cannot surely be possib dat de Prussian an' Hanoverian troop have left de
place, and dat dese dem Franceman ave advance so far as de Elbe autrefois,
dat ish, once more?'

"French!" said Deadeye: 'poo, nonsense; no French hereabouts; none nearer
than those cooped up in Hamburgh 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 legere 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
halfway; 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,