ny that were delivered in that action, in which Mr.
Esmond had the fortune to serve at the head of his own company in his
regiment, under the command of their own Colonel as Major-General; and
it was his good luck to bring the regiment out of action as commander
of it, the four senior officers above him being killed in the prodigious
slaughter which happened on that day. I like to think that Jack
Haythorn, who sneered at me for being a bastard and a parasite of
Webb's, as he chose to call me, and with whom I had had words, shook
hands with me the day before the battle began. Three days before, poor
Brace, our Lieutenant-Colonel, had heard of his elder brother's death,
and was heir to a baronetcy in Norfolk, and four thousand a year. Fate,
that had left him harmless through a dozen campaigns, seized on him just
as the world was worth living for, and he went into action knowing, as
he said, that the luck was going to turn against him. The Major had just
joined us--a creature of Lord Marlborough, put in much to the dislike of
the other officers, and to be a spy upon us, as it was said. I know
not whether the truth was so, nor who took the tattle of our mess to
headquarters, but Webb's regiment, as its Colonel, was known to be in
the Commander-in-Chief's black books: "And if he did not dare to break
it up at home," our gallant old chief used to say, "he was determined to
destroy it before the enemy;" so that poor Major Proudfoot was put into
a post of danger.

Esmond's dear young Viscount, serving as aide-de-camp to my Lord Duke,
received a wound, and won an honorable name for himself in the Gazette;
and Captain Esmond's name was sent in for promotion by his General, too,
whose favorite he was. It made his heart beat to think that certain eyes
at home, the brightest in the world, might read the page on which his
humble services were recorded; but his mind was made up steadily to keep
out of their dangerous influence, and to let time and absence conquer
that passion he had still lurking about him. Away from Beatrix, it did
not trouble him; but he knew as certain that if he returned home, his
fever would break out again, and avoided Walcote as a Lincolnshire man
avoids returning to his fens, where he is sure that the ague is lying in
wait for him.

We of the English party in the army, who were inclined to sneer at
everything that came out of Hanover, and to treat as little better than
boors and savages the Elector's court an