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transports and victuallers assembled there , for what purpose I could not then learn ; but on the 4 th of December , a line-of-battle ship appeared off the harbour ' s mouthy and telegraphed to the men-of-war within . c All hands unmoor' soon followed , and in an hour the harbour was in motion with frigates and transports under way . On arriving outside , we found four ships of the line and another fleet of some thirty sail of transports full of troops , hovering about till our squadron joined ; which done , the signal to make sail was thrown out from the flag-ship , and repeated by the frigates , the A leading the convoy , and the Success urging on the stragglers and dull sailors . e Hurra ! for a warm climate ! ' was the talk as every bowsprit looked S . S . W . But whither ? which ? West Indies ? East Indies ? Mediterranean ? that S . S . W , was the course to either for several hundred leagues . It was an expedition ; to attack what place ? We could not guess . Hard knocks , at all events , we miorht . palr » iila . t . « nr » ivith snmp opt-~— — ' - ^»— ' ¦ - — - — - h b b « w » r \¦
^^^~ — ^~ — — ' ^~^ ^— ' — ^^ ^^ " ^* v ^ m — —~ " - ^^ ^^—— ^^ — ^ g w v ^^ ^™ ^» ^ ^^ g ^ ^* ^^ *^^ r ^*~^ r ^^ ^* r ^"" m ^^ *^ »* ^^^ ^^^ ^ ^ b W ¦ ^» J *• ^» *^^ ^^^ 4 ^ fc ^» ^ , ¦* ^^^ ^*»* ^^ tainty . Troops and line-of-battle ships , —there were batteries to be battered before the troops could be landed then : hard knocks to a certainty ; and some of us would lose the number of our mess in the job . The secret did not transpire for some weeks . Exercising daily at the guns might have taught us to expect we should soon be called upon to work them in earnest . And perhaps it was well to keep the secret close , we might have gossiped with strange ships on our passage , to the frustration of , or at least increase of difficulties to the scheme . Well , on we sped , day after day , and such speeding : with such obiects before and around vis
was to me a newness of life and joy . The sea , within a circumference of some miles , was sprinkled over with buoyant habitations crowded with human dwellers . Here was a little white cottage : there a lofty and noble mansion : a suburban village , each house in which was separated from its neighbour , by a larger or smaller space of liquid verdure in undulations , on the tops of which the crested billows swaved and bowed like arden flowers shaken bv
the breeze . The whitened walls threw back the rays of the sun , or received on them the sleeping light of the clear moon : and all were journeying along on the sparkling and flashing waters . Now , almost in the distant horizon , one had strayed from the rest as it floated , and seemed clipped in an embrace of sea and sky , with nothing visible of motion stirring her . Now she was a dream ; now a crashing confusion of suddenl y awakened and bright thoughts ; now diminished , reduced , concentrated to one
single point of perfect beauty ; an idea alone and unconnected ; a gem of itself , and all gem within itself . She was the echo of a linnet ' s ' twit , ' single , small , and clear . Now she looked like a spark of fire as the clear sun flashed on her sails . Hark ! ' tis music floating over the water , and swimming about our ship ' s white wings . It is the band onboard the Admiral : an enormous ship , double our own in size : we are nearing on her starboard
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32 A utobiography of PeL Verjuice .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Jan. 2, 1834, page 32, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2629/page/32/
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