abouts; none nearer than those cooped up in Hamburg with Davoust, take my word for it."

"I sall take your vord for any ting else in de large vorld, mi Capitain; but I see someting glance behind dat rampart, parapet you call, dat look dem like de shako of de infanterie légère of dat willain de Emperor Napoleon. Ah! I see de red worsted epaulet of de grenadier also; sacre! vat is dat pof of vite smoke?”

What it was we soon ascertained to our heavy cost, for the shot that had been fired at us from a long 32-pound gun, took effect right abaft the foremast, and killed three men outright, and wounded two. Several other shots followed, but with less sure aim. Returning the fire was of no use, as our carronades could not have pitched their metal much more than half-way; or, even if they had been long guns, they would merely have plumped the balls into the turf rampart, without hurting any one. So we wisely hauled off, and ran up the river with the young flood for about an hour, until we anchored close to the Hanoverian bank, near a gap in the dike, where we waited till the evening.

As soon as the night fell, a boat with muffled oars was manned, to carry the messenger on shore. I was in it; Mr Treenail, the second lieutenant, steering. We pulled in right for a breach in the dike, lately cut by the French, in order to inundate the neighbourhood; and as the Elbe at high water is hereabouts much higher than the surrounding country, we were soon sucked into the current, and had only to keep our oars in the water, pulling a stroke now and then to give the boat steerage way. As we shot through the gap into the smooth water beyond, we once more gave way, the boat's head being kept in the direction of lights that we saw twinkling in the distance, apparently in some village beyond the inner embankment, when all at once we dashed in amongst thousands of wild-geese, which rose with a clang, and a concert of quacking, screaming, and hissing, that was startling enough. We skimmed steadily on in the same direction-" Oars, men!" We were by this time close to a small cluster of houses, perched on the forced ground or embankment, and the messenger hailed in German.

"Qui vive!"sung out a gruff voice; and we heard the clank of a musket, as if some one had cast it from his shoulder, and caught it in his hands, as he brought it down to the charge. Our passenger seemed a little taken aback; but he hailed again, still in German. "Parole," replied the man. A pause. "The watchword, or I fire." We had none to give.

"Pull round, men," said the lieutenant, with great quickness; "pull the starboard oars; we are in the wrong box; back water the larboard. That's it! give way, men."

A flash-crack went the sentry's piece, and ping sung the ball over our heads. Another pause. Then a volley from a whole platoon. Again all was dark and silent. Presently a field-piece was fired, and several rockets were let off in our direction, by whose light we could see a whole company of French soldiers standing to their arms, with several cannon, but we were speedily out of the reach of their musketry. Several round shots were now fired, that hissed, recochetting along the water close by us. Not a word was spoken in the boat all this time; we continued to pull for the opening in the dike, although, the current being strong against us, we made but little way; while the chance of being cut off by the Johnny Crapauds getting round the top of the embankment, so as to command the gap before we could reach it, became every moment more alarming.

The messenger was in great tribulation, and made several barefaced attempts to stow himself away under the stern sheets.

The gallant fellows who composed the crew strained at their oars until every thing cracked again; but as the flood made, the current against us increased, and we barely held our own. "Steer her out of the current, man," said the lieutenant to the coxswain; the man put the tiller to port as he was ordered.

"Vat you do soch a ting for, Mr Capitain Lieutenant?" said the emissary. "Oh! you not pershave you are rone in onder de igh bank! How you sall satisfy me no France infanterie légère dere, too, more as in de fort, eh? How you sall satisfy me, Mister Capitain Lieutenant, eh?"

"Hold your blasted tongue, will you," said Treenail," and the infantry légère be damned simply. Mind your eye, my fine fellow, or I shall be much inclined to see whether you will be légère in the Elbe or no. Hark!"

We all pricked up our ears, and strained our eyes, while a bright, spitting, sparkling fire of musketry opened at the gap, but there was no ping pinging of the shot overhead.

"They cannot be firing at us, Sir," said the coxswain ;" none of them bullets are telling hereaway."

Presently a smart fire was returned in three distinct clusters from the water, and whereas the firing at first had only lit up the dark figures of the French soldiery, and the black outline of the bank on which they were posted, the flashes that answered them shewed us

three armed boats attempting to force the passage. In a minute the firing ceased; the measured splash of oars was heard, as boats approached us.

"Who's there?" sung out the lieutenant.

"All's well, Torches," rejoined Mr Treenail; and presently the jolly-boat, and launch, and cutter of the Torch, with twenty marines, and six-and-thirty seamen, all armed, were alongside.

"What cheer, Treenail, my boy?" quoth Mr Splinter.

Why, not much; the French, who we were told had left the Elbe entirely, are still here, as well as at Cuxhaven, not in force certainly, but sufficiently strong to pepper us very decently in the outgoing."

"What, are any of the people hurt?"

