RESULT OF A LADY’S FRIENDSHIP.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume IX, Issue 19, 7 May 1892, Page 484

RESULT OF A LADY’S FRIENDSHIP.

In the year 1810, when a squadron of light frigates and sloops was blocking Corfu, the Kingfisher sloop, Commander Ewel Tritton, was stationed oft' the island of Fano, at the entrance of the north channel of Corfu. At daybreak one morn ing (after astrong north-west wind had been blowing throughout the night) a fleet of Trabaccolas, which had left Brindisi theevening before, was described making for the channel, and chase was immediately given. The jolly-boat, manned by a young midshipman, a corporal of marines, and four boys, with a musket and a few cartridges, were lowered in passing to take possession of the nearest vessel, which had taken down her mainsail, while the Kingfisher, under a crowd of sail, pursued the remainder inshore. The youngster, on nearing the stranger, saw only a woman on deck, and she was making signs with her finger up, as as if to preserve silence. His suspicions were aroused, although he had not the least idea what the action of the woman (which he had, as he considered, been fortunate enough to notice) indicated. He immediately boarded, and found, on looking down the main hatchway, that the hold was full of troops. To secure the hatch was but the work of a moment, and lowering the foresail, he placed a hand at the helm to keep the vessel in the trough of the sea, increasing thereby the motion and the sea sickness evidently prevailing among the troops below. In this situation he kept them till about three in the afternoon, when his ship returned, having been unsuccessful in capturing any of the others, when he was hailed by his captain and asked what the vessel was laden with. ‘Troops, troops,’ was the reply. ‘ Why, boy, what do you mean—soldiers?’ ‘ Yes, sir.’ ‘ How many ?’ ‘ I have not ventured to count them.’ The crew of the cutter were soon on board and search made, when upwards of a hundred officers and men belonging to the 14th Regiment of the line, intended as a reinforcement to the garrison of Corfu, with part of a surgeon’s staff, were discovered to be the cargo. The prisoners, all sturdy young men, were soon removed to the Kingfisher, and after a fortnight’s passage, during which the sloop’s small crew of seventy-five officers and men were kept constantly under arms, they were landed safely at Malta. The” most remarkable occurrence in the affair was that the lady on deck was the wife of the surgeon, and had accidentally met the middy some months before while he was at Prevesa in a prize, to which place she had accompanied her husband and some French officers from the garrison of St. Maura on a shooting expedition, when an acquaintance and exchange of civilities, not uncommon in those war days, had taken place, and she stated she knew him directly he came on board the boat.