""The Aide-de-Camp," &c. LEGENDS OF THE BLACK WATCH. By JAMES GRANT, Author of “ Romance of War," ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN GRANT. (Continued from page 269.) NATURAL Sorrow for the loss of his relative, and the native honesty of an American seaman, united to open the heart of the captain to our wanderer, and he agreed to give him a passage in the Ohio to Boston, from whence he could reach Britain more readily than from the coast of France, watched and surrounded as it was by ships and gunboats, troops and gens d'armes, police, spies, passports, &c. Believing all arranged at last, Grant never left the ship, but counted every hour until he should again find himself in Leon, the land of his faithful Juanna, with his comrades of the Black Watch around him, and the eagles of Marmont in front. At last came the important hour, when the anchor of the Ohio was fished; when her white canvas filled, and the stars and stripes of America swelled proudly from her gaff-peak, as she bore down the sunlit Loire with the evening tide; but now an unlooked-for misfortune took place. A French privateer, the famous Jean Bart, ran foul of her, and, by carrying away her bowsprit and foremast, brought down her maintopmast too. Thus she was forced to run back to Paimbeuff and haul into dock. For our disguised captain of the 42nd Highlanders to remain in the docks, guarded as they were by watchful gens d'armes, was impossible; thus, on being furnished by the skipper of the Ohio with the coarse clothes of a mariner, and a written character, stating that he was "Nathan Prowse, a native of Nantucket, in want of a ship," he stained his face and hands with tobacco juice, shaved off his moustache, and repaired to an obscure tavern in the suburbs of Paimbœuff, to find a lodging until an opportunity offered for his escape. Under his jacket he carried a pair of excellent pistols, which he kept constantly loaded; and a fine dagger or Albacete knife, a gift of poor Domingo de Leon. pea As he sat in the kitchen of this humble house of entertainment, his eye was caught by a printed placard above the mantel-piece. It bore the imperial arms, with the cipher of the Emperor, and stated that "the notorious spy Colquhoun Grant, a captain in a Scottish regiment of the British army, who had wrought so much mischief behind the lines of le Maréchal Duc de Raguse, in Leon, and who had been brought prisoner to France, where he had broken his parole, was wandering about, maintaining a system of espionage and Protean disguises; that he had, lastly, assumed the name, character, and passport of an American citizen, named Jonathan Buck, whom he had wickedly and feloniously murdered and robbed in the Rue de Rivoli at Paris; that the sum of 2,000 francs was hereby offered for him dead or alive; and that all prefects, officers, civil and military, gens d'armes, and loyal subjects of the Emperor, by sea and land, were hereby authorized to seize or kill the said Colquhoun Grant, wherever and whenever they found him." With no small indignation and horror, the Highlander read this obnoxious placard, which contained so much that wore the face of truth, with so much that was unquestionably false. "So Buck, whose papers I have appropriated, has been murderedpoor devil!" was his first reflection; "what if the honest skipper of the Ohio should see this precious document and suspect me? In that case I should be altogether lost." He retired from the vicinity of this formidable placard, fearing that some watchful eye might compare his personal appearance with the description it contained; though his costume, accent, and the fashion of his whiskers and beard altered his appearance so entirely that his oldest friends at the mess would not have recognized him. He hastily retired upstairs to a miserable garret, to think and watch, but not to sleep. When loitering on the beach next evening, he entered into conversation with a venerable boatman, named Raoul Senebier, and an exchange of tobacco pouches at once established their mutual good will. Grant said that "he was an American seaman out of a berth, and anxious to reach Portsmouth in England, where he had left his wife and children." The boatman, an honest and unsuspicious old fellow, seemed touched by his story, and offered to row him to a small island at the mouth of the Loire, where British vessels watered unmolested, and in return allowed the poor inhabitants to fish and traffic without interruption. "I can feel for you, my friend," said old Senebier; "for I was taken prisoner at the battle of Trafalgar, and was seven years in the souterrains of the Château d' Edimbourg, separated from my dear wife and little ones, and when I returned, I found them all lying in the churchyard of Paimbœuff." "Dead-what all?” “All, all, save one-the plague, the plague." "Land me on the isle then, and ten Napoleons shall be yours," said