ch as twenty or thirty thousand pounds of steaks at a time, all
hissing and frying at a time--just about noon, of course, you know--not a
spark of fire! Some of the soldiers who had been brought up as
glass-blowers at Leith swore they never saw such heat. I used to go to
leeward of them for a whiff, and think of old England! Ay! that's the
country, after all, where a man may think and say what he pleases! But
that sort of work did not last long, as you may suppose; their eyes were
all fried out, ---- me, in three or four weeks! I had been ill in my bed,
for I was attached to the 72nd regiment, seventeen hundred strong. I had
a party of seamen with me; but the ophthalmia made such ravages, that the
whole regiment, colonel and all, went stone-blind--all, except one
corporal! You may stare, gentlemen, but it's very true. Well, this
corporal had a precious time of it: he was obliged to lead out the whole
regiment to water--he led the way, and two or three took hold of the
skirts of his jacket on each side; the skirts of these were seized again
by as many more; and double the number to the last, and so all held on by
one another, till they had all had a drink at the well; and, as the devil
would have it, there was but one well among us all--so this corporal used
to water the regiment just as a groom waters his horses; and all
spreading out, you know, just like the tail of a peacock."--"Of which the
corporal was the rump," interrupted the doctor. The captain looked grave.
"You found it warm in that country?" inquired the surgeon. "Warm!"
exclaimed the captain; "I'll tell you what, doctor, when you go where you
have sent many a patient, and where, for that very reason, you certainly
will go, I only hope, for your sake, and for that of your profession in
general, that you will not find it quite so hot as we found it in Egypt.
What do you think of nineteen of my men being killed by the concentrated
rays of light falling on the barrels of the sentinels' bright muskets,
and setting fire to the powder? I commanded a mortar battery at Acre, and
I did the French infernal mischief with the shells. I used to pitch in
among them when they had sat down to dinner; but how do you think the
scoundrels weathered on me at last? ---- me, they trained a parcel of
poodle dogs to watch the shells when they fell, and then to run and pull
the fusees out with their teeth. Did you ever hear of such villains? By
this means they saved hundreds of men, and