and blankets, so that when they
came in the morning the points of attack were as invulnerable as ever. In
despair they buried both in one grave--the corporal undermost--without
further efforts to attain a decent depth. As to six feet, it was quite
unfathomable. They heaped all the stones they could loosen over the bodies,
and the chaplain read prayers at last, after a 'week's preparation' and
suspense, 'snow to snow, and ice to ice.' That night a herd of wolves
came prowling by, and carried the corporal and drummer along with them.
The fifer--an Irish rascal--was laughing heartily the whole week; and it
was he set up the corporal's claim to the deep grave, to have his joke out.
When all was over, the sergeant reported him to me, for bragging 'that he
could have buried them six feet deep himself in two hours, and have
covered them up so _nately_ after, that the devil couldn't stick a tooth
in them; but he had kept the secret to be revenged of the corporal, who
had 'listed him one day,' and of the drummer who had 'flogged him.'
'Please your honour,' said he, when called before me, 'I was _sartain_ you
wished to find work for us this _cowld_ weather, and it wouldn't become
_me_ to say what your honour knew as well as myself--that a rousing fire
would soften any frost; and sure, only I know you compassionated the poor
starving wolves, I'd have thrown a few buckets of water through the
grave-stones, and clinched 'em as tight as the bars of Newgate.'"

The fertilizing properties of an individual in the _chemical_ stage of his
existence, seem only to have been fully recognised since the memorable
battle of Waterloo; the fields of which now annually wave with luxuriant
corn-crops, unequalled in the annals of "the old prize-fighting ground of
Flanders." I have no doubt, however, that the cerealia of _La Belle
Alliance_ would have been much more nutritive if the top-dressing which
the plain received during the three days of June, 1815, had not been
robbed of its stamina by London dentists, who carried off the soldiers'
teeth in hogsheads; and by Yorkshire bone-grubbers, who freighted several
transports with the skeletons of regiments of troopers, as well as
troop-horses, to be ground to dust in Kingston-upon-Hull, and drilled with
turnip seed in the chalky districts of the North and West Ridings of
Yorkshire. The corn of Waterloo is thus cheated of its phosphate of lime;
but the spirits of Cyrus the Great and Numa the Wise, who had