One of the Frenchmen
unearthed an old fiddle, and though one of its strings was wanting,
a man named Ben Tolliday contrived to scrape very passable melody
out of it. Old John Dilly announced that he had played the cornet
in his youth, and before very long an instrument was found for him,
and after a few days' practice (during which we had to suffer a
variety of discordant and ear-splitting noises) he recovered
something of his former skill. An old drum with a very loose
membrane was found in the lumber room of the keep, and this the
bosun appropriated, though being quite destitute of a sense of
rhythm he made but an indifferent performer. Some of the men
fashioned original instruments for themselves, one of these, a
mouth organ, being a real triumph of ingenuity.
I, alas, had no singing voice, and was totally ignorant of music;
but Joe kindly informed me that any fool could play the bones, and
made two pairs of castanets for me out of beef bones supplied by
the soldiers (we had no joints ourselves, but only a bullock's
cheek now and then) so that I too was able to bear my part in the
concerts which now became of daily occurrence.
The soldiers of the guard often came and listened to our
performances, and even the sour-faced commandant once condescended
to form part of our audience, and smiled broadly when Dilly, who
was a Devon man, sang with much expressive pantomime the pleasant
ditty of Widdicombe Fair, though the Frenchman did not understand a
word of it.
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