Page:The Naval Officer (1829), vol. 1.djvu/202

 was gone. I was preparing to return, when I encountered, not a dead, but a living enemy.

"Qui vive?" said a low voice.

"Anglois, béte!" answered I, in a low tone; and added, "mais les corsairs ne se battent pas."

"Cest vrai," said he; and growling, "bonsoir," he was soon out of sight. I scrambled back to the castle, gave the countersign to the sentinel, and shewed my new great coat with a vast deal of glee and satisfaction; some of my comrades went on the same sort of expedition, and were rewarded with more or less success.

In a few days, the dead bodies on the beach, were nearly denuded by nightly visitors; but that of the colonel lay respected and untouched. The heat of the day had blackened it, and it was now deprived of all its manly beauty, and nothing remained but a loathsome corpse. The rules of war, as well as of humanity, demanded the honourable interment of the remains of this