Worse luck! I never drew a sixpence from
Leadenhall Street in my life; but you're not
mistaken in imagining I've smelt powder.
When a young man I was out with gallant
old Evans in the Spanish Legion."

"Couldn't have served under a better
man, sir," sententiously rejoined the sergeant;
"I saw a deal of him in the Crimea. And
you was in Spain, was you, sir? Some rum
starts there was in Spain?"

"There were certainly some curious
occurrences," replied the Irishman, who by this
time had taken off his dripping overcoat,
approached the fire, and sat himself down in
front of it among the recruits. "Some
curious phases of camp life which you regulars
never dream of. Often and often I wonder
what Hyde Park or Dublin Garrison
soldiers would have done if they'd been
placed in the fixes we were compelled to
submit to. Come, we've got a couple of
hours to wait, and nothing to do, so if these
two gentlemen " (with a bow to the clerk
and to me) "don't object, I'll tell you a
story of the Legion which may, perhaps,
interest you and these five embryo Wellingtons
here."

The prospect of any amusement in such a
situation was too pleasant to be denied, so
we joyfully acquiesced, and our new friend,
after clearing his throat, told us the following
true story:

"When General Evans was selected by the
Spanish Government to bring a legion of
British subjects to fight the cause of Isabella
Secunda against her most unnatural uncle,
Don Carlos, I had the honour to belong to
the Tenth Munster Light Infantry, and to
serve under the orders of Colonel Maurice
O'Connell, a near relative of the then popular
agitator. The Tenth was raised, as the
Yankees say, in the wilds of Kerry, and
nearly seven hundred stalwart peasants, bred
and born in what they loved to call the
"O'Connell country," were mustered in Cork
Barracks, previous to their departure for the
seat of war. Many of these men's relations
followed them from their mountain homes
and remained with them to the very moment
of embarkation; and as I had been selected
by the Colonel to pay the privates certain
instalments of their bounty-money, and to
perform other acts of duty that brought me
into constant intercourse with them all, I
became acquainted with many eventful
histories. Among my other duties, I had to keep
a strict account of the disposal of the money
given to me for distribution; and as I was
allowed the services of a clerk, I selected from
among the soldiers a young man of superior
manners and address, named George Prendergast,
whose history, as gleaned from his comrades,
had much interested me. Prendergast
was the son of a widow, in Dublin, who gave
him the best education her small means could
afford, by which he profited so well, that
he became a pupil in a training-school from
which teachers in the national schools of
Ireland are selected, and was eventually
appointed to take charge of an important school
on the beautiful domain of Sir Ulick Mastragh,
in Kerry. Here, by attention to
his duties and admirable behaviour, he soon
became a special favourite. He was the welcome
guest of all the respectable farmers in
the neighbourhood; even the great Sir Ulick
himself, a man endowed with the stiffest
family pride, was more than usually
condescending to the schoolmaster."

The sergeant took his opportunity of giving
a loud "Hem!" to express attention, and
folded his arms. Upon which the most
ambitious of the five recruits folded his
arms.

"Devoted to his calling, Prendergast worked
with an energy and a good-will hitherto
unknown among people of his class; and his
scholars, from being semi-civilised dolts,
began to astonish the neighbourhood by their
proficiency in various branches of learning,
the acquirement of which was looked upon
as next to marvellous. The fame of Sir
Ulick's school was bruited throughout the
surrounding parishes. Periodical examinations
were established; and it became the fasion
among the ladies of the neighoubrhood to
ask for permission to undertake the lighter
branches of education among the scholars.
Foremost among the aspirants for this
honour were the three daughters of Sir Ulick
Mastragh; the eldest, a tall, dashing brunette
of two-and-twenty, who was engaged
to an officer then quartered with his regiment
in England; the second, an earnest, trusting,
enthusiastic girl of twenty; the third, a
merry little chatterbox of eighteen. All
these young ladies were constant in their
attendance at the school; but the second
girl, Eleanor, seemed the most interested
in the welfare of the children, and, it must
be avowed, of their instructor. She was
better educated, better read, had more appreciation
of the refined pleasures of literature
and art than the generality of girls brought up
in a rural Irish district; and she would turn
with delight from the inanities of the military
officers quartered in the neighbourhood, and
from the sporting talk of the squires, to the
calm, rational conversation, and respectful yet
earnest address of the young schoolmaster.
The upshot of this may be easily guessed—
they fell in love with each other. The visits to
the schoolhouse were redoubled, and for some
months the course of their true love ran
smoothly enough. At length the rumours of
this attachment, which had been floating about
the neighbourhood, and which, it is said,
were originated by certain elderly damsels
who themselves had hoped to make an impression
on Prendergast; these rumours, I say,
reached Sir Ulick's ears. The result may, in
the beautiful language of the newspapers, be
more easily imagined than described; the
proudest landowner in Kerry was not likely