"I had not the slightest idea of what we were to do on shore. From our
being so heavily armed, I knew it was no mere escort or parade duty
that was in question, and began to think there was work of some kind
on hand. This gave me no kind of uneasiness. I only wondered whatever
it could be, for there was clearly a mystery of some kind or other.
Were we going to besiege Paddy, in his own peaceable city of Cork? Had
some of the peep-o'-day boys been burning down farmer Magrath's ricks
again? or was there a private still to be routed out and demolished? I
could not tell.
"Half an hour after our arrival, I was called into a private room by
the lieutenant, who was seated at a table with a package of clothes
beside him. The first lieutenant of the _Norfolk_, I must remark, was
a bit of an original. He had won his way up to the rank he then held
from before the mast. His build was rather squat, and his face was
garnished with a pair of fiery red whiskers, so he was no beauty,
added to which he was reckoned one of the most rigid martinets in the
service; yet, for all that, his crew liked him, for they knew his
heart was in the right place.
"'See, my man,' said he, 'take this package, and rig yourself out in
the toggery it contains.'
"I obeyed this order, and soon after stood before him, in a pair of
jack-boots, with a slouching sort of tarpauling hat on my head, so
that I might either have passed for a manner out of luck or a dustman.
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