'It is,' said I, 'maybe you know him ?' 'Maybe I've a guess,' said he, bursting into a fit of laughing, that I thought he'd choke with.

'Well, sergeant,' said I, 'I always took you for a humane man; but, if that's the way you treat a fellow-creature in distress.' 'A fellow-creature,' said he, laughing louder than before.

'Ay, a fellow-creature,' said I -- for the sergeant was an orangeman--'and if he differs from you in matters of religion, sure he's your fellow-creature still.' 'Troth, Doctor, I think there's another trifling difference betune us,' said he.
'Damn your politics,' said I; 'never let them interfere with true humanity.' Wasn't I right, Major?
'Take good care of him, and there's a half-a-crown for ye.' So saying these words, I steered along by the barrack wall, and, after a little groping about, got up stairs to my quarters, when, thanks to a naturally good constitution, and regular habits of life, I soon fell fast asleep." When the Doctor had said thus much, he pushed his chair slightly from the table, and, taking off his wine, looked about him with the composure of a man who has brought his tale to a termination.
"Well, but Doctor," said the Major, "you are surely not done.

You have not yet told us who your interesting friend turned out to be." "That's the very thing, then, I'm not able to do." "But, of course," said another, "your story does not end there." "And where the devil would you have it end ?" replied he.

"Didn't I bring my hero home, and go asleep afterwards myself, and then, with virtue rewarded, how could I finish it better ?" "Oh, of course; but still you have not accounted for a principal character in the narrative," said I.
"Exactly so," said Curzon.