is considered that a look or a nod is sufficient
at times to convey news)—a conversation is
easily carried on when picking oakum, owing
to the stooping position of the prisoners, which
brings their heads close together. Again at
night there is little to prevent them speaking
to each other. The few weeks I was in
prison I was in nearly all the wards at one
time or other, and had an opportunity of
hearing many a tale of their adventures, and
nearly all I spoke to had been tried for
desertion. One, an old soldier, related to me
what seemed, if true, a rather hard case. His
Regiment was at Birmingham on duty, the
day her Majesty visited that town. The same
night they had to parade at the Railway Station
and proceed to Aldershot. A great many
were absent, this man amongst the others.
He got drunk, and the following morning
went to Coventry where his friends were,
and got money from them to pay his fare to
Aldershot. On arriving there he went to
the Guard Room and surrendered himself a
prisoner—he having been in all three days
absent. Now is the curious part of the
story. He was tried by a District Court
Martial for desertion, found Guilty, and sentenced
to six months' Imprisonment. He
was certainly a bad character, having been
tried ten or twelve times. Still in my opinion
he was not Guilty of the crime laid to his
charge, which instead of desertion ought to
have been—Absence without leave: but I
doubt the truth of this. Another man was
tried, and received six months' imprisonment.
After the Court Martial was read, the Commg.
Officer abused him in front of the Regiment,
saying that he was a good-for-nothing fellow,
a bad soldier, &c. The prisoner being a
passionate man, and thinking that he did not
deserve this—recalling to his mind as well,
that at the Battle of Inkerman he had
assisted to carry this very Colonel, when
wounded, off the field—he told me that
thinking all this, and that the reproach was
unmerited, he so far forgot himself, as to
take his highlow off and throw it at his
Commanding Officer, it was thrown without
aim, and struck the Adjutant on the thigh.
For this he was tried by a General Court
Martial, and sentenced to four years' penal
servitude, this to commence at the expiration
of the six months, already awarded. I
asked him if he had made any mention of
the provocation he had received, at the time
he was tried, but he said that he had not,
although he made a report of it afterwards
while in prison to a Visitor, he heard
no more about it however, and I expect it
was too late.

What astonished me then, and does now,
is the risk, fatigue, and trouble some would
undergo to desert. Without money or clothes,
they would boldly set out to walk to London,
and in nine cases out of ten would succeed;
although this place is surrounded with
provosts, very few are taken attempting to
desert—it is after getting safe away, and
being settled at home, that some one informs
the police, probably their own friends who
get tired of their society. In one instance at
Worcester a lad's mother informed on him,
and I know of one of the ——Hussars, a
soft looking fellow, with his head on one side,
who I met along with his mother in London.
They were going to Hounslow, where the old
lady gave him up as a deserter to his Regiment.

A laughing little fellow of the East Kent
Militia, a bricklayer by trade, took it into his
head to desert one Sunday evening, through
meeting with an old man, a hawker of nuts,
&c., who offered to buy his greatcoat of him.
A bargain was made for four shillings, it was
a new coat, and away he started in the direction
of Guildford, stopping and listening when
he heard any one coming, hiding until they
passed, and then on again, running until out
of breath when the road was clear. Being
afraid to go through Guildford, he made
across the fields, thinking to reach the London
road on the other side of the town. This
part of the country was quite unknown to
him, but after a long time he got to the high-road;
thinking all was right now, and having
only the dread of what lay behind, he walked
and ran, ran and walked, until daylight. All
this time he was afraid to make any inquiries,
but he thought he must have gone over
twenty miles; he at last mustered courage to
ask a cottager who was standing at his door,
the distance from London. Greatly to his
astonishment and dismay he learnt that he
was on the road and nigh to Portsmouth,
having been travelling all night in quite the
contrary direction to where he wished to go.
He was now advised to strike across the
fields, and get on to the Brighton road, the
man seeing what he was, wished him good
bye and God speed. He saw no one after
this until he came to a public-house on the
main road, where some haymakers were
standing. As they seemed to eye him closely
coming along, he determined to go boldly up
and throw himself on their generosity. He
told his tale to them, how he had deserted,
the mistake he made in coming the wrong
road; it was all right, he had got among
some of the good sort; they first filled his
belly, then rigged him out, one gave him a
pair of trousers, another a jacket, and so on,
the landlord supplying a billy-cock. Nothing
he had was of any service to them, so he
could make no return; certainly one took his
waistbelt to make a razor strop of.

He had now a good rest until the following
morning, when he started with a full belly,
and feeling quite another man, to what
he done the day before, he pushed on to
Brighton, from there to Maidstone, and to
Canterbury, his native place. Not considering
it safe to stop there he went to Sittingbourne,
and from there to Milton, where he
got employment, and was rubbing along very