"When I reappeared, I found a party of twenty men mustered on deck in
pipe-clay order. A full ration of small arms was served out to them,
and, under the command of the lieutenant, we embarked in the long-boat
and rowed ashore. We landed at a point of the coast some miles distant
from Cork, and it was dark before we reached the military barracks of
that town, which, for the present, appeared to be our destination.

"I had not the slightest idea of what we were to do on shore. From our
being so heavily armed, I knew it was no mere escort or parade duty
that was in question, and began to think there was work of some kind
on hand. This gave me no kind of uneasiness. I only wondered whatever
it could be, for there was clearly a mystery of some kind or other.
Were we going to besiege Paddy, in his own peaceable city of Cork? Had
some of the peep-o'-day boys been burning down farmer Magrath's ricks
again? or was there a private still to be routed out and demolished? I
could not tell.

"Half an hour after our arrival, I was called into a private room by
the lieutenant, who was seated at a table with a package of clothes
beside him. The first lieutenant of the _Norfolk_, I must remark, was
a bit of an original. He had won his way up to the rank he then held
from before the mast. His build was rather squat, and his face was
garnished with a pair of fiery red whiskers, so he was no beauty,
added to which he was reckoned one of the most rigid martinets in the
service; yet, for all that, his crew liked him, for they knew his
heart was in the right place.

"'See, my man,' said he, 'take this package, and rig yourself out in
the toggery it contains.'

"I obeyed this order, and soon after stood before him, in a pair of
jack-boots, with a slouching sort of tarpauling hat on my head, so
that I might either have passed for a manner out of luck or a dustman.

"'Well,' said the lieutenant, laughing, 'now you have quite the air of
the hulks about you.'

"This remark not being very complimentary, I did not feel called upon
to make any reply.

"'You know,' he continued, 'that the brig is short about a dozen
hands, and I want you to pick up a few likely lads here. I understand
there are a number of able-bodied seamen skulking about the
public-houses, where they will likely remain as long as their money
lasts. I should like to secure as many of them as possible, and then
capture a few stout landsmen to make up the number; but, in the fi