About midnight
I was particularly struck with a small , thin , dark Spaniard , who told very feelingly how the night before , on returning home from a party to his own lodgings , on passing through the piazza , he stumbled against something heavy that lay in his grass-hammock , which usually hung there . He called for a light , when , to his horror , he found the body of his old and faithful valet lying in it , dead and cold , with a knife sticking under his fifth rib -- no doubt intended for his master . The speaker was Bolivar . About midnight , Mr Treenail returned , we shook hands with Mr -- , and once more shoved off ; and , guided by the lights shown on board the Torch , we were safe home again by three in the morning , when we immediately made sail , and nothing particular happened until we arrived within a day 's sail of New Providence . It seemed , that about a week before , a large American brig , bound from Havanna to Boston , had been captured in this very channel by one of our men-of-war schooners , and carried into Nassau ; out of which port , for their own security , the authorities had fitted a small schooner , carrying six guns and twenty-four men . She was commanded by a very gallant fellow -- there is no disputing that -- and he must needs emulate the conduct of the officer who had made the capture -- for in a fine clear night , when all the officers were below rummaging in their kits for the killing things they should array themselves in on the morrow , so as to smite the Fair of New Providence to the heart at a blow -- Whiss -- a shot flew over our mast-head . `` A small schooner lying-to right ahead , sir , '' sung out the boatswain from the forecastle .