their confidence that the wound would be mortal, and that they could tell the tale in their own way, the misbehaving captains insisted on returning to Jamaica. Even the officers who had done their duty joined in recommending retreat, from a belief that their comrades would desert them. The squadron went back to Jamaica, but though Benbow’s wound was mortal he lived long enough to do the Royal Navy one signal piece of service. He brought his disloyal officers to a court martial. The heart of the navy was still sound in spite of the vices on the surface, and the misconduct of these men had been too gross for pity. Sentences of death or dismissal were passed on all, and the offenders were sent home for execution. Kirkby, and Wade of the =Greenwich=, were shot on board the =Bristol= at Plymouth. Hudson of the =Pendennis= died before trial, else he would have shared their fate. Constable of the =Windsor= was dismissed the service, and imprisoned. Even the officers who had reluctantly joined in the recommendation to retreat were sentenced to dismissal, and were pardoned only by the intercession of the admiral. It was said, apparently by way of palliation for Kirkby and Wade, that they had behaved well before, and were less cowards than traitors. There is probably this amount of force in the pitiful excuse, that they were greedy men chiefly intent on pelf, who in their foolish cunning hoped to revenge themselves on their rough chief by ruining his chance of gaining glory. To end before a firing-party was their proper fate. It has been the good fortune of the navy that the nation has always been very serious where it was concerned, and that in the worst of times there has always been within its own ranks the capacity to apply the last indispensable sanction of the code of honour.