304 The Man of Ill-Omen. [.Skpt. 



us for our extraordinary prowess, and telling us that a single charge 

 would send the Austrians over the Alps. No news could be more 

 popular, and if huzzas could have decided the day, no battle was 

 ever more triumphant. But the order was given to advance. The 

 Austrians were evidently tired of having their bones broken for 

 an emperor three hundred miles ofFj and ten minutes more would 

 have seen them in full march off the ground. But our advance 

 compelled them to halt ; and I had, for the first time in the day, 

 a view of their battaHons within the fair firing distance of one hun- 

 dred yards. I saw them regularly load, cock, and come to the 

 present, till I could have looked into every musket barrel of the ten thou- 

 sand that seemed directed expressly at my own person. The thought 

 occurred to me, quick as lightning, ' What am I to get by standing to be 

 shot ? I shall not be a piastre the better, turn which way the day will. 

 Have I not been brought here without any will of my own ? and have I 

 not given my bringers fair warning that they might better have left me 

 where I was ?' At that instant a platoon fired. There was evidently no 

 time to be lost, if I meant to live with whole limbs. I faced to the right 

 about, and ran for it. The whole guard followed my example, crying 

 out, ' Treason.' The cry spread along the line, and the line ran, crying 

 out, ' Treason,' louder still. The reserve saw the movement in front, 

 and, congratulating themselves on their being five hundred yards further 

 out of mischief, led the way, crjnng out ' Treason,' like the rest. 

 Vollies from the Austrian infantry, and the galloping of three thousand 

 Austrian hussars among us, did not increase our tranquillity ; and before 

 sunset there was not a Neapolitan within sight from the highest 

 hill. The Austrians sang Te Dcmn. About the same time, INIurat 

 reached Naples, and also ordered Te Deum, and by the light of ^an 

 illumination, for what the Neapolitan bulletins declared the greatest 

 victory gained by them since the Crusades, got into a felucca and made 

 his escape to the French shore. 



" So, you see, Slilord," said the fellow, taking off his cap, and making 

 a flourish with it down to the ground, " I had some right to be glad 

 that so accomphshed a cavaliero as yourself behaved so handsomely as 

 you have done ; for, some how or other, ill luck would have followed 

 you, if you had not listened to my claims on the bounty of every man of 

 taste and talent." 



" But your leg, my friend," said I ; " you did not lose it in the wars, 

 at least ?" 



" Ah !" was the reply, " that was an oversight. A man never 

 should forget his principles. In foolishly endeavouring to carry off 

 my old colonel, whom I found wounded and trampled on, I got into 

 contact with an Austria i dragoon. As he could make nothing of my 

 bayonet with his sabre, he sent a ball through my leg, which I returned 

 by one through his forehead. The leg was useless, and I had it cut off 

 at the monastery, where I lived so much at my ease. The monks 

 offered me my old quarters ; but I liked the world — had no taste for tlie 

 cloister, and so set forth to add to the pleasures of the noble cavalieri who 

 come from England to add to the happiness of Naples." 



