open."




CHAPTER FOURTEEN

My Father makes his Appearance, having left his Leg, but not his
Tail, behind him--My Father is pensioned off by my Mother as well
as by his Country.


About six weeks after the intelligence of the battle of the Nile, as I
was sweeping away from the steps the mud which had been left by the
tide, a King's tender, that I had been watching as she came up the
river, dropped her anchor in the stream, abreast of the hospital.

Shortly afterward the lieutenant who commanded her pulled on shore in
his boat, and, landing at the steps, proceeded to the governor's house.
The men having orders not to leave the boat, requested me to procure
them some porter, which I did; and on my return with it, they informed
me that they had come round from Portsmouth with sixty-three men, who
had lost their limbs, or had been otherwise so severely wounded in the
late action as to have been recommended for Greenwich.

I felt very anxious for the men to land, as it was possible that my
father might be one of them. The lieutenant soon returned, jumped into
the boat, and shoved off. I perceived that the disabled men were getting
ready to land, hauling their chests and kits on deck. In about
half-an-hour a boat full of them came to the steps. I ran down to