiar from his childhood. His lips parted to give utterance to a faint "hurrah!" and the last sad voyage of life was over.

Happily for him, the final port was gained. On those who survived, how dark a tempest was, even at that moment, about to break!

CHAPTER XV.

So deep in slumber, or so strong in guilt,
He answers not to thy ungrateful voice.

NEVER was truer passage written than that in HamletThere are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in our philosophy." In almost every department of life, view it in what phase we may, some singular anomaly may be found, of which we can make nothing more than the existence. So with a man's friends-of all the ills that are borne by humanity, it would prove a curious calculation to sum up the evils that have been imposed by injudicious friendship. In the case of the seaman whose death we witnessed at the end of the preceding chapter, the last proximate case was the elevation of his body by his shipmate, which causing the blood to forsake the brain and gravitate around the weakened heart, produced a faintness that organ was unable again to dispel.

Even, however, had the poor fellow been allowed to remain in the recumbent position till assistance could have been rendered, hæmorrhage had gone much too far to allow of the preservation of life; and thus was added one more to the great number of those who have perished from want of assistance under wounds trivial in themselves.

It was not until the cutter had arrived alongside, and the assistant surgeon hastened down into the boat with ammonia and other stimulants, that the fact of Wilson's being actually dead was known. Then, when the corpse was removed on board, and the boat rehoisted in its place, the men were at liberty to tell their tale of horror to all who chose to listen.

Few have ever found a more attentive auditory, or one more deeply excited and agitated by what they heard, than did the first cutter's crew among their shipmates. In a quarter of an hour every soul in the ship had heard the relation; that man excepted, who, save Ramsay himself, was now most interested in the whole-namely, the captain. Again and again the officer of the watch urged Sneak to go below and report to him what had occurred,

G*

in hopes that the tidings of Wilson's death would cause him to relent towards Ramsay, and, content with the torturing suspense he must have already known, now at the eleventh hour reprieve him from his sentence of solitary starvation.

In reply to these arguments and entreaties, Sneak referred to the written orders of the captain, which positively forbade his being called until eight o'clock, and enjoined the immediate making of sail so soon as the boat returned. In lieu, therefore, of the lieutenant going down to call the captain in hopes of saving Ramsay, he advised his brother officer not to risk disobeying those orders which took from the poor fellow even the last appearance of hope.

After much deliberation, and many an anxious look at the desert shore,-where the broken lieutenant was still to be seen, by the aid of a glass, sitting down in his cheerless misery, watching the departure of his late shipmates, and the last finish of his own desertion,--the watch were piped to shake out a couple of reefs in the topsails; the topgallant sails, jib, and driver were set; and at the rate of ten miles an hour the frigate bore away.

As if in abhorrence of the foul deed thus consummated, the morning, which had hitherto been bright as the glory of our youthful dreams, now grew dim and clouded as that false meteor becomes to our maturer age. A heavy bank of dark purple clouds soon rose from the sea to windward, while the breeze, freshening in its strength, bellied out the vast surface of strained canvass, and sang shrilly through the shrouds and cordage of the frigate the mournful and prophetic requiem of him who had already perished, and those who were so soon to die. Again and again the stiff ship careened to the recurring blast, and dashed away the water from her bows, as indignant of aught that opposed her flight from the scene of such tyranny as had that morning been carried into execution.

Long since, the glass had failed to discover the solitary figure of poor Ramsay, sitting upon the ground beside the scanty store with which his unrelenting foes had pittanced out his life. It was a relief to the eyes of the humane when they could no more behold one whom none could cease to compassionate or attempt to save.

Too soon that low sandy island melted into the blue haze of the horizon on the lee-quarter; a faint misty line hung for a few moments in the air, and then, when even refraction had no power to give this to their sight, the act

was complete-Ramsay was now finally abandoned, to live or perish, as the case might be.

At this juncture, when the attention of all hands was so painfully stretched on the rack, the cry of 66 Sail on the weather-bow" gave, much to the relief of Sneak, a change to the subject in contemplation. The breeze had before become so stiff that the officer of the watch was on the point of shortening sail. Now, however, this was hardly deemed to be the thing just as a stranger was heaving in sight, and while yet it was undecided whether friend or enemy.

At the rapid rate the frigate was now speeding, it was not long before her signal-men discovered the blue ensign of Old England flying from the peak of the approaching brig: within half an hour from that time the two vessels had been hove to, and a boat from the smaller one sent on board with letters and a passenger. The boat then returned; the vessels fills their sails once more, and stood away from each other as rapidly on their opposite courses. Who then was that luckless passenger whom treacherous fortune had placed on board the frigate at such a juncture?-certainly not one who had deserved such illtreatment at her hands-for it was no less a person than her surgeon, whom Captain Livingstone had so capriciously left behind him after the court-martial.

When this officer was informed of the act that morning committed, the conflict between grief, rage, and despair, left him almost speechless. Ramsay had ever been to him a most dear friend. When he had in some degree acquired the composure necessary to acting as vigorously as the case permitted, he resolved at all hazards to go and report himself to the captain.

"Well, sir," said Sneak, who had never before seen the doctor so furious, “you can of course do it if you please; only be good enough to remember that I made you acquainted beforehand with the captain's written orders that he was not to be called till eight o'clock, and it wants now something over half an hour."

"If it wanted five hours, sir, it would be the same to me. I have a duty to perform to God and my own conscience, which is, thank Heaven, superior to any ridiculous forms of our own invention. This I will perform at once, let what will be the result. If my commission goes for it, so much the better! I am sick and disgusted with the brutality of a service, where such an outrage could be perpetrated by any ingenuity of man;-though it hardly

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