below turned to for the removal of the litter, (and it literally was such.) Brooms were passed down, and vinegar sprinkled against the sides and flooring; while a few score sheaves of fresh straw that had been stowed forward in reserve, were issued. By these arrangements, and the opportunity afforded to every man to enjoy the air and light for at least two hours each day, all past sufferings were forgotten; or, if thought on, made the subject of coarse and vulgar mirth. Whatever schemes of revenge they might have plotted in their infernal abode, they appeared to have no longer remembered; particularly as the agent victualler was no nip-cheese, but served out both rations and grog with that cheerfulness and liberality which I dare swear they never again met with in the course of their toilsome service.

CHAPTER VIII.

"a south-west blow on ye

And blister you all o'er !"

It was not until the eleventh day that we entered the river. When we reached Deptford, we were all trans-shipped into a goodly old hulk, which, to my eye, appeared as large as Christ Church; and on stepping aboard of which, I was poked down into dingy dismal looking quarters, with about a dozen of my own class. I found by their conversation, (which was none of the most select,) that our frigate would be ready for sea in the course of three or four weeks, when Lord Charles would sail to join the channel fleet. I could not account for the shudder which crept over my whole frame at the bare mention of his lordship's name. The look of contemptuous disdain with which he scowled upon me, when presented to him at his house in Kildare Street, still haunted me. Whether he found that I was, in a manner, forced upon him-or, what is still more likely, that he wanted some rough articles like himself for petty officers-or, that at first sight he took a personal dislike to me, I know not; but from the reception I met from his representative, and first lieutenant, Jowlter, who was in command of the hulk, I could have ventured to swear he had in his letter to that Cerberus set his mark against my name; for, from the first hour of my coming under his command, to that in

which heaven in its goodness released me from it, I found nothing but a series of mean and petty oppressions. On the slightest act of levity he abused me as if I had committed a crime. Having discovered that I had bestowed some trifling presents on the young woman who came on board twice a-week with our linen, and who brought off tea, sugar, liquor, love verses, and lollipops, the sale of which she established by permission, on deck; by way of mortifying my vanity on her next visit, he found some fault with me merely to authorize him to exert his tyranny by ordering me to the mast-head, there to remain till the end of the watch. As the hulk, however, had only a stump of a jury mast, I was still near enough to ogle and wink at the object of my admiration, and set at defiance the malice of old Jowlter.

But his general treatment of me was so scandalous that I found it impossible to withhold my remonstrances, which I firmly, but respectfully, made in a strongly worded letter. On his reading it, I was informed his huge face-the largest and at the same time the most hideous I had ever seen gratischanged its usual purple tinge to a pale ash. "So the chap can write and be d-d to him, can he? But I'll soon have him in blue water. Tell him," said he to the doctor, who kindly undertook to deliver my letter, "that there's naw answer. This coarse brutality was only what I expected; the next morning I received an order to attend on the lieutenant, who, without the civility he should have shown to a foremast man, directed me to bring forthwith my writing-desk! I bowed and retired, determined to consult my friend and townsman the doctor, on the subject of refusal or compliance. He advised the latter by all means; adding, "and the sooner the better."

Now, there were certain letters in the said desk, which were never penned to meet the goggle eyes of such a hippopotamus. It is equally true that there was a series of such tender epistles, not all addressed to the same beloved object, which might lead a vulgar mind like our lieutenant's to imagine that, as "in the multitude of counsellors there is wisdom," so in a multitude of mistresses there was happiness, at least, in my opinion. These foolish effusions I was anxious to withdraw, and had already abstracted a few of the number, when I was interrupted by old Cerberus himself, who had silently descended into our dark abode, and with an affectation of great care for my papers, began to replace those I had removed in the desk, and ordered me to follow him with my desk. I obeyed, and following him into his cabin, placed it before him. I held out my three keys, pointing to that which opened the desk; the savage desired me to open it, saying his only object was to obtain a sight of a paper on which, he

had been informed, I employed myself several hours each day, and which I took great pains to conceal from my messmates. It instantly occurred to me that some of my cock-pit companions had been invidiously reporting my actions to the lieutenant, but to show I feared nothing, I instantly turned the desk upside down, covering his table with its contents; he took but one lot, then, desiring me to replace my papers, he allowed me to retire. I obeyed the order with alacrity, as may be believed, when I found all my amatory stuff had escaped scrutiny. The dozen or two pages which he retained were, in fact, but memoranda, in the form of a journal, of the events of my voyage, and of the daily occurrences since my arrival in England, in which, most fortunately, he himself had not once found a place. In fact, 1 had bestowed so much abuse on him in my letters to my family, and to those dear ones, whom I foolishly imagined were thinking as much of me as I of them, that I had no wish to encumber my journal with his detested name.

He found the paper, of course, full of very insipid stuff; for in less than half an hour it was returned to me without a word! and a few days' observation convinced me that much of his illwill had been transferred from me to another midshipman of the name of Boydes, the son of a schoolmaster in Dublin, who entered the service under a kind of promise of being appointed captain's clerk, and who thought he saw in me, by my perpetual scribbling, a rival for that office. I could, therefore, no longer be at a loss to fix on my enemy in the mess; nor did I fail to tax him with his meanness.

