The Merry Past 



should draw bills, and she would get them negotiated. 

 He was, however, to take, as part of the consideration, 

 a capital hunter, a horse that had hunted with the 

 King*s hounds, and that the son of the Archbishop 

 of York had offered 150 guineas for; this was to 

 be put in, as a great favour, at 120 guineas. The 

 borrower signed the bills, and as a collateral security, 

 he gave a warrant of attorney, confessing judgment 

 to the amount of the sum to be raised. When the 

 hunter came home, however, a sad disillusion followed. 

 The poor animal was in such a wretched condition 

 that it had to be destroyed, and after his bones had 

 been sent to a sham ivory merchant, his hide to a 

 currier, and his flesh to the dogs, the poor animal's 

 inside and outside value did not amount to more 

 than three pounds. 



At the time of the Napoleonic wars many women 

 served as soldiers both in the English and French 

 armies. 



In 1794 a fine young girl, not more than seventeen 

 years of age, enlisted in the 32nd Regiment, at Hamp- 

 ton. She attended drill regularly, and was considered 

 a very clever recruit. Though she slept in the same 

 room as the corporal, who enlisted her, a fortnight 

 her sex was never discovered, until she disclosed the 

 circumstance to an officer, of whom she was passion- 

 ately enamoured. The corporal was so ridiculed by 

 his comrades about this business that he requested 

 and obtained leave to quit the regiment. 



A less sympathetic character was a young woman 

 dressed in man's apparel, who in 1797 was charged 



279 



