E-text prepared by D Alexander, Juliet Sutherland, and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this file which includes the original illustration. See 32186-h.htm or 32186-h.zip: (https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/32186/pg32186-images.html) or (https://www.gutenberg.org/files/32186/32186-h.zip) TALES FROM "BLACKWOOD" Contents of this Volume _Lazaro's Legacy. By Colonel E. B. Hamley_ _A Story without a Tail. By Dr Maginn_ _Faustus and Queen Elizabeth_ _How I became a Yeoman. By Professor Aytoun_ _Devereux Hall. By Mrs Southey_ _The Metempsychosis. By Dr Robert Macnish_ _College Theatricals_ William Blackwood and Sons Edinburgh and London TALES FROM "BLACKWOOD." LAZARO'S LEGACY. A TALE OF THE SIEGE OF GIBRALTAR. BY COLONEL E. B. HAMLEY. [_MAGA._ DECEMBER 1851.] CHAPTER I. The note-book of my grandfather, Major Flinders, contains much matter relative to the famous siege of Gibraltar, and he seems to have kept an accurate and minute journal of such of its incidents as came under his own observation. Indeed, I suspect the historian Drinkwater must have had access to it, as I frequently find the same notabilia chronicled in pretty much the same terms by both these learned Thebans. But while Drinkwater confines himself mostly to professional matters--the state of the fortifications, nature of the enemy's fire, casualties to the soldiery, and the like--and seldom introduces an anecdote interesting to the generality of readers without apologising for such levity, my grandfather's sympathies seem to have been engrossed by the sufferings of the inhabitants deprived of shelter, as well as of sufficient food, and helplessly witnessing the destruction of their property. Consequently, his journal, though quite below the dignity of history, affords, now and then, a tolerably graphic glimpse of the beleaguered town. From the discursive and desultory nature of the old gentleman's style, as before hinted, it would be vain to look for a continuous narrative in his journal, even if it contained materials for such. But here and there a literary Jack Horner might extract a plum or two from the vast quantity of dough--of reflections, quotations, and all manner of irrelevant observations, surrounding them. The following incidents, which occurred at the most interesting period of the long and tedious siege, appear to me to give a fair idea of some of the characteristics of the time, and of the personages who figured in it; and accordingly, after subjecting them to a process analogous to gold-washing, I present them to the reader.