THE SMUGGLER. 79 



other things of the sort, there would be nothing left for an 

 English gentleman, but to go to Italy and put himself at the 

 head of a party of banditti. That must be glorious workl" 



" Don't you think, Mr. Radford," asked Sir Edward Digby, 

 " that active service in the army might offer equal excitement, 

 and a more honourable field?" 



" Oh, dear no!" cried the young man. " A life of slavery 

 compared with a life of freedom ; to be drilled arid commanded, 

 and made a mere machine of, and sent about relieving 

 guards and pickets, and doing everything that one is told like 

 a school -boy ! I would not go into the army for the world. 

 I'm sure if I did I should shoot my commanding officer within 

 a month!" 



44 Then I would advise you not," answered the young 

 baronet, " for after the shooting there would be another step 

 to be taken which would not be quite so pleasant." 



" Oh! you mean the hanging," cried young Radford, laugh- 

 ing; " but I would take care they should never hang me; for 

 I could shoot myself as easily as I could shoot him; and I 

 have a great dislike to strangulation. It's one of the few sorts 

 of death that would not please me." 



" Come, come, Richard!" said Sir Robert Croyland, in a ner- 

 vous and displeased tone; "let us talk of some other subject. 

 You will frighten the ladies from table before the cloth is off." 



" It is very 'odd," said young Radford, in a low voice, to 

 Sir Edward Digby, without making any reply to the master 

 of the house; " it is very odd, how frightened old men are at 

 the very name of death, when at the best they can have but 

 two or three years to live." 



The young officer did not reply, but turned the conversa- 

 tion to other things; and the wine having been liberally sup- 

 plied, operated as it usually does, at the point where its use 

 stops short of excess, in "making glad the heart of man, 5 ' and 

 the conclusion of the dinner was much more cheerful and 

 placable than the commencement. 



The ladies retired within a few minutes after the desert was 

 set upon the table ; and it soon became evident to Sir Edward 

 Digby, that the process of deep drinking, so disgracefully 

 common in England at that time, was about to commence. 

 He was by no means incapable of bearing as potent libations 

 as most men ; for occasionally, in those days, it was scarcely 



