The Boy Soldier; Or, Garibaldi's Young Captain — page 89: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

| me THE BOY SOLDIER; OR, GARIBALDI'S YOUNG CAPTAIN. 83 But this was not allowed ; for all knew that Faity was a bit of a thief “ on the extreme quiet,” and if he happened to fall across a stall bag of gold coins he would have appropriated it to his own use in & very clevér and mysterious manner, The first bag which was opened contained letters and despatches from Vienna to tke Archduke Albrecht, commanding the Austrians, There were several lads, however, among them who well understood Italian. Mark handed over a heavy letter to one of them, saying, ; “There ought to be something oz importance in such a big letter as this.” There was something important in it. ‘““Why, this letter speaks of nothing but seéa- firhts and night adventures,” said one of the lads, looking through it. < ““Does it? Oh, let’s know all about it,” said Fatty. ‘“‘I like the sea, but the sea don’t like me; let’s hear what it says. Who does it talk about?” “Why, about gallant Tom Ford—Frank’'s brother,” “You don't mean that?” said all, in chorus, "YT do, though. He’s been whopping the Austrians awfully ; these letters tell all about it,” “ Read ! read |” “Bravo for Tom Ford!” shouted many, in one breath. _“ Why, this despatch of the Austrian Minister of War speaks of their ships having run down an Italian mail steamer, and capture a ‘“Not-gallant Tom ?” said all, in a breath, ‘© No, not Tom, but his letter.” Ol: le “ The devil 1” “ What has become of the letter?” “The despatch says that this letter was written by Tom Ford on board the yacht ‘ Kaiser,” in Ancona Roads; but I don’t see it anywhere among these papers, ‘The general says it has been trans- lated for the instruction of the Minister of Marine, and the original sent with it also.” ‘‘ Where the deuce can it be?” said Fatty, rum- maging among the papers. ; / “Oh, here it is,” said Buttons. English writing. you.” | “Good, Buttons, let’s. have it; no stuttering, mind,” Unfolding the letter, young Corporal Buttons read as follows :— ! “ Ancona, June—— 1866. _ © On board the yacht ‘ Kaiser.’ “ DEAR FRANK,—I know there is great difficulty in sending a letter to where you are, in Lombardy ; but, although sick and tired with many strange ad- ventures on the sea, and wounded, also, slightly, I thought I’d drop you a line to let you know that I am still in the land of the living; and, what is more than that, have been promoted to a captaincy in the Italian navy, for, as the papers say, ‘ gallant deeds.’”’ “ Bravo, for Tom.” “ He always was a plucky chap,” “Go on, Buttons.” ‘Wire away, my brave corporal.” ‘* Well,” continued Buttons, reading the letier, “T')l narrate us particular affair which raised me to the rank of captain of an Italian man-of-war, and leave the rest for some other time. ‘*A squadren of Italian iron-clads and wooden frigates were ordered off from here to wateh the Austrian fleet cruising off the mouth of Trieste ‘‘T can tell the Yes, here it is; I'll read it for harbour, and, hearing of it, I weighed anchor in the ‘ Kaiser,’ and followed them. ~ ‘‘When we approached Trieste, the Austrians, feating otir numbers, and as their own fleet was not all there, only came out in the day-time, and cruised a few miles off the harbour, but always returned to port again at nightfall, “There was an Austrian frigate, a wooden ship, called the * Radetzki,’ which always blocked up the entrance to the harbour, and acted as a guard ship for the others, to give warning at night of our approach, if too close in shore. ‘ ‘Tn this position, the ‘ Radetzki’ was considered by the Austrians to be as safe as if she was further away up the harbour. . ‘ But they weré much mistaken, for the Italians were burning for some chance to ‘ cut her out.’ “Tf was resolved by our admiral that this should | be done, or at all events that the attempt should be made, ‘‘ Accordingly, the boats of the steam-frigate, ‘Victor Emmanuel,’ and the gun-boat, ‘ Novara,’ manned entirely by volunteers, were put under the orders of Lieut. Capelli. “A separation of the boats took place in the dark- ness, and the enterprise was abandoned for that night. ahd ‘“‘ Some of the boats, however, had penetrated to the mouth of the harbour, and lay on their oars until morning, in expectation of being joined by the rest, and before they could get back to their respective ships, two miles away, they were dis- covered by the ‘Radetzki’ and the batteries on shore. . ‘‘They removed the ‘ Radetaki’ half a mile or more still further in the harbour, and made pre- parations for the future. ‘‘They not only placed her near the shore bat- teries for protection ufider their many guns, but also put on board a hundred extra men. Arms and ammunition were brought on deck, and all their guns loaded up to the muzzle with grape shot, ““The batteries were also prepared for us, 80 we have since leariéd ; and in order to guard against any further night surprise, they placed two boats at the harbour’s mouth, to fire rockets and give the - alarm, “Having doné this, they raiséd a large Austrian ensign on board the ‘ Radetzki,’ with an Italian one under it, in token of defiance. “ Although every one knew that the Austrians intended to give us a warmer reception than we should have received at first, this only added to our ardour and impatience. ‘After much pressing, Admiral Persano per- mitted me to man several boats with my own crew, and, as I understood him to say, take command of the night enterprise. q “Warned by the last failure, I resolved to keep my boats in close order together, and should the men from the ‘ Novara,’ and ‘ Victor Emmanuel,’ get separated, made up my mind to proceed alone with fifty men from my own yacht ‘ Kaiser.’ ) _“ This resolve I communicated to my brave lads during the day, and they sharpened their swords almost to the keenness of a razor’s edge. “ At the last moment, however, I heard with greta annoyance that the admiral had altered his mind and would not let me take a chief command, for it was whispered that it would give offence to Italian officers much older than myself, and that I was too young for any such responsibility. “ T was resolved to go, however, and did so. “Lieutenant Capelli took command, and about COMmMiclaoo nn SHoCO) . ee ee ee