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Ney was indeed able to keep together some battalions of the rear guard, and present a bold aspect to the pursuers the marshal himself not disdaining to bear a firelock, and share the meanest fatigues of his followers; but elsewhere there remained hardly the shadow of military order.
"Bring a light. Here's a fellow, who has got hold of me by the leg!" "Take your musket then and bayonet him," said Philips, coolly, as he pushed towards the struggling man the butt end of his firelock, which at length reached his hands. At the same time, Corporal Nixon, rendered equally imprudent by the suddenness of the demand for his presence, entered, followed by Weston, bearing the candle.
"Be a lesson for you in the use of a firelock, Master George," said Morgan, as we travelled on across our clearing, and paused at the edge of the forest. "Now then, my lad," he cried, giving his orders in a military way, and bidding me load.
What's the manual, sergeant, eh? Cock your firelock look to your priming present your firelock eh, sergeant? Oh, Jimini, I've broke your musket in halves!" "That's all right, sir," cried the gunner laughing. "You pressed on the lever and opened the breech-piece. That's where we load 'em, you know." "Load 'em at the wrong end! Well, well, to think o' that! And no ramrod neither!
My right-hand man and I sprang upon him on the instant, and while I wrenched his firelock out of his hand, my assistant grasped the unhappy man so tenaciously by the throat that he was utterly unable to utter a sound, and by sheer strength at the same time forced him down upon his knees.
Who is to clean your boots, and to pipeclay your belts; to wash your linen, to clean your firelock, and cook your dinners, and pitch your tent, if you don't have a sarvint? The thing's against nature, entirely." "We shall do it all ourselves, Tim that is to say, as far as cleaning the rifles, washing our linen, and cooking the dinner.
I say, Ben, I'll tell ye what; it's my opinion that if a chap is to turn soldier and carry a musket, he should have soldier's play, and leave to plunder a little now the devil a thing have I laid my hands on to-night, except this firelock and my cutlash unless you can call this bit of a table-cloth something of a windfall."
Well, I only came to this horrid place last week, but if things are to go on like this, I shall pitch away my firelock and desert some night." "Then you had better do it before de Loison goes, Comrade. He is an easy-going fellow enough, and don't like the bother of catching runaways, and says it is only wasting good cartridges.
The people had been sluggish when the circumstances might well have inspired hope; they reserved all their energy for what appeared to be a season of despair. Castile, Leon, Andalusia, Estremadura, rose at once; every peasant procured a firelock or a pike; the Allies were masters only of the ground on which they trod.
Edward assented, and the men executed with agility and precision some of the ordinary military movements. They then practised individually at a mark, and showed extraordinary dexterity in the management of the pistol and firelock. They took aim, standing, sitting, leaning, or lying prostrate, as they were commanded, and always with effect upon the target.
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