dangerous; impossible!' answered the sham Admiral, quite in a tremor,
they say;--which at length filled the measure of Elphinstone's disgusts
with such a Fleet and Admiral. Indignant Elphinstone withdrew to his
own ship, 'Adieu, Sham-Admiral!'--sailed with his own ship, through the
impossible Dardanelles (Turk batteries firing one huge block of granite
at him, which missed; then needing about forty minutes to load
again); feat as easy to Elphinstone as this glass of wine. In sight of
Constantinople, Elphinstone, furthermore, called for his tea; took his
tea on deck, under flourishing of all his drums and all his trumpets:
tea done, sailed out again scathless; instantly threw up his
command,--and at Petersburg, soon after, in taking leave of the Czarina,
signified to her, in language perhaps too plain, or perhaps only too
painfully true, some Naval facts which were not welcome in that high
quarter." [Rulhiere, iii. 476-509.] This remarkable Elphinstone I take
to be some junior or irregular Balmerino scion; but could never much
hear of him except in RULHIERE, where, on vague, somewhat theatrical
terms, he figures as above.

"AUGUST 1st, Romanzow has a 'Battle of Kaghul,' so they call it;
though it is a 'Slaughtery' or SCHLACHTEREI, rather than a 'Slaught' or
SCHLACHT, say my German friends. Kaghul is not a specific place, but a
longish river, a branch of the Pruth; under screen of which the Grand
Turk Army, 100,000 strong, with 100,000 Tartars as second line, has
finally taken position, and fortified itself with earthworks and
abundant cannon. AUGUST 1st, 1770, Romanzow, after study and advising,
feels prepared for this Grand Army and its earthworks: with a select
20,000, under select captains, Romanzow, after nightfall, bursts in
upon it, simultaneously on three different points; and gains, gratis or
nearly so, such a victory as was never heard of before. The Turks, on
their earthworks, had 140 cannons; these the Turk gunners fired off two
times, and fled, leaving them for Romanzow's uses. The Turk cavalry then
tried if they could not make some attempt at charging; found they could
not; whirled back upon their infantry; set it also whirling: and in
a word, the whole 200,000 whirled, without blow struck; and it was a
universal panic rout, and delirious stampede of flight, which never
paused (the very garrisons emptying themselves, and joining in it) till
it got across the Donau again, and drew breath there, not to rally or