Carrying about my person ...

[Caorthine]

Hi

Could someone please explain the meaning of carrying about below:

"Why! I myself come to doubt sometimes that I, too, have been in Paris in my turn. And the long road there with battles for its stages would appear still more incredible if it were not for a certain musket ball which I have been carrying about my person ever since a little cavalry affair which happened in Silesia at the very beginning of the Leipsic campaign."

What I would like to know is whether it means that he has got the musket ball in his pocket, or if he was shot and the bullet is still in his body.

Thank you in advance ...

[Anglika]

I think the speaker is indicating that the musket ball is in his body. It is a somewhat elliptical way of speaking, but it makes sense within the context.

[Caorthine]

Thank you Anglika. That was my immediate impression as well. Just needed your input.

[bianca]

I am almost certain that the musket ball isn't in his body, or else he wouldn't have lived to talk about it...

[Anglika]

I am almost certain that the musket ball isn't in his body, or else he wouldn't have lived to talk about it...

Not true - there is an old soldier who has just been operated on - he had been carrying a bullet in his heart for the past 40 years. Generally, if the bullet misses a vital organ and does not become infected, it can remain within the body indefinitely.