FASHIONABLE HERO 25 



Another, with whom I was more immediately associated, 

 for he was one of the three committed to the care of the 

 gunner, was a true scion of the aristocracy, had some 

 pretensions to the birth of a gentleman, and would be 

 jDOssessed, on coming of age, of considerable property. 

 This hero in embryo would take frequent opportunities of 

 showing his j)ersonal dislike, as well as his contempt, for 

 all beneath him in birth and connections. He was my 

 superior in age by two or three years, and I should have 

 fared badly with this haughty, supercilious boy, as he then 

 was. had it not been for the fellow-feeling, that afterwards 

 ripened into a brotherly friendship, existing between 

 myself and the third individual, who with us constituted 

 our little mess ; and the severe remonstrance sometimes 

 administered by our kind-hearted president, who him- 

 self had no particular regard or respect for youths of 

 aristocratic bearins;. 



This promising young officer, on the arrival of the ship 

 at Madras, told the captain the service was not fit for a 

 gentleman, and begged to be invalided home ; this was 

 immediately granted. He quitted the shijo unregretted 

 by either officers or crew, and I have never seen him from 

 that time. I believe he afterwards entered the army, 

 which he left on some similar pretence ; his name was 

 well known in the fashionable circles for some few years, 

 and was mentioned in connection with the celebrated ball 

 at Brussels, prior to the battle of Waterloo, where the 

 charms of Lady Frances Wedderburn \Yebster attracted, 

 the attention of the hero of that eventful day. 



The third of my associates was a fine, handsome lad, a 

 little above my own age, fresh from the sister isle, of 



