VI
_This is a very short chapter, but contains a fact for which the Baron's
memory ought to be dear to every Englishman, especially those who may
hereafter have the misfortune of being made prisoners of war._
On my return from Gibraltar I travelled by way of France to England.
Being a foreigner, this was not attended with any inconvenience to me.
I found, in the harbour of Calais, a ship just arrived with a number of
English sailors as prisoners of war. I immediately conceived an idea
of giving these brave fellows their liberty, which I accomplished as
follows:--After forming a pair of large wings, each of them forty yards
long, and fourteen wide, and annexing them to myself, I mounted at break
of day, when every creature, even the watch upon deck, was fast asleep.
As I hovered over the ship I fastened three grappling irons to the tops
of the three masts with my sling, and fairly lifted her several yards
out of the water, and then proceeded across to Dover, where I arrived in
half an hour! Having no further occasion for these wings, I made them a
present to the governor of Dover Castle, where they are now exhibited to
the curious.
As to the prisoners, and the Frenchmen who guarded them, they did not
awake till they had been near two hours on Dover Pier. The moment the
English understood their situation they changed places with their guard,
and took back what they had been plundered of, but no more, for they
were too generous to retaliate and plunder them in return.
CHAPTER XVII
_Voyage eastward--The Baron introduces a friend who never deceived
him: wins a hundred guineas by pinning his faith upon that friend's
nose--Game started at sea--Some other circumstances which will, it is
hoped, afford the reader no small degree of amusement._
In a voyage which I made to the East Indies with Captain Hamilton, I
took a favourite pointer with me; he was, to use a common phrase, worth
his weight in gold, for he never deceived me. One day when we were, by
the best observations we could make, at least three hundred leagues from
land, my dog pointed; I observed him for near an hour with astonishment,
and mentioned the circumstance to the captain and every officer on
board, asserting that we must be near land, for my dog smelt game. This
occasioned a general laugh; but that did not alter in the least the good
opinion I had of my dog. After much conversation pro and con, I boldly
told the captain I placed more confidence
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