1830.] Recollections of' a Valetudinarian. 31 



simmered a little in the place where it was found. This was a narrow 

 escape, as, had this shot gone only a few inches further, we should have 

 been all blown into eternity, and the consequences to posterity would 

 have been very serious. The battle of Navarino would never have been 

 gained by our gallant admiral, and these my Recollections would never 

 have been written. One never prizes life so much as when we have 

 just escaped from a situation of great danger ; I am sure I never knew 

 its value so well before, and do not recollect ever to have enjoyed the 

 best dinner I have since met with, so much as the scramble we all had 

 for odds and ends " in the steward's room down below," as soon as the 

 action was over. The delight of feeling oneself quite safe, of shaking 

 hands with each other, was beyond every thing I have since felt, and I 

 took the greatest pains to conceal my late panic, which, now the cause 

 was removed, I could laugh at myself. 



The fleet having all passed the batteries, we were towed to an 

 anchorage beyond the town of Flushing, as soon as the tide served, out of 

 the reach of shot and shell j so that our business being done, we had 

 only to look on while the people on shore did theirs, and a tremendously 

 fine sight it was. The truce had no sooner expired, than the land bat- 

 teries, gun-boats, bomb-vessels, and rocket-boats, all opened upon the 

 town at once, and kept up a terrible bombardment for several hours. At 

 midnight, Flushing presented a most magnificent spectacle ; it was on 

 fire in four different places, and the shells and rockets,, pouring in without 

 ceasing, added to the increasing conflagration. 



The still darkness of the night made the contrast more apparent, 

 while one could not help comparing the quiet safety of our own situation 

 with that of the unfortunate inhabitants. All around us was rest and peace, 

 save the occasional "All's well !" of the vigilant sentry, the distant oars of 

 the guard-boats, and the swift gliding of the smaller boats going to and 

 fro with orders to our companions on shore, who were more busily em- 

 ployed ; while the incessant roar of the batteries and gun-boats warned 

 us that the work of destruction was going forward. Our own sensations 

 of thankfulness to that Omnipotent Being who had that day saved us 

 from sudden and violent death, made iis, perhaps, more compassionate 

 than man is to his fellow on such occasions. One could not but feel that 

 those brilliant flames, which caused our admiration, were destroying 

 in a few minutes the work of years ; that each shell, whose twinkling 

 light shot through the air like falling stars, was the winged messenger of 

 fate to some of our fellow-creatures ; and that each rocket that glittered 

 in the firmament would probably deprive some industrious individual of 

 a home, and bring ruin and desolation on a whole family. 



If the reader should consider these reflections superfluous, I can only 

 say, in apology, they were mine at that moment. Time and use will of 

 course get the better of our feelings ; but experience and the oppor- 

 tunity of comparison has convinced me, that however the tiger part of 

 our composition may predominate in the hour of battle, and the sight of 

 blood and natural instinct of self-defence may render us callous to such 

 sensations, there is no human being more generally kind-hearted than 

 an Englishman. He never commits an unnecessary cruelty, and is not 

 carried away by the excitement of the moment, like his continental 

 neighbours. I speak principally of soldiers and sailors, for a mob is 

 almost always brutal in every country. 



Although I had found out that one might get over an action without 



