We the General to Portsmouth, where a ship of war was in readiness to convey him, as well as a multitude of other officers, to Lisbon: My regiment was then quartered at that place, but under immediate orders to join the main army. With another regiment of cavalry we formed a brigade, to the head of which General Archer was appointed. hastened onwards, in obedience to instructions received from head quarters, until at length we found ourselves annexed to the grand British army. The regiment I belonged to happened to engage the enemy in daily succession, until, by the consequent loss of many officers, I found myself a Lieutenant high on the list, in the course of eighteen months. "Circumstances obliged us to retreat, and surely we lost no honor in doing that which the most celebrated heroes have deemed necessary at times: At any rate, as we did not run away, so we at least preserved our national character It from all stain. We consequently returned to our old quarters at Lisbon, and experienced some trifling release from the dangers and fatigues of war. was then that I became acquainted with yourself, who like several others, were then newly arrived to gather laurels in the field of military glory. "I shall pass over the narration of our Peninsular warfare. 1 shall therefore simply remark that at the battle of .... my name was placed by accident on the list of killed, and never rectified; a circumstance which I have found extremely convenient for my present views; for I am determined to obtain justice from my father by resorting to stratagem, and which,as he believes me dead, I imagine will restore me to the enjoyment of what I mostly prize." CHAPTER IV. -The tyrant, Custom, Has made the flinty, and steel couch of war, OTHELLO. "In the next action my best and only friend was severely wounded in his right side by a cannon ball. At one time his recovery was thought certain, but the symptoms becoming worse, he prepared to surrender up his life to the Maker who gave it. I attended him night and day, and with real and earnest solicitude I exerted all my endeavours to render his end as easy as circumstances would admit. He perceived my anxiety, and the last day, he commanded all to quit him except myself. He then addressed me as follows:-' Louis, my boy, do not repine. It is true that I shall, in a few hours, be numbered with the dead. I am happy it should be so. My will is made, and by its tenor you will become heir to the whole of my property. The amount is such as will enable you to live independent of any profession, and may serve to counterbalance the loss of your father's love. I think it right to add, that I have no relations of the most distant branch, therefore your scruples at accepting what I leave you may rest at ease. In return for this, I request you to assume my name. I have now obeyed your mother's wish, and die contented with the past embittered course of my existence.' "I was inexpressibly grieved at being thus deprived of a friend-of a second father-whose kindness had so amply compensated for the loss of that parental affection due from the one at home. A fit of gloomy melancholy seized me for several weeks, from which I was only awakened by the activity of my professional duty. But not all the playful and well-meant raillery of my brother officers could draw me into an appearance even of cheerfulness. "Our rapid promotion has often crossed my thoughts. That we should become successively, Captains, Majors, and finally Lieutenant Colonels, in the same regiment, has sometimes struck me as being singular. The battle of Waterloo effected the last step of our advancement, when you quitted us for the Guards. "But we have now ceased our military career. We are inactive, and shall remain so. Your campaigns are limited to the charming district of St. James's Parish, where the utmost execution you can do is to wound a lady's heart, or to parry an ogle with the 'un |