NIM ROD'S NORTHERN TOUR. 63 



my lord y he has got it at last?" " And pray, my lord," resumed 

 I, " what did you say to your sergeant ?" " ' Not yet] '' was the 

 short, but soldier-like, reply. And this reply reminds me of a 

 similar one made by another Waterloo hero whom I also have 

 the honour of knowing, and who is likewise from the same 

 country. I allude to Colonel Hay of the Bays, distinguished 

 amongst his clan and his friends as " Jemmie Hay of the Bays," 

 and a kinder-hearted man does not live. I believe bullets or 

 sabres have found their way into almost every part of his body, 

 and on one occasion, as he lay on the ground, he overheard the 

 comfortable tidings that he was dead or dying. "TV/ bet a 

 hundred of that? said he, faintly, and as it happened, he would 

 have won the wager, for he recovered of his wounds as by a 

 miracle. But some men, like some foxes, take a deal of killing, 

 whereas others are half frightened to death, as I believe all 

 medical men will vouch for. I have, indeed, a near relation who 

 well exemplifies this. " There is no way of getting at the ball," 

 said the surgeon, " but by sawing away two of your ribs, and in- 

 troducing a child's hand to extract it, for the forceps will not 

 take hold of it ; but you may die under the operation." " Saw 



away," exclaimed he ; "I won't die, by !" Neither did he. 



I have had the ball in my hand, and read the surgeon's report, 

 which attributed the success of the operation and the cure, not 

 to his skill, but to the determination of this gallant Welshman* 

 that he would not die. His sufferings I will not attempt to 

 describe ; but I believe they were almost beyond human endur- 

 ance having lain six weeks on his face " to begin with," as 

 Chomley, the Chatham coachman, would say. For my own part, 

 I have always been an admirer of heroes, and am not surprised 

 at Homer's giving them precedence of his gods ; yet give me 

 none of your Hannibals, who, because he had been bred in a 

 camp, claimed a dispensation from the polished manners of a 

 capital ; but commend me to such as are, in private life, possessed 

 of qualities that render life delightful, and which we have a right 

 to look for in all civilized countries in which virtue has its chief 

 foundation in humanity. 



The title which Horace gave to his satires and epistles, 

 sufficiently denotes their character. He called them sermones^ 

 discourses, conversations, reflections made amongst friends, on 

 the lives and characters of men. Assuredly then I may follow 

 so bright an example, and having mentioned the name of Baird, 

 may be allowed to enter a little into the history of a family of 



* Sir William Wynne then a subaltern in the Welsh Fusileers. 



