powder mills in the neighbourhood, who, at his
own cost, had raised among his own workmen two
batteries of artillery, numbering one hundred
and twenty men, who are provided by him with
uniform and accoutrements, whose expenses are
paid, and from whose wages he never makes any
deduction when drills, gun-practice, and military
evolutions call them from their regular work.
These artillerymen, constituting the Second Kent
Artillery Volunteers, were reckoned among 'the
crack corps of the county, and of this I had an
opportunity presently of judging, as we drove
past the grounds of their founder, who is also
their major, where they were drawn up in line—as
well-built, trim, well-equipped a body of men as
one could wish to see. These were the repelling
force; the attacking body, consisting of the
Sheerness Dockyard Battalion, had preceded us,
and we could occasionally catch the refrain of a
tune played by their band far ahead. By this
time a bright clear moon had risen, the air was
fresh and frosty, and the ground firm and in
capital marching condition; the road was filled
with pedestrians, all chatting and laughing, with
here and there a stray horseman, or a chaise-cart,
or a van laden with company. If there had been
sunlight and dust, and hundreds more vehicles, it
would have looked rather like the road to the
Derby; as it was, it dimly resembled the outskirts
of a country fair. At last we began to
approach our destination; the horse and chaise
were left in Buzzy Billy's charge; and we
proceeded on foot across a marshy piece of ground to
a big barn, the battery about to be assaulted. A
little inspection showed that this big barn was
surrounded by a ditch, that it had heavy earthworks,
and that through the embrasures loomed
suspiciously the muzzles of two twenty-four-pounder
guns. Its occupants had not yet arrived,
so we followed the fortunes of the enemy, and
pursued our way across the marsh-ground until
we came to Ore Creek, in which lay the three
little ship-launch gunboats, under cover of whose
fire the attack was to be made. The scene was
a strange one; to the left, aground like a
stranded whale, stood the hull of a brig, now
used as the coast-guard station, and tenanted by
the chief boatman, who, with his family and
friends, was calmly standing in the bows and
watching the operations. From the shore, gun
detachments, all plainly visible in the moonlight,
were embarking to board the gunboats under the
lee of the coast-guard ship; the commander of
the attacking force was silently mustering his
men, dealing out to them their ammunition, and
giving them their final instructions. A knot of
the local population, principally boys and women
(the majority were up at the battery), stood by
in excitement which bordered very closely on
trepidation; far out to the left one could perceive
the track of the little River Swale, and the
twinkling lights of the Isle of Sheppey; while the
horizon on the left was cut by the black spars of
a collier brig, curiously suggestive of yard-arm
execution, and of immediate readiness for the
reception of those smugglers who once abounded
in these parts, and of whose exploits Thomas
Ingoldsby has been the pleasantest narrator.

  While the gun detachments were silently stealing
towards the gunboats, which, mastless, black,
immobile, lay like three porpoises floating side by
side in the creek, the attacking force having been
properly rested, were divided into two parties:
one to advance against the battery in front: the
other to harass it in flank. All seemed to
promise well for the onslaught; when, far away in
the direction of the battery was seen a flash,
followed by a tremendous roar which woke all
the echoes of the neighbourhood; the invaded
were on the look-out, and had commenced the
action. Forthwith the gunboats came to the
support of their men, and one after another
the little six-pounders blazed away with an
unintermittent fury which spoke admirably for the
manner in which they were served. Under their
cover the two portions of the attacking force
advanced, firing volleys upon the supports of
the defenders, who were promptly called out.
So admirably was all this done, that it gave one
(I should think) a very fair notion of real warfare;
the roar of the guns and the rattle of the small-arms
were incessant; through the thick clouds
of smoke which rolled over the marshes came
hoarse words of command, all ending in that
peculiar bellow which ought to convey a great
deal to the soldier, as it is utterly unintelligible
to the civilian; happily there were no groans
of the wounded, the substitute being the faint
shrieks and Lar'-bless-me's of the female portion
of the spectators. At first, the attacking party
carried all before it, and when it arrived at the
battery, beat off the supports, swarmed into the
ditch, through the embrasures, and up into the
battery itself, to find the enemy retreated and
the guns spiked. But, having learned from a
prescient bystander that it was not at all unlikely
a reverse would take place, I made my way by
a detour to the top of a hill, where I passed the
retreated Kent Artillery Volunteers comfortably
ensconced behind a masked battery, hidden, like
Tennyson's Talking Oak, " to the knees in fern,"
and awaiting the advent of the invaders, who, by
this time, had left the captured battery and were
pursuing their successful career.

These devoted youths advanced until they
were very unpleasantly near the covered muzzles
of the guns, when they were received with a
salvo which, had the guns been shotted,
certainly would have finished the attacking force.
They wavered, halted, and then at word of
command executed a strategic movement of
retreat; which, in plain English, looked very
like running away. Then the invaded ran after
them; then the invaded's supports fired after
them; then the retreating attackers faced about
and fired on the advancing repellers; then the
gunboats began to boom again, the battery guns
began to blaze away at the gunboats, and the
people who were running away, ran away a little,
turned round and fired, and the people who were