wish you, my dear General," said the young nobleman; and once more
bidding his guest good-night, he shook him by the hand, and withdrew.

The General once more looked round him, and internally congratulating
himself on his return to peaceful life, the comforts of which were
endeared by the recollection of the hardships and dangers he had lately
sustained, undressed himself, and prepared for a luxurious night's rest.

Here, contrary to the custom of this species of tale, we leave the
General in possession of his apartment until the next morning.

The company assembled for breakfast at an early hour, but without the
appearance of General Browne, who seemed the guest that Lord Woodville
was desirous of honouring above all whom his hospitality had assembled
around him. He more than once expressed surprise at the General's
absence, and at length sent a servant to make inquiry after him. The
man brought back information that General Browne had been walking abroad
since an early hour of the morning, in defiance of the weather, which
was misty and ungenial.

"The custom of a soldier," said the young nobleman to his friends. "Many
of them acquire habitual vigilance, and cannot sleep after the early
hour at which their duty usually commands them to be alert."

Yet the explanation which Lord Woodville thus offered to the company
seemed hardly satisfactory to his own mind, and it was in a fit of
silence and abstraction that he waited the return of the General. It
took place near an hour after the breakfast bell had rung. He looked
fatigued and feverish. His hair, the powdering and arrangement of which
was at this time one of the most important occupations of a man's whole
day, and marked his fashion as much as in the present time the tying of
a cravat, or the want of one, was dishevelled, uncurled, void of
powder, and dank with dew. His clothes were huddled on with a careless
negligence, remarkable in a military man, whose real or supposed duties
are usually held to include some attention to the toilet; and his looks
were haggard and ghastly in a peculiar degree.

"So you have stolen a march upon us this morning, my dear General," said
Lord Woodville; "or you have not found your bed so much to your mind as
I had hoped and you seemed to expect. How did you rest last night?"

"Oh, excellently well! remarkably well! never better in my life," said
General Browne rapidly, and yet with an air of embarrassment which
was obvious to h