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"But,

No," said the garrulous emissary. "No, not hurt, but some of us frightened leetle piece-ah, very mosh, je vous assure.” Speak for yourself, Master Plenippo," said Treenail. Splinter, my man, now since the enemy have occupied the dike in front, how the deuce shall we get back into the river, tell me that?" Why," said the senior lieutenant," we must go as we came.” And here the groans from two poor fellows who had been hit were heard from the bottom of the launch. The cutter was by this time close to us, on the larboard side, commanded by Mr Julius Cæsar Tip, the senior midshipman, vulgarly called in the ship Bathos, from his rather unromantic name. Here also a low moaning evinced the precision of the Frenchmen's fire.

"Lord, Mr Treenail, a sharp brush that was.”

"Hush!" quoth Treenail. At this moment three rockets hissed up into the dark sky, and for an instant the hull and rigging of the sloop of war at anchor in the river glanced in the blue-white glare, and vanished again, like a spectre, leaving us in more thick darkness than before.

"Gemini! what is that now?" quoth Tip again, as we distinctly heard the commixed rumbling and rattling sound of artillery scampering along the dike.

"The ship has sent up these rockets to warn us of our danger," said Mr Treenail. "What is to be done? Ah, Splinter, we are in a scrape there they have brought up field-pieces, don't you hear?" Splinter had heard it as well as his junior officer. "True enough, Treenail; so the sooner we make a dash through the opening the better."

"Agreed."

By some impulse peculiar to British sailors, the men were just about cheering, when their commanding officer's voice controlled them. "Hark, my brave fellows, silence, as you value your lives." So away we pulled, the tide being now nearly on the turn, and presently we were so near the opening that we could see the signallights in the rigging of the sloop of war. All was quiet on the dike. "Thank God, they have retreated after all," said Mr Treenail. "Whoo-o, whoo-o," shouted a gruff voice from the shore. "There they are still," said Splinter. "Marines, stand by, don't throw away a shot; men, pull like fury. So-give way, my lads, a minute of that strain will shoot us alongside of the old brig—that's it-hurrah!"

"Hurrah!" shouted the men in answer, but his and their exclamations were cut short by a volley of musketry. The fierce mustaches, pale faces, glazed shakoes, blue uniforms, and red epaulets, of the French infantry, glanced for a moment, and then all was dark again.

"Fire!" The marines in the three boats returned the salute, and by the flashes we saw three pieces of field artillery in the very act of being unlimbered. We could distinctly hear the clash of the mounted artillerymen's sabres against their horses' flanks as they rode to the rear, their burnished accoutrements glancing at every sparkle of the musketry. We pulled like fiends, and being the fastest boat, soon headed the launch and cutter, who were returning the enemy's fire brilliantly, when crack-a six-pound shot drove our boat into staves, and all hands were the next moment squattering in the water. I sank a good bit, I suppose, for when I rose to the surface, half drowned and giddy and confused, and striking out at random, the first thing I recollected was a hard hand being wrung into my neckerchief, while a gruff voice shouted in my ear"Rendez-vous, mon cher."

Resistance was useless. I was forcibly dragged up the bank, where both musketry and cannon were still playing on the boats, which had, however, by this time got a good offing. I soon knew they were safe by the Torch opening a fire of round and grape on the head of the dike, a certain proof that the boats had been accounted for. The French party now ceased firing, and retreated by the edge of the inundation, keeping the dike between them and the brig, all except the artillery, who had to scamper off, running the gauntlet on the crest of the embankment until they got beyond the range of the carronades. I was conveyed between two grenadiers along the water's edge so long as the ship was

firing; but when that ceased, I was clapped on one of the limbers of the field-guns, and strapped down to it between two of the artillerymen.

We rattled along, until we came up to the French bivouac, where, round a large fire, kindled in what seemed to have been a farmyard, were assembled about fifty or sixty French soldiers. Their arms were piled under the low projecting roof of an outhouse, while the fire flickered upon their dark figures, and glanced on their bright accoutrements, and lit up the wall of the house that composed one side of the square. I was immediately marched between a file of men into a small room, where the commanding officer of the detachment was seated at a table, a blazing wood fire roaring in the chimney. He was a genteel, slender, dark man with very large black mustaches, and fine sparkling black eyes, and had apparently just dismounted, for the mud was fresh on his boots and trowsers. The latter were blue, with a broad gold lace down the seam, and fastened by a strap under his boot, from which projected a long fixed spur, which to me was remarkable as an unusual dress for a militaire, the British army being, at the time I write of, still in the age of breeches and gaiters, or tall boots, long cues and pipeclay—that is, those troops which I had seen at home, although I believe the great Duke had already relaxed a number of these absurdities in Spain.

His single-breasted coat was buttoned up to his throat, and without an inch of lace except on his crimson collar, which fitted close round his neck, and was richly embroidered with gold acorns and oak leaves, as were the crimson cuffs to his sleeves. He wore two immense and very handsome gold epaulets.

My good boy," said he, after the officer who had captured me had told his story-" so your Government thinks the Emperor is retreating from the Elbe?"

I was a tolerable French scholar as times went, and answered him as well as I could.

"I have said nothing about that, Sir; but, from your question, I presume you command the rear-guard, Colonel?"

"How strong is your squadron on the river?" said he, parrying the question.

"There is only one sloop of war, Sir "--and I spoke the truth.

He looked at me, and smiled incredulously; and then continued