igns of recognition.
'It hurts my feelings,' said he, 'to be obliged to commune with such
wretches; but the stern necessities of war demand men continually, and
hence these recruiters whom you see market in human flesh. They get
five-and-twenty dollars from our Government for every man they bring
in. For fine men--for men like you,' he added, laughing, 'we would go as
high as a hundred. In the old King's time we would have given a thousand
for you, when he had his giant regiment that our present monarch
disbanded.'
'I knew one of them,' said I, 'who served with you: we used to call him
Morgan Prussia.'
'Indeed; and who was this Morgan Prussia?'
'Why, a huge grenadier of ours, who was somehow snapped up in Hanover by
some of your recruiters.'
'The rascals!' said my friend: 'and did they dare take an Englishman?'
''Faith this was an Irishman, and a great deal too sharp for them;
as you shall hear. Morgan was taken, then, and drafted into the giant
guard, and was the biggest man almost among all the giants there. Many
of these monsters used to complain of their life, and their caning, and
their long drills, and their small pay; but Morgan was not one of the
grumblers. "It's a deal better," said he, "to get fat here in Berlin,
than to starve in rags in Tipperary!"'
'Where is Tipperary?' asked my companion.
'That is exactly what Morgan's friends asked him. It is a beautiful
district in Ireland, the capital of which is the magnificent city of
Clonmel: a city, let me tell you, sir, only inferior to Dublin and
London, and far more sumptuous than any on the Continent. Well, Morgan
said that his birthplace was near that city, and the only thing which
caused him unhappiness, in his present situation, was the thought that
his brothers were still starving at home, when they might be so much
better off in His Majesty's service.
'"'Faith," says Morgan to the sergeant, to whom he imparted the
information, "it's my brother Bin that would make the fine sergeant of
the guards, entirely!"
'"Is Ben as tall as you are?" asked the sergeant.
'"As tall as ME, is it? Why, man, I'm the shortest of my family! There's
six more of us, but Bin's the biggest of all. Oh! out and out the
biggest. Seven feet in his stockin-FUT, as sure as my name's Morgan!"
'"Can't we send and fetch them over, these brothers of yours?"
'"Not you. Ever since I was seduced by one of you gentlemen of the cane,
they've a mortal aversion to all se
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