{"id":"01KG6G6PJVYEWJCBQPTGDZ99H4","cid":"bafkreigwyfwahqmevkedpq6ybvakukprwrv2n7w4luc4kinmvvmvoezrd4","type":"chapter","properties":{"end_line":3379,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T03:47:28.078Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"XXIV","source_file":"01KG6FXSCNX5F3D880P3YP3PKR","start_line":3317,"text":"                                  XXIV\r\n\r\n\r\nThe symmetry of form attainable in pure fiction cannot so readily be\r\nachieved in a narration essentially having less to do with fable than\r\nwith fact. Truth uncompromisingly told will always have its ragged\r\nedges; hence the conclusion of such a narration is apt to be less\r\nfinished than an architectural finial.\r\n\r\nHow it fared with the Handsome Sailor during the year of the Great\r\nMutiny has been faithfully given. But though properly the story ends\r\nwith his life, something in way of sequel will not be amiss. Three brief\r\nchapters will suffice.\r\n\r\nIn the general re-christening under the Directory of the craft\r\noriginally forming the navy of the French Monarchy, the _St. Louis_\r\nline-of-battle ship was named the _Athéiste_. Such a name, like some\r\nother substituted ones in the Revolutionary fleet, while proclaiming the\r\ninfidel audacity of the ruling power, was yet, though not so intended to\r\nbe, the aptest name, if one consider it, ever given to a warship; far\r\nmore so indeed than the _Devastation_, the _Erebus_ (the Hell), and\r\nsimilar names bestowed upon fighting-ships.\r\n\r\nOn the return passage to the English fleet from the detached cruise\r\nduring which occurred the events already recorded, the _Indomitable_[9]\r\nfell in with the _Athéiste_. An engagement ensued, during which Captain\r\nVere, in the act of putting his ship alongside the enemy with a view of\r\nthrowing his boarders across the bulwarks, was hit by a musket-ball from\r\na port-hole of the enemy’s main cabin. More than disabled, he dropped to\r\nthe deck and was carried below to the same cock-pit where some of his\r\nmen already lay. The senior lieutenant took command. Under him the enemy\r\nwas finally captured, and though much crippled, was by rare good fortune\r\nsuccessfully taken into Gibraltar, an English port not very distant from\r\nthe scene of the fight. There Captain Vere with the rest of the wounded\r\nwas put ashore. He lingered for some days, but the end came. Unhappily\r\nhe was cut off too early for the Nile and Trafalgar. The spirit that\r\n’spite its philosophic austerity may yet have indulged in the most\r\nsecret of all passions, ambition, never attained to the fulness of fame.\r\n\r\nNot long before death, while lying under the influence of that magical\r\ndrug which, soothing the physical frame, mysteriously operates on the\r\nsubtler element in man, he was heard to murmur words inexplicable to his\r\nattendant--‘Billy Budd, Billy Budd.’ That these were not the accents of\r\nremorse, would seem clear from what the attendant said to the\r\n_Indomitable’s_[10] senior officer of marines, who, as the most\r\nreluctant to condemn of the members of the drum-head court, too well\r\nknew, though here he kept the knowledge to himself, who Billy Budd was.\r\n\r\n-----\r\n\r\nFootnote 9:\r\n\r\n  Cf. p. 63 note.\r\n\r\nFootnote 10:\r\n\r\n  Cf. p. 63 note.\r\n\r\n------------------------------------------------------------------------\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r","title":"XXIV"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG6G62NAV0XVMCJK0J8GGZ96","peer_type":"novel","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG6FXSCNX5F3D880P3YP3PKR","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG2T49K0H5GDRB0G4YDTPG8H","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG6G6PJVGBDR6SENVTHTSP83","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG6G6PJV6JAMSJD35T18XN89","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T03:47:29.499Z","ts":"2026-01-30T03:47:33.542Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}