CHAPTER V.BARRY FAR FROM MILITARY GLORY.
After the death of my protector, Captain Fagan, I am forced to confess that I fell into the very worst of courses and company.

Being a rough soldier of fortune himself, he had never been a favourite with the officers of his regiment; who had a contempt for Irishmen, as Englishmen sometimes will have, and used to mock his brogue, and his blunt uncouth manners.

I had been insolent to one or two of them, and had only been screened from punishment by his intercession; especially his successor, Mr.Rawson, had no liking for me, and put another man into the sergeant's place vacant in his company after the battle of Minden.
This act of injustice rendered my service very disagreeable to me; and, instead of seeking to conquer the dislike of my superiors, and win their goodwill by good behaviour, I only sought for means to make my situation easier to me, and grasped at all the amusements in my power.

In a foreign country, with the enemy before us, and the people continually under contribution from one side or the other, numberless irregularities were permitted to the troops which would not have been allowed in more peaceable times.

I descended gradually to mix with the sergeants, and to share their amusements: drinking and gambling were, I am sorry to say, our principal pastimes; and I fell so readily into their ways, that though only a young lad of seventeen, I was the master of them all in daring wickedness; though there were some among them who, I promise you, were far advanced in the science of every kind of profligacy.