"What of her?" exclaimed Jack, starting up. "Is she dead?" "No-no," answered Hogarth. "Don't alarm yourself. I saw it this morning in the Daily Journal-an advertisement, offering a reward

"For what?"

"A reward!" echoed Jack. "I had the paper with me. 'Sdeath! what can I have done with it? Oh! here it is," cried Hogarth, picking it from the ground. "I must have dropped it when I took out my portfolio. There's the paragraph. Mrs. Sheppard left Mr. Wood's house at Dollis Hill on Tuesday' - that's two days ago,' hasn't been heard of

since.'

"Let me see," cried Jack, snatching the paper, and eagerly perusing the advertisement. "Ah!" he exclaimed, in a tone of

anguish. "She has fallen into the villain's hands."

What villain?" cried Hogarth.

"Jonathan Wild, I'll be sworn," said Gay.

"Right! right!" cried Jack, striking his fettered hands against his breast. "She is in his power, and I am here, chained hand and foot, unable to assist her."

"I could make a fine sketch of him now," whispered Hogarth to Gay.

I told you how it was, Sir James," said Austin, addressing the knight, who was preparing for his departure, "he attributes every misfortune that befals him to Mr. Wild."

"And with some justice," replied Thornhill, drily.

"Allow me to assist you, Sir James," said Hogarth.

"Many thanks, sir," replied Thornhill, with freezing politeness; "but I do not require assistance."

"I tell you what, Jack," said Gay, "I've several urgent engagements this morning; but I'll return to-morrow, and hear the rest of your story. And, if I can render you any service you may command me.'

"To-morrow will be too late," said Sheppard, moodily.

The easel and palette having been packed up, and the canvass carefully removed by Austin, the party took leave of the prisoner, who was so much abstracted that he scarcely noticed their departure. Just as Hogarth got to the door, the turnkey stopped him. "You have forgotten your knife, Mr. Hogarth," he observed, significantly.

"So I have," replied Hogarth, glancing at Sheppard. "I can do without it," replied Jack.

The door was then locked, and he was left alone.

At three o'clock, on the same day, Austin brought up Jack's provisions, and, after carefully examining his fetters, and finding all secure, told him if he wanted anything further he must mention it, as he should not be able to return in the evening, his presence being required elsewhere. Jack replied in the negative, and it required all his mastery over himself to prevent the satisfaction which this announcement afforded him from being remarked by the gaoler.

With the usual precautions, Austin then departed.

"And now," cried Jack, leaping up, "for an achievement, compared with which all I have yet done shall be as nothing!"

450

THE CHELSEA VETERANS.

DUMALTON'S STORY.

BY THE REV. G. R. GLEIG, AUTHOR OF THE SUBALTERN," ETC.

CHAPTER I.

Showing how a man may become a soldier unawares, and how soldiers lived in London half a century ago.

My name is Samuel Dumalton. I am a native of Beverley, in Yorkshire; where I was born some time in the month of June, 1769,-a memorable year, which brought into the world not myself only, but the Duke of Wellington, and Napoleon Bonaparte besides. My parentage is scarcely more dignified than my present position in society might lead the world to anticipate. I am the son of a labourer, an honest man, who, though he worked hard, was contented with his lot; who, after having lived some years as groom in the family of Sir John Brereton, set up housekeeping for himself, and with the help of my mother, added me to the list of mankind. Both father and mother were very worthy persons. They punished me when I deserved it; gave me plenty of wholesome food to eat; put me to school when I was old enough to learn, and determined to make a tradesman of me. At the age of fourteen I was apprenticed to a whitesmith, and took to my situation very kindly.

I was bound for seven years; six of which I completed, with occasional differences between my master and myself, but, on the whole, satisfactorily to both parties. At the end of that period, however, my master died, and then arose the question, what was to be done with me?-for the widow seemed disinclined to go on with the business; and if she adhered to her determination, it was evident that I could benefit neither her nor myself. She proposed to hand me over to another whitesmith in the town. I objected to the arrangement altogether, and the matter ended in her offering to give up the indentures, a proposal to which I readily agreed. I took my release, packed up my clothes in a handkerchief, bade father and mother farewell, and set out on foot one bright, frosty morning, towards the end of 1787, for York.

