"During this conversation, the suppressed laughter continued, and every eye was fixed on Captain T., who answered me shortly, but with the utmost gravity. "'In fact,' said the major, contemptuously, 'according to Captain T., Mungo is the ghost of a deceased dog.' "This announcement was received with shouts of laughter, in which I confess I joined, whilst Captain T. still retained an unmoved gravity. "'It is easier to laugh at such a thing than to believe it, sir,' said he. '_I_ believe it, because I know it.' "I smiled, and turned the conversation. "If anybody at the table except Captain T. had made such an assertion as this, I should have ridiculed them without mercy; but he was an old man, and from the circumstances I have mentioned regarding his origin, we were careful not to offend him; so no more was said about Mungo, and in the hurry of events that followed. I never thought of it again. We marched on to Brussels the next day; and after that, had enough to do till we went to Antwerp, where we were besieged by the French the following year. "During the siege, I sometimes heard the name of Mungo again; and, one night, when I was visiting the guards and sentries as grand rounds, I caught a glimpse of him, and I felt sure that the man he was approaching when I observed him, had been asleep; but he was screened by an angle of the bastion, and by the time I turned the corner, he was moving about. "This brought to my mind all I had heard about the dog; and as the circumstance was curious, in any point of view, I mentioned what I had seen to Captain T. the next day, saying, 'I saw your friend Mungo, last night.' "'Did you, sir?' said he. 'It's a strange thing! No doubt, the man was asleep!' "'But do you seriously mean to say, that you believe this to be a visionary dog, and not a dog of flesh and blood?' "'I do, sir; I have been quizzed enough about it; and, once or twice, have nearly got into a quarrel, because people will persist in laughing at what they know nothing about; but as sure as that is a sword you hold in your hand, so sure is that dog a spectre, or ghost--if such a word is applicable to a fourfooted beast!' "'But, it's impossible!' I said. 'What reason have you for such an extraordinary belief?' "'Why, you know, sir, man-and-boy, I have been in the regiment all my life. I was born in it. My father was pay-serjeant of No. 3 company, when he died; and I have seen Mungo myself, perhaps twenty times, and known, positively, of others seeing him twice as many more.' "'Very possibly; but that is no proof, that it is not some dog that has attached himself to the regiment.' "'But I have seen and heard of the dog for fifty years, sir; and my father before me, had seen and heard of him as long!' "'Well, certainly, that is extraordinary,--if you are sure of it, and that it's the same dog!'