nner _pro
forma_ as our captain liked regularity, and drank cold water to fill our
stomachs.

I have often heard my poor uncle say that no man knows what he can do
till he tries; and the enemy gave us plenty of opportunities of
displaying our ingenuity, industry, watchfulness, and abstinence. When
poor Penelope wove her web, the poet says:--

"The night unravelled what the day began."

With us it was precisely the reverse: the day destroyed all the labours
of the night. The hours of darkness were employed by us in filling
sand-bags, and laying them in the breach, clearing away rubbish, and
preparing to receive the enemy's fire, which was sure to recommence at
daylight. These avocations, together with a constant and most vigilant
watch against surprise, took up so much of our time that little was left
for repose, and our meals required still less.

There was some originality in one of our modes of defence, and which,
not being _secundum artem_, might have provoked the smile of an
engineer. The captain contrived to make a shoot of smooth deal boards,
which he received from the ship: these he placed in a slanting direction
in the breach, and caused them to be well greased with cook's slush; so
that the enemies who wished to come into our hold, must have jumped down
upon them, and would in an instant be precipitated into the ditch below
a very considerable depth, where they might either have remained till
the doctor came to them, or, if they were able, begin their labours _de
novo_. This was a very good bug-trap; for, at that time, I thought just
as little of killing a Frenchman as I did of destroying the filthy
little nightly depredator just mentioned.

Besides this slippery trick, which we played them with great success, we
served them another. We happened to have on board the frigate a large
quantity of fish-hooks; these we planted, not only on the greasy boards,
but in every part where the intruders were likely to place their hands
or feet. The breach itself was mined, and loaded with shells and
hand-grenades! masked guns, charged up to the muzzle with musket-balls,
enfiladed the spot in every direction. Such were our defence; and,
considering that we had been three weeks in the castle, opposed to such
mighty odds, it is surprising that we only lost twenty men. The crisis
was now approaching.

One morning, very early, I happened to have the look-out. The streak of
fog which during the night hangs betw