Page:The Naval Officer (1829), vol. 1.djvu/200

 in the castle; and, having done so much for the king, I sat out to do something for myself.

It was pitch dark. I stumbled on; the wind blew a hurricane, and the dust and mortar aimost blinded me; but I knew my way pretty well. Yet there was something very jackall-like, in wandering about among dead bodies in the night-time, and I really felt a horror at my situation. There was a dreadful stillness between the blasts, which the pitch darkness made peculiarly awful to an unfortified mind. It is for this reason, that I would ever discourage night-attacks, unless you canrely on yourmen. They generally fail: because the man of common bravery, who would acquit himself fairly in broad day-light, will hang back during the night. Fear and Darkness have always been firm allies; and are inseparably playing into each other's hands. Darkness conceals Fear, and therefore Fear loves Darkness, because it saves the coward from shame; and when the fear of