officer, or any one else, directly--"I should like now to scale 'my pistol
through that coffin. If I miss, I can't hurt the old woman; and an eyelet
hole in the coffin itself, will only be an act of civility to the worms."

I looked towards my superior officer, who answered me with a knowing shake
of the head. I advanced, while all was silent as death--the sharp click of
the pistol lock now struck acutely on my own ear. I presented, when--crash
the lid of the coffin, old woman and all, was dashed off in an instant, the
corpse flying up in the air, and then falling heavily on the floor, rolling
over and over, while a tall handsome fellow, in his stripped flannel shirt
and blue trowsers, with the sweat pouring down over his face in steams, sat
up in the shell.

"All right," said Mr Treenail--"help him out of his berth."

He was pinioned like the rest, and forthwith we walked them all off to the
beach. By this time there was an unusual bustle in the Holy Ground, and we
could hear many an anathema, curses, not loud but deep, ejaculated from
many a half--opened door as we passed along. We reached the boat, and time
it was we did so, for a number of stout fellows, who had followed us in a
gradually increasing crowd, until they amounted to forty at the fewest, now
nearly surrounded us, and kept closing in. As the last of us jumped into
the boat, they made a rush, so that if we had not shoved off with the speed
of light, I think it very likely that we should have been overpowered.
However, we reached the ship in safety, and the day following we weighed,
and stood out to sea with our convoy.

It was a very large fleet nearly three hundred sail of merchant vessel
and a noble sight truly.