"Man that is born of a woman hath but a short time to live, and is full of misery. He cometh up, and is cut down, like a flower; he fleeth as it were a shadow, and never continueth in one stay.

"In the midst of life we are in death: of whom may we seek for succour, but of Thee, O Lord, who for our sins art justly displeased?" The clergyman paused; the men placed tenderly, as if they were handling a child, the last remains of their officer in the grave, folded his cloak above him, and laid his broken sword over all.

"Forasmuch as it hath pleased Almighty God, of His great mercy, to take unto Himself the soul of our dear brother, here departed, we therefore commit his body to the ground,-earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust,-in sure and certain hope of the resurrection to eternal life, through Our Lord Jesus Christ, who shall change our vile body, that it may be like unto His glorious body, according to the mighty working whereby He is able to subdue all things to Himself.

"I heard a voice from heaven, saying unto me, 'Write, from henceforth, blessed are the dead which die in the Lord, even so saith the Spirit, for they rest from their labours.'

At this moment, the sharp, clear notes of the trumpet sounded the recall. I thought of the storm of fight in which that gallant spirit had passed to his rest; his labours were over now, the requiem had sounded. The Major and I turned away, and, without speaking, returned to our quarters.

The trumpets were sounding the assembly, the troops were standing to arms, and the line was in the act of being reformed where it stood before we went into action.

"Well, Seaforth, what news?" I inquired, as an aide-de-camp galloped up at full speed.

"More work to do; we'll have another brush at them before long; we may look for the orders immediately."

The plain now began to present a more animated spectacle. The different corps were falling into position to the sound of the bugle; the trumpets of the cavalry pealed through the air; the drums rattled, and the ground reverberated at the hollow tread of mustering squadrons. "You look deuced piley about the eyes this morning, Sabretasch," said the long Cornet as he rode past.

"No wonder, for I have not closed them for the last twenty-four hours."

"Never mind, we 'll have a good snooze to-night."

"Aint we going to march?"

"Not a bit of it, only a muster, that's all."

I felt greatly relieved by the prospect of an intermission of our labours, and when, towards evening, we dined, I turned in, and never wakened until eight o'clock the next morning.

A NIGHT ON GUARD AT PUEBLA, AND WHAT CAME OF IT.

"WELL, old fellow! how did you like your guard last night? I hear you had rather a rough time of it," said our adjutant to Lieutenant Sherman, of the -th U. S. Infantry, as he entered his room, a large, rather scantily furnished, and but indifferently cleaned apartment, as was all too apparent in the superabundance of cobweb tapestry that swung in most ungraceful festoons from the lofty ceiling; the spider having evidently been "time out of mind the Mexican's upholsterer." Quartered at present in this spacious apartment of one of the principal mesons in the Calle del Mercadores, our lieutenant, who had been newly relieved from a very troublesome and eventful guard, sat, or, to speak more correctly, reclined, on an old wooden bench of venerable appearance, which, with the aid of several suspicious-looking, brown-coloured woollen cushions, managed to perform, though in a rather unsatisfactory manner, the duties of a modern sofa. Reclining then on this sofa, with his feet in what we may, for want of a more appropriate term, call American fashion-that is to say, considerably higher than his head and shoulders, being most picturesquely elevated over the back of a chair which stood conveniently for the purpose-lay Lieutenant Sherman. Before him, on a small table, stood a decanter half full of brandy, and an earthen pitcher of native manufacture of the most simple yet elegant shape-such as the Mexicans made in the time of Cortez, and such as they continue to make at the present day-full of cold water, also a moderately-sized glass tumbler, from which, in the intervals of his enjoyment of a real Havannah, in whose clouds of fragrant perfume he seemed to luxuriate in the most intense manner, he ever and anon took copious draughts of "the cup that cheers, but that inebriates," as Cowper might have said.

"Ah, Hilton, is that you? Most confounded glad to see you," said the lieutenant, waving his hand to dissipate the cloud of smoke in which he had been enveloped, but still retaining his doubled-up position. "Take a chair, that is if you can find one anywhere, and sit down; should you feel inclined to imbibe, you will find another tumbler on that sideboard, and my stock of cigars is not quite done yet."

'Thank you, Sherman, but I would rather not just at present. The fact is, that a set of us kept it up a deuced sight too long last night after coming from the theatre, and I awoke this morning with the most horribly uncomfortable feeling of thirst, fever, and headache, that ever tormented a poor devil for passing a rather too jolly night."

