ree 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? Damn me,
they trained a parcel of poodle dogs to watch the shells when they fell,
and then to run and pull the fuses out with their teeth. Did you ever
hear of such damned villains? By this means, they saved hundreds of
men, and only lost half a dozen dogs--fact, by God; only ask Sir Sydney
Smith; he'll tell you the same, and a damned sight more."

The volubility of his tongue was only equalled by the rapidity of his
invention and his powers of mastication; for, during the whole of this
entertaining monodrame, his teeth were in constant motion, like the
traversing beam of a steamboat; and as he was our captain as well as our
guest, he certainly took the lion's share of the repast.

"But, I say, Soundings," said