watched, and consequently well knew that the service they were engaged upon was one likely soon to bring affairs to a decisive result. This pleased them not a little; for they were sadly tired of hunting Arabs.' On taking possession of the deserted tower, they found the cinders still on fire which had served to cook the victuals of the evening. Several other vestiges strewed about proved that they had evacuated the building in great haste.

Having relieved themselves from all unnecessary equipments, the men fell in, by order of their commander, who thus addressed them: 'It is time, my men, that I should explain to you the nature of the service on which we are detached; for not only will it require all the steadiness that I know you to possess, but also a certain share of individual judgment. The Arabs are close to us; they will probably attack us during the night; so we must make all fast, and keep a sharp look-out for them. They will perhaps come in great numbers; so, you see, my lads, we must fight like devils, and defend this place for a full hour. At the end of that time, the main body will be up in the rear, and so they'll be caught between two fires. But, for fear of alarming them, Sir L. S dares not stir an inch till he hears our muskets playing away at them. Now, lads, you know as much as I do, and I have but one recommendation to give you. Examine well your arms, and fire low. It is no ordinary foe we shall have to deal with.'

With these cautions he dismissed them, after telling off one fourth of his little force as sentinels to keep a sharp look-out on every side. To be thus cooped up, like a decoy bird in a cage, or a sparrow to attract a hawk, was not pleasant; but our men were nothing daunted. Indeed, they seemed rather pleased than otherwise at being selected for the dangerous duty. Midnight had passed before the slightest alarm was given by the men on the look-out, when one of our black followers, whose ears are far more acute than those of any European, came down to the officers who sat dozing in the lower chamber, to inform them that he heard the noise of many persons assembling amongst the jungle, which was distant about half a mile.

In a few minutes our whole force was mustered, and posted in the most advantageous manner, while every eye was strained to catch a sight of the enemy. Being now on our guard, and anxiously listening, we could distinctly hear them spreading themselves out into an enormous semi-circle, intending thus to close us in on all sides. That their numbers must be very considerable we well knew, from the very lengthened chain or line they were enabled to form. That their ferocity was unequalled, their muscular power great, and that they would extend no quarter to us, we were fully aware. Our only reliance was in the manœuvre that our commander had determined on performing. The steadiness and discipline of our troops, opposed to the rashness and want of warlike skill likely to be exhibited by this barbarian force,-on these hung our sole dependence. On the whole, our feelings were not the most enviable in the world; but, as thinking is not the duty of a soldier, we refrained from breathing a single syllable of our thoughts to each other, but remained quietly awaiting the moment when we could show our com. rades and our foes how we could act.

By degrees we saw the enemy stealing out of the brushwood, and approaching our little fortress. They came along stealthily and un

evenly. One body of about fifty were far in advance of the rest. As soon as this portion came within reach of our musketry a sudden volley was poured into them, which was almost instantly followed by a second from the opposite side of the tower, directed against another portion, who had also crept beyond the general line. The ef fect was like magic. Little aware how prepared we had been to receive them, this sudden, this unexpected attack from a force which they had come forward fully intent on annihilating before they could awake, so astonished, so terrified the Arabs, that, thinking more troops were in the tower than they had seen, they suddenly retreated again into the jungle, uttering cries of savage fear and discontent.

For half an hour we believed they had dispersed; but just as day was breaking they again appeared, and began to surround our place of refuge beyond the reach of our muskets, and in a far more orderly manner. Several torches were now lighted by them, which a body of women kept brandishing about; till, at a preconcerted signal, they all simultaneously advanced on us. We clearly read their intention, which was, to burn us in our building. This intent was now obvious from the gestures of the wretches, whose every movement we could now plainly observe. As they came on, men, women, and children, pell-mell, uttering the most horrid and discordant cries, perfectly naked, armed with swords about five feet long, double edged, and as sharp and fine as razors, (which they brandished with both hands over their heads), they kept yelling with savage fury, closing on us more and more. We now fired volley after volley; but though it sometimes seemed to inflict a slight check upon them, yet in another moment the gaps caused by our shot were filled up, and the circle pressed on. They were within two hundred paces of the tower, when the look-out espied our main body, who, aware of the movements of the foe, were counter-manœuvring, by also extending their line, and then moving forward their wings by echelon. They had managed, undiscovered by the savage Arabs (who were so intent on their expected victims as not to think of looking behind them), to enclose them in, and thus hoped to destroy them.

