146 AN EXPLOSION. 



nership concern. For this purpose it was large enough in all 

 conscience, being an old-fashioned horn, bound with brass, 

 and capable of holding a pound of powder. We filled it to the 

 top. At a short distance from the house, a snipe sprang un- 

 expectedly I killed it and in attempting to reload, the charge 

 ignited in the barrel, and the horn blew up in rny hand. My 

 clothes were reduced to tinder, my hat scorched, my hair and 

 eyebrows burned off, but excepting a slight cut in my hand, 

 otherwise I was perfectly uninjured. Not a fragment of the 

 flask, but one shattered piece of horn, could be found upon the 



unbroken surface of the snow. H , who was about one 



hundred yards distant from me, described the explosion as 

 louder than the report of a nine-pound er ; yet, to me, the 

 noise seemed trifling. Was not this escape miraculous? 



" The second explosion, in which I perpetrated arson, 

 occurred some ten miles up the river. By some uuhappy 

 mischance, I took out a flask of condemned powder, and 

 the accident was not discovered until it was too late to be 

 remedied. To dry the powder was the alternative ; and we 

 repaired for this purpose to the only house within four miles 

 of the place, a shieling occupied by an old herdsman and his 

 wife. 



" The powder was spread upon a wooden platter, and laid at 

 a sufficient distance from the fire ; and while I stirred it with 

 a ramrod at a distance, one of my attendants conceived it a fit- 

 ting opportunity to roast a cast of potatoes in the embers. Both 

 operations went forward successfully. The powder was almost dry 

 the potatoes nearly roasted, when my follower ingeniously 

 contrived to introduce a coal into the loose powder. This in- 

 cident, though trifling in itself, made an immediate alteration 

 in affairs. The roof of the cabin was dry as tinder, while tow, 

 flax, and* other combustible matters, were stored immediately 

 above the hearth. In a moment all was in flames the potato- 

 roaster blown into the corner, and I, either by fear or gunpow- 

 der, capsized in another direction. 



"The agony of the poor old woman, who fortunately was 

 outside the hovel when the explosion took place, was pitiable. 

 In five minutes her cabin was a ruin and to her that 

 wretched shieling was worth a marble palace. For a time 

 she could not be pacified. In vain she was assured ' that the 

 master would build her a new house, wider, and bigger, and 



