still. It was presently known that the regiment's
destination was the East Indies, or, as we should now call it, India.
This was a great blow to poor Mrs. Sherwood, for by this time she was
the mother of a baby girl, whom she must leave behind in England.

The regiment embarked at Portsmouth. Captain and Mrs. Sherwood had a
miserable little cabin rigged up on deck, made only of canvas, and with
a huge gun filling more than half the space. The vessel in which they
sailed was called the _Devonshire_. It was quite a fleet that set sail,
for besides the vessels needed to convey the troops, there had to be
several armed cruisers in attendance. The war with France was going on,
and there was continual danger of an attack by the enemy. When they had
been more than three months at sea, three strange vessels were sighted,
two of which soon ran up the French colours and began to fire, without
the slightest warning, upon the English vessels. In a moment all was
bustle on board the _Devonshire_, clearing the decks for action. The
women and children were sent down into the hold, where they had to sit
for hours in the dark, some way below watermark, while the shots
whistled through the rigging overhead, the guns roared, the ladders had
been taken away, and none of them could learn a word of what was going
forward on deck, where their husbands and fathers were helping to man
the guns. The fighting continued till late at night, but no serious
damage befell the _Devonshire_. At length the women and children were
hoisted up out of the hold, and "enjoyed some negus and biscuits."

From that time they saw no more of the French. At last the voyage, with
its anxieties and discomforts, was over; the _Devonshire_ sailed into
the Hoogli and anchored in Diamond Harbour, expecting boats to come
down from Calcutta to carry the regiment up there.

It would take too long to tell the story of the Sherwoods' life in
India, though Mrs. Sherwood's account of it is very good reading. Two
or three scenes will give you some notion of how she spent her time.

A certain number of the soldiers of the regiment were allowed to bring
their wives and children out with them. There were no Government
schools then for the regimental children, so that these little people
idled away their time round the barracks, and were as ignorant as the
day they were born. It came into Mrs. Sherwood's head to start a school
for them, and this school she herself taught for four