At length the Arabs came close under the walls, and some few attempted to escalade them. We poured on them a most effective volley, which threw those nearest to us into temporary confusion. At this moment a well directed fire from the troops in their rear mowed down at least three hundred of them. Had the heavens fallen on their shoulders they could not have been more surprised. They turned suddenly round, and met a second discharge, which again did great havoc. The cries of the wounded were now added to the yells of the infuriated and dismayed multitude. Captain took advantage of their panic, and after giving them one more round from our muskets, suddenly sallied out with fixed bayonets, and attacked them from the other side. Apparently assaulted on all sides, betrayed, outwitted, though they fought with bravery, and even fool-hardiness, Captain, with his valiant little band, managed to pierce right through them, and join his regiment, amidst the congratulations and admiration of his brother officers. And now began the regular fight, which lasted nearly three hours. Never did man behold a more harrowing sight, or more frequent exhibitions of undaunted courage on both sides. The weapons of the Waabees were most murderous; their extreme length reaching even beyond

the guard of a musket, I saw more than once a male, and on one occasion, a female, actually, though impaled on a soldier's bayonet, cutting away with fiend-like fury at the soldier who had thus transfixed her. The children also were armed with short knives, doing their work of butchery, creeping down, and stabbing the wounded and the unwary. The men, who were of splendid make, and considerable muscle, were generally speaking taller than Europeans. Their eyes rolling with rage, their teeth displayed in grinning anger, gave them the appearance of demons. Wounded, and even on the very point of dying, they still kept on hacking at us. There were also a few spearmen. The lieutenant of our grenadiers was singled out by one of these men. At that instant he fortunately stumbled, and, as he did so, the lance passed over his head, and buried itself three inches in the trunk of a tree. The Waabee was instantly cut down by the lieutenant's covering serjeant. His strength must have been prodigious to drive the spear, thus deep into the wood. During the action more than one woman was seen flying about, cutting and stabbing, while her new-born infant was strapped over her shoulders. To spare them was impossible. We had to fight to a disadvantage, since regular troops are seldom called thus to dispute hand to hand. But at length we triumphed. The survivors fled; but we were too tired to pursue them, though they retreated in the greatest disorder; nor were we quite sure that we might not fall into some ambush. The bugles announced to us a retrogade movement. We retired half a mile, and despatching an orderly to bring up our provisions and baggage, we quietly bestowed ourselves to rest, only leaving a few sentries in case of the foe re-mustering. This, however, did not happen.

About noon, the hospital-carts having come up, the surgeons, with a detachment of men, went to the late scene of action, to bury the dead, and afford succour to the wounded. In several cases the enemy refused all assistance, and even once or twice attempted to attack the kind-hearted soldiers, who would have helped and cured them. At length the party came to a fine-looking Arab, apparently insensible, but not dead. A bayonet had pierced his chest. The sergeant commanding the detachment, one of the best soldiers we had, seeing him thus dying, as he thought, from want of care, went up to him, and pulling out the little flask of spirits he carried, raised him, and applied it to his lips. The treacherous Arab suddenly drew out from beneath him a sword which he had concealed, and as the English soldier strove to lift him up, with one stroke he severed his head from his body.

To dwell further on this scene I am unwilling. Retaliation is wrong; but alas! it is a feeling inherent in our nature. The fury of the party at seeing their loved brother-soldier thus murdered, was be yond bounds. I have heard (1 fear with truth,) that no wounded men were suffered again to betray us. All that were living of the enemy were instantly dispatched.

It was for this campaign the 65th regiment obtained the honourable distinction of bearing a royal tiger on their accoutrements and banners.

THE DEAR-SLAYER.

BY ALBANY POYNTZ.

He is gone to his long account, and a plaguy long account it must be, that handsome cousin of mine, that terrible fellow, Major Manvers, whose memory I have taken upon myself to redeem from oblivion.

By common accord of the writing and reading world, the honourable title of Major has long been tinged with that worst of odium, ridicule. Mrs. John Prevost' has immortalized

'The odious Major Rock,

Who drops in at six o'clock;'

and the author of 'Pelham' was once on the eve of having to fight through the two United Service Clubs, on account of certain jests levelled at this only too highly-respectable grade of the military community. Even the apostrophe of the great Wellington to the gallant Napier, Well done, my Majors! did not suffice to render classical his much-degraded grade.

Be it understood, however, that my Major differed widely from the majority of Majors. He was no more like Major Sturgeon or Major O'Flaherty, than Canis Major is like Ursa Major. It is not, however, in his Major-ical capacity that I am about to consider him. I am about to treat of my Major, in the first instance, as still a minor.

