The routine of dissipation which was kept up at Wakefield, was not to be sustained by me without expense; and to meet these expenses I spent more than my income. This extravagance--with the loss of fifty pounds, of which I was robbed by my servant, and the assistance of a designing sergeant, who took advantage of my youth and inexperience--soon involved me in debts, to liquidate which I was obliged to apply for permission to sell my commission. This, in consideration of my services, was readily granted; and, having effected a sale, I paid every shilling of my debts, and with the residue of the money repaired to London, where, in about six months, I found myself without a shilling, without a home, and without a friend. Thus circumstanced, my fondness of the profession induced me to turn my thoughts to the army again. I could see no earthly difficulty why I should not rise in the same way I had before; and accordingly I enlisted at Westminster, in his majesty's 24th Dragoons,[11] and in two or three days after went with the recruiting-sergeant to the cavalry depot at Maidstone, then under the command of Major-General George Hay. I had not been there long before an officer, who had served with me in campaigns in India, arrived at the depot, and, immediately recognizing me, my history was made known to the commanding officer, and I was promoted to the rank of sergeant. I remained at the depot about three months, at the expiration of which we were ordered to India, and I embarked as acting quarter-master on board the _New Warren Hastings_, Captain Larkins, and sailed from Spithead on the 8th day of January, 1808.