In 1787 work was much more abundant in every department than it is now; I found no difficulty, therefore, in recommending myself to an employer. I went into a coachmaker's yard, and for two months was as busy as need be; but there is a restlessness about youths of nineteen or twenty which often induces them to change for the mere sake of change, and still more frequently hinders them from knowing when they are well off. I grew tired of the coachmaker's yard, of the coachmaker himself, and, finally, of the city of York. My bundle was therefore tied up once more, my stick grasped in my hand, and away I went, with a light heart, and a purse not much heavier, to Manchester.

Though Manchester was not in 1788 the overgrown manufactory that it is now, amid its forty thousand inhabitants, it presented sufficient openings for a young man like me. I offered myself to a whitesmith the day after my arrival, and was received as a jour

neyman on my own terms. It is probable too, that, but for an accident I should have continued to prosecute my peaceful calling, in which case society would have lacked the information which these, my memoirs, are designed to communicate. But within a fortnight of my arrival a proposal was made to me, which, having a great respect for the sum of ten guineas, I did not conceive that I should be justified in rejecting. A young gentleman, the son of a clergyman, in a fit of ill-humour or caprice, enlisted in the first Dragoon Guards, which at that time occupied the barracks; and his friends having obtained permission to take him home again by providing a substitute, my master, with whom the family dealt, opened the busi

ness to me.

"You are a strapping fellow, Sam," said he," and a good scholar. There's no saying what you may not come to as a soldier; and the whitesmith's business is, you very well know, one of the poorest going. You may be with me, or anybody else, a dozen years at least, before you will have it in your power to boast that you are worth ten guineas."

"Ten guineas!" replied I. substitute?"

"Will they give ten guineas for a

"To be sure they will, and a capital outfit into the bargain. Away with you to the barracks. No fear but you will be accepted, and then come back to me, and I will introduce you to the gentleman that's to fork out."

Away, accordingly, I went, with an imagination inflamed, not by visions of martial glory, but of ten golden guineas; and, marching boldly towards the barrack-gate, I propounded my business to the corporal of the guard. He desired me to go on to the orderly-room, and I would have done so without pausing, had not a spectacle greeted me as soon as I entered the square, which threw a considerable damp over my military ardour.

The regiment was assembled at a foot-parade, and corporal punishment was going forward. Now I don't mean to say that in an army such as ours it is possible to do without corporal punishments; there are certain crimes which, as they are disgraceful in themselves, ought to bring upon such as commit them a discreditable chastisement; while the situations which require that discipline should be administered promptly and with effect, cannot fail, particularly in war, of constant recurrence. For such occasions the power of the lash must always be reserved. But, the less frequently it is brought into operation the better, not only because the practice has a tendency to keep good men out of your ranks, but, because when repeated over and over again it loses its effect. At all events, I am quite certain of this, that when I beheld a fellow-creature stripped and subjected to the operation of the cat, I never thought of inquiring into the nature of the offence which had brought the visitation upon him; but said to myself, "Am I going to do a wise thing in connecting myself with a society of persons among whom such usages are tolerated?" I don't hesitate to say, that if the mere love of glory had brought me thus far, it would have utterly failed in carrying me further; but ten guineas had appeared to me in the light of a little fortune, and, after a brief controversy between opposite feelings, I made up my mind to possess them. Accordingly I averted my eyes from the parade, and closed my ears against

the outcry of the culprit; and hastening towards the orderly-room, was desired to wait there till the colonel should be disengaged, and able to see me.

The colonel came as soon as the parade was over, and seemed to me to be in an exceedingly irritable humour. He asked me what I wanted, and I told him.

"You a substitute!" cried he; "it's devilish hard that I should be forced to give up a smart fellow, because, forsooth! he has taken the rue, and his friends desire to buy him off; but, I'll be d—d if he shall go for such a chap as you!"

I confess that this reception surprised me, for I stood five feet ten inches without my shoes; and, as may be guessed from the build of the old trunk at this hour, I was in other respects as likely a young fellow as need be. But I did not say a word in reply. The fact indeed was, that I felt relieved, rather than otherwise, because the colonel's manner made me think more of the cat-and-nine-tails than of the ten guineas. So I made my bow and my scratch, and turned to go away.

Stop a bit, young man," cried the Colonel. "I won't take you as a substitute. The recruit they want to buy off is worth two of you; but I don't mind listing you on your own account.

you say? Are you willing?

