Page:The Naval Officer (1829), vol. 1.djvu/204

 him now." The man tried to get it off, but the rigidity of the muscle after death, prevented his moving it. "He won't feel your knife, poor fellow," said the captain; "and a finger more or less, is no great matter to him now: off with it."

The sailor began to saw the finger joint with his knife, when down came a twenty-four pound shot, and with such a good direction, that it took the shoe off the man's foot, and the shovel out of the hand of another man.

"In with him, and cover him up!" said the captain.

We did so; when another shot, not quite so well directed as the first, threw the dirt in our faces, and ploughed the ground at our feet. The captain then ordered his men to run into the castle, which they instantly obeyed; while he himself walked leisurely along through a shower of musket-balls from those cursed Swiss dogs, whom I most fervently wished at the devil, because, as an aid-de-camp, I felt bound