The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1874-07-04
THE STORY OF THE GUN.


(concludea.)
At the instant when, accepting this awful
hand to-hand contest, the gunner approach
ed to challenge the cannon, some chance
| fluctuation of the waves kept it for mo-
ment immovable, as if suddenly stupefied.
"Come on ~ the man said to it. He
avoided the shock.
The struggle began-struggle unheard
Of The fragile matching itself against
the invulnerable. The thing of flesh at
lacking the brazen brute. On the one side
blind force, on the other soul.
The whole passed in a half-light. 1t was
like the indistinct vision of miracle.
A soul-strarge thing; but you would
have said the cannon had one also-a soul
filled with rage and hatred. This blind
ness appeared to have eyes. The monster
had the air of watching the man. There
was-one might have fancied so at least
cunning in this mass. 1t became some
gigantic insect of metal, having, or SEEM
ing to have, the will of a demon. Some
times this colossal grasshopper would strike
the low ceiling of the deck, then fall back
on its four wheels like tiger upon its four
claws, and dart anew on the man. He
supple, agile, adroit-would glide away
| like snake from the reach of these light
ning-like movements. He avoided the
encounters; but the blows which he escap-
ed fell upon the vessel and continued the
havoc.
An end of broken Chain remained at
tached to the carronade. This chain had
twisted itself, one could not tell how, about
the screw of the breech- button. One ex-
tremity of the chain was fastene to the
carriage. The other, hanging loose, whirl-
ed wildly about the gun, and added to the
danger of its blows.
The screw held it like clinched hand,
and the chain, multiplying the strokes of
the battering- ram by it's strokes of a thong,
made fearful whirlwind about the can
mona whip of iron in fist of brass.
This chain complicated the battle.
Nevertheless the man fought. Some.
times, even, it was the man who attacked
the cannon. He crept along the side, bar
and rope in hand, and the cannon had the
air of understanding, and fled as if it per-
ceived snare. The man pursued it, for
midable, fearless.
Such a duel could not last long. The
gun seemed suddenly to say to ITSELF
Come, we must make an end ~ and it
paused. One felt the approach of the
crisis. The cannon, as if in suspense,
appeared to have, or had-because it SEEM
ed to all a sentient being-a furious pre-
meditation. 1t sprang unexpectedly upon
the gunner. He jumped aside, let it pass,
and cried out with laugh, "Try again !"
The gun, as if in fury, broke carronade
to larboard; then, seized anew by the invis-
ible sling which held it, was flung to star
| board toward the man, who escaped.
Three carronades gave way under the
blows of the gun; then, as if blind, and no
| longer conscious of what it was doing, it
turned back on the man, rolled from the
stern to the bow, bruising the stem and
PROV. The gunner had taken refuge at
the foot of the stairs, a few steps from the
old man, who was watching.
The gunner held his hand-spike in rest.
The cannon seemed to perceive him, and,
without taking the trouble to turn itself
backed upon him with the quickness of an
axe-stroke. The gunner, if driven back
against the side, was lost. The crew ut
tered simultaneous cry.
But the old passenger, until now immov-
able, made spring more rapid than all
those wild whirls. He seized bale of the
false assignats, and, at the risk of being
crushed, succeeded in tlinging it between
the wheels of the carronade. This man
euvre, decisive and dangerous, could not
have been executed with more adroitness
and precision by man trained to all the
exercises set down in Durosel's Manual Of
Sea Gunnery.
The bale had the effect of a plug. A
pebble may stop a log, a tree branch turn
an avalanche. The carronade stumbled.
The gunner, in his turn, Selling this terri
BILE chance, plunged his iron bar between
the spokes of one of the hind wheels.
The cannon was stopped. 1t staggered.
The man. using the bar as lever, rocked
it to and fro. The heavy mass turned over
with clang like falling bell, and the
gunner, dripping with sweat, rushed for
ward headlong, and passed the slipping
! moose of the tiller-rope about the bronze
neck of the overthrown monster.
| 1t was ended. The man had conquered.
The ant had subdued the mastodon; the
pigmy had taken the thunder bolt prisoner.
The marines and the sailors clapped
their hands.
The whole crew hurried down with
cables and chains, and in an instant the
cannon was securely dashed.
The gunner saluted the passenger.
"Sir," he said to him, " you have saved
my life."
The old man had resumed his impossible
attitude, and did not reply.
The man had conquered, but one might
say that the cannon had conquered also.
Immediate shipwreck had been avoided;
but the corvette was by no means saved.
The dilapidation of the vessel seemed ire
mediable. The sides had five breaches,
one of which, very large, was in the bow.
Out of the thirty carronades, twenty lay
useless in their frames.
The carronade which had beed captured
and reclaimed was itself disabled; the
screw of the breech- button was forced, and
leveliug Of the piece impossible in conse-
quence. The battery was reduced to nine
pieces. The hold had sprung leak. II
was necessary at once to repair the dam
ages and set the pumps 20 work.
The gun deck, now that one had time tc
look about it, offered a terrible spectacle
The interior of mad elephants cage
could not have been more completely dis
mantled.
However great the necessity that the
corvette should escape observation, still