The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1874-06-27
THE STORY OF THE GUN.
FROM VICTOR HUGO's NINETY THREE.

| FROM VICTOR HUGo's NINETY THREE.
| THE war corvette Claynaore, sailing from
Jersey for the French coast in the service
of the French royalists carried a mysteri-
Gus passenger, whose name was known
only to the captain and his chief officer,
! but who afterward appears as the Marquis
de Lantenac, the royalist leader in La Ven
dee. The breaking loose of a carronade
in the gun deck interrupts conversation
between these three men, and the descrip-
ton of the scene of destruction that fol-
lowed, forms one of the most powerful cpl
| sodes of the novel,
One of the carronades of the battery, a
twenty -four FOUNDER, had got loose.
This is perhaps the most formidable of
ocean accidents. Nothing more terrible
can happen to vessel in open sea and
nnder full sail.
| A gun that breaks its moorings, becomes
suddenly some indescribable supernatural
beast. 1t is machine which transforms
itself into a monster. This mass turns
upon its wheels has the rapid movements
of billiard ball; rolls with the rolling,
pitches with the pitching; goes, comes,
pauses, seems to mediate; resumes its
course, rushes along the ship from end to
end like an arrow, circles about, spring aside,
evades, rears, breaks, kills, exterminates.
1t is battering ram which assaults wall
at its own caprice. Moreover, the batter
ing ram is metal, the wall wood. 1t is the
entrance of matter into liberty. One might
say that this eternal slave avenges itself.
1t seems as if the power of evil, hidden in
what we call inanimate objects, finds vent
and bursts suddenly ont. 1t has an air of
having lost patience, of seeking some fierce,
obscure retribution; nothing more inexora-
BILE than this rage of the inanimate. The
mad mass has the bounds of panther,
the weight of the elephant, the agility of
tho mouse, the obstancy of the OK, the
unexpectedness of the surge, the rapidity
of lightning, the deafness of the tomb. 1t
weighs ten thousands, and it rebounds like
child's ball. Its flight is wild whirl
abruptly cut at right angles. What is to
be done? How to end this ? A tempest
ceases, a cyclone passes, a wind falls, a
broken mast is replaced, a leak is stopped,
a fire dies out; but how to control this
enormous brute of bronze? In what way
can one attack it?
You can make mastiff hear reason
astound bull, fascinate boa, brighten a
tiger, soften lion; but there is no resource
Lot
You can not kill tit is dead; at the same
time it lives. 1t lives with a sinister life be-
slowed on it by Infinity.
The planks beneath it give it play. 1t is
moved by the ship, which is moved by the
sea, which is moved by the wind. This
destroyer is play thing. The ship, the
waves, the blasts, all aid it; hence its
frightful vitality. How to assail this fury
of complication? How to better this mon
strous mechanism for wrecking ship?
How foresee it's comings and goings, its
returns, its stops, its shocks? Any one Of
these blows upon the sides may stave out
the vessel. How divine its awful gyra-
lions . One has to deal with projectile
which thinks, seems to possess ideas, and
which changes its direction at each in
slant. How stop the course of something
which must be avoided? The horrible
cannon filings itself about, advances, re-
coils, strikes to the left, fees, passes, dis
concerts ambushes, breaks down obstacles,
brushes men like flies. The great danger
of the situation is in the mobility of its
base. How combat an inclined plane
which has caprices? The ship, SO to speak,
has lightning imprisoned in its womb which
seeks to escape; it is like thunder rolling
above an earthquake.
In an instant the whole crew were on
foot. The fault was the chief gunner's;
he had neglected to fix home the screw
nut of the mooring chain, and had so badly
shackled the four wheels of the carronade
that the play given to the sole and frame
had separated the platform. and ended by
breaking the breeding. The cordage had
broken, SO that the gun was no longer
secure on the carriage. The stationary
breeding which prevents recoil was not in
use at that period. AS heavy wave struck
the port, the carronade, weakly attached,
recoiled. bursts its chain, and began to rush
wildly about. Conceive, in order to have
an idea of this strange sliding, drop of
water running down pane of glass.
At the moment when tho lashings gave
way the gunners were in the battery, some
in groups, others standing alone, occupied
with such duties as sailors perform in
expectation of the command to clear for
action. The carronade, hurled forward by
the pitching, dashed into this knot of men,
and crushed four at the first blow; then
flung back and shot out anew by the roll
ing, it cut in two fifth poor fellow, glanc-
ed off to the larboa,d side, and struck a
piece of the battery with such force as to
unship it. Then rose the cry of distress
which had been heard. The men rushed
toward the ladder-the gun.deck emptied
in the twinkling of an eye. The enormous
cannon was left alone. She was given up
to herself She as her own mistress, and
mistress of the vessel. She could do what
she willed with both. This whole crew
accustomed to laugh in battle, trembled
now. To describe the universal terror
would be impossible.
Captain Boisberthelot and Lieutenant
MELVILLE, although both intrepid men,
stopped at the head of the stairs and re-
manned mute, pale, hesitating, looking
down on the deck. Some one pushed them
taside with his elbow and descended.
\ 1t was their passenger, the peasant, the
man of whom they had been speaking a
moment before.
When he reached the foot of the ladder
he stood still.
The cannon came and went along the
deck. One might have fancied it the liv.
ing chariot of the Apocalypse. The ma.
rine lantern oscillating from the ceiling
added a dizzying whirl of lights, and shad
ows to this vision. The shape of the
| cannon was undistip constable from the