THE FIREBRAND. 



385 



fiercely because it was smothered. Some two 

 years afterwards, when in the heart of Africa, 

 and half delirious with fever, my companion let 

 fall certain expressions which, to my infinite 

 surprise, showed that he had been nursing three 

 great grievances. The front of the offence was 

 that his Diary had been spoiled. Secondly, he 

 felt injured because he had derived no profit from 

 a publication which had not proved ' paying ' to 

 me. Thirdly, he was hurt because I had for- 

 warded to the Calcutta Museum of Natural His- 

 tory, as expressly bound by my instructions, his 

 collection, of which he might easily have kept 

 duplicates. My companion had a peculiarity 

 more rarely noticed in the Englishman than in 

 the Hibernian and in the Teuton — a habit of se- 

 creting thoughts and reminiscences till brought 

 to light by a sudden impulse. He would brood, 

 perhaps for years, over a chance word, which a 

 single outspoken sentence of explanation could 

 have satisfactorily settled. The inevitable result 

 was the exaggeration of fact into fiction, the dis- 

 tortion of the true to the false. Let any man, 

 after long musing about, or frequent repetition 

 of, a story or an adventure, consult his original 

 notes upon the matter, and if they do not startle 

 him, I shall hold him to be an exception. And if 



VOL. II, 25 



