of my friends, I cautioned him
against giving my address, or any clew by which letters might reach me.

This done, I addressed a short note to Mr. Blake, requesting to know the
name of his solicitor, in whose hands the bond was placed, and announcing
my intention of immediate repayment.

Trifling as these details were in themselves, I cannot help recording how
completely they changed the whole current of my thoughts. A new train of
interests began to spring up within me; and where so lately the clang of
the battle, the ardor of the march, the careless ease of the bivouac, had
engrossed every feeling, now more humble and homely thoughts succeeded; and
as my personal ambition had lost its stimulant, I turned with pleasure to
those of whose fate and fortunes I was in some sort the guardian. There may
be many a land where the verdure blooms more in fragrance and in richness,
where the clime breathes softer, and a brighter sky lights up the
landscape; but there is none--I have travelled through many a one--where
more touching and heart-bound associations are blended with the features
of the soil than in Ireland, and cold must be the spirit, and barren the
affections of him who can dwell amidst its mountains and its valleys, its
tranquil lakes, its wooded fens, without feeling their humanizing influence
upon him. Thus gradually new impressions and new duties succeeded; and ere
four months elapsed, the quiet monotony of my daily life healed up the
wounds of my suffering, and in the calm current of my present existence, a
sense of content, if not of happiness, crept gently over me, and I ceased
to long for the clash of arms and the loud blast of the trumpet.

Unlike all my former habits, I completely abandoned the sports of the
field. He who had participated in them with me was no longer there; and the
very sight of the tackle itself suggested sad and depressing thoughts.

My horses I took but little pleasure in. To gratify the good and kind
people about, I would walk through the stables, and make some passing
remark, as if to show some interest; but I felt it not. No; it was only by
the total change of all the ordinary channels of my ideas that I could bear
up; and now my days were passed in the fields, either listlessly strolling
along, or in watching the laborers as they worked. Of my neighbors I saw
nothing; returning their cards, when they called upon me, was the extent of
our intercourse; and I had no desire for any fur