Grant joyfully, and in twenty minutes after, they had left the crowded wharves, the glaring salt-pans which gleam on the left bank of the Loire, and all its maze of masts and laden lighters, as they pulled down, with the flow of the stream and the ebb-tide together. The fisherman had his nets, floats, and fortunately some fish on board, so, if overhauled by any armed authority, he could pretend to have been at his ordinary avocation. They touched at the island, and were told by some of the inhabitants that not a British ship was in the vicinity, but that a French privateer, the terrible Jean Bart, was prowling about in these waters, and that the isle was consequently unsafe for any person who might be suspected of being a British subject; so, with a heart that began to sink, Grant desired old Raoul Senebier to turn his prow towards Paimbœuff. Morning was now at hand, and the sun as he rose reddened with a glow of Italian brilliancy the tranquil banks of the Loire, and the sails of the fisher-craft that were running up the stream. No vessels were in sight, for terror of the British cruisers kept every French keel close in shore; but suddenly a large white sail appeared to the southward, and in the lingering and ardent hope that she was one of our channel squadron, Grant prevailed upon Raoul to bear towards her. The wind became light, and all day the two men tugged at their oars, but still the ship was far off, and yet not so distant but that Grant, with a glistening eye and beating heart, could make out her scarlet ensign; when evening came on, and a strong current, which ran towards the Loire, gradually swept the boat towards the coast of France; and just as the sun set, old Raoul and the fugitive found themselves suddenly close to a low battery, a shot from which boomed across the water, raising it like a spout beyond them. Another and another followed, tearing the waves into foam close by. "We must surrender, Monsieur," said Raoul, wringing his hands; "and I shall be brought in irons before M. le Prefect for aiding the escape of a prisoner of war.” "Call me your son," said Grant; "say we were fishing, and leave the rest to me." "I have a son," said Raoul; "he escaped the plague by being where he is now, on board the Jean Bart.” They landed under the battery; a little corporal in the green uniform of a Voltigeur, with six men, conducted them with fixed bayonets before the officer in command. He was a handsome young man, and Grant in a moment recognized his former captor and companion, M. Armand, the sous-lieutenant of the 3rd Voltigeur Regiment. "Milles demons! is this you, Monsieur ?" exclaimed Armand, who knew Grant at once. Exactly, Monsieur le Lieutenant," replied Grant, with admirable presence of mind; "'tis I, your old companion Louis Senebier, captain of a gun, aboard the Jean Bart, from which I have a day's liberty to fish with my father, old Raoul of Paimbœuff, whom you see before you here; but understanding that a rascally British cruiser is off the coast, we were just creeping close to the battery when Monsieur fired at us." "Is this true, M. Senebier?" asked Armand, with a knowing smile. "All true; my son is said to be very like me," replied the old fisherman, astounded by the turn matters had taken. "Like you? Not very, bon! But you may thank heaven that I am not M. le Prefect of the Loire. Leave us your fish, M. Senebier, and be off before darkness sets in. See," he added, with a furtive but expressive glance at Grant; "see that you keep your worthy father clear of yonder British ship, which will just be abreast of the battery and two miles off about midnight." Armand placed a bottle of brandy in the boat, and, while pretending to pay for the fish, pressed Grant's hand, wished him all success, and pointed out the bearings of the strange sail so exactly, that the moment darkness set fairly in, Raoul trimmed his big sail and ran right on board of her; for her straight gun streak, her taper masts, and her snowwhite canvas shone in the moonlight above the calm blue rippled sea, distinctly in the clear twilight of the stars. "Boat ahoy!" cried a sentry from the quarter; "keep off or I shall fire." "What ship is that?" asked Grant, in whose ears a British voice sounded like some old mountain melody. "His Britannic Majesty's frigate Laurel, of 36 guns.” "Hurrah!" "Who the devil are you?" "A prisoner of war just escaped." "Bravo!" cried another voice, which seemed to be that of the officer of the watch; "sheer alongside, and let us see what like you are. Stand by with the man ropes-look alive there!" Grant shook the hard hand of Raoul Senebier, gave him five more gold Napoleons, and, in a moment after, found himself upon the solid oak deck of a spanking British frigate. Now he was all but at home, and his Proteus-like transformations and disguises were at an end. A single paragraph from the "History of the War in the