The Lake County star. [volume] (Chase, Mich.) 1873-current, 1874-07-30
THE STORY OF THE GUN.

THE STORY OF THE GUN.
This story is from Victor Hugo's "Ninety-Three."
The war corvette Caymore, sailing from Jersey for
the French coast in the service OF the French Roy
alists, carried mysterious passenger, whose name
was known only TO the captain and his chief officer
but who afterward appears the Marquis de Lam
tenac, the Royalist leader of La Vendee The break
ing loose of carronade In the main deck interrupts
a conversation between these three men, and the de-
scripton of the scene of destruction that followed
forms of the most powerful episodes 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 ter
rible can happen to vessel in open sea
and under full sail.
A gun that breaks its moorings be-
comes suddenly some indescribable super
natural beast 1t is machine which
transforms itself into a monster.
The mass turns upon its wheels, has
the rapid movements of a 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, springs aside, evades,
rears, breaks, kills, exterminates. 1t is a
battering-ram which assaults wall at
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 out. 1t
has an air of having lost patience, of
seeking some fierce, obscure retribution
Nothing more memorable than this rage
of the inanimate. The mad mass has
the bound of panther, the weight of
an elephant, the agility of mouse, the
obstinacy of an AK, the unexpectedness
of the surge, the rapidity of lightning,
the deafness of the tomb. 1t weighs
10000 pounds, and it rebounds like a
child's ball. It's fight is a wild whirl,
abruptly cut at right angles. What is to
be done? How to end this A tempest
ceases, cyclone passes, wind falls, q
broken mast is replaced, leak is stopped
fire dies out; but how to control this
enormous brute of bronze? In wha,
way can one attack it?
You can make a mastif hear reason
astound bull, fascinate boa, frighter
a tiger, soften lion; but there is no re
source with that monster, cannon le,
loose. You can not kill it it is dead
At the same time it lives. 1t lives with
q sinister life bestowed on it by Infinity
The planks beneath it give it play. il
moved by the ship, which is moved
by the wind. This destroyer is play
thing. The ship, the waves, the blast
all aid it hence its frightful vitality
How to assail this fury of complication
How to fetter this monstrous mechanism
for wrecking a ship? How foresee it
comings and goings, its returns, its stops
its shocks? ANY one of these blows up
on the sides may stave out the vessel
How divine its awful gyrations! On
has to deal with a projectile which thinks
seems to possess ideas and which change
its direction at each instant. How stol
the course of something which must b
avoided? The horrible cannon filings il
self about, advances, recoils, strikes t
the right, strikes to the left, fees, passes
discon certs ambushes, breaks down OF
stacles, crushes men like flies. The grea
danger of the situation is the mobility {
its base. How combat an inclined plan
which has caprices? The ship, so
speak. has lightning imprisoned in i
womb. which seeks to escape; 1t is lik
thunder rolling above an earthquake.
In an instant the whole crew were o
foot.
The fault was with the chief gunner
he had neglected to fix home the screy
nut of the mooring-chain, and had s
badly shackled the four wheels of tt
carronade that the play given to the so
= and frame had separated the platfOrl
and ended by breaking the breechin
The cordage had broken, so that the gu
was no longer secure on the carriag
The stationary breeching which proven
recoil was not in use at that period. 4
a heavy wave struck the port, the ca
ronade, weakly attached, recoiled, bur
its chain, and began to rush wildly abor
Conceive, in order to have an idea Of I'll
strange sliding, drop of water runni'
down pane of glass.
At the moment when the lashings ga
way the gunners were in the batter
some in groups, Others standing aloi
occupied with such duties as sailors p
form i'm expectation of the command
clear for action. The carronade, hurl
forward by the pitching, dashed into Il
knot of men, and crushed four at
first blow; then, flung back and shot O
anew by the rolling, it cut in two a fiji
poor fellow, glanced off to the larboa
side, and struck piece of the bate
with such force as to unship it. Th
rose the cry of distress which had be
heard. The men rushed toward the |,
der-the gun deck emptied in the twill
ling of an eye. The enormous cam
was left alone. She was given up to h
self. She was her own mistress, and n
tress of the vessel. She could do wi
she willed with both. The whole cr'
accustomed to laugh in battle, tremb
now. To describe the universal ter
would be impossible.
Capt. Boisberthelot and Lieut. vi
Vile, although both intrepid men, stop
at the head of the stairs, and remaii
mute, pale, hesitating, looking down
the deck. Some. one pushed them as
with his elbow and descended.
II was their passenger, the peasant,
man of whom they had been speakin
moment before.
When he reached the foot Of the lad
he stood still.
The cannon came and went along
deck. One might have fancied it
living chariot Of the Apocalypse.
marine lantern, oscillating from the {