Lord Nelson had noticed him more than once, as one of
the smartest of his crew, and had said to him that very morning, "For
the honour of Springhaven, Dan, behave well in your first action." And
the youth had never forgotten that, when the sulphurous fog enveloped
him, and the rush of death lifted his curly hair, and his feet were
sodden and his stockings hot with the blood of shattered messmates.
In the wildest of the wild pell-mell, as the Victory lay like a pelted
log, rolling to the storm of shot, with three ships at close quarters
hurling all their metal at her, and a fourth alongside clutched so close
that muzzle was tompion for muzzle, while the cannon-balls so thickly
flew that many sailors with good eyes saw them meet in the air and
shatter one another, an order was issued for the starboard guns on the
upper deck to cease firing. An eager-minded Frenchman, adapting his
desires as a spring-board to his conclusions, was actually able to
believe that Nelson's own ship had surrendered! He must have been off
his head; and his inductive process was soon amended by the logic of
facts, for his head was off him. The reason for silencing those guns was
good--they were likely to do more damage to an English ship which lay
beyond than to the foe at the portholes. The men who had served those
guns were ordered below, to take the place of men who never should fire
a gun again. Dan Tugwell, as he turned to obey the order, cast a glance
at the Admiral, who gave him a little nod, meaning, "Well done, Dan.
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