evening was sufficiently recovered to walk to the inn, and inquire for the captain’s welfare. He had been carefully attended, and, though much bruised, was doing well. He knew me at the first glance, and exclaimed, ‘That’s the man that saved my life. I hope the country will reward him.’ Several gentlemen frequenting the Library and Reading-room, who saw the occurrence, were equally loud in their praises; and a clergyman, I understood, moved that I be rewarded with ten pounds and a silver medal. For distinctions so flattering I ought perhaps to be grateful; for they are all the reward I ever had. Why the worthy captain should expect the country to produce a premium for the saving of his life, I am at a loss to conjecture. One would have thought that the onus of doing that might have been laid upon a party much easier of access. Never from that time did I hear from these eloquently grateful parties. 193 CHAPTER VIII. THE AUTHOR RETIRES FROM THE ARMY—SHOULD A SOLDIER BE RELIGIOUS?—SCRIPTURE HEROES: ABRAM, JOSHUA, DEBORAH, JEPHTHAH, GIDEON, SAMSON, SAUL, AND DAVID—OTHER GODFEARING SOLDIERS: THE THUNDERING LEGION, ALFRED THE GREAT, GENERAL DYKERN, COLONEL GARDINER, FREDERIC OF PRUSSIA, COLONEL BERDELEBEN. In November, 1823, on another reduction in the army, I finally retired from the service. The leisure thus afforded induced me to look within, not with the superficial survey of former years, but with a desire and determination to discover my real condition as a moral and accountable creature; in other words, the facts and verities of the Christian religion were revealed to my mind with new and affecting power. To many this will appear strange, to some ridiculous; and there are a few who will ask, why a soldier of spirit, above all others, should trouble himself about the concerns of religion. I answer that question by asking another,—Why should he not? He has as deep an interest in gospel truth as any other person; and if piety of life be deemed essential for any person in any station of society, it is not less so for him. I apprehend, that if there be any difference between civil and military life, in this respect, the soldier ought to be the most religious; for his life is usually in greater jeopardy than that of the man of peace. Death, it is true, comes to all men sooner or later; but the soldier often anticipates its approach by the perils of active warfare. Others have objected, that for military men, who 194are proverbial for licentiousness, to set up for extraordinary sanctity, is not only uncalled for, but absurd and hypocritical. I again ask, Why so? If soldiers are actually so very bad, both in pretension and reality, they stand so much the more in need of religion to make them better. Salvation is a girdle which encompasses the world; and why a man is to be excluded from its benefits because he had defended his country’s right at the sword’s point, and hazard of his life and fame, I have yet to learn.