"Kiss Robin and the wee pet every night for my sake; pray for me often when I am far awa' frae you and hame, Betsy, my bonnie doo!"
"Hurrah for the King and the old Twenty-first! A shilling a day is mighty fine pay!" shouted Corporal Mahoney.
"Happy the man to-day who has no other wife than old Brown Bess," I heard the earl say to Captain Glendonwyn.
Such were the scraps of conversation I heard on all sides, amid the sobs and loud lamentations of women, who bore or led their little ones by the hand, and strove to keep pace with the sections in which their husbands marched, the officers kindly permitting them to change place with the outer files, that husband and wife—parent and child—might keep together, hand-in-hand, till the last fatal moment of separation. As we neared the harbour and marched along the quay of the old dock, which occupies the site of the ancient walls and ramparts, and enters immediately from the river Hull, the sailors in all the merchant shipping swarmed up into the rigging to give us a parting cheer, and amid such sounds, and the song sung by the mass of our light-hearted fellows, the sorrow of those who were on the eve of separation, perhaps for ever, was swept away or forgotten by the beholders; and still with breathing brass and clashing cymbal, "ear-piercing fife and spirit-stirring drum," our band accompanied the sonorous chant of nearly three hundred voices:—
The dames of France are fair and free,
And Flemish lips are willing;
And soft the maids of Italy,
And Spanish eyes are thrilling:
Still though I bask beneath their smile,
Their charms must fail to bind me,
For my heart flies back to Britain's isle,
And the girl I left behind me!
CHAPTER XXVII.
THE "ADDER" FRIGATE.
We were to form part of an armament which consisted of three line-of-battle ships, six frigates, and several transports, under the command of Admiral Sir John Jervis, having on board a body of troops of the line and artillery, under General Sir Charles Grey, K.B., afterwards created Viscount Howick, Earl Grey, and who was father of the great political reformer and statesman. Our express orders were to attack and capture the French West Indian Islands, considerable information regarding the military details of which had been furnished to our government by Madame de Rouvigny, a fugitive Royalist, who resided under the protection of the British flag at Barbadoes.
The head-quarters of the fusiliers were on board the Adder, a large double-banked frigate, and when stepping on her deck, the first person who met me face to face was my former terror and bête noir, Mr. Cranky, who was now promoted to this command, in reward for the vigour with which he had exerted himself when on board the Tartar. He was superintending the embarkation of the troops, whom he surveyed with no very pleasant expression of face, and at whom he swore roundly as they arrived in boat-loads; for to a sublime contempt for landsmen in general, Captain Cranky united a species of indescribable disgust for soldiers in particular; thus he would as soon have received any number of obnoxious vermin on board his frigate as the head-quarter division of his Majesty's Scots Fusiliers.
On board this fleet were the 8th, or King's Regiment; the 9th, 33rd, 38th, 43rd Light Infantry; 44th, 70th, or Surrey; and other corps, led by officers, many of whom were to attain titles and distinctions in the following wars of the Peninsula and Flanders. As we were proceeding on service in time of war, we had all our full allowance of ammunition; but each man was restricted to ten rounds, the reserve being lodged in the ship's magazine.