Collected works > Edinburgh edition, 1894-98 - Works of Robert Louis Stevenson > Volume 11, 1895 - Miscellanies, Volume III

THE ENGLISH ADMIRALS
fifty sail had been mauling them for fifteen hours,
the Admiral of the Hulks and the Ascension of
Seville had both gone down alongside, and two
other vessels had taken refuge on shore in a sinking
state. In Hawke's words, they had ' taken a great
deal of drubbing.' The captain and crew thought
they had done about enough ; but Greenville was
not of this opinion ; he gave orders to the master
gunner, whom he knew to be a fellow after his own
stamp, to scuttle the Revenge where she lay. The
others, who were not mortally wounded like the
Admiral, interfered with some decision, locked the
master gunner in his cabin, after having deprived
him of his sword, for he manifested an intention to
kill himself if he were not to sink the ship ; and sent
to the Spaniards to demand terms. These were
granted. The second or third day after, Greenville
died of his wounds aboard the Spanish flagship,
leaving his contempt upon the ' traitors and dogs '
who had not chosen to do as he did, and engage
fifty vessels, well found and fully manned, with
six inferior craft ravaged by sickness and short
of stores. He at least, he said, had done his duty
as he was bound to do, and looked for everlasting
fame.
Some one said to me the other day that they con-
sidered this story to be of a pestilent example. I
am not inclined to imagine we shall ever be put into
any practical difficulty from a superfluity of Green -
villes. And besides, I demur to the opinion. The
worth of such actions is not a thing to be decided
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