130 CHARACTER OF A BRITISH SOLDIER. 



member, turned sulky and would not come to the 

 scratch, but Chesapeak, her lover, was not to be so 

 done ; " Now you savey, Mol," said he, " me no tand 

 your shim shams ; me come to be married, and me 

 will be married ; you come beg me when I got 

 another;" still Mol coquetted it; Chesapeak went 

 out, staid five minutes, and, as I am a Christian man, 

 brought in a much prettier girl under his arm, and was 

 married to her forthwith. I suppose Chesapeak had 

 his reputation. I have known cases in England, where 

 something of this sort of manly conduct would have 

 had a very salutary effect. Now a grand difficulty 

 arose from there being no rings'; those in the women's 

 ears being too large by half. Hereupon I took — not 

 thy hair, my Eugenia ! oh no — but a gold hoop which 

 my good father bought for me from a wandering Jew ; 

 this I proffered for the service of the sable bridegrooms, 

 and I now wear it as a sort of charm as close as possi- 

 ble to Eugenia's hair. It noosed thirteen couples. I 

 gave away most of the brides ; one of them, a pretty 

 French girl of the Romish faith, behaved very ill ; she 

 giggled so much that the clergyman threatened to de- 

 sist from the ceremony, and her mate, a quiet and 

 devout Protestant, was very angry with her. When 

 she was kneeling after the blessing, I heard her say to 

 her husband — " dit-on, Jean I hooka drole maniere de 

 se marier ! h^ ! h^ ! he ! " I'll warrant she leads her 

 spouse a decent life of it. 



Six Months in the West Indies. 



COLONEL NAPIER'S 

 CHARACTER OF A BRITISH SOLDIER. 



As general Foy has been at some pains to misrepre- 

 sent the character of the British soldiers, I will set 

 down what many years' experience gives me the right 

 to say is nearer the truth than his dreams. 



That the British infantry soldier is more robust than 

 the soldier of any other nation, can scarcely be doubted 



