very well taught at letter-learning, and I stayed
there about three years. Father then took me
to work. I worked till I was about fourteen
along o' father. At fourteen I worked for
myself, and rented my own lodgings; through
discord at home.

About seventeen I got acquainted with a
young woman, a blacksmith's daughter. We
went on very well till I was about nineteen,
but it was very disagreeable to her father, and
he and her people so druv me about that at last
I 'listed for a soldier in the Oxfordshire Militia.

"When I went to jine the regiment, she went
along wi' me to Oxford. As we was
walking down the street, her father got off of
a chaise, and she said, "There is my father: I
must leave you for the present." He thought
I wanted to take her away with me, but I
wouldn't have done it, I loved her so. "When
I got back to my lodgings, the landlady said,
"Why, here has been a young woman inquiring
for you."

I never saw her again.

"When the militia left Oxford we went to
Bristol. We stayed there six months, and then
went to Portsmouth.

Whilst we lay at Portsmouth, I 'listed into the
95th Rifles, now called the Rifle Brigade. Our
colonel then was Colonel Cameron. What a
man he was! The captain of my company
was Sir James Fullerton. A most excellent
man he was. Our men would go through fire
and water to serve him. He was made brevet-
colonel for his bravery on the plains of Waterloo.

On leaving Portsmouth we went to Shorncliffe
in Kent, a beautiful spot. We stayed
there, in temporary barracks, and larnt our
discipline, and in November we was called upon to
accompany the Prince of Orange to Holland.

THE SOLDIER.

We landed in Holland at a place called Albertsluys.
The French had a battery at Flushing,
and they peppered us at landing. We marched
to a village about five miles distant, and the
next day was called upon to form the outpickets
against Bergen-op-Zoom. On Christmas-eve,
1814, we lay under the walls, and thought the
storming was going to take place, but it did
not. It was very wet, and we was afraid to
speak. We retreated three leagues that night,
and went to Rozendaal. We stayed at Oudenbosch
till the Frenchmen came out of Rozendaal,
and then we was about Antwerp till the
13th of January. On the 13th of January we
drove the French pickets, who were plundering
in the neighbourhood, back into Antwerp. We
filled a church at Maxham, two miles from
Antwerp, full of prisoners. We took Antwerp after
the second assault. Some of the ships in the
Scheldt hoisted Boney's colours; but our general
went out, and he told 'em that if they didn't
haul 'em down, he'd put 'em to the bottom.

At Antwerp we stayed for about a month,
and then marched to Mechlin, where we stayed
some time—about nine days—and marched into
Brussels on the 1st of May, at three o'clock in
the morning. We afterwards marched back
some way towards Antwerp; but the French
came down unawares on the 16th of June. Our
officers' head-quarters were in Brussels. We
had gone out to target practice, giving our
shirts to the women to wash, and as soon as we
had gone out, the route came for us to go to
Waterloo. We soon heard cannonading. Our
baggage got entangled. We lay down for two
hours in a grinsard close, and then had our
orders to fall in. General Adams—a young
general he was—come to us with his arm
slinged up. "Come on, my boys," he said;
"We shall be at it in less than twelve hours."

We continued our march till about four
o'clock on the 17th, and then we were in sight
of Waterloo plains. A wonderful sight it was!
We could hear the report of cannon all about.
We was then ordered into a gentleman's
paddock. There we killed two cows—killed 'em
and ate 'em in two hours. We was then moved
on to the forest part of the plains. I remember
seeing the Duke of Wellington ride close by us.
The Prince of Orange had command of the
Belgian troops—they was of little use, they was
—and as he was a-drawing them up near the
wood for shelter, the Duke says, "Do you know
who is in the wood? The French. Your men
will all be cut to pieces before the morning."
We made a move, and marched out into the
rye-fields. They was just browning for harvest.
It rained in torrents that night; our rifles was
half full.

The sun rose beautiful on the eighteenth.
We could see the French on a rising bit of
ground—a wonderful number of 'em. I heard
one of our captains say, "There's a precious lot
of 'em; but damn 'em, we shall beat 'em." He
didn't get hurt; but his cap was riddled through
and through before night.

Our rifles formed the outpost nearest to the
French. Part of us was cooking in a garden.
We emptied our salt beef and things, and was
obliged to go and jine. Our provisions had
been taken from us the day before, and we had
only one biscuit and half rations of grog in
consequence. We had orders to 'quit
ourselves like men, and then marched up into the
field. Our brigade was ordered to be at the
foot of a copse. The French was expected to
make a push down there.

I saw Boney on a white horse.

The French didn't come that way, however,
and we was called away, after the action had
begun, to extend in skirmishing order to protect
the squares. Lord Hill led the Light Brigade
up three times within pistol-shot of Boney's
platform, from which he gave signals by telegraft.
The (aide-de-camp) came to us with orders to
take a piece of artillery belonging to the French
which had done great damage to us.

"Move on, men," he said.

"We took it; but they gave us a shower of
grape, and many of our men was killed. All
our officers was wounded; and we was obliged
to borrow one to lead us out of the field. But,
thank God, I escaped.