We Ordered The Boat To Be Got In Readiness, And The Officers On
Shore Seeing These Preparations, Gathered Together A Number Of
Guards, Who Assembled Upon The Sands.
We saw that great excitement
prevailed, and that messengers were continually going to and fro
between the shore and the citadel.
Our captain, out of compliment
to his Excellency, had provided the vessel with a Russian war-flag,
which he had hoisted alternately with the Union Jack, and we agreed
that we would attempt our disembarkation under this, the Russian
standard! I was glad when we came to that resolution, for I should
have been sorry to engage the honoured flag of England in such an
affair as that which we were undertaking. The Russian ensign was
therefore committed to one of the sailors, who took his station at
the stern of the boat. We gave particular instructions to the
captain of the brigantine, and when all was ready, the General and
I, with our respective servants, got into the boat, and were slowly
rowed towards the shore. The guards gathered together at the point
for which we were making, but when they saw that our boat went on
without altering her course, THEY CEASED TO STAND VERY STILL; none
of them ran away, or even shrank back, but they looked as if THE
PACK WERE BEING SHUFFLED, every man seeming desirous to change
places with his neighbour. They were still at their post, however,
when our oars went in, and the bow of our boat ran up - well up upon
the beach.
The General was lame by an honourable wound received at Borodino,
and could not without some assistance get out of the boat; I,
therefore, landed the first. My instructions to the captain were
attended to with the most perfect accuracy, for scarcely had my
foot indented the sand when the four six-pounders of the brigantine
quite gravely rolled out their brute thunder. Precisely as I had
expected, the guards and all the people who had gathered about them
gave way under the shock produced by the mere sound of guns, and we
were all allowed to disembark with the least molestation.
We immediately formed a little column, or rather, as I should have
called it, a procession, for we had no fighting aptitude in us, and
were only trying, as it were, how far we could go in frightening
full-grown children. First marched the sailor with the Russian
flag of war bravely flying in the breeze, then came the general and
I, then our servants, and lastly, if I rightly recollect, two more
of the brigantine's crew. Our flag-bearer so exulted in his
honourable office, and bore the colours aloft with so much of pomp
and dignity, that I found it exceedingly hard to keep a grave
countenance. We advanced towards the castle, but the people had
now had time to recover from the effect of the six-pounders (only
of course loaded with powder), and they could not help seeing not
only the numerical weakness of our party, but the very slight
amount of wealth and resource which it seemed to imply.
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