My furlough having expired, I returned to England, and landed at Liverpool, in the winter of 1814; which was remarkable for one of the hardest frosts known in this country for many preceding years. I received orders from the paymaster to proceed to Kent, with a party of recruits destined for that district; and as most of the young fellows were rude and unruly, and strangers to military restraint, it required no common share of firmness, tempered with 189discretion properly to conduct and manage them. I arrived, without missing a man, in the vicinity of Maidstone. Just before entering the town, one of the most ungovernable of the squad contrived to dip his hands in mischief; nor was his mouth entirely guiltless. Having run up a score at one of the road-side inns, for liquors had and drunk, he was unable to pay the reckoning; when being minus of ready cash, he proposed leaving some valuable equivalent in the hands of the landlord, as a temporary deposit, to be shortly redeemed; this consisted of a bundle, containing, he averred, much valuable property. We had not proceeded far on our journey, when poor Boniface came running after us, stating that on opening the package it contained nothing but a few worthless rags. Meantime the shuffler, apprehensive of detection and no doubt conscience-stricken, had purposely out-walked us, and was considerably in advance when the plaintiff overtook us. We could only pity his sad case, and preach caution for the future. The troublesome personage just adverted to was the author of more mischief. At our next halt, under the influence, it is probable, of the late excesses, he quarrelled with the servants in the house; and being a powerful man, of about six feet two inches in height, soon cleared the public room of its inmates; getting into the street, he threw off his coat, and gave a general challenge for a fight. The invitation was properly rejected; and, like many other violent spirits, he was eventually subdued, and marched quietly to quarters.