OLIVER ELLIS;
Reading edition
OR,
The Fusiliers.
BY
JAMES GRANT, ESQ.
(Late 62nd Regiment),
AUTHOR OF "THE ROMANCE OF WAR," "THE AIDE-DE-CAMP," "SECOND TO NONE," ETC. ETC.
A New Edition
LONDON: GEORGE ROUTLEDGE AND SONS, BROADWAY, LUDGATE HILL; NEW YORK: 129, GRAND STREET. 1865.
PREFACE.
"In regard to prefaces," says the author of "Curiosities of Literature,"—"ladies consider them so much space for a love story lost, though the Italians call them la salsa del libra,—the spice of the book."
Be this as it may, I must mention that many of the men whose names occur in these pages, bore the part ascribed to them during the operations of Sir Charles Grey's army in the Antilles.
A duel, nearly similar to that which is described as having taken place on board of the Adder frigate, actually occurred on the deck of one of H.M.'s ships-of-war when lying in a South-American port, in 1821.
The situation of the wreck in the Isle of Tortoises was suggested to me by the discovery of a mysterious vessel in a cavern of the island of Baccalieu, when I was at Fort Townsend in Newfoundland, where it excited much speculation.
As a few Mexican dollars were found on the rocks near, she was supposed to be Spanish; and such rumours were circulated of the vast treasure she contained, that H.M.S. Comus was despatched from Halifax to investigate the matter; but the hull contained a few dead bodies alone.
That the marvellous might not be wanting, there was told a story of a gigantic anchor being thrown by the sea on the desert shore near her. There it lay for a time, till a party came to remove it; but it had vanished, like the treasure,—by no mortal agency, of course!
26, DANUBE STREET, EDINBURGH. May, 1861.
CONTENTS.
CHAP.
1.—BOYHOOD
2.—THE MINISTER
3.—MESSRS. HARPY, QUIRKY, AND MACFARISEE
4.—APPLEWOOD
5.—THE WILL
6.—AMY LEE
7.—TWO YOUNG HEARTS
8.—FROM POETRY TO PROSE AGAIN
9.—SEQUEL TO THE STORY OF THE WILL
10.—MAHOGANY v. LAW
11.—EDINBURGH IN 1792
12.—THE FRIENDS OF THE PEOPLE
13.—THE PRESS-GANG
14.—MR. MACROCODILE
15.—THE PRESSING-TENDER
16.—THE WHITE-SLAVE SHIP
17.—JACK THE MARINE
18.—OVERBOARD!
19.—THE SANDRIDGE LIGHT
20.—DICK KNUCKLEDUSTER
21.—RETRIBUTION
22.—COMPTON RENNEL
23.—THE "MAID AND THE MAGPIE"
24.—SERGEANT DRUMBIRREL
25.—HEAD-QUARTERS
26.—THE ROUTE
27.—THE "ADDER" FRIGATE
28.—LAND!
29.—THE SNAKE
30.—THE FORBIDDEN FRUIT
31.—THE STORY OF EULALIE
32.—STORY OF EULALIE CONTINUED
33.—OUR ESTEEM PROGRESSES
34.—THE MANGROVE CREEK
35.—THE EMIGRANT PRIEST
36.—THE SPY
37.—ANXIETY
38.—A REVELATION
39.—A SEA OF FIRE
40.—THE LANDING
41.—LA CHAPELLE
42.—A PAIR OF COLOURS
43.—A HALT
44.—THE SKIRMISH AT LE MORNE ROUGE
45.—THE BLANK FUSILADE
46.—CAPTURE OF ST. PIERRE
47.—THE CONVENT OF ST. URSULE
48.—LA FLEUR D'EPÉE
49.—THE ASSAULT
50.—"SMITH" OF THE ROYALS
51.—THE HURRICANE
52.—THE DESERT ISLAND
53.—THE TREASURE-SHIP
54.—A SURPRISE
55.—WE VISIT THE "GALLEON"
56.—KNUCKLEDUSTER'S STORY
57.—A SAIL IN SIGHT
58.—SAVED!
59.—CAPTAIN CRANKY
60.—THE YELLOW FEVER
61.—I REJOIN THE REGIMENT
62.—THE DOS D'ÂNE
63.—THE WORSHIPPERS OF THE DEVIL
64.—SCIPIO
65.—CAPTURE OF POINT À PETRE
66.—THE OBEAH NEGRO
67.—M. DE THOISY
68.—A DISCOVERY
69.—GEORGETTE
70.—A CRISIS
71.—CONCLUSION
OLIVER ELLIS.