and that I was one of them, it will but be beginning the story at the right end. The fife and the drum, comrade, cockade and streamers, were too tempting for a farmer's boy on the sunny side of twenty, and, half afraid of my own act and deed, I took the shilling, and became one of my country's noble defenders, and full private on full pay. At the time of my enlisting, the whole of the continent was bristling with bayonets, and the French were spreading more mischief throughout the countries they had overrun, than the devil himself in a gale of wind.

"As soon as I could be drilled into something like a soldier, and before I knew the difference between a sergeant's stripe and a corporal's, I was marched off for Spain, where I soon learned what was parade, and the gold and gammon of the profession, and the real downright hard knocks of active service.

Rumours, which kept our officers always on the alert, marching, counter-marching, fatigue, heat, thirst, short rations, and bad food, were now the order of the day, and my feelings were particularly similar to those of a young lady of my acquaintance, who fell in love with a scarlet coat at a fair, and found the colour a deal faded when her eyes became more familiar to it in the barrack-yard.

"The particular event, however, with which I have to deal, took place in Brussels just previous to the battle of Waterloo; a battle, comrade," continued the old soldier, pointing to the white seam running like the line of a map across his countenance, "wherein I got this brand. It was cut with something heavier than a pen-knife, and there was will and power in the elbow.'

Jacob Giles stooped forward, and examined the mark with apparently greater interest than he had yet felt when his eyes rested upon the blemish.

"I must now tell you that attached to our corps was a young officer of the name of Somerset. I never knew how it was, but although he wore epaulettes, and I, as yet, had not my stripes, there was a goodwill,

and, if I may so call it, kind of understanding between us, which may be formed between one in the ranks, and those above him, without either being forgetful of his duty, line, or position.

"Like the greater number of lieutenants attached to marching regiments, and poor chaplains without hope of promotion, Lieutenant Somerset was married. They all do. It's constitoo-tional, I suppose," said the old soldier, with emphasis; "but the poorer a man is, the younger he marries, and the more children he has. Somehow, too, his wife is sure to be a delicate creetur, with calico hands, pretty face, and one of eight or ten. I've seen it so, over and over twenty times told, in my life, and shall again, if ever I look for anything so

common.

"Having been in garrison during the winter and spring, and occupying the private post of the lieutenant's own servant, there was plenty of time and opportunity to note down trifles which otherwise might have escaped my attention. Now, it occurred to me, one morning, upon seeing the lieutenant's wife stitching away at as small a piece of dimity as was ever cut in the shape of a night-cap, that it couldn't be for herself, as her husband couldn't have got his fist into it, I concluded that the design wasn't for him. And yet what wonderful pleasure both seemed to take in that little bit of dimity! I think I see 'm now," said the corporal, casting his eyes upwards, "at this very moment, sitting close together, like a couple of love birds. Her needle and thread are plying away at the little bit of dimity, and he's got an arm round her taper waist, now and then whispering something which makes her face mantle like a rose. Hah!" sighed the old soldier, our happiest moments are often set on hair triggers!" Jacob's bosom heaved a responsive sigh, but he ventured nothing further to interrupt the tale.

"As it is well known," resumed the narrator, "the Duke and our principal officers were shaking their heels at a ball when Blucher's despatch arrived, notify

ing that the French had crossed the Sambre, and were marching towards Charleroi and Fleurus. By dad, sir, but it put a halt to dancing! The tune was changed for another sort in about the quickest movement that was ever made by fiddlers. Drums beat, bugles sounded, and in a few ticks of the clock, the streets were lined with troops, pouring forth from houses, haylofts, cellars, stables, and every nook and corner forming the good and bad, rough-and-ready quarters of our

men.

"Our corps were among the first to muster, and before the word was given to march, every man belonging to it was present, save-one.”

Corporal Crump rested here, and raising a forefinger, as if to call his auditors' especial attention, slowly repeated the words "every man belonging to it was present, save-one.

