The Strange Adventures of Captain Dangerous, Vol. 2: Who was a sailor, a soldier, a merchant, a spy, a slave; among the moors...Sala, George Augustus
General
The Strange Adventures of Captain Dangerous, Vol. 2: Who was a sailor, a soldier, a merchant, a spy, a slave; among the moors...
Sala, George Augustus
Adventure and adventurers -- Fiction
his eye out, and roars for the Guard. Then Mr. Pinchin, according to his
custom when he has gotten himself into a pother, begins to squeal for
Me, and the Chaplain, and his Mamma, to help him out of it. My blood
was up in a moment; I had not had a Tussle with any one for a long time.
"Shall I who have brained an English Grenadier sneak off before a
rabble-rout of Sauerkraut Soldiers?" I asked myself, remembering how
much Stronger and Older I had grown since that night. "Here goes, Jack
Dangerous!" and away I went into the throng, wrenched the white staff
from the old Lord's hand, made him unhand my Master, and drawing his
Sword for him (he being too terrified to draw it himself), grasped him
firmly by the arm, and was preparing to cut a way back for both of us
through the crowd. But 'twas a mad attempt. Up came the Guard, every man
of them Six Foot high, and for all they were Sauerkraut Soldiers,
pestilent Veterans who knew what Fighting meant. When I saw their fixed
Bayonets, and their Mustachios curling with rage, I remembered a certain
Scar I had left on me after a memorable night in Charlwood Chase. We
were far from our own country, and there was no Demijohn of Brandy by;
so, though it went sore against my Stomach, there was no help for it
but to surrender ourselves at once Prisoners of War. Prisoners of War,
forsooth! They treated us worse than Galley Slaves. Our hands were bound
behind us with cords, Halters were put about our necks, and, the
Grenadiers prodding us behind with their bayonets,--the Dastards, so to
prick Unarmed Men!--we were conducted in ignominy through the rascal
Crowd, which made a Grinning, Jeering, Hooting lane for us to pass to
the Guardhouse at the Entrance of the Gardens. The Officer of the Guard
was at first for having both of us strapped down to a Bench as a
preliminary measure to receive two hundred Blows apiece with Willow Rods
in the small of our backs, which is their usual way of commencing
Judicial proceedings, when up comes the old Lord in a Monstrous Puff and
Flurry, and says that by the Empress's command no present Harm is to be
done us; but that we are to be removed to the Town Gaol till the Cæsar's
pleasure respecting us shall be known. Her Majesty, however, forgot to
enjoin that we were not to be fettered; so the Captain of the Guard he
claps on us the heaviest Irons that ever Mutineers howled in; and we,
being flung into a kind of Brewer's Dray, and accompanied by a Strong
Guard of Horse and Foot, were conveyed to Vienna, and locked up in the
Town Gaol.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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