all, low and anxious whispers trembled. Now shone the first gleams of armour through the open gates.-Scattered flowers and garlands flew to meet them; for every tree had paid its tribute; every garden had granted a share from its variegated treasures. A lovely child, stationed in a high bow-window, raised its round white arms on high, and receiving from its weeping, turned-away mother, a coronet of leaves, threw it down among the passing troops beneath. A lancer, who happened to be the first to notice this occurrence, good-humouredly took up the wreath on his lance, while he playfully nodded to the fair little angel above. He had his eyes still directed in this manner, when his commanding officer, riding on, exclaimed, “Ha! Wolfe!-a cypress wreath! How came you by such a thing -it may be thought an unlucky omen!" Wolfe put the crown on his right arm, however, and not without some discomposure rode on!

After a long tedious delay, employed in putting up the horses in the regimental stables, giving them water and provender, the quarter-billets at last were distributed. Wolfe, on receiving his ticket, had the mortification to perceive that it directed him to the house of a well-known rich butcher! His comrades wished him joy-rallied him on the good eating which awaited him; and profited by the opportunity of inviting themselves frequently to become his guests. He, meanwhile, took off his schako*

The square cap worn by the Prussian Lancers.

in silence, twisted the billet among its golden tassels, and twice passing his hand through his luxuriant locks, he said, not without considerable vexation, "this, forsooth, is rare luck! No doubt the rich miser is well enough known!-I heartily wish, however, that I had been quartered anywhere else!" "Ha, ha! what a silly fellow you must be !" cried a bold knowing comrade— "what is it to you, pray, if your host is a miser or a spendthrift? Only let him be rich enough-then a soldier is sure to be well off. However, you must begin with politeness and address-every thing depends on good management." "That is very true, I grant you!" said Wolfe, as he threw his knapsack over his shoulder— "but there are a set of people in the world on whom all politeness is thrown away, and who have no heart nor feeling for man nor beast. If ever I meet with a butcher's waggon in the streets, full of miserable animals tied and bundled together, and see how the poor beasts lie there over and under one another, groaning sometimes, so that it cuts one to the heart, and mark how the fellows plod on behind the cart in utter indifference-whistling perhaps all the time, I have much ado to withhold myself from falling on, and beating the scoundrels heartily! Besides, to say the truth, I have had enough of blood and slaughter, and begin to be disgusted with the whole trade!"

"Oh!" cried his laughing companions, "Wolfe cannot bear the sight of blood-thou chicken-hearted fellow !

-And when did this terror come upon thee?"-" Don't talk nonsense," replied Wolfe angrily—" in battle, when man stands against man, and besides, when there are different motives for action, (laying his hand on his iron cross), one looks neither to the right nor the left, but in a soberer mood-well then, I shall not deny it, whenever pass by a butcher's stall, and see the bloody axe, and hear (or fancy that I hear) the groans of agony, I feel inwardly, as if the fibres of my heart were torn-and therefore I do wish that I had been quartered any where else!"

I

His comrades began to laugh at him more than ever, though they did not venture it till he had gone a little way. He then looked round at them, and shook his lance, half jesting, half angry. They made faces at him in return, but soon began to disperse, and Wolfe proceeded on the road to his quarters.

He had not gone far when he found the street and the number. Already at a distance he saw a gigantic man in his shirt sleeves, standing under the door-way. His countenance of a dusky yellow complexion, was quite shaded over by coal-black bushy projecting eyebrows; the small eyes, devoid of intellect, appeared to watch the rolling vapours of a short pipe.—One hand was placed in the waistcoat-pocket, the other seemed to dance up and down the silver knots of the pipe, which rested ever and anon on his goodly person. Wolfe saluted him courteously, and, with a modest bow, showed him his billet,

VOL. I.

X

ever,

He

upon which the man squinted at him sideways, and without attending any further to his guest, he pointed, with his thumb bent backwards, to the house-at the same time adding, in a gloomy and indifferent tone-" Only go in there, sir! my people know already." Wolfe bit his lips, and entering somewhat abruptly, his sabre that rattled after him, happened to inflict a pretty sharp blow across the legs of Mein-herr John, his landlord. "What the devil in hell!" grumbled the butcher. Wolfe, howdid not allow himself to enter into any explanation or dispute, but passed on, and came into the court. found there a pale and sickly-looking girl carrying two buckets of water. Wolfe, drawing near to her, inquired if she was the servant of his landlord? The girl remained silent, and as if terrified, standing before him. She had set down the two buckets on the ground, and looked on him with large rayless eyes unsteadily. Her complexion seemed always to become more pale, till she resembled a marble statue more than an animated being. Meanwhile, as Wolfe renewed his question, she let her head sink upon her breast, and taking up the buckets again, she said, with her eyes fixed on a short flight of steps that led by a servant's door into the house, "Come up here; and immediately at the first door on the right hand you will find your chamber."

Wolfe looked after her a while quite lost in thought, then climbed up the narrow stairs, and found all as she had told him. The room was small and dark; the air op

pressive and suffocating. From the rough smoky walls large pieces of the lime had fallen away, and here and there were scraps of writing, initials, and figures of men and women, and beasts' heads, drawn with pieces of coal or a burnt stick. Right opposite to the half-blinded window stood a miserable bed; and near it he saw a red rusty nail, sticking a long way out of the walls. Wolfe hung his cypress crown upon it; placed his lance and sabre in a corner; threw his knapsack upon the table, and more than once, grumbling within his teeth, "What lubberly fellows these rich misers are!" he kicked aside two broken stools, went and leaned out of the window, and by degrees whistled his anger away.

Over the court and neighbouring buildings was visible a fine large garden, which "looked out," fresh and fragrant through the bluish-grey atmosphere of the town. There dark avenues twined their branches on high, in arches like those of a Gothic cathedral over the solitary places; golden sun-flowers waved on their limber stalks over long labyrinths of red and white roses; walks and thickets surrounded the whole. There, all was silent; the rich luxuriance of the domain seemed like that of an enchanted wood, that no mortal foot had ever violated. Wolfe surveyed this garden with extraordinary pleasure, and would almost have given the world for the privilege of walking through a region of so much beauty and stillness; but however this might be, he became quite recon