Tristram, indeed, was hurled scarcely so far as the rest, for his seat was the inmost from the gangway, and right against the galley's side; so that he got the shortest swing of the oar.
They scrambled up just as the fire of grape-shot opened.

And then Tristram made an appalling discovery.
The hole through which their oar was worked had been split wider by the crash; and now, looking out, he saw that it lay just opposite the mouth of an English cannon.

In this position they had been brought up by the frigate's grappling-irons.
It took him but an instant to see also that the cannon, as it stared him in the face, was loaded.
The two vessels, moreover, lay so close that by reaching up with his hand he could have laid his hand on its muzzle.
It was a horrible moment.

There were four Frenchmen and a Turk ranged along the bench beside him.

He looked into their faces.