and I made my fair companion the confidant of my first and only love.

I expected that my tale would have elicited all the tender interest and sympathy which a kind sister might have entertained; that she would instantly have entered into all my feelings, and offered her counsel and advice. Great, however, was my disappointment on finding this confidence but coldly and indifferently received, and with an air of diffidence and evident embarrassment, for which I could in no wise account.

A coolness on Louisa's part from that moment intervened; her frank and unreserved demeanour was exchanged for one which, if not repulsive, was cold in the extreme: I had evidently caused displeasure, in what way, it was quite impossible to divine; though it was too apparent that from this time, her tone and conduct towards me became completely altered; and she even seemed to avoid me, as much as the nature of our relative positions would possibly admit.

This unaccountable change in her demeanour was, indeed, so very marked, that I could not refrain from bringing it to her notice; but when questioned on the subject, she gave

me evasive replies; would feign to laugh at, and turn what she called my fanciful supposition into ridicule; in short, spoke and acted as women usually do, when unable or unwilling to assign any tangible reason for some capricious or unreasonable act!

Things continued in this state during the remainder of the voyage; and on arriving at Madras, although she parted with me in friendship, the same unaccountable reserve continued on her part; the cause of it still remaining unexplained, and still a perfect mystery to me.

I immediately joined my regiment, then quartered in Fort St. George, and was heartily welcomed by such of those old comrades and friends as had survived all the horrors of that fatal Burmese campaign.

Yes! the hand of death had been, indeed, busy with my corps; exemplifying the adage of a soldier's appropriate motto-"Here today, and gone to-morrow!”

Amongst the survivors, there still remained to me a few trusty and valued friends; foremost amongst these, ranked good, honest Bradford, to whom I have so often previously had occasion to allude.

To the real soldier there is, after all, no place like the head-quarters of his corps; and it must be his own fault if he meet not there, with friends and associates endeared to each other by the recollection of a community of pleasures, of interest, and of pain: friends still further endeared by having probably shared in common, perils by land and by sea-perils encountered in common, during plague, pestilence, tempest, and bloody war.

Nothing tends more than this, to cement those lasting friendships constantly to be found existing between men of the same corps; and in so extended a circle as that which the society of a regiment usually presents, a man can generally find amongst his brother-officers, friends, and companions, in every way suited to his peculiarities and tastes.

In short, a well-regulated regiment is, in many cases, a little world in itself, moving steadily on its own axis, and, in a great measure, independent of the world at large. Such at least was the regiment to which I had the good fortune to belong; and that it may continue as united and as well-regulated as it was, will ever be my most ardent wish.

The changes that had taken place in the corps were not confined to the junior ranks : Colonel Sandham was now in command. Our senior Regimental Major: Colonel Bronze, had lately been removed by promotion to another corps, and was succeeded by an old octogenarian, who happened to be first on the list of Captains, and who was completely past his work. Major Tomkins, - now senior of that rank,had returned to England on sick leave; and many others who had been so fortunate as to survive the hardships and sufferings of the Burmese war, also followed his example; in short, on looking round me, on my first reappearance at our mess, many a strange face now met my sight, where an old and familiar one was wont to be.

CHAPTER II.

66

MADRAS.

Where breaks on Coromandel's sandy shore
The thundering surf, with ever-ceaseless roar;
The Indian Ocean's rage doth here expire,
But e'en in death, growls forth its mighty ire!"
From Author's MS.

""Twas a fair scene wherein they stood,
A green and sunny glade amid the wood,
And in the midst, an aged Banian grew.”

SOUTHEY.

I ALWAYS disliked Madras as a military quarter; and unless to a thorough-going idler a morning-visiting, tiffin-eating, ball-going, and "ladies' man," Fort St. George is, generally speaking, but a dull, tedious, and monotonous place both for officers and men. If to this be added the eternal round of military dutiesrendered more irksome by wearing a style of dress most inappropriate to such a climate,