e were not fired upon by any small-arms
whatever; and the guns could not be sufficiently depressed from the
embrasures to be made to bear upon us. They certainly must have
perceived us, for the moon was shining with singular splendour; but they
seemed to take no notice of our advance, but fired twice upon the
frigate as we were climbing or rather scrambling up.

This assault was an affair got up with so little premeditation, that
Captain Reud had no other arms than his regulation sword; and his
aide-de-camp, my redoubtable self; no other weapon of offence than a
little crooked dirk, so considerably curved, that it would not answer
the purpose of a dagger to stab with, and so blunt, that I am sure,
though it might separate, it could not _cut_ through a plum-pudding.
Though I was approaching _pari passu_ with my commander to a parapet,
where there there was _no_ "imminent deadly breach," I was so much
ashamed of my side-arms, that I would not expose them to the night air.

Up we tumbled close under the low, turf-constructed battlement, and, as
we were in the act of scrambling over it, we received a straggling and
ill-directed fire of musketry.

One hurrah from our party, and we were into the fort in a moment, and
that on the two flanks as well as the front. For all the service that I
could render, I might as well have charged, as a midshipman usually
walks the decks, with my hands in my pockets. However, there we were
face to face with our opponents, on the planked floor of the fort, just
as they were making up their minds to run away. But they did not go
quite as soon as they ought. In jumping over the turfy mound, it must
be supposed, as was really the case, that it took us an instant or two
to recover our equilibrium and ascertain the surety of our footing; but
that instant was a very annoying one, for the Frenchman directly opposed
to Captain Reud, deliberately put his musket against the said captain's
face, and though I, unarmed as I was, actually did strike up this musket
as much as I was able, it had only the effect of making the bayonet at
the end of it score a deep wound from the bridge of his nose to the top
of his forehead, when the trigger was pulled, and the whole crown of
Captain Reud's skull completely blown away. The shot turned him round
like a weathercock; I naturally half-turned also, giving the enemy the
advantage of studying my profile, whilst I endeavoured to support my
captain in my arms; an