theatre. Thus,
for a brief interval, I was restored to favour; but, whenever fickle
fortune deigned to smile upon me, some untoward circumstance was sure to
happen, and nip the fair promise in its bud. I had scarcely got the
stick of office into my hands, before I cut so many capers with it, that
I soon capered myself back to the dignity and full rank of fifer, was
deprived of my staff of office, and, of what I considered even much
worse, my liberty. My name was again exhibited to public gaze at the
drawbridge-gate, for seven long days, during which I was obliged to kick
my heels along the ramparts, contenting myself with contemplating the
distant prospect. One day I effaced my name from the list of the
confined, unobserved by the sentinel; but in this I was detected by the
sergeant, for which I had the felicity of attending drill three times
a-day with my musket reversed and my coat turned inside out;[5] and, in
this manner, for several hours each day I was obliged to comply with the
mandates of a little bandy-legged drill-sergeant, who did not fail to
enforce his authority and dignity in a manner by no means agreeable to
my feelings, especially to those of my back. This I could bear well
enough: indeed, I was obliged to bear it; but my turned coat seemed to
hang upon me like some badge of ignominy, and I imagined that every eye
was upon me. Had I been a depraved and callous-hearted youth, this
method of disgracing me would have only served to harden me in vice; and
I cannot deny, that at this treatment I felt the seeds of disobedience
rankling in my heart, and had almost resolved within my mind, that the
next time I was doomed to wear this garb of infamy, it should be for a
crime worthy of such disgrace. I found my disposition soured, and the
spark of revenge kindling in my bosom; and I am persuaded that this
method of disgracing youth, instead of eradicating vice, serves only to
nurture those rancorous feelings which irritation, arising from a sense
of degradation, is sure to excite, and which, in the young mind, might,
by a more judicious and conciliatory treatment, be either totally
repressed in their birth, or at least easily extinguished.

Our regiment being now ordered to prepare for embarkation for
Portsmouth, my garb of disgrace was thrown off, and I embarked as
sprightly as any, having been disgraced in this way for a misdemeanour
that would scarcely have disgraced a schoolboy. We reached our old
barracks at