There was a subaltern with the regiment, who had come to it, and also by exchange. He too, as a fresh addition, was not approved; although he had many advantages in a good person, confident address, and large pecuniary resources. Not long emancipated from the stool of an uncle's counting-house in the City, and fancying that an accidental ten thousand (which he had unexpectedly succeeded to) with a little indirect influence at the Horse Guards were all that were required to become aristocratic at a jump, he tried the experiment; and so far as the obtaining a commission, and afterwards a lieutenancy within the shortest possible time, he had no reason to complain; and as there went whispers abroad that through female agency and a present from Storr and Mortimer's his ladder had been raised, the story obtained belief; and in a regiment the bad consequence of an unfavourable introduction is extremely difficult to be removed.

In the military family of a regiment there are little friendly alliances which bind together certain portions of the greater body politic; and hence cliques, whose tastes and ages best assimilate, commonly are seen lounging on the public walks, or collected after mess round the fire, smoking a cigar, and indulging in military gossip in turn, and in each other's barrack rooms. Mellington was unfortunate: for the young ones looked upon him as a parvenu, and consequently would not fraternize; while the old hands had set him down a puppy, and consequently from their circle he was tabooed. Mere money does nothing in a regiment. Mellington kept three horses and a private servant; although the colonel had but one, and a batman. You would meet halfa-dozen of the youngsters riding and laughing as they passed up and down the street; but even the inhabitants remarked, within a month after we arrived, that Mr. Mellington's rides were confined to the company of his groom. Probably it was a community of misfortune that first produced the intimacy; but, certain it is that Captain Saunders and Mr. Mellington became inseparable. The Indian commander reli

giously believed that the young lieutenant was fascinated with the pleasant reminiscences he dealt out by the hour; but the secret attraction that led the roué to the Captain's lodgings was confined to his pretty and wayward wife.

In a week the scandal-mongers of Tullamore were active in their whispers, and in a fortnight all were in full cry; and all, young and old, unanimously declared that Mellington and the fair daughter of Roger O'Down were travelling on the road to ruin with railway speed. There was, however, one exception-the besotted proprietor of the lady; for he, "good, easy man," in the Lieutenant's devoted attentions to his wife saw nothing but an indirect complimentary return for some agreeable narrative with which he had favoured Mellington the night before. At last, the affair became too barefaced to be longer overlooked. The solitary rides; the indiscretions on both sides, so frequently repeated, and with impunity, even in the presence of the drivelling fool whose frown should have repressed them; all these united to call for regimental interference: and, after a mess-room meeting, the displeasure of the corps was intimated by the Adjutant to Mellington; while the senior Major undertook the delicate office of apprising Captain Saunders that the sooner he ended the dangerous intimacy between the young Lieutenant and his lady, it might be better for all concerned.

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The reception of these communications was a contemptuous refusal by Mellington to obey the hint, and a stupid disbelief expressed upon the Captain's part that aught existed between his wife and friend than what was rigidly correct; and, as it would appear, to brave public opinion, the lady and gentleman paraded the town on horseback, and remained afterwards in Saunders' lodgings until past midnight-the gallant Captain being that day on guard. This audacious display brought on a crisis quickly; another morning visit from the Adjutant officially intimated that Lieutenant Mellington had better send in his papers by that day's post, as the officers would not corps with him. Nothing accordingly remained but to retire from the regiment. He wrote to the Horse Guards, was gazetted out in a week, sent away his baggage and horses; and followed them in a few days afterwards, taking with him Mrs. Saunders as travelling companion.

We may as well, and briefly, give the future history of the guilty pair. The fallen woman, deserted by her ruffian seducer, descended rapidly in the scale of infamy, and the end of her career was very wretched. He was not more fortunate. From the turf, after a loss of every guinea, he became member of a hellite fraternity; and when last seen was so reduced as to have become marker at a low billiard table!!

When the elopement of his wife was communicated, and rather suddenly, to Captain Saunders, the extent of his folly and disgrace burst on the unhappy man with astounding violence. He never uttered a word; for palsy had stricken him. Medical assistance was unavailing ; and in two hours death relieved him from suffering and shame.

It may be readily imagined that such an occurrence in a regiment would produce a painful and long-enduring sensation, and that for weeks afterwards it almost engrossed the undivided conversation. When the mess-cloth was removed as usual, the escapade of a guilty wife, the villany of a pretended friend, and the murder of a weak-minded old man, were generally discussed.

