A surgeon was at work among the sufferers.
Reaching Tristram at length, he stopped the bleeding of his wounds
with a little spirits of wine. He had no bandages; nor did he come
again to see if his patient were dead or alive.
But, indeed, our hero was past caring for this, and when he regained
consciousness after a third swoon it was to find himself in other
hands.
For the pursuing English, aided by the wind (which had shifted a
little farther to the northward), had swept down upon the galleys and
taken them, with their prize, and were now towing them triumphantly
into Sheerness.
_IX.--At Sheerness._
At ten o'clock next morning, after a prodigious breakfast at
Sheerness, Captain Barker and Captain Runacles (whose wounded arm
was slung in a silk kerchief) strolled down to the waterside to have
a look at the strange vessels they had so obstinately defied.
They explored with especial care the unfortunate _L'Heureuse_,
visiting first the Commodore's cabin, upon the boards of which the
blood of Roderick Salt was hardly dry. It cannot be said that they
felt much sorrow for his fate; for to pity a traitor was a height to
which the faith of this pair of imperfect Christians did not soar.
But they uttered no word of exultation, and quickly resumed their
examination of the deck and hold, discussing this or that rent,
debating over every splinter, proving that such and such a groove was
ploughed by a ball from such and such an angle, and so on.
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