92 NIMROD'S NORTHERN TOUR. 



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. " Fll 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 rela- 

 tion 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 wo7it 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 Welchman* that he would not die. His sufferings I will not 

 attempt to describe ; but I believe they were almost beyond human 

 endurance — 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 

 * Sir William Wynne— then a subaltern in the Welch Fusileers, 



