He received us very civilly; we delivered our despatches; and the same
evenmg we made our bow, and having obtained fresh horses, set out on our
return, and arrived at the village of Santa Rosa at nine at night, where
we slept; and next morning continuing on our journey, we got once more
safely on board of the old Brig at twelve o'clock at noon, in a miserable
plight, not having had our clothes off for three days. As for me I was
used to roughing it, and in my humble equipment any disarrangement was not
particularly discernible, but in poor Treenail. one of the nattiest
fellows in the service, it was a very different matter. He had issued
forth on the enterprise, cased in tight blue pantaloons that fitted him
like his skin, over which were drawn long well-polished Hessian boots,
each with a formidable tassel at top, and his coat was buttoned close up
to the chin, with a blaz-, ing swab on the right shoulder, while a laced
cocked hat and dress sword completed his equipment. But, alas! when we
were accounted for on board of the old Torch, there was a fearful
dilapidation of his external man. First of all, his inexpressibles were
absolutely tom into shreds by the briers and prickly bushes through which
we had been travelling, and fluttered from his waistband like the stripes
we see depending from an ancient Roman or Grecian coat of armour; his coat
had only one skirt, and the bullion of the epaulet was reduced to a strand
or two, while the tag that held the brim, or flaps of the cocked hat up,
had given way, so that, although he looked fierce enough, stem on, still,
when you had a sternview, the after part hung down his back like the tail
of the hat of one of Landseer's flying dustmen.
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