"Well! you know the old proverb, A hair of the dog that bit you.' For my own part, I can say from experience, that on similar occasions, and while suffering from the rather unpleasant sensations you allude to, I have invariably found it a most admirable, safe, and wholesome remedial agent, demanding no alterations of diet, and, in short, a prescription wholly unrivalled in the Materia Medica."

"Bravo, Sherman ! really you appear to warm with your subject. What is the tipple you have on the table there?-hang it!-I believe I will join you in a glass and a cigar after all. But, by the bye, you have not said how you liked your guard last night."

"Ay, now you are coming round to the dictates of sound reason; well, I am glad to find that my example and precept have succeeded in driving away the foul fiend abstinence, but be cautious with the water; weak grog is a heavy, sickening sort of drink, and I rather opinionate that the brandy one procures here won't stand much aqua. How did I like my guard last night, say you?-you will find the cigars and matches in that tin box on the sideboard, adjutant-why, I can't say that I very highly enjoyed it; and yet there was no lack of incident, rather too much perhaps, about enough, I should say, to make a couple of tolerably fair melodramas, if worked up in the artistic style in which these things are done by the monarch of Broadway in the Museum Theatre. But you shall hear. By the way, what do you think of that brandy? Know where there's plenty more of it, a jar of it under my bed now. 'Not to be sneezed at!' Ay, you may say that. By Heaven! the man, no, the ignoramus, who would disparage liquor like that, deserves to drink cold water for the remaining term of his natural existence."

"Yes," said the adjutant, setting down his glass with a deep-drawn respiration, after a long thoughtful pause of intense enjoyment and admiration, "that is eau de vie, and no unfortunate mistake. By the god of war! it penetrates the system like a positive charge of electricity. Sherman, my dear fellow, you will confer a particular favour by procuring me a gallon or two of that article at any price."

"With all the pleasure in life, my boy. I pay six dollars a-gallon for it, but, by Bacchus! he is worse than a teetotaller who would weigh the terrestrial dross which mortals call money against celestial liquor like that. For my own part, I would rather give twenty dollars a-gallon for brandy like it, than drink the stuff one commonly meets with here. But to my guard of last night.

"On mounting guard yesterday morning I had a large roomful of prisoners, about sixty in all, turned over to me by the officer of the old guard. Most of them were drunk, or at least under the influence of liquor; having procured some, I strongly suspect, with the connivance of the sentries placed over them since their confinement. A number of these prisoners were wagon-drivers, a small sprinkling of them natives, of the genus greaser, and the remainder soldiers. The cursed vermin, almost immediately after we had relieved the old guard, commenced a regular indiscriminate fight; and of all the Bedlam scenes of drunken madmen that I ever witnessed, I think this one was considerably of the ratherest. I sent in the sergeant of the guard, and one or two of the men, with good stout cudgels; they floored a few of the most active disturbers of the peace, and by inflicting some pretty severe chastisement on several others, they succeeded in restoring something like order. But the lull was only temporary, and it seemed we had only established a hollow truce amongst the belligerents, who only waited until our backs were turned, when the war that for a space did fail, now trebly thundering swell'd the gale; and "Sergeant!" was the cry.' As it was necessary to quell this mob insurrection effectually, I again had recourse to the argumentum baculinum; desiring the sergeant, a smart, active fellow, to spare no pains this time to secure a lasting peace. He effected his object, but I had to send a few of the scamps to hospital; several dislocations, fractures, and other bodily

injuries, being the result of this affair. However, we had no more fighting during our guard, as I took special good care they should have no more liquor, by placing sentries at the door of the prison-room on whom I could depend."

"Ay, ay!" said the adjutant; "you were resolved, I perceive, to convince them that you liked the guard to perform the principal share of the fighting business themselves, when you were on duty. Well, I dare say I should have acted in a somewhat similar manner had I been in your situation. One may throw away any quantity of reasoning and civility on a set of drunken scamps of that description, without producing any other result than to make oneself look remarkably silly. It appears to me that, if men will behave like dogs, they should be treated accordingly. But I beg pardon, I am interrupting your story."

