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Untitled Article
are thus employed , hot work indeed it is for the little Grass * hopper : she , frotn her light draught , is enabled to get in so closely that she seems mingled in the fire and smoke of the enemy : but the fury of the turmoil diminishes—the gun-boats slacken fire , and let fly at interval )^ each wider and more pro
-(longed than the former . Still Rota , for a timfc , maintains its vigour of salutation , and then grows weary ; Atld , hurra hurra ! ' Several of the gun-boats are stranded , and their crews are scampering on the beach , and scudding into the town ;—¦ others of them , with the utmost speed of sail and oar , are running into Cadiz . Turn your eyes to the harbour , there is something a-stir there * ay , a seventy-four and two frigates are in motion .
No matter , the wind is in their teeth ; they miist beat out , and we are to windward of them three miles . We have done as much mischief as we could do . Mercury and Grasshopper are called off ; and with seven captured vessels under our wings , we stand out to the southward , where now the mast-heads of the fleet are visible in the horizon . Doubtless the admiral has heard the noise , and they are all coming up to see what has been the matter . Reader , I have , in part , told you what were tny sensations . I
had no time to be frightened during all this , for I was not in my right mind—I was in a whirl : the bustle , hallooing , hurraing , crashing , cracking , rattling , thundering , whizzing , and whistling , made me drunk and delirious ; like a fellow in a tavern , who , when he is in the third heaven of jollity , smashes tables and chairs , dishes and glasses—dashes his fists through the
doorpannels and the windows , all senseless of the scarifying and bruises he inflicts upon himself in the indulgence of his fun : mine was an excitement even to frenzy , from the strangeness , and wondrous novelty of my position ; and , I dare say , if any one had set me the example , I should have ran away and hid myself if 1 could ; only , it happens , that there are no back doors to escape by in these affairs .
After making report to the admiral , we were ordered to Gibraltar with the prizes , and to refit ; and that night we bore up for the entrance to the Straits , with a fair wind : and , no doubt , each man on board , from the captain to the scavenger , lay awake a little , during the first watch , calculating ; taxing his arithmetical skill on the proceeds and divisions of eighths , and third of eighths , five shares , three shares , share and half , single , and half shares , from the day ' s hard , bad work , and that agreeable , but unfortunate flock of chickens , ( our plunder , ) that fluttered within the ship ' s shadow . But the calculations were somewhat premature : the arithmetic proved to be faulty ; for , at about twelve o ' clock , a world of black mountain clouds , apparently as solid as the Sierra Rorida itself , came marching towards us from the SK and gave solemn warning of the elemental rage which would aoon
Untitled Article
x £ 2 Autobiography of Pel . Verjuice *
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), March 2, 1834, page 222, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2631/page/66/
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