74 JAMES MUSPRATT 



post, accompanied, as was too often the case, 

 with insult and humiliation, was intolerable 

 to him, and he determined to desert. A 

 comrade joined him in this resolve, which 

 they carried out one dark night when the 

 vessel lay in the Mumbles roadstead, off 

 Swansea. The boatman who rowed them 

 ashore only performed his perilous task 

 under the terror of threats, that if he did not 

 do it they would throw him overboard. In 

 this escapade these young fellows ran great 

 risk of disgrace and death, for such would 

 have been their fate had they failed. Not 

 until the morning was their escape detected, 

 and then pursuit was fruitless. The hard 

 experiences through which he had passed had 

 quenched the spirit for military adventure- 

 bis ideas, derived from songs and romances, 

 had proved illusions that faded amidst the 

 stern realities of life. As soon as he could 

 he made his way back from Wales to Ireland. 

 His affairs were still in Chancery, and for 

 the termination of the suit he was compelled 

 to wait; but little of the property that had 

 been left him would come into his possession, 

 the greater portion would have been wasted 

 in its passage through the court. 



His literary and artistic tastes drew him 



