The tribune. [volume] (Beaufort, S.C.) 1874-1876, 1876-01-26


and orders given to clear the decks and
run out the guns ready for action.
Hastings afterwards said that although
all his sympathies were on the other
side, still, when he saw the French
sailors bustling about stripped to the
waist, he and his companions being the
only idle hands on that busy deck, it
was all he could do to refrain from help
ing them.
At last, by the time their preparations
were completed, the English vessel was
SO close that by the aid of the glass they
could count the men on her deck. Then
Captain de Condigny walked up to the
young midshipman with outstretched
hand.
"By right you should have no kindly
feeling towards u.s." he said; "but YOU
are sailor enough to know that I have
simply done my duty-what would have
been yours had our positions been re-
versed. think you bear me no ill-will,
and you will at least admit that we have
done all in our power to tighten your
situation. Now, adieu; we shall have
sharp work presently, and you and your
men must go below; it would be both
dangerous and impolitic for you to be
seen on our deck. If we do not meet
again, you will not think of me as an
enemy. Adieu."
And the gallant old Frenchman shook
the lad warmly by the hand. Before
the latter, with his three companions,
was halfway down the ladder which led
to the cockpit, boom went one of the
Engllshman's guns, carrying away n
portion of the st. Pierre's rigging, and
laying two of her seamen dead on the
Iholr
Plerre's guns in answer; and then the
action began in earnest, and the cockpit
was soon full of the dead and dying.
The fishermen, who in all thcir lives
had never beheld such scene, crept
with white faces into a corner, their
clothes red with the blood which spout
ed from the severed arteries of the
wounded men. Hastings, half suffo-
Gated with the stencil of blood and DOW
der i'll that narrow space, had taken up
his position on a water barrel, just under
the port through which the little current
OF air in that Sitting polluted atmosphere
managed to creep. The surgeon, whose
hands were full enough, looked up from
his work-the amputation of sailors
arm which had been smashed into atoms
by musket ball-and said dryly
"You had better descend from there,
my friend, in case of accidents, for /
shall not have time to attend to YOU"
The remark was we'll timed, for scarce
ly had Hastings vacated his seat than
bang-crash-smash !-came q cannon
ball through the port, smashing the
barrel into atoms, mingling the water
with the other liquid with which the
floor was already saturated, until the
crimson sea rose above the men s ankles,
and saving the surgeon job by putting
three of his patients out of their mise
ry. He looked up with grim smile.
"dfitle tonne1res, monsieur, but yours
was an escaped Look there He is a
better operator than I he does his
work cleanly-he |" he said, pointing to
the three dead bodies.
At last Hastings could contain him
self no longer. Boom-boom! went
the guns overhead, and with every mo-
ment the carnage increased. The at
mosphere of the cockpit became op-
pressive and sickening, the stencil SO
foul that he was determined, come what
might, to have one breath of fresh air,
and at the same time, if possible, dis
cover in whose favor the battle was be-
ing decided. So he ran quickly up the
ladder and arrived on deck Just as the
brave old French captain was carried
past dead, with bullet through his
brain. The English were evidently
gaining the day, and the direst confu-
sion reigned on the Frenchman's deck.
Young. Hastings was ON the point of
going below again, when horrid sight
met his view. A sailor fearfully wound
ed, the outer wall of his chest being
literally torn away by round shot, was
lying, still alive, close to the bulwarks
two sailors, almost naked, presenting
terrific appearance from the blood and
powder with which they were besmeared,
at signal from the second officer, ad-
vanced, and lifting the quivering body
OF their unfortunate messmate, proceed
ed deliberately to throw him overheard.
The Irish lad, with cry of horror,
sprang forward to the rescue, but an
officer stopped him, saying firmly:
1t must be so; the men are already
panic stricken, and such sights make
them worse; at furthest he could only
live few minutes, and it is more merci.
full to put him out of his agony"
The men then raised him and with all
their force threw him over the side; but
the wretched creature, with an amount
of vitality which in his condition Hast
ings would have deemed impossible had
he not seen it, clutched at rope hang
ing over the ships side with the des.
perate tenacious gripe of drowning
man. 1t was a hideous sight The
poor wretch hung on, his face ivid and
distorted with agony, his eyes starting
out of his head, and the blood yelling
from the wound In hischest. They tried
unsuccessfully to shake him off; at
length an officer stepped forward with O
cutlass in his hand, and, bending over
the side, cut the rope across, and with
an awful despairing cry which made it