Page:The Naval Officer (1829), vol. 1.djvu/238

 reason was more singular than either of the others: he had seen a picture in a church in Spain, of Peter's vision of the animals let down in the sheet, and there was a cat among them: observing an alarm of scepticism in my eye; he thought proper to confirm his assertion with an oath.

"Might it not have been a rabbit?" said I.

"Rabbit! Sir; d—n me, think I didn't know a cat from a rabbit? Why one has got short ears and long tail, and tother has got wicee wersee, as we calls it."

A grand carnival masquerade was to be given at Minorca in honour of the English, and the place chosen for the exhibition was a church; all which was perfectly consistent with the Romish faith. I went in the character of a fool, and met many brother officers there. It was a comical sight to see the anomalous groups stared at by the pictures of the Virgin Mary and all the saints, whose shrines were lit up for the occasion with wax tapers. The admiral,