flannel hanging down the sides, were marched up behind it at the double,
and posted there.

"Meanwhile Ogilvy had prepared a dummy field piece, by dismounting a
cart from its wheels and fixing on the axle a great old wooden pump, not
unlike a big gun in shape; another cart was attached to this to
represent a limber; four horses were harnessed to the affair; two men
mounted these, and, amid a tremendous flourish of trumpets and beating
of drums, the artillery went crashing along the streets and up the
eminence crowned by the earthwork, where they wheeled the gun into
position.

"The artillerymen sprang at the old pump like true Britons, and began to
sponge it out as if they had been bred to gunnery from childhood, while
the limber was detached and galloped to the rear. In this operation the
cart was smashed to pieces, and the two hindmost horses were thrown; but
this mattered little, as they had got round a corner, and the French did
not see it.

"Fall and his brave men seem to have been upset altogether by these
warlike demonstrations, for the moment the big gun made its appearance
the sails were shaken loose, and the French privateer sheered off;
capturing as he left the bay, however, several small vessels, which he
carried off as prizes to France. And so," concluded the lieutenant,
"Captain Fall sailed away, and never was heard of more."

"Well told; well told, leftenant," cried the captain, whose eyes
sparkled at the concluding account of the defensive operations, "and
true every word of it."

"That's good testimony to my truthfulness, then," said Lindsay,
laughing, "for you were there yourself!"

"There yourself, uncle?" repeated Minnie, with a glance of surprise that
quickly changed into a look of intelligence, as she exclaimed, with a
merry laugh, "Ah! I see. It was _you_, uncle, who did it all; who
commanded on that occasion--"

"My child," said the captain, resuming his pipe with an expression of
mild reproof on his countenance, "don't go for to pry too deep into
things o' the past. I _may_ have been a fire-eater once--I _may_ have
been a gay young feller as could--; but no matter. Avast musin'! As
Lord Bacon says--

"`The light of other days is faded,
An' all their glory's past;
My boots no longer look as they did,
But, like my coat, are goin' fast.'

"But I say, leftenant, how long do you mean to keep pullin' about here,
without an enemy, or, as far as I can see, an object in view?