Then there would have been some charm to me in the very novelty of the locale, and the indulgence of that vagrant spirit I have ever possessed; for, like Justice Woodcock, "I certainly should have been a vagabond if Providence had not made me a justice of the peace"-- now, I could not even contemplate the thing as possible; and would have actually refused the command of a regiment, if the condition of its acceptance were to sail for the colonies.
Besides, I tried--and how ingenious is self-deception--I tried to find arguments in support of my determination totally different from the reasons which governed me.

I affected to fear climate, and to dread the effect of the tropics upon my health.

It may do very well, thought I, for men totally destitute of better prospects; with neither talent, influence or powerful connexion, to roast their cheeks at Sierra Leone, or suck a sugar-cane at St.Lucia.

But that you, Harry Lorrequer, should waste your sweetness upon planters' daughters--that have only to be known, to have the world at your feet! The thing is absurd, and not to be thought of! Yes, said I half aloud--we read in the army list, that Major A.is appointed to the 50th, and Capt.

B.to the 12th; but how much more near the truth would it be, to say--"That His Majesty, in consideration of the distinguished services of the one, has been graciously pleased to appoint him to--a case of blue and collapsed cholera, in India; and also, for the bravery and gallant conduct of the other, in his late affair with the 'How-dow-dallah Indians,' has promoted him to the--yellow fever now devastating and desolating Jamaica." How far my zeal for the service might have carried me on this point, I know not; for I was speedily aroused from my musings by the loud tramp of feet upon the stairs, and the sound of many well-known voices of my brother officers, who were coming to visit me.
"So, Harry, my boy," said the fat major as he entered; "is it true we are not to have the pleasure of your company to Jamaica this time ?" "He prefers a pale face, it seems, to a black one; and certainly, with thirty thousand in the same scale, the taste is excusable." "But, Lorrequer," said a third, "we heard that you had canvassed the county on the Callonby interest.