An officer's effects, after death, are carefully taken charge of in quarters they are retained for the disposal of his nearest kindred; in the field, auctioned at the drum-head-and what they may produce is placed in charge of the Major of the regiment, and in trust for the heirat-law of the deceased. Nobody had ever heard Captain Saunders allude to a living relative, or hint remotely at the place of his birth; and the unusual and melancholy circumstances under which he died, required that his effects should be formally taken possession of, and a rigid search made for any papers which might lead to a discovery of his kindred, if he had any. The result proved that he was afflicted with a miserly monomania; while on all other points he was liberal, nay, generous. He had but a trifling sum in the agent's hands, and not twenty pounds in those of the regimental paymaster; while numerous acknowledgments were found among his papers from decayed soldiers, their widows, and their orphans, all breathing gratitude for attention to their petitions, and reporting the safe reception of sums of moneymany of these secret donations, in amount, absolutely munificent. It was only as an angler he was misanthropic. He would give a broken soldier a five-pound note; but, I verily believe, would refuse a brother officer a cast of flies, would the gift have saved the recipient from transportation.

In the safest of his depositories the valuables his heart doted on were

found; and the great cause of his superiority over other rival anglers was thus posthumously discovered. Besides an invaluable collection of the genuine feathers of tropic birds, of native material he had a larger stock than a life prolonged beyond Old Parr's, and spent the year round upon a river bank, could have by possibility expended. Hundreds of dozens of tied flies, and quantities of others that were mere skeletons, filled a drawer. The latter, as we gathered from his servant, he took with him in their unfinished state to the water; set him, the servant, at work to hunt for insects; and imitated them to perfection, and with a rapidity of manipulation that seemed extraordinary. He was not owner of one thread of gut; but, encased in oil-skin, we found half the tail of a cream-coloured Arab stallion, every hair two feet long. Faithful to nature, the bodies of his flies were meagre, and the wings beautifully attached. Here, then, lay the secret of his art: the fly was a veritable copy of the original, and his casting-lines were single hairs.

A year had passed-no heir as yet appeared to claim the piscatorial or monetary treasures of the departed commander; when one morning a raw-looking youth was ushered into the orderly-room, and announced himself next of kin. He was a Borderer-spoke very broad Scotchand informed us that accidentally hearing of his uncle's demise, he came to look after his effects. By letters from the minister he proved himself the real Simon Pure; and the departed Captain's cash and fishing. tackle, with all other goods and chattels, were accordingly directly handed over.

Now came out an exposition of the mystery which had puzzled us touching who Saunders could have been; and how a man, twenty years in India, could be an angler. He was bred upon the banks of Tweed ; and his family were fly-tiers by profession. No artist could kill a salmon better; but in the matrimonial lottery, poor man, he was fated to draw blanks. During the fair of Berwick he had led a lady to the altar at Lamberton Bar, who had annually gone through the hymeneal ceremony for the last six years; and was a regular customer at that convenient temple. He listed next morning when he became sober; and for fiveand-thirty years none knew, cared, or inquired whether he was in the flesh or out of it.

The Captain-peace to his ashes!--was the most stupid story-teller, generally as great a bore, were the Army List searched through, as ever was inflicted on a smart regiment; but he could fish.

We had an old brevet Colonel, as slow to the full-an Indian alsowho tormented everybody about shooting tigers and wild pigs; when, as it was ascertained, after he had turned his sword into a plough-share and taken his departure from us, that the only animal of the feline tribe he had seen larger than a cat were those he contemplated peacefully, through grated bars, in the Zoological Gardens.

There was a salmon fishery immediately in the vicinity of our quarters. It was a hired one; and the gentleman who rented it most liberally gave us the right of angling-all fish taken being of course delivered at the salmon-store, to await the weekly transit to Liverpool by the steamer, or the casual demand that occasionally the internal supply required.

Our old Colonel availed himself of this permission; and set out one beautiful morning to prove his skill. The day was not one that is

particularly recommended in angling directories. The water was low, the sky unclouded, and there was not an air of wind that would have deranged a lady's ringlet. To the gallant Colonel all this made but trifling difference; for his operations were as likely to be equally successful in sunshine as in shade. He perambulated the river bank for half an hour; and came to a conclusion that the number of salmon he was destined to destroy would equal the wild pigs and tigers which he had assassinated in India, and also in imagination; but " a change came o'er the spirit of his dream." He came to a small sandy pool; the water was not three feet deep, and brilliant as woman's eye. looked casually into this pellucid basin; and at the neck of the pool there were a score of salmon resting quietly upon the gravel. The gallant commander might have remarked that, at both ends, the pool was closely stoccaded with wooden rails; but, good, easy man! he never through life was remarkable for keen observation.

