The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction. Volume 17, No. 494, June 18, 1831Various
General
The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction. Volume 17, No. 494, June 18, 1831
Various
Popular literature -- Great Britain -- Periodicals
B.--"Not for the world; that would be illiberal and unkind, and by the
way, now I think on it, I believe the possibility of a man travelling
without his _cranium,_ for at the battle of Laswaree, during that
desperate contest for British India, I saw a sergeant of the
seventy-sixth shot dead; yet the fellow pursued his antagonist some
hundred yards afterwards, threatening vengeance on the miscreant for
having robbed the service of one of its best men. Finding himself weak
from loss of blood, he deliberately unscrewed his head, threw it
violently at the foe, and took him on the spine; down he tumbled; the
veteran jumped upon him; fearful was the struggle; chest to chest,
fist to fist; at last they joined in the death grapple, and dreadful
indeed was their dying hug."
C.--"My dear friend, I was an eye witness of the whole transaction.
You have however forgotten the best part of the story. After the
sergeant had well pummelled his enemy, he picked up his head again,
and thrust into a neighbouring great gun: from the want of his
_peepers_ he made a random shot, and killed the horse on which Lord
Lake was riding--his Lordship saluted the sod."
B.--"I recollect it perfectly; for the nose of the said sergeant
(recognised by sundry carbuncles) was so hard, that the following day
it was extracted from the abdomen of the unfortunate animal."
C.--"You make a mistake about the nose; it was discovered lodged in a
loaf in a corporal's knapsack; the man could swear to it, for it was
perforated by three balls, and otherwise curiously marked. Report said
that a shell had once blown it completely off, and that it was
stitched on again by a shoe-maker, who, ever after, went by the name
of the _nosy_ cobbler."
B.--"Nothing impossible. It reminds me of a story somewhat as strange:
During the battle of Delhi there was a quarter-master in the regiment,
a queer fellow, who was never at a loss; (he is now in the corps, and
can vouch for my statement) he was charging at the head of his
squadron, when he caught a cannon shot in his hands: instantly
dismounting, he chucked the ball into a field-piece, but, for want of
a ramrod, he drove it home with his head. One of the enemy, seeing him
thus zealously occupied, fired off the gun; strange to tell he was not
killed! From constant exposure to the sun, in search of toddy, and
from the free use of cocoa-nut oil, his head had become proof against
shot. The distance from the place whence he was projected, to that
where he was picked up, measured three miles, two furlongs, three
yards, and eleven inches. A hard-headed fellow, Sir.--In his career he
upset his colonel and a brace of captains."
C.--"He did; and where the colonel was capsized, he made such a hole
by his enormous weight, that the sovereign of Delhi ordered a large
well to be dug on the spot, in memory of the event."
B.--"I remember the well--twelve feet, three inches and a half, was
the exact depth of the excavation occasioned by the fall."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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