The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-04-26
ALI RH@ETC REOERWGD.

When daylight came they looked out anxiously for the brig, hardly daring to hope that she had lived through that frightful storm. At last they saw her, rolling in the sea, w.th jury rig. For more than an hour they watched her. wallowing closer and closer to the rocks. She was so near them that a sailor cried; She's struckl' but at that moment she passed to weather of the dread spot and won the open sea again.
 Peter and his uninjured men now set out for the town, to give themselves up and get help for their shipmates. But they found everybody too much occupied with the havoc of the storm to pay any atten- ton to them. They set to work to help, clearing away wreckage and extricating unfortunate wretches from the ruins of their fallen houses.
 While they were doing this party of French officers came riding along. One, in a generals uniform, took off his hat to the sailors and thanked them. The next moment he was off his horse, shaking hands with Peter It was General O'Brien. He took Peter home, where his injuries were attended to, but not till he had seen Celeste. The French officers called and thanked him for his courtesy to them and their wives when he took the ship. The town treated him and his men not as prisoners but as guests and, in- deed, the French would not accept their surrender at all, but insisted that they were free to return to the Rattlesnake, which had already appeared outside of the harbor and sent in flag of truce to ask news of her men.
 Strangely enough, Peter was not a bit happy at this. He declared that he was too ill to be moved just then, and General O'Brien sent word to his namesake of the Rattlesnake that it would be another two days before his guest could go aboard.
 Peter used those two days so well that he and Celeste confessed to each other that they were both of one mind, which was that it would be most satisfactory if he could remain a prisoner in the gen erals house.
 It was most Respondent young lieuten- ant who finally left the harbor to go aboard his ship, and saw St. Pierre shut from his longing sight So soon as the Rattlesnake had been rerigged she was ordered to England aagin, and Peter re- turned home, to find his poor old father quite mad Sometimes he imagined he was a pump, sometimes that he was a balloon. Every few hours he developed a new delusion Peter was exceedingly anxious to stay at home for a time to aid his sister and straighten out the affairs hi fo f1U hn bod tbof he could easily obtain leave of absence. But fortune forsook him when he needed her most
 OBrien was promoted to post captain and placed in command of the great Semi- ramis frigate. His efforts to have Peter Simple appointed as his first lieutenant were in vain, and he sailed away to the East Indian station, leaving Peter to be first lieutenant of the Rattlesnake under a new commander, Captain Hawkins who t was generally understood, was no other than an illegitimate son of Peters uncle, Lord Privilege.
 That gentleman refused even a days leave of absence to Lieutenant Simple and kept him on the ship constantly till they sailed into the Baltic to convoy fleet of more than 200 merchantmen. Dur ing the constant fighting that followed Captain Hawkins showed himself not only unskillful but so clearly a coward that the men hated him They lost no opportunity of showing it, and he took his revenge by losing no opportunity to humiliate Peter, whom he blamed for the spirit that obtained among the crew.
 Hardly had the Rattlesnake come to anchor at Portsmouth before Peter learn ed that his father was dead, and when he asked for leave of absence he was confronted with a notice that he was to be courtmartialed forthwith.
 Twelve charges had been made against him by the captain, most of them ex- ceedingy frivolous, but covering the en- tire time of his service under him. AL most the whole crew had been changed since then, officers who could have testi- fled for him were on distant stations, and Peter found 1t difficult to bring witnesses to support his side
 He had the court with him, however, for from the very beginning it was evil dent that the members knew the char acter of the captain, and they did not try to hide their opinion. But for all that, they felt constrained to find that the charges had been partly proved They ordered that Lieutenant Simple be dis missed his ship, but that hls case was strongly recommended to the considera- ton of the Lords of the Admiralty.
 He was more glad than sorry-happy enough to be quit of Captain Hawkins on any terms. and glad to hasten to his poor sister, He wrote a long letter to O'Brien, [. telling him all that had happened, and then took coach for home. His hardships and the intense anxiety under which he had been, began to tell on him and he felt himself becoming very i'll. His head ached frightfully. When he left the coach at a point 40 miles from his desti- nation to take chaise across country he hardly knew what he was doing.
 The last that he could remember was that the chaise was stopped by two men, who rified his belongings and finally his person, till they left him nothing except his trousers and shirt, and that the chaise had then driven off.
 /He was found by retired army lieu tenant, who took him in. He lay in de- lrium and raved of O Brien, Celeste and Lord Privilege. As his kind host had observed the name Simple" on his linen he wrote to Lord Privilege that young man of that name was most dangerous 1y i'll in his house
 Peters uncle arrived almost at once, thanked them all for their kindness, wrote