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CHAPTER XXXIV.

"With strange extremes she marked his wayward fate."

THE first Lord Camelford, with those generous feelings which predominated over all his faults and eccentricities, had taken by the hand and introduced into the brig of war which his lordship then commanded, an oppressed and unfortunate lieutenant of the navy, who had recently been dismissed the service by the sentence of a court-martial at Martinique, under circumstances so outrageously unjust and cruel as to cause general indignation amongst the junior classes of the profession.

The generous Camelford interested himself so warmly with his all-powerful relative Mr. Pitt, in behalf of this ill-used officer, that he succeeded in procuring the lieutenant's reinstatement in his former rank, and employment under his noble patron: but the truth must be told:-before three months had elapsed his lordship quarrelled with his protege; met him, and SHOT HIM! fortunately not mortally; and soon again took him to his bosom and his friendship, which last was never afterwards broken.

The second in point of rank, but first in the order of eccentricity was the then Captain James Darcus, of the sixth West India regiment, who died some years since a retired major of

veterans.

This extraordinary man, wild and uncontrollable from his youth, was a native of Londonderry, and had run away from his family, which was highly respectable, before he reached his twentieth year, enlisting into a regiment during the American war, which was at that time embarked for the scene of action. It was his fortune to be severely wounded, (or, as he always pronounced the word, wounded,) in the very first brush in which his regiment became engaged with the enemy; and in consequence was, with other invalids, (although against his strong remonstrances,) borne off the field, and placed on board a gun-boat, used as a temporary hospital; but THE LOVELY IDEA OF A SOLD'ER!* (his constant expression when recounting his warlike adventures,) tempted him to break bounds.

The moment he was able to hobble about he contrived to es

* Soldier,

cape from his floating prison, and by the help of a crutch, found means to rejoin his battalion just as it was going into action at Bunker's Hill.

His native courage gave him strength, and seizing the first vacant musket, of which, unfortunately, there were but too many, he took post in the ranks, and nobly fought his share in that hard-contested battle, at the close of which he was found on the gory field with SEVEN wounds, insensible to all but glory, roaring out "GEORGE FOR EVER!"-"DOWN WITH YANKEE DOODLE !"-" OH, THE LOVELY IDEA OF A SOLD'ER !" By a miracle, the gallant soldier was eventually restored to liberty, and his legs! His valour was rewarded with an ensigncy in the 4th, or King's Own, which he had joined but a short time before some act of violent intemperance brought him under the awful sentence of a general court-martial.

The powerful claims which his bravery and his sufferings gave him on the sympathy of his judges, saved him from ignominious dismissal from the service. He was, however, severely and publicly reprimanded, and then sent to end his days (as it was supposed) in an invalid company, stationed in his native province, Ulster. Peace came in a few years, and poor Darcus was laid on the shelf.

Desirous of an active life, he drew up a petition to the Irish House of Commons, praying for employment. After urging his manifold services to the state, (in his own peculiar style of language,) he concluded his petition with the bold assertion that he had received SEVEN wounds at Bunker's Hill, FIVE of which were MORTAL!!!"

After the roars of laughter, which the reading of this part of his petition excited, had in some degree subsided, the late Vice-Admiral Tom Packenham, uncle to the Duchess of Wellington, with the utmost gravity stood up, and, first withdrawing the quid of tobacco from his starboard cheek, moved, "That the House, taking into its serious attention the petition of the IMMORTAL JAMES DARCUS, do humbly recommend his case to his Majesty's most gracious consideration and favour!"

On the score of his presumed immortality and vigilance, he was accordingly appointed a revenue officer; but his zeal in pursuit of illicit distillation having led him occasionally into some excesses, (probably the effects of his too frequent trials of the strength of the forbidden beverage, by the standard of his own palate,) his enemies considered his little extravagancies, such as breaking heads and chopping off ears, by a coup de sabre, as derogatory to the honour of the revenue; and the immortal Jemmy was doomed to sink once more into the miserable quietude of private life and half-pay, occasionally relieved by a warlike episode in the shape of a night-fight, either

that he would return to Europe forthwith and retire from the

service.

From the cavalry service he certainly did; but by some parliamentary interest of his wife's relatives he was got rid of, by promoting him to a company in a certain infantry regiment, at that time serving in St. Domingo, under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel John Whitelock, whose name, connected with his misdeeds in South America, will be handed down to posterity with infamous notoriety. In the corps alluded to, this worthy pair, from the first moment of their meeting, appeared to have imbibed a deadly hatred against each other. The most opprobrious terms, it is said, were bandied about between the lieutenant-colonel and the captain, when the latter was found, as was frequently the case, so beastly drunk on the morning parade as to be unable to head his company.

"You're a disgrace to the regiment," said the lieutenantcolonel on one occasion, "and the most contemptible rascal in His Majesty's service!" To which well-deserved, but most ill-timed and vilely-expressed censure the captain hiccuped out, "The present company always excepted, Colonel," almost scraping his commanding officer's nose with his hat, which he saluted with.

