“And you are bleeding from something like a dozen, Francisco, so you had better let me play the doctor first.”

“The captain is always served last, so do as you are told, and strip off your doublet.

“Now, gentlemen,” he said, turning to the other officers, “let each of us do what we can to dress the wounds of others.  We can expect no care from the Genoese leeches, who will have their hands full, for a long time to come, with their own men.  There are some among us who will soon bleed to death, unless their wounds are staunched.  Let us, therefore, take the most serious cases first, and so on in rotation until all have been attended to.”

It was fortunate for them that in the hold, in which they were confined, there were some casks of water; for, for hours the Genoese paid no attention whatever to their prisoners, and the wounded were beginning to suffer agonies of thirst, when the barrels were fortunately discovered.  The head of one was knocked in, and some shallow tubs, used for serving the water to the crew, filled, and the men knelt down and drank by turns from these.  Many were too enfeebled by their wounds to rise, and their thirst was assuaged by dipping articles of clothing into the water, and letting the fluid from these run into their mouths.

It was not until next morning that the prisoners were ordered to come on deck.  Many had died during the night.  Others were too weak to obey the summons.  The names of the rest were taken, and not a little surprise was expressed, by the Genoese officers, at the extreme youth of the officer in command of the Pluto.

“I was only the second in command,” Francis said in answer to their questions.  “Carlo Bottini was in command of the ship, but he was killed at the commencement of the fight.”

“But how is it that one so young came to be second?  You must belong to some great family to have been thus pushed forward above men so much your senior.

“It was a wise choice nevertheless,” the commander of one of the galleys which had been engaged with the Pluto said, “for it is but justice to own that no ship was better handled, or fought, in the Venetian fleet.  They were engaged with us first, and for over an hour they fought us on fair terms, yielding no foot of ground, although we had far more men than they carried.  I noticed this youth fighting always in the front line with the Venetians, and marvelled at the strength and dexterity with which he used his weapons, and afterwards, when there were three of us around him, he fought like a boar surrounded by hounds.  I am sure he is a brave youth, and well worthy the position he held, to whatsoever he owed it.”

“I belong to no noble family of Venice,” Francis said.  “My name is Francis Hammond, and my parents are English.”

“You are not a mercenary, I trust?” the Genoese captain asked earnestly.

“I am not,” Francis replied.  “I am a citizen of Venice, and my name is inscribed in her books, as my comrades will vouch.”