n written, but for a small
circumstance which occurred at this period.

"What can you want with that drunken old Corporal always about your
quarters?" said Mr. Trippet to the Count one day, as they sat over their
wine, in the midst of a merry company, at the Captain's rooms.

"What!" said he. "Old Brock? The old thief has been more useful to me
than many a better man. He is as brave in a row as a lion, as cunning in
intrigue as a fox; he can nose a dun at an inconceivable distance, and
scent out a pretty woman be she behind ever so many stone walls. If a
gentleman wants a good rascal now, I can recommend him. I am going to
reform, you know, and must turn him out of my service."

"And pretty Mrs. Cat?"

"Oh, curse pretty Mrs. Cat! she may go too."

"And the brat?"

"Why, you have parishes, and what not, here in England. Egad! if a
gentleman were called upon to keep all his children, there would be no
living: no, stap my vitals! Croesus couldn't stand it."

"No, indeed," said Mr. Trippet: "you are right; and when a gentleman
marries, he is bound in honour to give up such low connections as are
useful when he is a bachelor."

"Of course; and give them up I will, when the sweet Mrs. Dripping is
mine. As for the girl, you can have her, Tom Trippet, if you take a
fancy to her; and as for the Corporal, he may be handed over to my
successor in Cutts's:--for I will have a regiment to myself, that's poz;
and to take with me such a swindling, pimping, thieving, brandy-faced
rascal as this Brock will never do. Egad! he's a disgrace to the
service. As it is, I've often a mind to have the superannuated vagabond
drummed out of the corps."

Although this resume of Mr. Brock's character and accomplishments
was very just, it came perhaps with an ill grace from Count Gustavus
Adolphus Maximilian, who had profited by all his qualities, and who
certainly would never have given this opinion of them had he known that
the door of his dining-parlour was open, and that the gallant Corporal,
who was in the passage, could hear every syllable that fell from the
lips of his commanding officer. We shall not say, after the fashion
of the story-books, that Mr. Brock listened with a flashing eye and a
distended nostril; that his chest heaved tumultuously, and that his
hand fell down mechanically to his side, where it played with the brass
handle of his sword. Mr. Kean would have gone through most of these
bodily exercises had he been acting t