284 A Story of the Plague of Gibraltar. [MARCH, 



.would pursue me, if I carried into your camp the seeds of disease that 

 perhaps now lurk in myself." 



Courtenay argued with her ; implored her, kneeled to her ; but Caro- 

 line, though strongly moved, was resolute. " Do not/' said she, " do 

 not try to make me unworthy of you ; take with you my love, but leave 

 my life in the keeping of God." 



Caroline's father entered the garden, and Courtenay flew to him to 

 plead his wishes. " It is impossible," said he ; " my child is right ; I 

 dare not advise her otherwise ; go, my young friend, assured of her 

 affection, and my esteem ; we will take every possible precaution, and 

 let us hope that all will go well." 



Courtenay had exhausted every argument and every entreaty ; he 

 stood gazing upon Caroline, the image of misery and despair. At length 

 he burst into tears. 



Reader, forgive him ; the lion-hearted may be moved to tears. Re- 

 member how he loved remember his enthusiastic nature; he knew 

 that he was about to be separated from her whom perhaps pestilence 

 had already marked as his prey : he saw her before him, young, and 

 beautiful, and sorrowful for the large drops silently ran down her 

 cheeks ; and perhaps he fancied her on her death-bed. I do not know 

 what were his thoughts, but they must have been bitter and sad; for, I 

 say, he burst into tears. 



Caroline could withstand his eloquence, his prayers, even his kneel- 

 ing ; but where is the woman who ever yet resisted the tears of the 

 man she loves ? Caroline threw herself upon his neck, unmindful of 

 witnesses of her tenderness. " I am your's," said she, " I am your's; 

 lead me where you will." But Courtenay felt that his triumph was 

 ungenerous. " No," said he ; " that which judgment and virtue, reli- 

 gion and affection have withheld, ought not to be yielded to tears." 

 And they parted in deep sorrow indeed, but with somewhat more calm- 

 ness than from the former part of the interview might perhaps have been 

 expected. 



An hour after, the troops mustered at the different barracks, and 

 marched out of Gibraltar; and before sunset, the encampment was 

 formed upon the neutral ground. The neutral ground of Gibraltar is a 

 strip about half a mile wide, across the neck of land that connects 

 Gibraltar with the mainland, lying, of course, between the British and 

 the Spanish lines. Upon every occasion, when disease has visited Gib- 

 raltar, it has been the custom for the soldiery to encamp upon the 

 neutral ground. This precautionary measure has evidently proceeded 

 upon the supposition that plague is contagious, for its purpose is to cut 

 off all communication between the military and the inhabitants, which 

 would be difficult, if not impossible, unless by placing between them 

 impassable moats and bulwarks. This purpose has also been always 

 made doubly secure, by the most rigorous exaction of military dis- 

 cipline, and obedience to orders ; and any violation of these has been 

 visited by prompt and effectual . punishment. The separation would, 

 indeed, be entirely nugatory, unless it were accompanied by the most 

 rigorous discipline. Accordingly, the same evening upon which the 

 encampment was formed, the troops were called out, and a general order 

 read at the head of each company, forbidding, under any pretence, all 

 communication between the camp and the town, under the high penalty 

 affixed by the articles of war to disobedience of orders. But even this 