Willoughby Manvers appears to have been born for the vocation of Dear-slaying. Even in his days of coral and bells, his future leaning toward the belles must have been perceptible; or his godfather and godmother would scarcely have bestowed upon him at what the newspapers call the baptismal-font, the euphonious and most three-volumelike name of Willoughby.'

It is true his mother made vague allusions to a rich cousin in Yorkshire, who, though unapparent among the sponsors, had requested that the infant might be named after himself. But, strange to relate, the most careful investigation of the maps of the three ridings imparted no insight into the localities of Willoughby Park; nor, among the rolls of that stout and honourable county, was the record of a Willoughby family whatever, saving one small esquire, the sire of eleven junior esquires; a John Willoughby, of no park at all, who could not by any possible process of magnification, be redeemed from the infinitesimals or placed in the category of rich cousins. The bright blue eyes and dimpled chin of the smiling infant must, consequently, be accepted as Mrs. Manvers' sole apology for heroicizing her third son by the touching name of Willoughby.'

Preparatory schools have nearly the same faculty for mutilating names as a provincial footman. Our ineffable Willoughby was abbreviated in his nankeens into simple Will,' like the vulgarest William of them all. The first time the chariot of Mrs. Manvers rolled into the courtyard of Prospect House Academy, and she overheard a shout in the playground of 'Hallo, Will! here's your mother!' she was forced to have recourse to her salts bottle. Of what avail to be choice in the specification of one's offspring,' thought the dainty lady, 'if such curtailments be sanctioned by academic authority!'

Names, however, are regulated by a sliding system,-elongated or shortened, even as the glasses of the great Herschel, or still greater Omnibus, when the latter extend their focus from the proximate petticoat of Cerito to the remote box of a beauty in the 'two-pair' at the opera. At Eton, Willoughby was himself again, i.e. again 'Willoughby.' His dame was, fortunately, of a romantic turn; and, next to lordlings and little honourables, adored a lad in three syllables. He was, accordingly, flogged as Manvers, but coaxed and kept up to supper by the gentle name of Willoughby. Need it be added that, while other lads were duncing their way through Homer, the favoured youth stuck fast in his Ovid; and that before he was out of his second apprenticeship to fate, Ang. before he had attained the mature age of fourteen, and the height of a Shetland pony, he had perpetrated a sonnetto ANNA; whom other boys, more in favour with Anna's tender parent the pastry-cook, familiarized by the unpoetical name of Nancy.'

It was no fault of Willoughby's! Willoughby had an eye of tender blue,' as Camoens and Lord Strangford have it as well as locks of Daphne's hue,' as they also have it; and what they mean by having it I never could exactly determine, but conclude that Manvers' fair curls must be pretty near the mark. His hands, moreover, were as fair as his curls, and his brow fairer; everything about him, indeed, was fair but his verses, which Anna and the under-master pronounced to be only pretty fair.' The rest was both fair and pretty.

Unluckily for Willoughby, Parnassus and the Pierian spring so far outweighed with him the attraction of the Christopher and its claret, that he suffered himself to fall into the anti-Etonian error of acquiring an admirable hand-writing. Even at Prospect House he had been base enough, (probably under the influence of his prenomen of 'Will,') to obtain the silver pen bestowed by the writing-master, as the annual prize of penmanship; and now his sonneteering had betrayed him into the still further disgrace of writing a legible hand. In those days, penny postage was not, and franking was; and, by a process of logic not admitted in the schools, though intelligible enough at Eton, it was clear that Willoughby Manvers was not intended for a member of parliament. But there are many steps and gradations between writing oneself down M.P. and the ignominious designation to which the young calligrapher was thenceforward devoted by his matter-of-fact parent. Manvers, senior, who had been christened by the plain and deteri orating name of Thomas, on finding his third hope so admirable a penman, actually destined him, in spite of his Willoughbyship, for a mercantile desk -Oh! hapless child of the Muses! - a merchant's desk! Had Nature Anna-thematized thee with so poetical a temperament only to be thus miserably degraded in the scale of Annamated being ?

The boy rebelled,—that is, the man of which the boy saw himself about to become the father, rebelled. On leaving Eton, and finding the preliminaries of a treaty in progress for transferring himself and his penmanship to the long-established firm of Messrs. Macpherson, Mumpson, and Spragg, of Great St. Helens, he grew desperate; and the sequel of his success in running-hand was, ru ning away. Instead of answering to the name of either Will' or Willoughby,' the return was non est inventus.' But Willoughby had no will to return. It appeared probable that the inspired youth had betaken himself to