Thus, by the mere accident of meeting this weak and arrogant officer—or, to go farther into causes, by the roguery of a boatman,—a train of most serious and disagreeable consequences was produced to two young and inexperienced men; first, a five weeks' bill at a Portsmouth hotel; second, a six weeks' gale of wind, with a cat-and-dog party; third, a court-martial, and loss of commission; fourth, an unexpected return to England; and lastly, the rugged hill of promotion to attempt anew under unfavourable circumstances! Let this and all this be recollected by every young officer. It is no story of invention; these are facts registered in the Judge-Advocate-General's office, and therefore form a good practical lesson. END OF THE FIRST VOLUME. LONDON PRINTED BY S. AND R. BENTLEY, DORSET STREET. * * * * * Transcriber's Notes (continued) The original text often has common words shortened, especially in dialogue. Many other words, including personal names and military titles, are spelt inconsistently, capitalised inconsistently and hyphenated inconsistently. In reproducing that text, obvious typographical errors have been corrected but the variations referred to above have all been retained unless otherwise stated. Corrections to the Original Text The following misprints have been corrected: Page 77 - "minnet" changed to "minet" (At this very minet). Page 197 - "recal" changed to "recall" (now recall without delight). Page 325 - "Panoramar" changed to "Panorama". [A reference to "Mr. Barker's Panorama" in Leicester Square.] Other Changes The following changes to the original text have been made for clarity or consistency: One reference each of 2d, 3d, 23d and 82d changed to 2nd, 3rd, 23rd and 82nd respectively to match the more numerous instances of the latter forms in the original text. Page 36 - "half-glasses" changed to "half glasses" (my thirty half glasses of sherry). Page 73 - "Punhite" changed to "Punhete". Page 151 - "Corporal Callaghan" changed to "Corporal O'Callaghan". Page 248 - "Badajos" changed to "Badajoz" twice. Page 286 - "Mac Fadgen" changed to "M'Fadgen". Page 287 - "Mac Fadgen" changed to "M'Fadgen". Page 287 - "Corporal Callagan" changed to "Corporal O'Callaghan". Footnotes Footnotes have been re-indexed using numbers and collected together at the end of each chapter. Variations and Unusual Spelling/Hyphenation The following variations of a word or descriptive term are found in the original text and have been retained: Sergeant, Serjeant, Sargeant, sarjeant day-break, day-brake, daybreak breastplate, breast-plate aspin leaf, aspin-lafe honeymoon, honey-moon quartermaster, quarter-master southwest, south-west Englishman, Englishmon, Englisman towards, toward rattletrap, ratling