"The distance between Brussels and Quarter Bras is over twenty miles, and before eight o'clock the cavalry, artillery, infantry, and waggon train were on the march. By two in the afternoon, the fifth division, of which we formed a part, commanded by Sir Thomas Picton, arrived at Quarter Bras, and as we came up, and were forming into line, a body of French lancers charged, and thrust many a brave fellow's soul from earth to heaven.

"The fields of rye, growing almost to our shoulders, offered considerable hindrance to infantry movements, and the flights of the enemy's cavalry often swept down upon the columns, and cut them into pieces before they could form into square. But let a square be once formed," said Corporal Crump, and the old soldier's eyes glistened as he spoke, "and they might as well have charged the solid rock.

"As soon as it was possible, we formed in square, but in doing which two companies were left out, and we had to see them butchered almost to a man, before our eyes, while each struggled like a lion to the last.

"For nearly two hours we fought with fearful odds

against us; but fresh troops coming up from their different cantonments, not only enabled us to keep our position, but, at last, to drive back the enemy from the ground they had occupied during a part of the day. Fatigue prevented the infantry from pursuing them, and the cavalry not arriving till night-fall, the action was brought to an end just as darkness fell around

us.

"But what am I about?" said Corporal Crump, drawing a hand quickly across his brow, as if dust or cobwebs had suddenly accumulated in the vicinity. "Here we are, in the field, instead of sticking to the nursery."

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Being in the field," returned the little general shopkeeper, warming on the subject, like a steak on the gridiron, "let us keep there, warrior! I love," continued Jacob, with a convulsive snort and wild flourish of the arms, "to hearken to battles lost and won. It fires my spirit, and makes me feel that, once upon a time, I myself could have fired a gun."

"In that case," added his martial companion, "we'll fight on, and finish what I've scarce begun. Fill my glass, comrade," continued he, pushing the now empty vessel, with a jerk, across the table, "I can't croak with a dry thorax.

"After a wet and stormy night, the morning broke, finding but few of our eyes shut, I ween, and from where we were posted we could see the immense masses of the French, both cavalry and infantry, moving in every direction. Bonaparte had ordered all his columns from the rear, for an immediate attack, and the strongest occupied the two wings, and particularly the right.

"About eleven o'clock the battle began in earnest, by Jerome's division advancing upon Hougoumont. There had been some skirmishing during the morning; but I date the commencement from the attack on this post. The garrison did not number more than fifteen hundred men, against whom the enemy directed the

whole second corps in successive attacks throughout the day. The light companies of the Coldstreams and third Guards were in the house and garden, and those of the first regiment in the wood to the left.

"The French covered their approach by a tremendous cross-fire of artillery, which was well and quickly answered by our guns, and our men firing from loopholes bored in the garden wall, did immense execution, without suffering a corresponding loss. During the fight a French officer and some men got inside the gate of the farm-yard, and Colonel Macdonald, by sheer strength, closed it upon them, and joined hand to hand. in cutting them down. Nothing could exceed the courage of the enemy, save that, perhaps, by which they were repulsed. In heaps they fell, and yet there was no hesitation to repeat the sallies, although they moved over hillocks of the dying and the dead.

"Finding it impossible to dislodge us in this way, shells were fired upon the post, and one striking a tower, set it in flames, and quickly spreading to other parts of the building, it soon became untenable, although the Guards remained in their entrenchment, while the fire raged fiercely above their heads. Whatever may have been said or written, Hougoumont was never taken nor abandoned throughout the day.

"This attack cost the French little short of ten thousand men, and, although our loss was small in comparison to theirs, two-thirds of our men fell."

Corporal Crump again came to a check in his narrative, and seemed to derive considerable satisfaction from the deep sip which he took from his glass, and the knowledge of possessing a silent and interested listener.

"While this diversion was going on," continued the old soldier, with a smack of his lips which sounded not unlike the explosion of a percussion cap, a cannonade from more than two hundred pieces of artillery was being poured upon our whole line, intended to support their repeated charges of cavalry and infantry. They