_A Munchausen Story_.
"Talking of broiling steaks--when I was in Egypt we used to broil our
beef-steaks on the locks--no occasion for fire--thermometer at 200--hot
as h-ll! I have seen four thousand men at a time cooking for the whole
army as much as twenty or thirty thousand pounds of steaks at a time, all
hissing and frying at a time--just about noon, of course, you know--not a
spark of fire! Some of the soldiers who had been brought up as
glass-blowers at Leith swore they never saw such heat. I used to go to
leeward of them for a whiff, and think of old England! Ay! that's the
country, after all, where a man may think and say what he pleases! But
that sort of work did not last long, as you may suppose; their eyes were
all fried out, ---- me, in three or four weeks! I had been ill in my bed,
for I was attached to the 72nd regiment, seventeen hundred strong. I had
a party of seamen with me; but the ophthalmia made such ravages, that the
whole regiment, colonel and all, went stone-blind--all, except one
corporal! You may stare, gentlemen, but it's very true. Well, this
corporal had a precious time of it: he was obliged to lead out the whole
regiment to water--he led the way, and two or three took hold of the
skirts of his jacket on each side; the skirts of these were seized again
by as many more; and double the number to the last, and so all held on by
one another, till they had all had a drink at the well; and, as the devil
would have it, there was but one well among us all--so this corporal used
to water the regiment just as a groom waters his horses; and all
spreading out, you know, just like the tail of a peacock."--"Of which the
corporal was the rump," interrupted the doctor. The captain looked grave.
"You found it warm in that country?" inquired the surgeon. "Warm!"
exclaimed the captain; "I'll tell you what, doctor, when you go where you
have sent many a patient, and where, for that very reason, you certainly
will go, I only hope, for your sake, and for that of your profession in
general, that you will not find it quite so hot as we found it in Egypt.
What do you think of nineteen of my men being killed by the concentrated
rays of light falling on the barrels of the sentinels' bright muskets,
and setting fire to the powder? I commanded a mortar battery at Acre, and
I did the French infernal mischief with the shells. I used to pitch in
among them when they had sat down to dinner; but how do you think the
scoundrels weathered on me at last? ---- me, they trained a parcel of
poodle dogs to watch the shells when they fell, and then to run and pull
the fusees out with their teeth. Did you ever hear of such villains? By
this means they saved hundreds of men, and only lost half-a-dozen
dogs--fact, by----; only ask Sir Sydney Smith, he'll tell you the same,
and a ---- sight more." * * * * He continued his lies, and dragged in as
usual the name of Sir Sydney Smith to support his assertions. "If you
doubt me, only ask Sir Sydney Smith; he'll talk to you about Acre for
thirty-six hours on a stretch, without taking breath; his cockswain at
last got so tired of it, that he nick-named him '_Long Acre_.'" * * *
"Capital salmon this," said the captain; "where does Billet get it from?
By the by, talking of that, did you ever hear of the pickled salmon in
Scotland?" We all replied in the affirmative. "Oh, you don't take. Hang
it, I don't mean dead pickled salmon; I mean live pickled salmon,
swimming about in tanks, as merry as grigs, and as hungry as rats." We
all expressed our astonishment at this, and declared we never heard of it
before. "I thought not," said he, "for it has only lately been introduced
into this country by a particular friend of mine, Dr. Mac--. I cannot
just now remember his----, jaw-breaking, Scotch name; he was a great
chemist and geologist, and all that sort of thing--a clever fellow, I can
tell you, though you may laugh. Well, this fellow, sir, took Nature by
the heels, and capsized her, as we say. I have a strong idea that he had
sold himself to the d--l. Well, what does he do, but he catches salmon
and puts them into tanks, and every day added more and more salt, till
the water was as thick as gruel, and the fish could hardly wag their
tails in it. Then he threw in whole pepper-corns, half-a-dozen pounds at
a time, till there was enough. Then he began to dilute with vinegar until
his pickle was complete. The fish did not half like it at first; but
habit is every thing; and when he showed me his tank, they were swimming
about as merry as a shoal of dace: he fed them with fennel, chopped
small, and black pepper-corns. 'Come, doctor,' says I, 'I trust no man
upon tick; if I don't taste I won't believe my own eyes, though I _can_
believe my _tongue_.' (We looked at each other.) 'That you shall do in a
minute,' says he; so he whipped one of them out with a landing-net; and
when I stuck my knife into him, the pickle ran out of his body like wine
out of a claret-bottle, and I ate at least two pounds of the rascal,
while he flapped his tail in my face. I never tasted such salmon as that.
Worth your while to go to Scotland, if it's only for the sake of eating
live pickled salmon. I'll give you a letter, any of you, to my friend.
He'll be d--d glad to see you; and then you may convince yourselves. Take
my word for it, if once you eat salmon that way, you will never eat it
any other."--_The Naval Officer_.
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