these scarlet sinners hove out the three first thirty-two pound guns; I think there were not less than three or four hundred of them heaving at the capstan.

Our captain, suffering from a severe wound, went on shore, and gave me, with two youngsters like myself, in very particular charge to one of the master's mates, who shortly after crossed over with us to Gosport. He had orders to convey us to Dr. Burney's.

O

CHAPTER VII.

If any person should presume to assert
This story is not moral, first, I pray,

That they will not cry out before they're hurt.

BYRON.

LD NOAH and his heterogenous family felt not greater pleasure in setting their feet on terra firma than we did. The mate's face, which had been, by long habit of obedience and command, settled into a wooden sort of gravity, now relaxed, and became animated as a merry andrew's. Looking about as if he had taken entire possession of the island, and as if he considered it treason and blasphemy in any of his subjects to appear malecontent, he turned sharply to me, and said, "Holla! my lad, what's the matter? Why, you are as chop-fallen as if it was Sunday, and the prayer-bell was ringing. You don't take me for that lubberly school-mastering parson on board, do you?"

He had nearly hit it. The accursed school had crossed my mind, and I guessed he was taking us there. However, I said nothing, and he continued, "Never go to church on shore or in soundings. At sea can't help it sometimes. Besides, then there is something to pray for-fair weather and prize-moneydon't want to pray for any thing on shore. Come, my lads, keep a sharp look out for the Crown and Anchor. It should be somewhere in these latitudes if it has not driven or slipped its moorings."

"A reprieve!" thought I; "he has forgotten the school, and we are bound to the tavern!" I stepped out like an unbitted

colt as I descried the glittering crown swinging over a taverndoor. I pointed it out, and he was just taking us in, when he suddenly stopped, and rubbing his brow, said, "Hold fast, my lads! Let me see-let me see-didn't the captain tell me to -to-take these lads-to-where the devil is it? I say, lads, where are you to go?'

"Go!" we repeated.

Ay, I was ordered to take you somewhere.

Damned odd

you don't know, and I can't remember. O, ay, I have it !-to Dr.-somebody at Gosport. Ay, ay, I've heard of the fellow. Remember they would have sent me there once-too sharp for 'em-keep too good a look out-not such a lubber as that comes to. But must obey orders-humph!-but I've liberty nownot under the pennant-do as I like. Well, lads, what do you say? Will you go to the school, or-come, you're looking round the offing, as if you were thinking of cutting and running!" (which was indeed true.) "Well, my lads, we can talk over this with a glass of grog. Lots of time-I've three days' liberty! So, if you obey orders, why I sha'n't disobey mine, if I see your names entered on the doctor's books before I report myself on board. So heave a-head, my lads!"

On the waiter's shewing us into a room bustling about and waiting for orders, our commodore asked us what we would have, and, turning to the waiter, who was stirring the fire, vociferated, "What a dust you are kicking up! If you don't bring some grog to clear our coppers, I'll see if a kick astern won't freshen your way. Hold fast!" stopping him. Come, my lads, don't you feel the land wind getting into your orlop deck? Has it struck seven bells?"

"No, Sir," said the waiter; "it's only ten o'clock."

"No matter; let's have some grub."

"What would you like, Sir ?—very nice cold round of beef and ham in the house."

"No, no! What, do you want to give us the scurvy, you lubberly scoundrel?"

"Would you like a cutlet, Sir, or beef steak?"

"Ay, ay, that will do. Come, why don't you move your stumps, you landsman.-Hold fast! Can't you grill some fowls?"

'Yes, Sir, there's a nice chicken in the larder."

"D-n your chicken! Grill a hen-coop full of fowls, I say, and be quick. And mind, if they ar'n't here in five minutes, tell Mother-what d'ye call her ?—the landlady, I'll come and grill her. Well, why don't you move? Hold fast!-why, where the devil is the grog ?-ordered it an hour ago." He then shyed his gold-laced cocked hat, and drove the waiter out of the

room.

After a monstrous meal, diluted with an unsparing hand, ships and schools clear out of our memory, we all sallied out, our pilot taking us into a variety of shops, in every one of which he ordered something, or made some purchase, and told us to take any thing we wanted, for he would pay for it, observing that these fellows knew him, and would not humbug him as they would us. He made a point of penetrating into their little back-parlours, to see their wives and daughters, and get a glass of grog.

During this cruise, as he called it, he invited every messmate, as well as every person he had seen before, to dine with him at two o'clock at the tavern; and he made appointments with all the young women of his acquaintance, which were not a few, ordering them to go home, like good girls, sweep the decks, put their cabins in order, clean themselves, meet him at the theatre, and tell their mothers to see their case-bottles properly filled,-no marines among them,—with plenty of grog in their lockers. He then, for he was very provident and systematic in his arrangements, went to the theatre, engaged two or three boxes, and returned to the Crown and Anchor, complaining of his "dry duty."

