------------------------------------------------------------------------ A few days after this occurrence, Terence Daly, more familiarly called "Terry," a comrade quartered in the same room as myself, returned from Ireland, whence he had been on furlough, and brought with him a large bladder full of whisky. Now there were few, if any, of us ever calculated the effect of this ardent spirit so pure and so strong as Terry had brought it. "Boys," said he, as he tumbled the bladder from his valise on to the floor, "this is the raal dhrop of Irish eye-water--not Jamieson's eye-water, but a betther soort, by rason of its being distilled in the Bog of Allan, and never paid a farden of duty." I had never before taken liquor of any description to such an extent as to make me intoxicated--in fact, I had fully made up my mind to avoid intemperance (the greatest curse of all, to both soldiers and civilians); but Terry, with the proverbial good nature of his race, insisted that I should have "one glass," as all the rest of the men in the room. Some, unfortunately, were not content with one, two, or three glasses. We were ordered for a "parade under arms" that afternoon, at three o'clock, and it was dinner-time when Terry produced the whisky. Now, a parade under arms, on foot, requires an uncommon degree of steadiness and precision. We were all steady enough until required to "form" and "dress" in troops before taking our place in the ranks with the main body of the regiment, but it was then discovered that the men who had partaken of the "eye-water," including myself, could scarcely stand at all, let alone stand or march steady. It is a most serious crime in the army to be "_drunk_ for duty;" indeed, a man who has been four times convicted of this crime is "drummed out of the regiment" (a process I shall describe in a future chapter). The result was that we were all confined in the guard-room until the following day, when we were escorted before the colonel. Each was taken into the office and interrogated separately, and we told the truth, namely, that we had "no idea the whisky would have such an effect." We were then all taken in together, and received a severe reprimand from the colonel, who ordered us to be "confined to barracks" for fourteen days. Terry, whose furlough did not expire until the evening of the day he returned, did not go to parade, and so he escaped.