ut though the map had been in the
lantern-light, their faces had always been in shade. But when they rose
from stooping over the chart the light flashed upward, and fell smart
upon one of 'em's features. No sooner had this happened than Uncle Job
gasped, and sank down as if he'd been in a fit.
'"What is it--what is it, Uncle Job?" said I.
'"O good God!" says he, under the straw.
'"What?" says I.
'"Boney!" he groaned out.
'"Who?" says I.
'"Bonaparty," he said. "The Corsican ogre. O that I had got but my new-
flinted firelock, that there man should die! But I haven't got my new-
flinted firelock, and that there man must live. So lie low, as you value
your life!"
'I did lie low, as you mid suppose. But I couldn't help peeping. And
then I too, lad as I was, knew that it was the face of Bonaparte. Not
know Boney? I should think I did know Boney. I should have known him by
half the light o' that lantern. If I had seen a picture of his features
once, I had seen it a hundred times. There was his bullet head, his
short neck, his round yaller cheeks and chin, his gloomy face, and his
great glowing eyes. He took off his hat to blow himself a bit, and there
was the forelock in the middle of his forehead, as in all the draughts of
him. In moving, his cloak fell a little open, and I could see for a
moment his white-fronted jacket and one of his epaulets.
'But none of this lasted long. In a minute he and his general had rolled
up the map, shut the lantern, and turned to go down toward the shore.
'Then Uncle Job came to himself a bit. "Slipped across in the night-time
to see how to put his men ashore," he said. "The like o' that man's
coolness eyes will never again see! Nephew, I must act in this, and
immediate, or England's lost!"
'When they were over the brow, we crope out, and went some little way to
look after them. Half-way down they were joined by two others, and six
or seven minutes brought them to the shore. Then, from behind a rock, a
boat came out into the weak moonlight of the Cove, and they jumped in; it
put off instantly, and vanished in a few minutes between the two rocks
that stand at the mouth of the Cove as we all know. We climmed back to
where we had been before, and I could see, a little way out, a larger
vessel, though still not very large. The little boat drew up alongside,
was made fast at the stern as I suppose, for the largest sailed away, and
we saw no more.
'My u
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