Stewart's geographical reading-book. Standard 5,6

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Page 59 - At length the little squadron came to the place of periL Then the Mountjoy took the lead, and went right at the boom. The huge barricade cracked and gave way ; but the shock was such that the Mountjoy rebounded, and stuck in the mud. A yell of triumph rose from the- banks : the Irish rushed to their boats, and were preparing to board ; but the Dartmouth poured on them a well-directed broadside, which threw them into disorder.
Page 59 - Mountjoy had made, and was in a moment within the fence. Meantime the tide was rising fast. The Mountjoy began to move, and soon passed safe through the broken stakes and floating spars. But her brave master was no more. A shot from one of the batteries had struck him ; and he died by the most enviable of all deaths, in sight of the city which was his birthplace, which was his home, and which had just been saved by his courage and self-devotion from the most frightful form of destruction.
Page 60 - ... began. First were rolled on shore barrels containing six thousand bushels of meal. Then came great cheeses, casks of beef, flitches of bacon, kegs of butter, sacks of pease and biscuit, ankers of brandy. Not many hours before, half a pound of tallow and three quarters of a pound of salted hide had been weighed out with niggardly care to every fighting man.
Page 60 - The night had closed in before the conflict at the boom began ; but the flash of the guns was seen, and the noise heard by the lean and ghastly multitude which covered the walls of the city. When the Mountjoy grounded, and when the shout of triumph rose from the Irish on both sides of the river, the hearts of the besieged died within them. One who endured the unutterable anguish of that moment has told us that they looked fearfully livid in each other's eyes.
Page 60 - But, on the third night, flames were seen arising from the camp ; and, when the first of August dawned, a line of smoking ruins marked the site lately occupied by the huts of the besiegers ; and the citizens saw far off the long column of pikes and standards retreating up the left bank of the Foyle towards Strabane.* So ended this great siege, the most memorable in the annals of the British isles.
Page 60 - Not many hours before, half a pound of tallow and three quarters of a pound of salted hide had been weighed out with niggardly care to every fighting man. The ration which each now received was three pounds of flour, two pounds of beef, and a pint of pease. It is easy to imagine with what tears grace was said over the suppers of that evening.
Page 94 - ... pounder; then jumping upon the gun, made a solemn vow never to quit it alive during the siege...
Page 68 - English are more cool, not so readily affected, but capable of being aroused to great enthusiasm. The faults of these opposite temperaments are, that the vivacity of the French is apt to sparkle up and be frothy, the gravity of the English to settle down and grow muddy. When the two characters can be fixed in a medium — the French kept from effervescence and the English from stagnation — both will be found excellent.
Page 68 - He is good-humoured and talkative with his servants, sociable with his neighbours, and complaisant to all the world. Anybody has access to himself and his apartments ; his very bed-room is open to visitors, whatever may be its state of confusion ; and all this not from any peculiarly hospitable feeling, but from that communicative habit which predominates over his character.
Page 59 - The sun had just set : the evening sermon in the cathedral was over : and the heartbroken congregation had separated ; when the sentinels on the tower saw the sails of three vessels coming up the Foyle. Soon there was a, stir in the Irish camp. The besiegers were on the alert for miles along both shores. The ships were in extreme peril : for the river was low; and the only navigable channel ran very near to the left bank, where the head quarters of the enemy had been fixed, and where the batteries...

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