Whitelock had, by his own impetuosity of temper and ungentlemanlike language so far committed himself, that he dared not bring this man to a court-martial.

Held in abhorrence, and avoided by his brother officers, cast off by his family and friends, this lost, abandoned man arrived in England an outcast from society, with the remnant of the regiment; but fortune once more threw the means of salvation in his way. A considerable sum of money was offered by the son of a nobleman, who had lately obtained by favour the step of captain in a West India regiment, for an exchange of commissions: the tempting offer was accepted by G~~; and, after a month's debauch, the captain was once more afloat for the West Indies.

His habits of intemperance still clinging to him, he soon fell into fresh and overwhelming disgrace. After a confinement of nearly six months, (arising from the want of a convenient opportunity for assembling a general court-martial,) this wretched man was at last placed on his trial.

A humane attempt was made to prove him insane, but his hour for impunity in crime had passed away. He was understood to have been sentenced to a disgraceful dismissal fron His Majesty's service; but, between the period of the finding of the court and its approval by the commander-in-chief, G****, (who had been allowed the range of the garrison-town,) silently proceeded in the night to the bank of a river which emptied

itself into the ocean, and there very coolly divested himself of his regimental jacket and hat, placing a stone upon them for security. In the crown of the hat he deposited a paper, on which was written the following sentence: 66 FELO-DE-SE

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Then gliding into the stream, he swam to the opposite bank, and making his way to the careenage, immediately entered as a common sailor on board one of the homeward-bound sugar ships, which was to sail at daylight. Giving himself out as a run man-of-war's man, he readily bargained for thirty guineas* for the voyage home; and having, in his better days, kept a pleasure-yacht, he was what might be termed a tolerably fair

seaman.

His jacket, hat, and the paper alluded to, were found next morning and brought to head-quarters; and his death was publicly announced in orders. The vacancy in his regiment was immediately filled up: the sentence of the court-martial humanely suppressed; and the unfortunate wife, in due course of time, applied for and received the pension of captain's widow! Some few years after these events, Major Sir John_T--

H- -n, on descending the steps of the Stratford Club-House in Oxford Street, towards the close of a winter's day, was accosted by a debauched-looking ruffian in rags, in whose bloated visage, he fancied he could trace some likeness to a face formerly known to him; and his astonishment was equal to his horror when the long-supposed suicide revealed himself to the baronet as his old acquaintance S Gof the -th. After receiving a sum of money from his former associate, he unblushingly disclosed to him the whole of his manœuvre, by which he evaded the sentence of the court-martial, and escaped from the West Indies.

"And what line of life do you now pursue?" asked the grieved and amazed baronet. "How do you exist ?”

"EXIST!" replied the vagabond; "why, I LIVE on my wIDow's pension!"

The reader need scarcely be told that the ruffian had still sufficient influence over his unhappy wife, now deserted by friends and family, to induce her to conceal the fact of his existence, in order to draw the only means of support his infamy had left them.

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It was not unusual for able seamen to demand and obtain from 40%. to 507. for the run home.

CHAPTER XXXV.

"The sails were fill'd, and fair the light winds blew
As glad to waft him to his native shore,

And fast the white roeks faded from his view,
And soon were lost in circumambient foam."

As our time for sailing drew nigh, each of us made the best arrangements which the limited ineans of accommodation afforded for his individual comfort. We were fortunate enough to have on board, amongst the invalids, a discharged soldier and his wife; the former had been steward, and the latter cook, to a regimental mess. The poor man's health was very much broken, but he was useful in the arrangement of our stores; the woman was really invaluable for her strength and activity. At length, the long wished-for, though not wholly undreaded, moment arrived: we weighed anchor, and took our farewell of Barbadoes.

Of the eleven officers embarked, four (as already observed) were confined to their berths. These poor fellows had contributed their full share to a mess, which it is probable they would not live to see expended. Two others were mere crawlers, but their strength, at least their appetites, seemed to improve daily. The remaining five were well enough to bustle about; and according to regulation, watches were formed of the cabin and 'tween-deck passengers.

As for the captain of the vessel, there had been a respectable baboon spoiled in sending him into the world without a tail and a hairy coat. He was a wretched imbecile, scarcely five feet high-no seaman, a contemptible muddling sot, who seldom appeared on deck in a sober state to keep his watch, and then, his orders were generally to undo all which the experienced mate had done previously to leaving the deck, finding fault with every thing and every body, and generally winding up all his complaints with the exclamation, "Bless my soul! You boy, bring me a glass of grog!" After the usual "Ay, ay, sir!" from below, boy Bill popped. his head up the companion with the grog in hand, which, after another blessing on his soul, a deep sigh, and a look either at heaven or his creaking top-gallant masts, he drank off to the dregs.

When the mate, on resuming charge of the deck, found how matters had been altered by his captain, he opened a stunning

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