1830.] The Eve of Saint Simon, in Colombia. 163 



or honour upon my own !" During this intrepid speech, Paez evinced 

 no emotion, whilst all around betrayed more or less agitation. Pity 

 and admiration were the predominant sensations; for few, if any, doubted 

 but his doom was fixed ! Blosset had been intimate with Hodgkinson' s 

 father, and now resolved to make an effort in favour of the son, and 

 forestall a sentence which, once pronounced by Paez, would, like the 

 laws of the " Medes and Persians," have been irrevocable. He hastily 

 approached the general, and entered into conversation with him. Their 

 language was inaudible, but from the colonel's gestures it might be 

 surmised that he pleaded the cause of mercy. Paez's looks were still 

 cold and relentless. The agony which every sensitive bosom felt during 

 the few minutes that this conference lasted is not to be described : the 

 life of a fellow- creature depended on a breath ; and that breath, like 

 the deadly siroc of the desert, could wither all who came within its fatal 

 influence ! Paez speedily put a period to the horror of suspense by di- 

 recting Trayner to deprive Captain Hodgkinson of the insignia of his 

 rank, an order which was executed by the former with all the alacrity 

 of gratified malice, and the noble victim of unmerited indignity sent 

 under a Creole escort to the guard-room, thus escaping a scene his less 

 fortunate comrades were doomed to witness, and which was calculated 

 (by the terrific impression it made upon their minds) to defy even the 

 obliterating power of time to efface from their memory. 



Twelve men of the light company were now selected as the execu- 

 tioners of the six unhappy beings who stood in mute despair awaiting 

 the awful signal of their death. Hodgkinson and Risdale's absence had, 

 however, left them without an officer. This circumstance was reported 

 to the general, who caused proclamation to be made through an aide- 

 de-camp, that any subaltern of the " British legion" volunteering the 

 duty should be promoted to the rank of captain. I think I hear my 

 reader exclaim, " Great God ! is it possible that a British officer could be 

 induced by the promise of any reward to accept such an office ?" Softly, 

 kind reader; you form too favourable an estimate of human nature : sad ex- 

 perience may yet convince you, as it has myself, that self-interest is too 

 often the main spring of our actions ; yet I hope and believe there are 

 many exceptions to be met with in all classes of society, in none more 

 so than our gallant officers of both services, The Navy and Army of 

 Great Britain ; in which numbers might be found to possess the magna- 

 nimity of an Hodgkinson few, if any, that could be seduced by bribery, 

 or influenced by fear, to follow an example which truth now compels me 

 to record. 



Belonging to the grenadiers of the " legion," there was a man of the 

 name of Gill, who, from the rank of sergeant, which he held on leaving 

 England, had for his good conduct, cleanliness of appearance, and other 

 soldierlike qualities, been promoted to a second lieutenancy. He had for- 

 merly been a private in one of our regiments of life-guards, where I have 

 always understood he obtained the reputation of a steady, sober, and 

 well-conducted man. However high his character might stand on these 

 points, yet it could not be expected, from the nature and quality of his 

 former habits and associates, that he should possess that delicacy of feel- 

 ing, that nice sense of honour, that tact of discriminating accurately be- 

 tween obedience and servility, which distinguishes the gentleman from 

 the plebeian, and stamps him with that superiority over his species (by 

 the world) denominated polish, and which is alone to be acquired by 



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