him of the “bracelets,” bidding him go to the private cabin. There Captain Wise soon joined him, and over a bottle of the best, they renewed the acquaintance of some years before, when Captain Doten, then master of the brig “Dragon” of Plymouth, Mass., had sailed for three years in succession under convoy of Captain Wise, engaged in carrying naval stores up the Baltic from Plymouth, England, the “Dragon” having been chartered by the British government among other merchant vessels for that purpose. This service brought Captain Doten into quite intimate relations with many of the English naval officers, so that when he was a prisoner at Gibraltar, he was allowed many privileges. Among these was shore going almost daily, and passage through the batteries to the top of the Rock, where he could spend the time more agreeably than on the prison hulk. One day in going up he found Lieutenant Daly, who was in charge of one of the batteries, unshotting the guns, and was told by him that some ships in the offing were from America and signalled that the British had won a great victory, in honor of which he was ordered to fire a salute when the details were known. Much depressed in spirits, Captain Doten listened during the day for the salute, but it was not fired. Returning in the afternoon, Daly was then engaged in reshotting the guns, and explained that when the ships got nearer, the fortress had learned that there indeed had been a great battle “at a place called New Orleans,” but it had resulted in a tremendous defeat for the British arms, and General Pakenham had been “sent home in a hogshead of rum.” Daly—who of course was an Irishman—added at a low breath, “and I’m glad of it.” Captain Doten told the great news to his fellow prisoners on the hulk, and that night after they had been confined below the gratings one of their number, a ship carpenter, who had located where a barrel of beer rested on the deck, bored up through the planks and bilge of the cask, inserting an improvised tube or pipe, and drew off the contents. Of course a great deal ran to waste, but enough was secured to make all hands feel mighty “merry,” and they hilariously celebrated the victory of New Orleans, taunting the guard so outrageously, singing “Yankee Doodle,” and bandying epithets, that they were only partially quieted by the gratings being removed, the guard drawn up around the hatchways with muskets pointed down into the crowd, and the threat made to fire if the disturbance did not cease. Undoubtedly there would have been shooting, but the English officers had heard rumors of peace, and under such circumstances the killing of unarmed prisoners would have been deemed murder. They “made a night of it,” and the next day, when the loss of the beer was discovered, the cause of their high spirits was explained, while the shrewd manner in which they had obtained the liquid for the jollification, was characterized by the commander of the hulk, as “another d—d smart Yankee trick.”