CHARLES WATERTON5 ESQ. XXxiii 



directing his heaviest shot ; and he helped to serve 

 the guns till all was over. 



" On the boy's safe return home," said the 

 colonel, " though I admired his bravery, I was 

 obliged to whip him for his rashness in having ex- 

 posed himself to almost inevitable death." 



I thought I could perceive a mark in the colonels 

 face, as he said this, which led me to understand 

 that there was something more than paternal anx- 

 iety for the boy's welfare which had caused him to 

 apply the rod ; and, when I called to mind the affair 

 of the telescope, I concluded that, had a French 

 squadron, in lieu of an English one, been bombarding 

 Algesiras, young Lyon would have escaped even 

 without a reprimand. 



I left my travelling friend in Cadiz, and returned 

 to Malaga on board a Spaniard, who kept close under 

 Ceuta, as we passed up the Straits of Gibraltar. It 

 grieves me to add that, many years after this_, on my 

 return to England from the West Indies, in passing 

 through my former companion's native town, I made 

 inquiries after him, and I was informed by a gentle- 

 man who had sat upon the inquest, that my compa- 

 nion had fallen in love, had wooed in vain, and 

 hanged himself in despair. 



More than a year of my life had now passed 

 away in Malaga and its vicinity, without misfor- 

 tune, without care, and without annoyance of any 

 kind. The climate was delicious ; and I felt regret 

 in making preparations to leave this old Moorish 

 town on a trip to Malta. But the Spanish proverb 

 informs us, that man proposes, and God disposes; 

 b 



