"Look out! She's going, lads!"
"M'sieur, for the sake of these brave men, who have wives and children, I accept your generous conditions, but, for myself, I will stay with the captain." And at these words a deathly pallor spread over the mate's face. He lifted his hands to his eyes, as though to shut out the sight of the dead. Then he reeled and fell. They picked him up, but he was dead. So they laid him beside his captain and carried the wounded aboard the frigate. Jamie and three others were still unconscious when they reached the frigate's deck. The rest stood by to see the last of their old ship. It was a sight never to be forgotten. They could distinctly see the body of Captain Forbes propped against the stump of the mast, with more than half of his crew lying dead beside him, as the derelict went down.
"Hist! She's going!" came a hollow cry, which was half a sob, as they clustered around the bulwarks of the foreigner.
"Stand by to fire a salute!" cried Captain Alexandre, who was a chivalrous Frenchman.
And as the Duncan took her final plunge, and the tattered ensign went under, the Sapphire paid her last tribute of respect to a valiant foe by a salute of seventeen guns.
Scarcely had the smoke rolled away and the last reverberation ceased, when the frigate turned her head towards the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and left that lonely, watery grave behind.
Jamie's wound was not very severe, although at times it was exceedingly painful, and after the ball had been extracted from his shoulder, he soon recovered much of his usual health.
Jack was his constant attendant. Day and night he scarcely left him, but nursed him most assiduously with all the solicitude of a mother; and no wonder, for Jamie was a hero now, and with all the ship's company too. His bravery in carrying the colours aloft on a sinking ship, with the bullets flying all around him, and his body a mark for all the enemy's sharpshooters, his persistence in completing the task, after a bullet had shattered his shoulder--this had made him a conspicuous hero, not only amongst his comrades, but also amongst the officers and crew of the Sapphire.
Jamie, however, like all true heroes, bore his triumphs modestly and his wound patiently, though, to tell the truth, he was just a little proud of the latter, and especially was he proud of Captain Forbes' words to him when he regained the deck--
"Well done!" He would never forget those words, spoken as the captain breathed his last.