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NAVAL HEMINISCENCKS. 



in particular, and to the base part of humanity in general ; but I 

 never happened to see the grounds of his greatness specified. 



But to return to LORD SPENCER. 



He was, I have said, very much beloved by the service, and more 

 especially by the humbler and non-influential members of it. Of his 

 attention to modest and unpretending merit, a case occurred within 

 my knowledge, which is my present purpose to tell, and I shall do 

 so in my own round-about way. 



Our carpenter in the K brig his name was John W , but 



we used to call him Charley, for shortness was pressed in the 

 " Spanish Disturbance," as it was called, in the eighties, and served 

 for some nine months in the Channel, and elsewhere. He was a raw 

 landsman when pressed, but the violation of his freedom as a native 

 of Britain and a citizen of London, in one instance, afforded an ex- 

 cellent plea for its violation a second time j for no sooner did the war 

 of 1793 break out, than he was kidnapped as an old sailor, and hur- 

 ried off to the West Indies, with as many companions of sin and 

 misery, as the ruffians in the pay of Government, the press-gangs on 

 the river, could contrive to pick up by fair means and foul. The 

 ship in which he served was one of those that were destined to co- 

 operate in the attack on the French islands ; and Charley, who was a 

 spirited active fellow, though he was a cockney of the first water, 

 soon found himself " quite promiscuously," as he described it, amongst 

 the party of sailors, which formed no mean nor useless portion of the 

 force destined for the reduction of- St. Lucie. The English forces 

 seem to have been on that occasion, as on almost every other during the 

 early part of the war, most scandalously led, and great loss was sus- 

 tained in consequence. They were, at length, successful, however, 

 chiefly, if not wholly, from the dare-devil character of the men, be- 

 fore which the better instructed and disciplined Frenchmen found it 

 impossible to stand. 



At the capture of I forget whether it was the fort or a fort, but it 

 was a station of importance, and its reduction led to the immediate 

 surrender of the colony the sailors, by chance or arrangement, were 

 mingled with the military appointed to storm the place ; and, in their 

 helter-skelter way, they were foremost to scramble over the wall, and 

 to take possession. My old friend Charley was second over. The 

 first man that entered he was also a sailor with characteristic 

 thoughtlessness made a spring to gain the colours of the fort, which 

 floated over the bastion, into which he had clambered, wholly un- 

 mindful of the fact that the flag-staff was guarded by a French sol- 

 dier, who was pacing within half-a-dozen yards of it. In his haste 

 the poor devil happened to lay hold of the haulyard, instead of the 

 downhaul, and he had drawn the flag halfway through the sheave- 

 hole before he noticed his mistake. Immediately on perceiving it he 

 fell to climbing the staff, in order to disentangle the flag, when the 

 sentry levelled and shot him through the groin, and both he and the 

 flag came down, by the run, together. Charley was second over, as 

 I said, and had got within a few steps of the flag-staff, when his un- 

 fortunate precursor fell. His first object also was to get hold of the 

 colours ; and, in the attempt, he might have shared the fate of their 



