her maternal feelings were unlikely to be assuaged by hearing that the marriage had been performed in the middle of the night on a west indian beach by a disgraced-if not actually defrocked-priest , witnessed by twenty-five seamen , ten french horses , a small flock of sheep-all gaily beribboned in honor of the occasion-and a king charles spaniel , who added to the generally festive feeling by attempting to copulate with murphy 's wooden leg at every opportunity .