tte as an ensign in his majesty's ----
regiment, then serving in the Peninsula, with orders to join without
delay. This was enough from his lordship, and was certainly better for
me than running the chance of damages in the King's Bench, for provoking
his majesty's subjects to a breach of the peace.

I was gazetted, tried on my uniform before the mirror, entirely approved
of my appearance, and wrote my last letter to my last flirt. The
Portsmouth mail was to start at eight. I had an hour to spare, and
sallied into the street. I met an honest-faced old acquaintance as much
at a loss as myself to slay the hour. We were driven by a shower into
shelter. The rattle of dice was heard within a green-baize-covered door.
We could not stay for ever shivering on the outside. Fortune favoured
me; in half an hour I was master of a thousand pounds; it would have
been obvious folly and ingratitude to check the torrent of success for
the paltry prospects of an ensigncy. I played on, and won on. The clock
struck eight. I will own that I trembled as the first sound caught my
ear. But whether nervous or not, from that instant the torrent was
checked. The loss and gain became alternate. Wine was brought in; I
played in furious scorn of consequences. I saw the board covered with
gold. I swept it into my stake; I soon saw my stake reduced to nothing.
My eyes were dazzled, my hand shook, my brain was on fire, I sang,
danced, roared with exultation or despair. How the night closed, I know
not; but I found myself at last in a narrow room, surrounded with
squalidness, its only light from a high-barred window, and its only
furniture the wooden tressel on which I lay, fierce, weary, and
feverish, as if I lay on the rack. From this couch of the desperate, I
was carried into the presence of a magistrate, to hear that in the
_melee_ of the night before, I had in my rage charged my honest-faced
acquaintance with palpable cheating; and having made good my charge by
shewing the loaded dice in his hand, had knocked him down with a
violence that made his recovery more than doubtful. He had seen my name
in the Gazette, and had watched me for the express purpose of final
plunder. The wretch died. I was brought to trial, found guilty of
manslaughter, and sentenced to seven years' expatriation. Fortunate
sentence! On my arrival in New South Wales, as I was found a perfect
gentleman, and fit for nothing, there was no resource but to make me try
the labour of m