158 The Eve of Saint Simon, in Colombia. [Aua. 



Colonel Blosset was a man of gentlemanlike manners and appearance. 

 He had formerly held the rank of captain and brevet-major in the 28th 

 foot, and served with that regiment in Egypt. He was considered as 

 a brave and clever officer, but he was ill calculated for the post he attained 

 in the republican service. Owing, probably, to the influence of climate, 

 his mind became enervated, and he evinced a most unpardonable apathy 

 towards the interest and comforts of those under his command. He was 

 peculiarly accessible to flattery, and the most fulsome adulation could 

 neither offend or disgust him. This weakness was taken advantage of by 

 a scoundrel, who, by the meanest arts, so wormed himself into the 

 colonel's confidence, and took such firm hold of his affections, that he 

 became his sole adviser, and directed his every action ! 



The officers of the legion beheld with astonishment the sudden eleva- 

 tion of a man who but a short time previous was a sergeant in the corps 

 in which he now bore the rank of captain, together with the staff-ap- 

 pointment of brigade-major, which his patron had bestowed upon him 

 with a view of attaching him more immediately to his person. Conjec- 

 ture was busy in unravelling the mystery of this preferment, but no correct 

 solution of it appears to have been obtained. What seemed most singu- 

 lar was, that Blosset should have selected for his intimate companion an 

 illiterate man of low and vulgar habits, and whose only redeeming quali- 

 ties were a bustling activity and tolerably soldierlike appearance. Had 

 he conducted himself with prudence in his new station, he might have 

 secured the good-will of his former superiors ; but his overbearing arro- 

 gance and insolent assumption of consequence rendered him an object of 

 contempt and detestation to every Englishman in the garrison. 

 . Still, however, Brigade-major Trayner (so was the colonel's minion 

 named) set public opinion at defiance, and, heedless of the odium he incurred, 

 continued to assert the prerogative of his place, and exercise its functions 

 with a severity that astonished, but could not restrain, the sarcastic com- 

 ments of his quondam associates, some of whom had known him in the 

 British army. The trite proverb of " Set a beggar on horseback" was 

 fully verified in his conduct. Hints respecting his former character were 

 at first cautiously indulged in, and soon acquired a more tangible shape ; 

 till at length he was boldly accused of having (whilst serving with his 

 corps during the occupation of France by the Allied Forces) been re- 

 duced from the rank of corporal and punished for theft ! 

 . As he took no steps to invalidate a report so stigmatizing in its nature, 

 the officers of the legion deemed it their duty to request the commanding 

 officer would institute an inquiry into the truth of a charge which was 

 calculated to reflect dishonour upon the whole. Strange to say, the 

 colonel not only professed to discredit the accusation, but discountenanced 

 all investigation ! The officers, compelled to acquiesce in this decision, 

 determined at least to avoid the contamination of his society: save, there- 

 fore, on points of duty, they held no communication with him, and he 

 was placed in strict " Coventry." This very just manifestation of indig- 

 nant feeling stung Trayner to the soul. Every baneful passion rankled 

 in his bosom. He swore to be revenged, and too fatally did he keep his 

 oath ! but let us not anticipate our tale. Attached as lieutenant to the 

 light company of the " legion" was a young man of most amiable man- 

 ners, gentlemanlike, and unassuming in his deportment. He was respected 

 and idolized by his comrades, who took pleasure in predicting his ad- 

 vancement, which they would have witnessed without one particle of 



