The severity of this punishment consists not only in the number of lashes, but in the peculiar manner in which they are inflicted; as, after the unfortunate wretch has received the first part of his sentence alongside of one ship, the blood is allowed to congeal, and the wounds partially to close, during the interval which takes place previously to his arrival alongside of the next, when the cat again subjects him to renewed and increased torture. During the latter part of the punishment, the suffering is dreadful; and a man who has undergone this sentence is generally broken down in constitution, if not in spirits, for the remainder of his life. Such was the punishment inflicted upon the unfortunate Peters; and it would be difficult to decide, at the moment when it was completed, and the blanket thrown over his shoulders, whether the heart or the back of the fainting man were the more lacerated of the two. Time can heal the wounds of the body, over which it holds its empire; but those of the soul, like the soul itself, spurn his transitory sway. Peters, from that moment, was a desperate man. A short time after he had undergone his sentence, the news of the mutiny at Spithead was communicated; and the vacillation and apprehensions of the Admiralty, and of the nation at large, were not to be concealed. This mutiny was apparently quelled by conciliation; but conciliation is but a half measure, and ineffectual when offered from superiors to inferiors. In this world, I know not why, there seems to be but one seal binding in all contracts of magnitude--and that seal is blood. Without referring to the Jewish types, proclaiming that "all things were purified by blood, and without shedding of blood there was no remission,"--without referring to that sublime mystery by which these types have been fulfilled,--it appears as if, in all ages and all countries, blood had been the only seal of security. Examine the records of history, the revolution of opinion, the public tumults, the warfare for religious ascendency--it will be found that, without this seal, these were only lulled for the moment, and invariably recommenced until _blood_ had made its appearance as witness to "the act and deed." CHAPTER TWO. This is a long description, but applies To scarce five minutes past before the eyes But yet what minutes! Moments like to these Rend men's lives into immortalities. BYRON.