They left another man and departed, wishing him better luck. "You need not be afraid," said the man with warmth, "I shall not desert."

The relief-company returned to the guard-house. The sentinels were replaced every four hours, and at the appointed time, the guard again marched to relieve the post. To their inexpressible astonishment, the man was gone! They searched round the spot, but no traces could be found of his disappearance. It was necessary that the station, from a stronger motive than ·ever, should not remain unoccupied; they were compelled to leave another man, and returned to the guard-house. The superstition of the soldiers was awakened, and terror ran through the regiment. The -colonel being apprised of the occurrence, signified his intention to accompany the guard when they relieved the sentinel they had left. At the appointed time, they all marched together; and again, to their unutterable wonder, they found the post vacant, and the man gone.

Under these circumstances, the colonel hesitated whether he should station a whole company on the spot, or whether he should again submit the post to a single sentinel. The cause of these repeated disappearances of men, whose courage and honesty were never suspected, must be discovered; and it seemed not likely that this discovery could be obtained by persisting in the old method. Three brave men were now lost to the regiment, and to assign the post to a fourth, seemed nothing less than giving him up to destruction, The poor fellow whose turn it was to take the station, though a man in other respects of incomparable resolution, trembled from head to foot.

"I must do my duty," said he to the officer, "I know that; but I should like to lose my life with more credit."

"I will leave no man," said the colonel, " against his will."

A man immediately stepped from the ranks, and desired to take the post. Every mouth commended his resolution. "I will not be taken alive," said he, "and you shall hear of me on the least alarm. At all events, I will fire my piece if I hear the least noise. If a crow chatters, or a leaf falls, you shall hear my musket. You may be alarmed when nothing is the matter: but you must take that chance as the condition of the discovery."

The colonel applauded his courage, and told him he would be right to fire upon the least noise which was ambiguous. His comrades shook hands with him. and left him with a melancholy foreboding. The company marched back, and waited the event in the guard-house.

An hour had elapsed, and every ear was upon the rack for the discharge of the musket, when, upon a sudden, the report was heard. The guard immediately marched, accompanied, as before, by the colonel, and some of the most experienced officers of the regiment. As they approached the post, they saw the man advancing towards them dragging another man on the ground by the hair of his head. When they came up to him, it appeared to be an Indian whom he had shot. An explanation was immediately required.

"I told your honour," said the man," that I should fire if I heard the least noise. The resolution I had taken has saved my life. I had not been long on my

post, when I heard a rustling at some short distance; I looked, and saw an American hog, such as are common in the woods, crawling along the ground, and seemingly looking for nuts under the trees and among the leaves. As these animals are so very common, I ceased to consider it for some minutes; but being on the constant alarm and expectation of attack, and scarcely knowing what was to be considered a real cause of apprehension, I kept my eyes vigilantly fixed upon it, and marked its progress among the trees; still there was no need to give the alarm, and my thoughts were directed to danger from another quarter. It struck me, however, as somewhat singular, to see this animal making, by a circuitous passage, for a thick coppice immediately behind my post. I therefore kept my eye more constantly fixed upon it, and as it was now within a few yards of the coppice, hesitated whether I should not fire. My comrades, thought I, will laugh at me for alarming them by shooting a pig: I had almost resolved to let it alone, when just as it approached the thicket, I thought I observed it give an unusual spring. I no longer hesitated: I took my aim; discharged my piece; and the animal was instantly stretched before me with a groan which I conceived to be that of a human creature. I went up to it, and judge my astonishment, when I found that I had killed an Indian! He had enveloped himself with the skin of one of these wild hogs so artfully and completely, his hands and feet were so entirely concealed in it, and his gait and appearance were so exactly correspondent to that of the animal's, that, imperfectly as they were always seen through the trees and jungles, the disguise could not be penetrated at a dis

tance, and scarcely discovered upon the nearest approach. He was armed with a dagger and a tomahawk."

Such was the substance of this man's relation. The cause of the disappearance of the other sentinels was now apparent. The Indians, sheltered in this disguise, secreted themselves in the coppice, watched the moment when they should throw it off; burst upon the sentinels without previous alarm, and too quick to give them an opportunity to discharge their pieces, either stabbed or scalped them, and bore their bodies away, which they concealed at some distance among the leaves. The Americans, it seems, gave them rewards for every scalp of an enemy which they brought.

The following is the last of the stringent general after orders (alluded to at page 139) which the Duke of Wellington found it necessary to issue for the protection of bee-hives.

"Badajoz, 12th September, 1809. "G. A. O.—The fourth division having again in three instances plundered bee-hives, notwithstanding the orders of the 7th instant, the regiments of that division are forthwith, upon the receipt of this order, to be turned out and placed under arms, and they are not to quit their arms till one hour after sunset, when they are to be sent to their huts, and sentries placed round the camp to prevent all men from straggling ; and they are to be put under arms again to-morrow morning, at an hour before sunrise, and to stand by their arms till an hour after sunset, and to stand so on day after day, till the soldiers shall have been discovered who have been guilty of these outrages, which

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it is repeated cannot be committed without the knowledge of the officers and non-commissioned officers of the regiments. When the regiments shall be under arms, men must be sent on fatigue for water, for their provisions to cook, etc., under charge of officers and non-commissioned officers, in proportion to the strength of the parties, who must be brought back to the lines as soon as the work required for them shall have been performed.

"Colonel Kemmis will report whether the orders of the 4th instant, requiring that the rolls should be called in the fourth division every hour, have been obeyed. This order is not intended to apply to the Eleventh Regiment."