They found that living on board the _Macedonian_ was like living in a market, where one dresses on the door-step and sleeps in the cellar. They could have no privacy, hardly a moment seclusion. In fact, it was almost a physical impossibility ever to be alone. The three impressed Americans dined at a vast _table d'hôte_, slept in commons and made their toilet when and where they could. Their clothes were stowed in a large canvas bag, painted black, which they could get out of the "rack" only once in twenty-four hours, and then during a time of utmost confusion, among three hundred and fifty other sailors, each diving into his bag, in the midst of the twilight of the berth-deck. Terrence, in order to obviate in a measure this inconvenience, suggested that they divide their wardrobes between their hammocks and their bags, stowing their few frocks and trowsers in the former, so that they could change at night when the hammocks were piped down. They knew not whither they were bound, and they cared little about the object of the voyage. "How are we to get out of this any way?" asked Sukey one day, when the three were together for a moment. "Lave it all to me!" said Terrence. "I am perfectly willing to leave it all to you, Terrence. Do just as you will, so you get me on shore." Before they had been a month on the ship, they chased a French merchantman for twenty-four hours, and at times were near enough to fire a few shots with their long bow-chaser; but a fresh breeze sprang up, quickly increased to a gale, and the Frenchman escaped. This was the nearest approach to a naval engagement they experienced during their stay on the war frigate. They cruised along the coast of Ireland and Scotland, went to Spain, entered the waters of the Mediterranean for a few weeks, and then returned to the Atlantic, sailing for the West Indies. Not only were the officers of the _Macedonian_ brutal; but the crew was made up of a motley class of human beings of every class of viciousness and brutality. "Now boys, if ye want to kape out of trouble," said Terrence, "do'nt ye get into any fights with thim divils, or ye'll be brought up to the quarter-deck and flogged." His advice was appreciated, and both Fernando and Sukey did their best to avoid trouble with any of their quarrelsome neighbors. They submitted to insults innumerable; but at last Sukey was one morning assailed by a brutal sailor whom he knocked down. Two other sailors were guilty of a similar offence, and all four were put under arrest. Fernando was shocked and alarmed for his friend, and hastened to ascertain the facts concerning the charge. "I couldn't help it," declared Sukey, whom he found in irons. "Plague take him! he hit me twice before I knocked him down. I didn't want to be in the game."