The Surprising Adventures of Baron Munchausen
Page 12
CHAPTER X
_Pays a visit during the siege of Gibraltar to his old friend GeneralElliot--Sinks a Spanish man-of-war--Wakes an old woman on the Africancoast--Destroys all the enemy's cannon; frightens the Count d'Artois,and sends him to Paris--Saves the lives of two English spies with theidentical sling that killed Goliath; and raises the siege._
During the late siege of Gibraltar I went with a provision-fleet, underLord Rodney's command, to see my old friend General Elliot, who has, byhis distinguished defence of that place, acquired laurels that can neverfade. After the usual joy which generally attends the meeting of oldfriends had subsided, I went to examine the state of the garrison,and view the operations of the enemy, for which purpose the Generalaccompanied me. I had brought a most excellent refracting telescope withme from London, purchased of Dollond, by the help of which I found theenemy were going to discharge a thirty-six pounder at the spot where westood. I told the General what they were about; he looked throughthe glass also, and found my conjectures right. I immediately, byhis permission, ordered a forty-eight pounder to be brought from aneighbouring battery, which I placed with so much exactness (having longstudied the art of gunnery) that I was sure of my mark.
I continued watching the enemy till I saw the match placed at thetouch-hole of their piece; at that very instant I gave the signal forour gun to be fired also.
About midway between the two pieces of cannon the balls struck eachother with amazing force, and the effect was astonishing! The enemy'sball recoiled back with such violence as to kill the man who haddischarged it, by carrying his head fairly off, with sixteen otherswhich it met with in its progress to the Barbary coast, where its force,after passing through three masts of vessels that then lay in a linebehind each other in the harbour, was so much spent, that it only brokeits way through the roof of a poor labourer's hut, about two hundredyards inland, and destroyed a few teeth an old woman had left, who layasleep upon her back with her mouth open. The ball lodged in her throat.Her husband soon after came home, and endeavoured to extract it; butfinding that impracticable, by the assistance of a rammer he forcedit into her stomach. Our ball did excellent service; for it not onlyrepelled the other in the manner just described, but, proceeding as Iintended it should, it dismounted the very piece of cannon that had justbeen employed against us, and forced it into the hold of the ship, whereit fell with so much force as to break its way through the bottom. Theship immediately filled and sank, with above a thousand Spanish sailorson board, besides a considerable number of soldiers. This, to be sure,was a most extraordinary exploit; I will not, however, take the wholemerit to myself; my judgment was the principal engine, but chanceassisted me a little; for I afterwards found, that the man who chargedour forty-eight pounder put in, by mistake, a double quantity of powder,else we could never have succeeded so much beyond all expectation,especially in repelling the enemy's ball.
General Elliot would have given me a commission for this singularpiece of service; but I declined everything, except his thanks, which Ireceived at a crowded table of officers at supper on the evening of thatvery day.
As I am very partial to the English, who are beyond all doubt a bravepeople, I determined not to take my leave of the garrison till I hadrendered them another piece of service, and in about three weeks anopportunity presented itself. I dressed myself in the habit of a _Popishpriest_, and at about one o'clock in the morning stole out of thegarrison, passed the enemy's lines, and arrived in the middle of theircamp, where I entered the tent in which the Prince d'Artois was, withthe commander-in-chief, and several other officers, in deep council,concerting a plan to storm the garrison next morning. My disguise was myprotection; they suffered me to continue there, hearing everything thatpassed, till they went to their several beds. When I found the wholecamp, and even the sentinels, were wrapped up in the arms of Morpheus,I began my work, which was that of dismounting all their cannon (abovethree hundred pieces), from forty-eight to twenty-four pounders, andthrowing them three leagues into the sea. Having no assistance, I foundthis the hardest task I ever undertook, except swimming to the oppositeshore with the famous Turkish piece of ordnance, described by Baron deTott in his Memoirs, which I shall hereafter mention. I then piled allthe carriages together in the centre of the camp, which, to prevent thenoise of the wheels being heard, I carried in pairs under my arms; and anoble appearance they made, as high at least as the rock of Gibraltar.I then lighted a match by striking a flint stone, situated twenty feetfrom the ground (in an old wall built by the Moors when they invadedSpain), with the breech of an iron eight-and-forty pounder, and so setfire to the whole pile. I forgot to inform you that I threw all theirammunition-waggons upon the top.
Before I applied the lighted match I had laid the combustibles at thebottom so judiciously, that the whole was in a blaze in a moment. Toprevent suspicion I was one of the first to express my surprise. Thewhole camp was, as you may imagine, petrified with astonishment: thegeneral conclusion was, that their sentinels had been bribed, and thatseven or eight regiments of the garrison had been employed in thishorrid destruction of their artillery. Mr. Drinkwater, in his account ofthis famous siege, mentions the enemy sustaining a great loss by a firewhich happened in their camp, but never knew the cause; how should he?as I never divulged it before (though I alone saved Gibraltar by thisnight's business), not even to General Elliot. The Count d'Artois andall his attendants ran away in their fright, and never stopped on theroad till they reached Paris, which they did in about a fortnight;this dreadful conflagration had such an effect upon them that they wereincapable of taking the least refreshment for three months after, but,chameleon-like, lived upon the air.
_If any gentleman will say he doubts the truth of this story, I willfine him a gallon of brandy and make him drink it at one draught._
About two months after I had done the besieged this service, onemorning, as I sat at breakfast with General Elliot, a shell (for I hadnot time to destroy their mortars as well as their cannon) entered theapartment we were sitting in; it lodged upon our table: the General, asmost men would do, quitted the room directly; but I took it up beforeit burst, and carried it to the top of the rock, when, looking overthe enemy's camp, on an eminence near the sea-coast I observed aconsiderable number of people, but could not, with my naked eye,discover how they were employed. I had recourse again to my telescope,when I found that two of our officers, one a general, the other acolonel, with whom I spent the preceding evening, and who went out intothe enemy's camp about midnight as spies, were taken, and then wereactually going to be executed on a gibbet. I found the distance toogreat to throw the shell with my hand, but most fortunately recollectingthat I had the very sling in my pocket which assisted David in slayingGoliath, I placed the shell in it, and immediately threw it in the midstof them: it burst as it fell, and destroyed all present, except the twoculprits, who were saved by being suspended so high, for they were justturned off: however, one of the pieces of the shell fled with such forceagainst the foot of the gibbet, that it immediately brought it down. Ourtwo friends no sooner felt _terra firma_ than they looked about for thecause; and finding their guards, executioner, and all, had taken it intheir heads to die first, they directly extricated each other from theirdisgraceful cords, and then ran down to the sea-shore, seized a Spanishboat with two men in it, and made them row to one of our ships, whichthey did with great safety, and in a few minutes after, when I wasrelating to General Elliot how I had acted, they both took us by thehand, and after mutual congratulations we retired to spend the day withfestivity.