Morton went to the recruiting office where he had been with Rosny on the day before, learned the time and place of the embarkation, was on the spot at the hour named, and in a few minutes saw Rosny striding down the wharf in most unmilitary haste, his hair fluttering in the wind. He was so engrossed in making certain arrangements, and issuing his mandates to the soldiers who were to row him and some other officers to Governor's Island, that he did not observe Morton, who stood quietly leaning against a post. "Hallo, Dick," said the latter at length. "Haven't you eyes to see your friends?" Rosny turned, in great surprise, and greeted him most emphatically. "Come, Morton," he said, as he was stepping into the boat, "you'll change your mind after all,--won't you?--and meet me at Vera Cruz." "I'll sit at home, and read your exploits in the papers," replied Morton. "Well; a wilful man must have his way. Adieu." "Good by. May you live to be a general, or any thing else you like, short of the presidency." "Why, shouldn't I make a good president?" "No." "What? too progressive,--too wide awake,--too enlightened, ey?" "Yes, and too pugnacious." "There you are again, Boston all over. I'll be president yet, if only to spite the Bostonites. You shall write my life, and I'll give you an office for it. Farewell." Morton watched the receding boat till it was almost out of sight, waved his hat to Rosny, who waved his own in return, and walked back to the hotel, wondering what would be the issue of his old classmate's ambitious schemes. How, among a throng of brave men, Rosny gained a name for determined daring;--how, on every occasion that offered, he displayed the fire of the Frenchman, and the stubborn mettle of the Saxon, whose blood mingled in his veins;--how, though sick and wounded, he dragged himself from the hospital at Puebla, and, mounting his horse, pushed forward with the advancing columns;--how gallantly, under the murdering storm of musketry and grape, he led his intrepid blackguards up the rocks of Chapultepec;--how, while shouting among the foremost, he climbed the hostile rampart, a bullet plunged into his brain, and dashed him, quivering and dead, to the foot of the scaling ladders;--all this, and more likewise, is it not written in the New York Herald?