Peninsula," will suffice to close this brief story of Colquhoun Grant's adventures, of which I could with ease have spun three orthodox volumes, &vo. "When he reached England, he obtained permission to choose a French officer of equal rank with himself to send to France, that no doubt might remain about the propriety of his escape. In the first prison he visited for this purpose, great was his astonishment to find the old fisherman (Raoul Senebier of Paimbœuff) and his real son, who had meanwhile been captured, notwithstanding a protection given to them for their services. But Grant's generosity and benevolence were as remarkable as the qualities of his understanding; he soon obtained their release, and sent them with a sum of money to France. He then returned to the Peninsula, and within four months from the date of his first capture, was again on the Tormes, watching Marmont's army! Other strange incidents of his life could be told," continues Napier, were it not more fitting to quit a digression already too wide; yet I was unwilling to pass unnoticed this generous, spirited, and gentleminded man, who, having served his country nobly and ably in every climate, died not long since, exhausted by the continual hardships he had endured." But his name is still remembered in the regiment by which he was beloved; and his adventures, his daring, and presence of mind, were long the theme of the old Black Watch at the mess table, the bivouac, and the guard-room fire. A NEW CORPS.-A corps is to be formed for service at the Falkland Islands from volunteers from certain regiments of the line. The men must have been in the service fifteen years, be married, and have not less than three children. The period of service is to be for six years, at the expiration of which they will be pensioned and have a grant of land. We understand that as yet the volunteering is a failure, very few men having offered for this duty. THE MILITIA. A numerously attended meeting of officers of the militia was recently held in the Music-hall, Abbey-street, Dublin, for the purpose of making arrangements for bringing the grievances under which they labour as a body before Parliament. The militia conceive they have been badly treated, an opinion in which the general public fully coincide. They ask military employment, or a fair amount of remuneration for their services and expenses. INSTRUCTIONS IN MUSKETRY. I. Ir is desirable in commencing these Lectures to notice a few simple points which are generally well understood, and the comprehension of which aids the study of the passage of projectiles through the air. Bodies.-A body is composed of numerous particles, which are separated by pores; the less porous a body is, or the greater the number of particles contained in a certain space, the greater is its density. Specific gravity.-The density or specific gravity of a body is the proportion that its weight bears to an equal volume of water at a temperature of 39o 2' F. The specific gravities of the following substances are: Weight. The weight of a body is its cubical contents multiplied by its specific gravity. Vis Inertia.-The nature of matter is such that of itself it will not change its form or position; a body at rest would remain so, one in motion would continue to move in a straight line. This property is termed the vis inertia of matter, and the power which overcomes this tendency is a force. Forces.-Forces producing motion may be divided into two classes: instantaneous forces, which act during an imperceptible period and produce uniform movement; and permanent forces, which act constantly either to increase or retard motion. The elements of a force are the point of its application, the direction in which it urges that point, and its power. The Velocity. The velocity of a body endowed with uniform motion is found by dividing the space it has passed through in a certain period by the time that it took to traverse the space. Thus the velocity of a body travelling 100 feet in 4 seconds, is 25 feet per second. The velocity of a body moving with a regularly increasing speed is directly in proportion to the time of movement. So the velocity of a body when it had been one second in motion, and the time of its movement, being known, their product will give the velocity acquired at the expiration of the given time. The Momentum.-The momentum or power of a moving body, is the product of its weight and velocity. The Resultant.-A body under the influence of two or more forces will move in the resultant of the forces; or, if the forces counterbalance one another, it will remain motionless. If two unequal forces are directly opposed to each other, the resultant will be in the direction of the most powerful. The resultant of two forces not directly opposed to one another will be expressed by the diagonal of the parallelogram described upon the U. S. MAG., No. 344, JULY, 1857. 2 F |