and his own excessive wretchedness, hastily left the room in the full conviction that he had injured himself in her esteem, and caused her to think ill of him by the very course which, at the price of his own happiness, he had deemed it his duty to pursue. A few days afterwards, Henry and Warenne quitted London for Calbury. CHAPTER V. How fair thy vales, thy hills how beautiful! The sun, who sheds on thee his parting smiles, Sees not in all his wide career a scene Lovelier, nor more exuberantly blessed By bounteous earth and heaven. The time has been when happy was their lot, Who had their birthright here. SOUTHEY’S _Roderick_. The state of the agricultural population around Calbury, at the time of the return of the two friends to their regiment, was by no means such, in outward appearance at least, as to justify the apprehensions which, according to Lord Framlingham, were entertained by the government. The greater demand for labour, and the consequent increase of wages, which the summer had occasioned, seemed to have extinguished the stormy passions kindled by cold, hunger, and compulsory idleness. The country itself looked bright and gay, and the fields with their rich crops of corn gave promise of plenty, comfort, and tranquillity. Warenne was tempted to hope that the fear of disturbance was ill-founded, and that the symptoms of insubordination, on which it was grounded, had arisen from a temporary pressure, which was past and would not recur. The first hours after their arrival were dedicated to the inspection of the troops, the order and discipline of which were highly commended, to Frank’s infinite delight. This necessary duty concluded, the two brothers and Henry retired to Warenne’s apartments, and Warenne called on Frank to give some account of his proceedings during the time he had held the command of the regiment. “Why, I have had but a dullish _séjour_ in this place, I must say,” replied Frank; “my chief occupation has been to preserve my dignity; and, if it were not that once or twice I have been seduced into a smile by the earnest admiration of sundry blue and black eyes which encounter me in my perambulations, I should say I had succeeded admirably. People assert that the labourers in the neighbourhood are discontented; but I cannot say that I perceive it. I see them on a Sunday as happy as beer and love can make them. They are not refined, perhaps, in their mode of carrying on the war; and the fastidious might think it unsentimental at least, if not indecorous, in the women, to wait round the doors of the public-houses, and take possession of the men as they come forth red with beer, and reeking with tobacco; but I am above such prejudices, and have no doubt that the rogues enjoy life extremely.” “Have you observed no signs of an evil spirit abroad in other quarters?” interrupted Warenne.