TEE BABOTSE COUNTRY. 
535 
indiscreet as it may have been, I do not consider that I, 
in any way, offended that gallant officer and distinguished 
gentleman. That a uniform, which talent and applica¬ 
tion to study were the means of exchanging for a more 
important one, thrown aside, or given to a servant, 
should, from the instability of mundane things, have 
found its way into the centre of Africa is not, I take it, a 
thing to cast a reflection upon any one. And still less has 
a man cause to be offended at being discovered as the 
author of a billet-doux. Unhappy are those who at 18 
never indited such epistles, and still more unhappy they 
who at 30 can no longer write them ! “ No doubt, good 
friend of mine,” I thought, “ some severe papa or lynx- 
eyed mamma, who is always inconveniently in the way 
in such matters, prevented thee, on leaving the theatre 
or festive ball, from delivering the little missive to thv 
Dulcinea of that night, and compelled thee to stuff the 
precious document into thy pocket. Little didst thou 
dream that the forgotten note would travel across the seas, 
penetrate into far different regions to that in which it was 
indited, and be carried—an unknown treasure—on the 
person of a negro in the Upper Zambesi! For thy conso¬ 
lation, however, know that the negro was at least the 
son of a king ! ” 
It shows pretty clearly the state of my mind at this 
conjuncture, that only sad thoughts should have been 
engendered at sight of that note found in the pocket of 
the uniform of an ensign of cavalry, as I ought to have 
instinctively known that the note could only have been a 
billet-doux. A cavalry ensign in Portugal, as I presume 
everywhere else, is always a dazzling light at which the 
thoughtless butterflies singe their gilded wings. Musing 
upon this subject, I sought my pillow, not without a sigh 
that I was already a major. 
Next day, my fever had so increased that I could not 
stand upon my legs. Lobossi came to visit me, and 
brought with him his confidential doctor. He was an 
old man, small in stature, and thin of frame, with white 
beard and hair. He began by drawing from his breast 
a string that was run through eight halves of the stones 
