“Neither Captain Douglas nor Mr Parker’s attention was called to the circumstance of their harmless pistol practice, on the 5th January, till about three or four o’clock on the ensuing Monday afternoon—the 8th January. During the interval, Captain Henderson had arrived from Guernsey; and he, Mr Parker, and Captain Douglas were walking together towards the town, when they met Mr Bains, (a medical gentleman.) After the ordinary salutations, Captain Douglas asked him, ‘What news was going on in the town?’ To which Mr Bains answered, laughing, ‘Nothing new, _since your sport with the bulls of Bashan at Longy_;’ and he proceeded to say, to the surprise of Captain Douglas and Mr Parker, ‘that he understood a bullock had been shot at or near Longy.’ Captain Douglas replied with a smile, ‘You surely don’t mean to say that _I_ am charged with having had anything to do with it?’—‘Indeed you are,’ said Mr Bains—‘and you will find the constable at your quarters about it, on your return! But it is true, is it not, that you and Parker were ball firing there?’—‘Yes, we were practising,’ replied Captain Douglas unhesitatingly; ‘but I know nothing about the bullock.’ After some other observations, Mr Bains, who knew the position in which Colonel Le Mesurier and Captain Douglas stood towards each other, said with a smile, ‘Colonel Le Mesurier has gone up to look at the bullock.’ To this observation Captain Douglas made a brief sarcastic answer; and shortly afterwards Mr Bains left them. “The three officers, after continuing their walk for some time longer, separated, towards five o’clock. Captain Henderson went to Corblets barracks, to dress for dinner, both he and Mr Parker being engaged to dine that evening with Captain Douglas; who, with Mr Parker, walked towards Longy, expecting to meet with the constable spoken of by Mr Bains. As they went, they conversed on the subject of his communication, remarking how oddly circumstances seemed to favour the notion that, if a bullock had really been shot, it must have been by them; and they also adverted to the fact of Colonel Le Mesurier having already become acquainted with the matter, and what could have been his object in going to see the carcase of the animal. After some consideration they agreed that it would be better, under the circumstances, _not to admit the fact of their having been firing, but leave it to be proved by those who seemed disposed to charge them with having shot the bullock_.”