His straggling acquaintances were soon dropping in. Wild, rough, and unruly were their greetings. The dinner came, and the viands miraculously vanished. The bottles flew about, the empty dishes were cleared away, and dried fruit, and wines of all kinds, with sundry cut glass bottles of brandy, hollands, shrub, and rum, garnished the board. Toasts, songs, and unclerical jests wended away the time, till our methodical master's mate, who was president, said,

"Ye sea-whelps, stopper your jaw, or I'll hand ye, youugsters, over to the doctor;-you understand me! Now, my hearties,

what say you to a turn out? It's time for the play; and you know to church and play-houses we must go sober-in respect to parsons and ladies. It's unofficer-like to get drunk before sunset; it's not correct, and I sha'n't allow it. So, come, I've only one more toast to give,-then I hoist the blue Peter, and you must consider yourselves under sailing orders." Here he was interrupted by the noise in the room. "Silence! I say; now, gentlemen, fill your glasses! No heel-taps, for I am going to give a solemn toast. I am very sorry to observe that, from the neglect of duty of these lubberly landsmen, there's nothing but marines and bottoms on the table. Therefore, I command that you all gripe a marine by the stock, and prepare to break their necks." The waiter remonstrated, and begged the president to spare the bottles. "Lads!" he vociferated, "a mutiny! Stand by your commanding officer! Waiter, go below,-leave the quarter-deck. Oh, you won't? Now, lads, one-two-and when I say three, remember that is your target,"-pointing to the waiter, "and break his neck!"

The scared serving-man withdrew at the critical instant, and every empty bottle was smashed against the door. The memory of Nelson was then pledged, and we all sallied into the Highstreet. I thought the air was impregnated with alcohol, for, when I got out, I felt the first symptoms of drunkenness.

I remember nothing more of the theatre than that the audience was exclusively composed of sailors and their female companions. Had the great bell of St. Paul's been sounding, instead of the tinkling music between the acts, it would not have been heard. About midnight we supped in the same manner we had dined, and again turned out. Watchmen, dockyardmen, and red coats were assaulted wherever we fell in with them. The master's mate, notwithstanding the enormous quantity of liquors of all sorts contained in his body, had a head no more affected by them than the wooden bung of a rumpuncheon. But this being my first drunken bout, I cannot say I saw very clearly; for the houses appeared to roll and pitch like ships. Neither could I walk very well, for in the broadest street I broke my shins against the curb-stones on each side of the way. As I grounded on every tack I made, beating it up, I thought the street had neither beginning nor end. But

the master's mate kept stragglers together, till we arrived at, what he called, head-quarters. He there entrusted me and the two others into the custody of a fiery-faced, flaming, old harridan, with strict injunctions regarding her treatment of us; to which she replied she would take as much care of us as of her own children. In the mean while he went out to survey the coast, promising to return, and ordering a bed, a warmingpan, a red herring, and a bowl of punch, to be all in readiness by his return.

Our careful, obedient, and moral hostess, with more than a mother's care, ordered a bed to be prepared for each of us striplings, mixed each of us a glass of strong waters, and then sagely observing that late hours were bad for young blood, led me to bed first. She put one of her own caps on my head, tied it under my chin with a blue riband, closed the curtains, called me a sweet creature, tucked me up, slobbered my cheek, and parted from me with "Be a good boy, now; and mind you say your prayers before you go to sleep!"

About daylight I woke from unquiet and suffocating dreams. Had I been previously acquainted with that phantom, the nightmare, I might have imagined myself under its influence; but my astonishment was great to find myself in my small couch. While endeavouring to distinctly recollect how I got there, the maid of the tenement appeared, and the mystery was solved.

After some delay in procuring the necessaries for a morning ablution, I dressed; and, directed by the mate's well-known voice, entered the parlour, ashamed, foolish, and dreading his rebukes, not knowing, or not then considering him as the

cause.

Though he was very methodical, he was no methodist, at least in preaching. His and their practice may be near akin. There he sat, like an emperor, or Abyssinian prince, (according to Bruce,) his august person occupying the old hostess's honoured arm-chair, and in exclusive possession of the fire. Cups, saucerless and chipped, a handless tea-pot, a piece of salt butter wrapped in brown paper, sugar on a broken plate, and soddened buttered toast, half eaten, and tooth-marked, were scattered about, with fat of ham and sausage.

These my first sins ought to find a place in my last will and