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There is, in Galway, a coarse and brutal method sometimes resorted to, when the river is low, and when the fish, waiting for water to carry them into the Lake of Oranmore, are then seen lying in dozens on the gravel of the ford: they call it "creeping." A strong line, with three of the largest-sized salmon hooks tied against each other, back to back, is projected by means of a small leaden plummet over the fish, pulled back with a jerk, and occasionally one of the triple hooks will catch the back or side of the reposing salmon; but for one landed by this blackguard expedient a dozen are uselessly wounded. The Colonel looked wistfully at the salmon in that bright and unruffled pool: he might expect a fish would take a fly when he would swallow the landing-net. He remembered the Galway "creeping" plan; and, for his sins, he had unluckily the means to effect it.

The Colonel "crept," and caught; until, wearied with success, he found he had eleven fish, upon the grass. These he despatched, by his attending boy, to the salmon-house; then, proudly mounting his horse, he returned, a piscatorial conqueror, to the barrack just in time to dress for dinner. Before the cloth was removed, the Colonel modestly announced his morning's exploit: concealing, however, the means by which it had been effected. Eleven salmon on a bright and blessed sunny day! We looked at each other in amazement; while the assistant-surgeon laid his finger, con exprezzione, on his forehead: thereby mutely intimating that the commander's upper story was a little out of order. Were he romancing! He stood a cross-examination well; and another hour proved that his story was correct to the letter.

A boy, with a horse and panniers, entered the gate; and a note, with a suspicious-looking slip of paper, was delivered by the mess-waiter to the Colonel. The first document intimated that he had invaded the fish-preserve, where the salmon were kept fresh for the arrival of the weekly steamer; that besides the amount of the fish actually dead, on sweeping the pool with a net, as many more had been found wounded and unmarketable. A bill accompanied the note; in which the weight of some two-and-twenty salmon was correctly set out to the ounce; and the Colonel was not even treated like a wholesale dealer, as he ought to have been, but charged the market figure, which was high at the time. He remained with us another year. He never told a tiger story during his stay; and absolutely turned pale if, in the cook's carte, his eye detected a jowl of salmon.

SKETCHES FROM THE "HEYTHROP COUNTRY."

BY LATITAT.

One evening in the month of February, last year, on our way home from hunting, after enjoying a day's sport of unusual brilliancy-one of those bustling, merry, pleasant things which a sportsman loves to participate in, and to reflect on afterwards, we were compelled to diverge from the main road, to seek the assistance of a blacksmith in a neighbouring village.

It was one of those calm, quiet evenings which seem the prelude of springtide, and to herald in the joys of universal nature, the hopes of the husbandman, the finale of sport, the " 'treaty of peace" or a truce with the vulpine race, a momentous change, rather sad and sorrowing to the lovers of the chase. The sun had gone down behind the summits of the distant hills, leaving behind a pale, faint streak of light, just sufficient to show his whereabouts; and night was fast gathering its sombre mantle over the fair face of the yet dimlyrevealed scenery. As we passed along the green lane leading to the village, nothing seemed to break through the solemn silence settling around us but the long-drawn, melancholy cry of the lonely partridge, in the distant fields, calling to its mate, and the fitfully shrill cry of the blackbird, as it dashed away in fear along the hedgerow, scared from its roosting place amongst the ivy clustering round the trunks of stunted ash. The scene forcibly recalled to my memory the words of the poet Gray; the first line applicable in the past tense only:

"The ploughman homewards, plods his weary way,
And leaves the world to darkness and to me."

At some distance before us lay one of those pretty hamlets which one so frequently meets with in the "Heythrop Country," and amongst which the "march of intellect," or the march of change, has had as yet but little effect in eradicating the rustic simplicity and primitive manners and customs of other days. In some a chapel may have been erected for their souls' weal; yet, notwithstanding, it is worthy of notice to observe that they still cling to the old parish churches, to tie that mystic "knot with the tongue which can never be untied by the teeth;" as is said of the gordian knot of matrimony, merely because their fathers, "from time whereof the memory of man runneth not to the contrary," did so before them.

After a day of uncommon sport, when a man who has been carried "over the hills and far away" has a long ride home afterwards on a jaded horse, with a fore shoe very loose into the bargain, he always finds sufficient leisure for musing on one thing or the other-to look "first on this picture and on that ;" and according to the axiom of our domine the schoolmaster, if an 66 empty corpus makes a clear pate," we cer