e world to
make my skill subordinate to my chief's, and beat him at every game with
as little compunction as though he were only my equal, till, at last,
vexed at his want of success, and tired of a contest that offered no
vicissitude of fortune, he would frequently cease playing, to chat over
the events of the time, and the chances of the expedition.

It was with no slight mixture of surprise and dismay, that I now
detected his utter despair of all success, and that he regarded the
whole as a complete forlorn-hope. He had merely taken the command to
involve the French Government in the cause, and so to compromise the
national character that all retreat would be impossible. "We shall be
all cut to pieces, or taken prisoners the day after we land," was his
constant exclamation, "and then, but not till then, will they think
seriously in France of a suitable expedition." There was no heroism,
still less was there any affectation of recklessness, in this avowal. By
nature, he was a rough, easy, good-tempered fellow, who liked his
profession less for its rewards, than for its changeful scenes and
moving incidents--his one predominating feeling being that France should
give rule to the whole world, and the principles of her Revolution be
every where pre-eminent. To promote this consummation, the loss of an
army was of little moment. Let the cause but triumph in the end, and the
cost was not worth fretting about.

Next to this sentiment was his hatred of England, and all that was
English. Treachery, falsehood, pride, avarice, grasping covetousness,
and unscrupulous aggression, were the characteristics by which he
described the nation; and he made the little knowledge he had gleaned
from newspapers and intercourse, so subservient to this theory, that I
was an easy convert to his opinion; so that, ere long, my compassion for
the wrongs of Ireland was associated with the most profound hatred of
her oppressors.

To be sure, I should have liked the notion, that we ourselves were to
have some more active share in the liberation of Irishmen than the mere
act of heralding another and more successful expedition; but even in
this thought there was romantic self-devotion, not unpleasing to the
mind of a boy; but, after all, I was the only one who felt it.

The first sight of land to one on sea is always an event of uncommon
interest; but how greatly increased is the feeling, when that land is to
be the scene of a perilous exploit--th