Tales from the Rifle Brigade by John Kincaid

Author:John Kincaid [Kincaid, John]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History, Military, Napoleonic Wars, Biography & Autobiography, Europe, General
ISBN: 9781783409679
Google: vbXNDwAAQBAJ
Publisher: Casemate Publishers
Published: 2005-09-19T00:18:47+00:00

CHAPTER XVIII

Commencement of the War of 1815—Embark for Rotterdam—Ship’s Stock—Ship struck—A Pilot, a Smuggler, and a Lawyer—A Boat without Stock—Join the Regiment at Brussels.

I HAVE endeavoured, in this book of mine, to measure out the peace and war in due proportions, according to the spirit of the times it speaks of; and, as there appears to me to be as much peace in the last chapter as occurred in Europe between 1814 and 1815, I shall, with the reader’s permission, lodge my regiment, at once, on Dover Heights, and myself in Scotland, taking a shot at the last of the woodcocks, which happened to be our relative positions, when Buonaparte’s escape from Elba once more summoned the army to the field.

The first intimation I had of it was by a letter, informing me of the embarkation of the battalion for the Netherlands, and desiring me to join them there, without delay; and, finding that a brig was to sail, the following day, from Leith to Rotterdam, I took a passage on board of her. She was an odd one to look at, but the captain assured me that she was a good one to go; and, besides, that he had provided everything that was elegant for our entertainment. The latter piece of information I did not think of questioning until too late to profit by it, for I had the mortification to discover, the first day, that his whole stock consisted in a quarter of lamb, in addition to the ship’s own, with a few cabbages, and five gallons of whiskey.

After having been ten days at sea, I was awoke, one morning before daylight, with the ship’s grinding over a sand-bank, on the coast of Holland; fortunately, it did not blow hard, and a pilot soon after came alongside, who, after exacting a reward suitable to the occasion, at length consented to come on board, and extricated us from our perilous situation, carrying the vessel into the entrance of one of the small branches of the river leading up to Rotterdam, where we came to anchor. The captain was very desirous of appealing to a magistrate for a reduction in the exorbitant demand of the pilot; and I accompanied him on shore for that purpose. An Englishman made up to us at the landing-place, and said that his name was C———, that he had made his fortune by smuggling, and, though he was not permitted to spend it in his native country, that he had the greatest pleasure in being of service to his countrymen. As this was exactly the sort of person we were in search of, the Captain explained his grievance; and the other said he would conduct him to a gentleman who would soon put that to rights. We, accordingly, walked to the adjoining village, in one of the houses of which he introduced us, formally, to a tall Dutchman, with a pipe in his mouth and a pen behind his ear, who, after hearing the story, proceeded to commit it, in large characters, to a quire of foolscap.

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