twenty-two; height, five foot ten; native
place, Exmouth; which he had never been
near in his life. There was no cavalry in
Chatham when he limped over the bridge
here with half a shoe to his dusty foot, so he
enlisted into a regiment of the line, and was
glad to get drunk and forget all about it.

You are to know that this relative of
mine had gone wrong and run wild. His
heart was in the right place, but it was sealed
up. He had been betrothed to a good and
beautiful girl whom he had loved better than
she—or perhaps even he—believed; but, in
an evil hour, he had given her cause to say to
him, solemnly, "Richard, I will never marry
any other man. I will live single for your
sake, but Mary Marshall's lips;" her name
was Mary Marshall; "never address another
word to you on earth. Go, Richard! Heaven
forgive you!" This finished him. This
brought him down to Chatham. This made
him Private Richard Doubledick, with a determination
to be shot.

There was not a more dissipated and reckless
soldier in Chatham barracks, in the year
one thousand seven hundred and ninety-nine,
than Private Richard Doubledick. He associated
with the dregs of every regiment, he
was as seldom sober as he could be, and was
consistently under punishment. It became
clear to the whole barracks, that Private
Richard Doubledick would very soon be
flogged.

Now, the Captain of Richard Doubledick's
company was a young gentleman not above
five years his senior, whose eyes had an expression
in them which affected Private
Richard Doubledick in a very remarkable
way. They were bright, handsome, dark
eyes—what are called laughing eyes generally
and, when serious, rather steady than severe
—but, they were the only eyes now left in his
narrowed world that Private Richard Doubledick
could not stand. Unabashed by evil
report and punishment, defiant of everything
else and everybody else, he had but to know
that those eyes looked at him for a moment
and he felt ashamed. He could not so much
as salute Captain Taunton in the street, like
any other officer. He was reproached and
confused—troubled by the mere possibility of
the captain's looking at him. In his worst
moments he would rather turn back and go
any distance out of his way, than encounter
those two handsome, dark, bright eyes.

One day, when Private Richard Doubledick
came out of the Black hole, where he
had been passing the last eight-and-forty
hours, and in which retreat he spent a good
deal of his time, he was ordered to betake
himself to Captain Taunton's quarters. In
the stale and squalid state of a man just out
of the Black hole, he had less fancy than ever
for being seen by the captain; but, he was
not so mad yet as to disobey orders, and consequently
went up to the terrace overlooking
the parade-ground, where the officers' quarters
were: twisting and breaking in his hands as
he went along, a bit of the straw that had
formed the decorative furniture of the Black
hole.

"Come in!" cried the Captain, when he
knocked with his knuckles at the door.
Private Richard Doubledick pulled off his
cap, took a stride forward, and felt very
conscious that he stood in the light of the
dark bright eyes.

There was a silent pause. Private Richard
Doubledick had put the straw in his mouth,
and was gradually doubling it up into his
windpipe and choking himself.

"Doubledick," said the Captain, "Do you
know where you are going to?"

"To the Devil, sir?" faltered Doubledick.

"Yes," returned the Captain. "And very
fast."

Private Richard Doubledick turned the
straw of the Black hole in his mouth, and
made a miserable salute of acquiescence.

"Doubledick," said the Captain, "since I
entered his Majesty's service, a boy of seventeen,
I have been pained to see many men of
promise going that road; but, I have never
been so pained to see a man determined to
make the shameful journey, as I have been,
ever since you joined the regiment, to see
you."

Private Richard Doubledick began to find
a film stealing over the floor at which he
looked; also to find the legs of the Captain's
breakfast-table turning crooked, as if he saw
them through water.

"I am only a common soldier, sir," said he.
"It signifies very little what such a poor
brute comes to."

"You are a man," returned the Captain
with grave indignation, "of education and
superior advantages; and if you say that,
meaning what you say, you have sunk lower
than I had believed. How low that must
be, I leave you to consider: knowing what I
know of your disgrace, and seeing what
I see."

"I hope to get shot soon, sir," said Private
Richard Doubledick; "and then the regiment,
and the world together, will be rid
of me."

The legs of the table were becoming very
crooked. Doubledick, looking up to steady
his vision, met the eyes that had so strong an
influence over him. He put his hand
before his own eyes, and the breast of his
disgrace-jacket swelled as if it would fly
asunder.

"I would rather," said the young Captain,
"see this in you, Doubledick, than I
would see five thousand guineas counted out
upon this table for a gift to my good mother.
Have you a mother?"

"I am thankful to say she is dead, sir."

"If your praises," returned the Captain,
"were sounded from mouth to mouth through
the whole regiment, through the whole army,
through the whole country, you would wish