What do

"His ma

"What bounty will your honour give?" asked I. "Oh! the King's bounty, of course," was the answer. jesty gives two pounds a man, and that you shall have, after your kit, at least, has been supplied out of it."

"Thank you kindly, sir," said I. "I'd rather not ;" and so away I went home again. But matters were not in precisely the same state there as when I went out in the morning. My master, never supposing that I would be rejected, had hired a new hand, and, either because he was a better workman, or that the engagement could not be set aside, he told me plump that there was nothing for me to do. What children of circumstances we are! There was no

great cause in anything that had happened why I should get out of humour; I had but to go elsewhere, and, without doubt, jobs enough were to be procured; but I would not. The fit was upon me, and, having once crossed a barrack threshold, I resolved to become a soldier. In this humour I went the very next day to a recruitingparty for the Coldstream Guards, of which Ensign Howard, now Lord Effingham Howard, was in command; and, offering myself to them, I was accepted immediately. I have always liked the service; I never, indeed, from the very outset, had cause to do otherwise, for Ensign Howard was exceedingly indulgent to his people; and, as he got recruits very fast, I felt myself as much at home among them, and, indeed, among the party in general, as I had done in the whitesmith's shop, or the coachmaker's yard. Still I had a natural desire to see the world, and to visit London in particular; so, finding that three of the young hands were to be forwarded on the morrow, I applied for leave to accompany them, which was granted. The evening of the same day, therefore, which saw me take the shilling, witnessed the ceremony of my attestation before the magistrate; and, the following morning, with my bounty, and marching-money in my pocket, I set out under the command of a non-commissioned officer for the metropolis.

England is a fair land to travel through; but, when you travel as I did, in the bloom of youth, on foot, and amidst a little knot of companions, whose tastes, be they what they may, agree with your own, a very pleasant and profitable thing it is to perform this journey. I do not recollect how many days were spent on the road, but this I remember, that they were all spent pleasantly, for we did not overwork ourselves, and we halted for the most part, at little village inns, of all the quarters into which a soldier passes, the most agreeable. To me, likewise, it was marvellous to behold with what kindness the hosts and hostesses all along the road treated us. My impression is, that such is hardly the case now. In 1788 soldiers were decided favourites with the people; whether because there was less of disaffection abroad, or that our pay being small, they considered themselves bound to act generously towards us, I cannot tell. At all events, I am bound to speak well of that portion of English society with which my first march from Manchester to London brought me acquainted; and the Londoners themselves, it is fair to add, acted on every occasion so as to hinder the favourable impression from becoming faint. We were in much greater danger of being drawn into scrapes by the liberality of persons who insisted on treating us to liquor, than by any such necessity as in later times has driven our successors to avenge a gross insult, or repel a positive wrong with the strong hand.

How different in all its external features was the London of 1788 from the London of 1839! How widely different the constitution and management of the forces which then and in times more recent composed its garrison. Of the foot guards, which then, as now, consisted of three regiments, with two battalions to each, I need say no more than that they were clothed, accoutred, and armed, pretty much as they had been since the days of the Duke of Cumberland. We wore long-tailed coats, which, slanting off like those of liveryservants in front, exposed to view a considerable portion of our lapelled, and capacious-pocketed white waistcoats. Our breeches of white cloth were made to fit so tight that how we contrived to get them on and off without tearing has been to me a source of frequent wonderment; while our long white gaiters, composed of glazed linen, reached just above the bend of the knee, and were tied round the upper part of the calf of the leg with bands of black leather. As to our hats, they resembled in form the head-dresses which are still worn in Chelsea Hospital; and to distinguish us, I presume, from regiments of the line, they were bound round the edges with silver lace. Our arms, again, were the musket and bayonet, not very different from those still in use; our accoutrements were of a class peculiar to times gone by. Instead of gathering up the load of ammunition so as to throw the strain as far as may be on the part of the body which is best able to endure it, the guardians of the soldiers comforts then seemed to regard such considerations as unworthy of their notice. Our belts were long and loose; the pouch came down to the skirts of our coats, and the bayonet, suspended at the left side, swung like a sword as the man moved. Neither must I forget to describe both the hairy knapsacks into which our kits were stowed, and the strange machine, which was given to us as a convenient place of stowage for our field ammunition. The pouch contained in those days a wooden frame, which was bored, both above and below