Indeed, the arrival of a newspaper on board, along with the pilot, created such a ferment among the officers and men that it was evident something unusual had happened since we last heard the news.
When, towards evening, my master was allowed once more to come on deck, we were not long in discovering the cause of all this.
The Indian Mutiny, which had just broken out when we left England, had suddenly assumed enormous and hideous dimensions.

The rebels, taking advantage of their first success, seemed to have gone mad with a most cruel madness.

Helpless Englishwomen and children had been massacred and outraged; gallant Englishmen, overpowered by numbers, had been put to shameful deaths.

One by one our strongholds had been surprised and captured; and, carrying all before them, the traitors bade fair to leave England not so much as a foothold in India.
This was enough to make the blood of the tamest among us boil with indignation, and, as the dreadful truth, bit by bit, dawned on our gallant fellows, their impatience became almost beyond control.

My master was in sad peril of another arrest by reason of his excitement.
"Show me the spalpeens! Show me 'em!" roared he, almost beside himself.
"Let me at 'em, Duck, ye blackguard; let me at 'em!" And so saying he seized Mr Downie, who happened to be standing near him, and nearly shook the bones out of that unoffending hero's body.
"Do ye hear ?" roared Paddy, quite out of his senses.
"I hear," said Downie, coolly, proceeding to take off his coat and tuck up his shirt-sleeves as if he were going to wash his hands.
"What's the gossoon about at all ?" cried my master, taken aback by this unexpected reply to his question.
"On'y going to smash you!" calmly replied the imperturbable Duck, beginning to spar--"so come on, my lad!" That Patrick would have joyfully accepted the invitation I have no doubt, had not an accident at that moment befallen him.
A trolly coming up behind, took him off his feet.