However, at the next appearance of the beautiful auburnhaired laundress-any one less enamoured would have called her downright carroty-I instantly laid siege to her, making large purchases, when the suppressed rage of the lieutenant seemed to boil over, and his carbuncled face, “red with uncommon wrath," seemed all on fire. Still, however, he could not, without manifest injustice, single me out as an object for vengeance while seven or eight of us younkers surrounded her basket. He, therefore, ordered us all off the quarry, which order the greater number obeyed; but the doctor and myself lingered for a minute or two beyond the rest; he to pay for some lemons, I to show my liberality for promised favours yet to come. We were both, however, rudely driven from the maiden's basket; looking, I make no doubt, highly ridiculous after all the fine things we had been saying. What the lieutenant said to the poor girl we knew not, but it was followed by the hasty removal of the little trader's tressel, basket, and chair, which, with herself, were very unceremoniously bundled over the side into the nearest boat.

Heavens! how I longed to imprint on his bloated visage

the mark of a hand now pretty well able to make itself be felt, when nerved with indignation at his unmanly conduct; but the demon of despotism reigns uncontrolled on board a man of

war!

Alone, I began to reflect, this is not the profession for me! With the exception of the doctor, a vain and pragmatical little being, but withal bearing a kind and friendly heart, I had not one friend in whom I could confide or on whose sympathy I could reckon; and that I was an object of dislike to many of our mess I was well aware. I came on board with such a perfect equipment of clothes, &c., (particularly of linen,) that my "stock of traps” was the talk of the cock-pit. Then I had a watch, and, worse than all, wore a ring!-a very humble, little cornelian, and the gift of a beloved sister. These formidable appearances, with perhaps some degree of over pretension on my part, were offensive in the eyes of my messmates, (who for the greater number were of that class doomed to commence the hard voy. age of life with a very scanty outfit;) and I was forced to bear the jokes and gibes of the majority, and hear the words smoke the beau, twenty times a day, with an affectation of good humour; for it was indeed not very easily assumed.

My friend the doctor, although considerably my senior in years, had very little experience in the ways of the world; he had never been very far beyond the purlieus of the shop of his brother, an eminent surgeon and apothecary in Dublin, and his knowledge of the healing art was confined to the lowest employments to which apothecaries' assistants are occasionally doomed to stoop. To him, however, I made my lament in secret; and he fully agreed with me that the navy was not the service best suited to my habits or feelings.

Fortified with the doctor's opinion, which so well chimed in with my own, I ventured with great humility and confession of error, to address my ever-indulgent father, stating the many insults and mortifications I had received, and more than hint. ed my suspicions that Lord Charles had black-balled me in his letter to the lieutenant; supplicating his interference with my lord for my recall on the score of delicate health, (I had the doctor's opinion,) and consequent incapacity for duty.

I did not omit to mention as a proof of my prudence and frugality, that I had still twenty-two guineas remaining of the sum with which his and my other parent's kindness had supplied me on leaving home; and should be ready to set off for Dublin at a moment's notice. My father, however, had to consult his good friend, Sir Alexander Schomberg, before he took any steps for my relief; and it was ten days before I received his reply. But during this (to me) period of deep anxiety I found means to send letters to the golden-haired girl of the

wash-tub, who bore the unsentimental name of Sukey Skinner; and her answers were always verbal, for the best of all possible reasons. Yet the old woman who succeeded to her station on deck, gave to them all the force of her natural eloquence and matured experience.

At length the anxiously expected letter reached me, on receipt of which I jumped, hallooed, pranced about and cut so many fantastic capers, that my messmates fancied I had been suddenly deprived of my senses, and were almost confirmed in that suspicion when I dragged forth my store of oranges, nuts, tea, sugar, &c., and threw the whole amongst them for a general treat; and, after tea the same afternoon, we regaled over a gallon can of stiff punch; some of us drinking to his Nabs, with the HEAD!

Lieutenant Jowlter, it seems, had, at the same time, received a letter from his chief, to pack me off bag and baggage, with a written order to present myself at the rendezvous house in Dublin within fourteen days. The time allowed me was liberal enough in all conscience, had I not had other projects just then in view. However, at all hazards, I embraced the terms-received my pass-and, calling a wherry alongside, shipped all my traps in a twinkling; then bidding good by to my envying shipmates, I slipped down the wall-sided hulk with the alacrity of an eel escaping from a mesh.

ON shore I was met by the fair Susan, who conducted me to the house of a most respectable female friend of hers, whom she represented as the wife of the carpenter of the Bellyruffon, (the manner in which the name of the Bellerophon is pronounced by sailors and their wives,) which ship was then with Lord Howe in the channel fleet. In this cleanly snug retreat I found every thing most comfortably prepared for my reception; and to crown all, my Susan-sweet Susan!-had arranged with her friend