re. Without waiting to
consult my Ellen, whose opposition I feared to encounter until
opposition would be fruitless, I hastened to Lieutenant Walgrave, the
recruiting officer of the regiment,--tendered my services,--was
accepted and approved,--received the bounty money,--and became
definitively a soldier, under the assumed name of Frank Halloway.
"It would be tedious and impertinent, gentlemen," resumed the prisoner,
after a short pause, "to dwell on the humiliations of spirit to which
both my wife and myself were subjected at our first introduction to our
new associates, who, although invariably kind to us, were,
nevertheless, ill suited, both by education and habit, to awaken any
thing like congeniality of feeling or similarity of pursuit. Still we
endeavoured, as much as possible, to lessen the distance that existed
between us; and from the first moment of our joining the regiment,
determined to adopt the phraseology and manners of those with whom an
adverse destiny had so singularly connected us. In this we succeeded;
for no one, up to the present moment, has imagined either my wife or
myself to be other than the simple and unpretending Frank and Ellen
Halloway.
"On joining the regiment in this country," pursued the prisoner, after
another pause, marked by much emotion, "I had the good fortune to be
appointed to the grenadier company. Gentlemen, you all know the amiable
qualities of Captain de Haldimar. But although, unlike yourselves, I
have learnt to admire that officer only at a distance, my devotion to
his interests has been proportioned to the kindness with which I have
ever been treated by him; and may I not add, after this avowal of my
former condition, my most fervent desire has all along been to seize
the first favourable opportunity of performing some action that would
eventually elevate me to a position in which I might, without blushing
for the absence of the ennobling qualities of birth and condition, avow
myself his friend, and solicit that distinction from my equal which was
partially extended to me by my superior? The opportunity I sought was
not long wanting. At the memorable affair with the French general,
Levi, at Quebec, in which our regiment bore so conspicuous a part, I
had the good fortune to save the life of my captain. A band of Indians,
as you all, gentlemen, must recollect, had approached our right flank
unperceived, and while busily engaged with the French in front, we were
compelled
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