and
better than this, but the grave has closed over him, as over the gallant
Welshman of yore; there are now but two that remember him--the one who
bore him, and the being who was nurtured at the same breast. He was
taken, and I was left!--Truly, the ways of Providence are inscrutable.

'You seem to be very comfortable, John,' said I, looking around the room
and at the various objects which I have described above: 'you have a good
roof over your head, and have all your things about you.'

'Yes, I am very comfortable, George, in many respects; I am, moreover,
independent, and feel myself a man for the first time in my
life--independent, did I say?--that's not the word, I am something much
higher than that; here am I, not sixteen yet, a person in authority, like
the centurion in the book there, with twenty Englishmen under me, worth a
whole legion of his men, and that fine fellow Bagg to wait upon me, and
take my orders. Oh! these last six weeks have passed like hours of
heaven.'

'But your time must frequently hang heavy on your hands; this is a
strange wild place, and you must be very solitary?'

'I am never solitary; I have, as you see, all my things about me, and
there is plenty of company below stairs. Not that I mix with the
soldiers; if I did, good-bye to my authority; but when I am alone I can
hear all their discourse through the planks, and I often laugh to myself
at the funny things they say.'

'And have you any acquaintance here?'

'The very best; much better than the Colonel and the rest, at their grand
Templemore; I had never so many in my whole life before. One has just
left me, a gentleman who lives at a distance across the bog; he comes to
talk with me about Greek, and the _Odyssey_, for he is a very learned
man, and understands the old Irish, and various other strange languages.
He has had a dispute with Bagg. On hearing his name, he called him to
him, and, after looking at him for some time with great curiosity, said
that he was sure he was a Dane. Bagg, however, took the compliment in
dudgeon, and said that he was no more a Dane than himself, but a
true-born Englishman, and a sergeant of six years' standing.'

'And what other acquaintance have you?'

'All kinds; the whole neighbourhood can't make enough of me. Amongst
others there's the clergyman of the parish and his family; such a
venerable old man, such fine sons and daughters! I am treated by them
like a son and a brother--I might