Omniana/Volume 2/Untitled

by Samuel Taylor Coleridge

175.

When I was at Malta, there happened a drunken squabble on the road between Valette and St. Antonio, between a party of soldiers, and another of sailors. They were brought before me on the next morning, and the great effect, which their intoxication had produced on their memory, and the little or no effect on their courage in giving evidence, may be seen by the following specimen. The soldiers swore, that the sailors were the first aggressors, and had assaulted them with the following words—"D—n your eyes! &c. who stops the line of march there?"

The sailors with equal vehemence and unanimity averred, that the soldiers were the first aggressors, and had burst in on them, calling out "Heave to, you lubbers! or we'll run you down."