was ordered from Ireland to the latter
garrison, where he passed two years in the
monotony of garrison life. Neither at the
dépôt in Ireland, nor with the regiment
in Malta, was the young officer ever
allowed to live out of barracks. At all
times and in all localities, he had to
subscribe to the regimental mess, and was obliged
to dine at it every day of his life, unless he
could show good reason, from sickness or from
other engagements. From no general
parade of any kind could he absent himself.
He was not only obliged to know the
names of every man in the company to
which he belonged; but was frequently
questioned respecting their individual
habits, tempers, and conduct. From Malta,
the regiment was sent for three years
to the West Indies; where sickness, and
the temptation of cheap rum, killed the men
by scores, obliged the officers to be more
careful and more constant than ever in looking
after them, and exposed their own constitutions
to perils which often ended in death.
Although Snob did not die, he suffered
severely from yellow fever. He tried to obtain
leave to return home for a time; but there
were too many of his brother officers who
had been victims to the climate absent, to allow
of his doing so, and he consoled himself with
the likelihood of his corps being speedily
moved to Canada. This change of station
was however delayed for some time. When at
last it took place, the regiment landed at
Quebec a mere skeleton—a fragment of its
former strength. By this time Snob had
obtained the rank of lieutenant; in other
words, he had, after five years of colonial
duty (three of which were spent in a most
deadly climate) risen to the rank which
Nob had acquired in the guards by virtue
of his very first commission.

The regiment was quartered during three
years and a half in Canada. For a short
time after reaching that country, the
novelty, together with the advantages
which even the extreme cold of North
America had over the climate of the West
Indies, rendered the change pleasing. But
all colonies are much the same to the soldier.
Unless the colonist be settled down, and
has the occupation of watching either the
increasing advantages of his family, his
property, or both; or the anxiety of seeing
his plans and schemes for advancement fail,
the demon monotony enters into his mind,
and drives from it every other thought.
Canada is perhaps the least objectionable of
any foreign station which English troops
have to garrison; but that is not saying much.
Skating, sleighing, moose-deer shooting, and
excursions into the States, serve for a time to
dispel ennui; but it leaves the victim only
for a season, to return with greater force
when the temporary excitement has passed
away.

After three years and a half spent in the
garrisons of Quebec, Montreal, and Toronto,
Snob's regiment was ordered home. Snob
had by this time been nine years in the army;
upwards of eight on foreign service. Like
every man in the regiment, from the grey-
headed colonel to the youngest drum-boy, he
looked forward with delight to the long promised
tour of home duty. The corps reached
England; but little or no leave of absence
could be given to officers. It was the drill
season, and the men had to be worked up
to what the general, commanding the
district in which the regiment was stationed,
deemed the proper proficiency of soldier-like
training. The number of men the corps
had lost in Barbadoes had been but slowly
replaced by recruits: these recruits had
not worked together much in a body, and
the whole regiment had to relearn those
brigade movements which they had found
but few opportunities of practising since they
left Malta. All this prevented officers getting
anything beyond very short leave of absence
to visit their friends. Nor was the corps kept
long in one station. Six months after coming
home, they were sent from the south of
England to the extreme north; there, broken
up into detachments, and sent to various
small country quarters. For three months
they were brought together in one of the
large manufacturing towns, then scattered
for a time over three counties, to be again
united and sent over to Ireland. The
expense of the return home; of a year in
Dublin, and of various movements in England,
told heavily upon the pockets of all the
officers; so much so, that, as a body, they
were almost glad when the order came to
remove to Galway—cheap quarters. Here,
broken up into small parties once more, they
assisted the police, the excisemen, and the
tithe gatherers, in performing their not very
fascinating duties.

About this time Snob obtained the rank
of captain by purchase. He had been eleven
years in the service, and had now gained the
rank which it took our friend Nob exactly
four years of London lounging to reach; so
that Nob's lieutenant-colonelcy actually dated
a year before Snob obtained the grade of
captain.

Galway is not an amusing county, and Snob
found he was not alone in wishing himself
away from the west of Ireland. Yet, taken
as a whole, the quarters were more agreeable
than many of the temporary stations, to which
the perpetual shifting of quarters whilst they
were in England subjected the officers. But
they were not fixtures in their Galway quarters.
What between changes ordered by the
higher military authorities when any disturbance
was apprehended, and the natural wish
of the colonel to have each company and
detachment of his men, in their turn, at
headquarters, neither officers nor soldiers had
much time to grow rusty for want of
motion.