"As the prison-room was already overcrowded, and I perceived that I should require to furnish accommodation for a considerable number of fresh arrivals during my guard, a few dropping in quite promiscuously during the day, some of them in the most awful state of excitement and others in the most painful state of indifference, I contrived to get rid of between thirty and forty of the old stock of prisoners, by sending to the captains of their respective companies, and having them released, or taken to their own regimental guard-rooms. Towards evening, I placed two bayonet sentries in the prison-room, furnishing it also with a light, which I gave orders should be kept burning during the whole night. These precautions I took at the suggestion of the sergeant, a sensible fellow, who told me there had been a number of the men confined on the night previous, who were beaten and robbed of their money by a combination of scoundrels, several of whom were suspected of getting themselves intentionally confined for such purposes on occasions like the present, when the men were receiving arrears of pay."

"Well, I certainly think you deserve credit for your orderly and judicious arrangements," said the adjutant; "for, although I feel little sympathy for the men who lose their money in these drunken scrapes, I think it is hardly fair to permit a set of scoundrels to rob them in that manner. By-the-by, that circumstance requires looking into; who was the sergeant on guard with you?"

"Sergeant Dalton of 'C' company, a clever and intelligent fellow. However, we picked up a considerable number of drunk and disorderly cases in the evening, but owing to the excellence of our arrangements we had very little trouble with them, and things appeared to go on tolerably smooth. I had seen the ten o'clock relief off; and, while quietly enjoying a cigar in my room, I was beginning to congratulate myself on having got over the most troublesome part of my guard, when the sergeant came to inform me of a disturbance in a Mexican house of entertainment, a short distance from the guard-house. Taking a corporal and six of the picquet along with me, I proceeded to the house in question, La Meson del Angelo (the Angel Inn), where I found a row amongst a party of the soldiers and a set of gambling camp-followers, who had been drinking and gambling together, and were now winding up the evening's festivities by breaking each other's heads. I took a few of the most disorderly amongst them prisoners, but the greater part—and, indeed, I was not very anxious to prevent them-escaped through the

back window of a stable in the yard. On entering the house to ascertain if the rogues had thoroughly cleared out, I found Sergeant Baverstock, of 'B' company, in a back apartment, in company with a very handsome Mexican girl. On my asking him what he was doing there, he produced a written permission of absence; but as he was evidently intoxicated, and as I considered his permission did not extend to his passing the night in a disorderly house, I ordered him to his quarters. The foolish fellow insisted on his right to stay where he was in virtue of his leave of absence, and finally refused to obey my orders to go to his quarters, when I was reluctantly compelled to order him into confinement along with the other prisoners in the guard-room. It was only about half an hour after this occurrence, when an ill-looking scoundrel, also of 'B' company, was brought in by the picquet on a charge of housebreaking and murder. It appeared that the Mexican whose house he had tried to rob, entered the apartment as the thief was making his escape by the window where he entered; he seized him, and shouted for the guard, when the rascal drew a knife and gave him several dangerous wounds. Very luckily, the picquet were not far off at the time, and hearing the noise they arrived in time to apprehend the prisoner, a German of the name of Grubel, and, like Baverstock, belonging to my own company. He had a gold chain and other articles in his pocket, which the Mexican identified. We continued to pick up drunken cases during the whole night, and it was between three and four o'clock this morning ere I got a wink of sleep. Altogether, I must say, it was a rather disagreeable guard."

Well, I should rather think so," said the adjutant; "but I am sorry to hear of Baverstock getting into that scrape. How are you going to manage about that? I have always considered him a very active and intelligent non-commissioned officer."

"Why, so have I; and I am also sorry that this affair should have occurred. I sent him home to his quarters early this morning, of course under arrest, as under the circumstances I could not avoid reporting him to the commanding officer. However, I intend to state the case as favourably as possible; and I think the colonel will return him to duty, with a few words of reprimand and friendly caution."

"Under ordinary circumstances, I grant you that the colonel would have returned him to duty without any serious consequence; but the old fellow is in a most awfully bad temper this morning," said the adjutant; "he looks as black as thunder, fairly riled. After he had read the morning reports, I heard him muttering that the regiment was going headlong to hell. I suppose the account of so many prisoners having been made since the payment commenced, together with this damned robbery and murder business of Grubel's, is the cause of the old fellow's ill temper; but I am afraid Baverstock will find that he comes before him at a very bad time. In fact, I think it is almost a pity that you reported him, that is, if you could have at all avoided it." Well, I should be sorry to see Baverstock reduced on the present account, as I have no fault to find with his general conduct; but after all, what must be must be, and I do not see how I could overlook the gross breach of discipline of which he was guilty without feeling that I was not exactly doing my duty in the impartial manner in which it is

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