that he was not quite so much his own master.
A ploughboy is not, perhaps, the most
independent person in creation; and if he runs
away from one employer, must find another,
or starve: but he seems to have a kind of
choice, little as the choice may be worth.
The soldier, on the other hand, who longs for
liberty, and helps himself to it, has no fresh
master to seek; he is quite as liable to starve,
and what is worst of all, he stands the chance
—if he is caught, which he generally is—of a
pretty liberal allowance of punishment. On
this subject we may observe, that the first time
the Articles of War were read, after Maurice
joined the regiment, he gave himself up for
lost; he had groped his way, he thought,
into a country covered with pit-falls, which
threatened to entrap him at every turn. As
paragraph after paragraph was thundered
forth in the sonorous tones of the adjutant,
he imagined that he could scarcely scratch
his head in the ranks without being liable to
"suffer DEATH, or such other punishment as
by a general Court-martial shall be awarded"
—the latter alternative sounding as formidable
in his ears as death itself; and it was a
long time before he acquired a precise
knowledge of what the crimes were, which were
thus severely visited.

But ''use lessens marvel;" and as, by
degrees, he found that hanging, drawing, and
quartering, were not things of every day
occurrence in the regiment; that his
company was not decimated hourly; and that the
worst which befel his comrades for ordinary
faults, (and there were rarely any other
committed), was a little extra drill, a few days
confinement to barracks, and some twenty-
four hours seclusion in the "Black Hole,"
(the name of which, however, he could never
abide); he plucked up heart, and resolved to
take his chance of what might befal. Having
adopted this view of the case, his original
terror subsided, and he came to look
cheerfully on his new position, though he had
made a slight mistake in the beginning, in
believing every word that fell from the lying
lips of Sergeant Pike, a gentleman whose
appetite for recruits was as great as that of
his scaly namesake for every description of
bait.

BITS OF LIFE IN MUNICH.
CHRISTMAS.

December I5th. Last evening I heard the bell
tolling from the ruinous tower of a desolate-
looking old church in the old part of the city;
and as I saw numbers of people entering the
church, of course I went in also. I went in at
a side door and found myself at the side of the
high altar. A train of priests in their crimson
and gold-embroidered robes, and little
choristers in their white garments, and a number
of men in black, each bearing a lighted taper
in his hand, were just passing down the aisle.
The church is very large and very gloomy;
and it was almost twilight: crowds of people
stood and knelt in the gloom, telling as dark
Rembrandt masses of shadow. The one grand
point of light was a side altar—one blaze of
crimson satin drapery and burning tapers which
ascended in long rows out of massive silver
candlesticks. The men in black extinguished
their tapers; the priests knelt before the
altar; the people bowed themselves. It was
more like a Rembrandt effect, than anything
I ever saw in nature before. Those singular
groups of the crowd, lost in the gloom and
vastness of the church; that brilliant focus of
light, with lesser masses of light, here and
there diffusing itself through the picture;
light catching upon the shaft of a tall candlestick
in the foreground, upon an upturned
white face. It was a wonderful scene
altogether, and the responses of the multitude
most solemn in the gloom.

On going out, I looked into a side chapel,
where I perceived a crowd. There, decked out
with fir-trees, was a curious erection of small
cottages in the Tyrolean style; and before
these cottages stood a group of large dolls
dressed up in remarkably gay draperies.
This group represented the arrival of Mary
and Joseph at Bethlehem; Mary and Joseph
in the dresses of pilgrims, with huge pilgrim
hats on, and tall staves in their hands: the
ass, with panniers containing Joseph's axe
and carpenter's tools, following them; a man
and woman in modern costume, with very
mournful countenances, receive them, standing
upon a very green carpet, representing turf,
while cattle are grazing round them.

I understand that a series of these scenes
(which are common, at the same time of the
year, in Italy) will be thus exhibited to
admiring crowds, until Christmas; there will
be, no doubt, the adoration of the Magi, the
announcement to the Shepherds, &c. The
crowd seemed very much edified; and a priest
stood with a money-box in his hand, ready to
receive alms.

26th. On the Sunday before Christmas
Eve, was held what is called in the Munich
dialect, the "Christ-Kindle-Dult" that is, the
Little Christ-child Fair. The fair commenced
at noon on Sunday; and, sinner that I am,
I went and bought my little Christmas
presents on that day, which presents, be it
remarked, have given such hearty satisfaction,
that it was quite a delight; and when I saw
poor dear old Fräulein Sänchen crying and
kissing my hand with surprise and joy, I
longed to have been made of money, that
I might have given a present to everybody.

How pretty the fair looked that bright,
frosty Sunday noon! but still prettier on the
Monday evening, when all was lighted up.
Madame Thekla, with her face tied up in a
large white handkerchief, in their German
fashion, to prevent toothache, was so good as to
accompany me. She looked rather a funny
figure; and I know certain people who would
not have walked down Regent Street with