Part 23 (2/2)
”`At Sea, _May_ 24th.'
”`Gentlemen,--See whether you will come to some terms with me, or I come in presently with my cutter into the arbour, and I will cast down the town all over. Make haste, because I have no time to spare. I give you a quarter of an hour to your decision, and after I'll make my duty. I think it would be better for you, gentlemen, to come some of you aboard presently, to settle the affairs of your town. You'll sure no to be hurt. I give you my parole of honour. I am your, G. FALL.'
”When the Provost received this he looked round and said, `Now, gentlemen all, we'll hae to fight. Send me Ogilvy.'
”`Here I am, Provost,' cried a stout, active young fellow; something like what the captain must have been when he was young, I should think!”
”Ahem!” coughed the captain.
”Well,” continued Lindsay, ”the Provost said, `Now, Ogilvy, you're a smart cheel, an' ken aboot war and strategy and the like: I charge ye to organise the men o' the toon without delay, and tak' what steps ye think adveesable. Meanwhile, I'll away and ripe oot a' the airms and guns I can find. Haste ye, lad, an' mak' as muckle noise aboot it as ye can.'
”`Trust me,' said Ogilvy, who appeared to have been one of those men who regard a fight as a piece of good fun.
”Turning to the mult.i.tude, who had heard the commission given, and were ready for anything, he shouted, `Now, boys, ye heard the Provost. I need not ask if you are all ready to fight--'
”A deafening cheer interrupted the speaker, who, when it ceased, proceeded--
”`Well, then, I've but one piece of advice to give ye: _Obey orders at once_. When I tell ye to halt, stop dead like lampposts; when I say, ”Charge!” go at them like wild cats, and drive the Frenchmen into the sea!' `Hurrah!' yelled the crowd, for they were wild with excitement and rage, and only wanted a leader to organise them and make them formidable. When the cheer ceased, Ogilvy cried, `Now, then, every man who knows how to beat a kettledrum and blow a trumpet come here.'
”About twenty men answered to the summons, and to these Ogilvy said aloud, in order that all might hear, `Go, get you all the trumpets, drums, horns, bugles, and trombones in the town; beat the drums till they split, and blow the bugles till they burst, and don't give in till ye can't go on. The rest of you,' he added, turning to the crowd, `go, get arms, guns, swords, pistols, scythes, pitchforks, pokers--any thing, everything--and meet me at the head of Market-gate--away!'
”No king of necromancers ever dispersed his legions more rapidly than did Ogilvy on that occasion. They gave one final cheer, and scattered like chaff before the wind, leaving their commander alone, with a select few, whom he kept by him as a sort of staff to consult with and despatch with orders.
”The noise that instantly ensued in the town was something pandemoniacal. Only three drums were found, but tin kettles and pans were not wanting, and these, superintended by Hugh Barr, the town drummer, did great execution. Three key-bugles, an old French horn, and a tin trumpet of a mail-coach guard, were sounded at intervals in every quarter of the town, while the men were marshalled, and made to march hither and thither in detached bodies, as if all were busily engaged in making preparations for a formidable defence.
”In one somewhat elevated position a number of men were set to work with spades, picks, and shovels, to throw up an earthwork. When it had a.s.sumed sufficiently large dimensions to attract the attention of the French, a body of men, with blue jackets, and caps with bits of red flannel hanging down the sides, were marched up behind it at the double, and posted there.
”Meanwhile Ogilvy had prepared a dummy field piece, by dismounting a cart from its wheels and fixing on the axle a great old wooden pump, not unlike a big gun in shape; another cart was attached to this to represent a limber; four horses were harnessed to the affair; two men mounted these, and, amid a tremendous flourish of trumpets and beating of drums, the artillery went cras.h.i.+ng along the streets and up the eminence crowned by the earthwork, where they wheeled the gun into position.
”The artillerymen sprang at the old pump like true Britons, and began to sponge it out as if they had been bred to gunnery from childhood, while the limber was detached and galloped to the rear. In this operation the cart was smashed to pieces, and the two hindmost horses were thrown; but this mattered little, as they had got round a corner, and the French did not see it.
”Fall and his brave men seem to have been upset altogether by these warlike demonstrations, for the moment the big gun made its appearance the sails were shaken loose, and the French privateer sheered off; capturing as he left the bay, however, several small vessels, which he carried off as prizes to France. And so,” concluded the lieutenant, ”Captain Fall sailed away, and never was heard of more.”
”Well told; well told, leftenant,” cried the captain, whose eyes sparkled at the concluding account of the defensive operations, ”and true every word of it.”
”That's good testimony to my truthfulness, then,” said Lindsay, laughing, ”for you were there yourself!”
”There yourself, uncle?” repeated Minnie, with a glance of surprise that quickly changed into a look of intelligence, as she exclaimed, with a merry laugh, ”Ah! I see. It was _you_, uncle, who did it all; who commanded on that occasion--”
”My child,” said the captain, resuming his pipe with an expression of mild reproof on his countenance, ”don't go for to pry too deep into things o' the past. I _may_ have been a fire-eater once--I _may_ have been a gay young feller as could--; but no matter. Avast musin'! As Lord Bacon says--
”`The light of other days is faded, An' all their glory's past; My boots no longer look as they did, But, like my coat, are goin' fast.'
”But I say, leftenant, how long do you mean to keep pullin' about here, without an enemy, or, as far as I can see, an object in view? Don't you think we might land, and let Minnie see some of the caves?”
”With all my heart, captain, and here is a convenient bay to run the boat ash.o.r.e.”
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