her father Sir Ulick; but this she positively
refused to agree in, and in her refusal she
was aided and abetted by the wives of all
the married officers, whose interest was
powerfully excited by the romance of the
affair. So the Colonel, like a sensible man
as he was, soon gave in, and the lovers were
married as soon as we got into barracks.
Mrs. Prendergast became at once the pet of
everybody in the regiment; and after a very
short time I lost my clerk, as Prendergast
was promoted to duties which brought him
into more immediate contact with the
Colonel."

Here, the sergeant grimly surveyed his
men, as who should say, "My boys, if you
expect to get yourselves appointed to duties
that will bring you into immediate contact
with your colonel, you'll find yourselves
confoundedly mistaken."

"A year passed away — a year, during which
the Legion suffered numberless hardships
and passed through numberless dangers—but
through hardships and dangers this high-born
Irish girl always bore herself bravely and ably
doing her duty to her husband. Prendergast
was now a sergeant, a daring soldier, and
one likely to win further promotion. He
was the Colonel's prime favourite; every
officer of the regiment spoke well of him;
and his wife and her baby— for she had a
little son of a month old — were adored by all
the ladies.

"But theirs, like all other human happiness,
was not without a cloud. The great battle
on the fifth of May, eighteen hundred and
thirty-six, had been fought, the Carlists had
been driven back, and the Legion was lying
encamped outside the walls of San Sebastian.
The Tenth Munster lay at the extreme verge
of the line; and next to us was a Scotch
regiment, with the men and officers of which
we soon became very friendly. Among these
officers, the most frequent and the most
welcome in our lines was a Captain Evan
Hepburn: a tall, dashing, high-spirited fellow,
whose father was a laird of one of the Western
isles, and who, after having been expelled
from Sandhurst, rusticated at Cambridge,
and forbidden the paternal roof, had obtained
a commission in the Legion, and had already
rendered himself conspicuous — not less by his
reckless audacity, than by the extraordinary
attachment exhibited towards him by a
gigantic Highland piper, serving with the
regiment, whom he had chosen as his
body servant, and who, indeed, was scarcely
ever absent from his side. Closely attended
by Archy Ledingham, as the piper was
called, Captain Hepburn was a daily visitor
in our lines, friendly with the officers, genial
with the men, and passing no one without a
kind word or glance; but it soon began to be
noticed that he invariably halted for some
little time at Prendergast's tent, into which
he passed, while the Highlander remained
keeping watch outside. These visits
constantly paid to a very pretty woman,
invariably during the absence of her husband on
regimental duties, of course soon became the
subject of comment among the scandalmongers:
who began to mention Mrs. Prendergast's
name, at first with smiles, and then
with scorn: and who would probably have
proceeded further, in; their amiable self-imposed
task, when an event occurred which
effectually silenced them.

"One morning (the particulars were not
generally known for some time, but they
oozed out, as all secrets will): one morning,
Mrs. Prendergast made her way to our
Colonel's tent, and, flinging herself on her
knees before him, implored his protection
from the persecution to which she was
exposed by Captain Hepburn, and of which she
dared not tell her husband. That morning,
she said, she had told him she should seek
the protection of the Colonel, and he had left
her tent vowing vengeance. The kind old
Colonel raised her from the ground, comforted
her in the best manner he could, told her she
need fear no further molestation, and
dismissed her trembling, but re-assured; then,
after consulting with two or three
intimate friends, he despatched a strong letter
to the commanding officer of Hepburn's
regiment.

"Within an hour's time from the despatch
of the letter, Colonel Saunderson entered our
lines, and sought an interview with our
Colonel, in which he stated that he keenly
felt the disgrace which Captain Hepburn
had brought upon his regiment, not only by
his persecution of Mrs. Prendergast, but by
his indulgence in gambling, and the ruin he
had entailed upon some of his junior officers.
Colonel Saunderson added, that he had
on the previous day severely lectured
Hepburn for his conduct, and that on the receipt
of this fresh complaint he had again sent for
him; but, that the orderly who bore his
message had utterly failed in delivering it, for
neither Hepburn nor his Highland follower
was to be found.

"The thought that they had deserted — "

Here the sergeant, checked himself in a
very perceptible start, eyed his five men (and
especially the ambitious man), with an
attentive countenance, and then, sternly shaking
his head, looked with an absent air at the
fire, as if he saw a military execution going
on among the live coals — say, for example, a
deserter being shot.

"The thought," said the Irishman, who
followed this with his quick eyes, and smiled;
" the thought that they had deserted to the
Carlists at once struck all who heard the
story, and the confirmation of the idea was
not long wanting. That night, a company of
the Tenth Munsters, of which I was in command,
and a company of the Scotch regiment,
were told off to perform outlying picket duty,
that is, to form our foremost cordon of
sentries, nearest to the enemy's lines. It was a