They were quicker and greater adepts at their work than we had been, and the chances were that they would lick us at out fighting, so that H—— sent, or sanctioned, a sortie by way of diversion, when a party of our naval fellows made a dash at them when least expected, but in numbers our men, like the six hundred riding at the Russian batteries, were quite unequal to the contest, and suffered terribly; my brother and several others came in bleeding, but our foes were disturbed and brought to close quarters, where they resolutely let fly as if they expected to dislodge us in no time, but we were several feet above them, and they would have to scale our ramparts before driving us out. In less than five minutes the exchange became uncommonly smart and hot. I was also disfigured, as the clay begrimed not only our jackets but our faces and hands.
No great length of time elapsed before it became as plain as a pike-staff that we were getting the worst of it, and no wonder. H—— discovered the reason, “those ruffians,” he cried, “popped in stones beneath their clay, we must at them at once; are you ready?”
“Then hurrah, and away, show no quarter.”
Down we rushed, the foul play that had been detected animating us with the pluck and dash of adult warriors.
“Let ’em have it,” cried H——, unmindful of a wound in the head which caused the blood to flow copiously. I, too, was hit, as indeed were one and all of us, but “onwards boys,” was the word, and just as we were on the point of crossing sticks and guns, they fell back suddenly, but not before a personal exchange of compliments came off between our colonel and the burly leader on the enemy’s side. In fact H—— closed with him, and laid hands on his throat which brought him to the ground.
This incident gave a turn to the fortune of war, and at the real tug which decides so many battles we were again the victors, most unmistakeably so this time, as it became a total rout, and the ringleader was not released until he rendered up his stick and pledged himself never again to oppose or make light of us while exercising.
It was not very long after this scrimmage that a painful circumstance occurred, and as it concerned three of us who had fought in company, and who were shortly after fated to have a difference among ourselves, I may as well mention it at once. I do so with twinges of regret even at this distant period of time, as I was led, almost unwittingly, into a fresh squabble which disfigured, I am aware, my early doings.
It was in this wise. My brother who was in the last affair (not an elder brother who was in the Royal Navy), had some high words with my colonel, H——, who had led us twice into action as recounted. H——, by design or inadvertence, had cast a slur on our father—not that I heard it or was aware of it until John, my brother, came in one day and said, “Henry, we are going to fight H——.”
“Indeed,” I cried with doubt and pain; “what for, he is my colonel, I have had no quarrel with him?”
“Well, it is all settled; he has insulted papa. Here’s Johnson, he will tell you all about it, and when it is to come off. Owing to H——’s size and age he is going to take the pair of us.”