of the Marshal de Noailles, has been appointed, by His Gracious
Majesty, to a cornetcy in our regiment.

"Now, gentlemen, I have known, and doubtless you can all of you
recall, instances where the harmony of a regiment has been
grievously disturbed, and bad blood caused, owing to the want of a
clear understanding upon matters connected with a family; which
might have been avoided, had proper explanations been given at the
commencement. I have spoken frankly to Mr. Kennedy, and he has
stated to me certain particulars, and has not only authorized me,
but requested me to repeat them to you, feeling that you had a
right to know who it was that had come among you, and so to avoid
questioning on matters that are, of all others, prone to lead to
trouble among gentlemen.

"Beyond the fact that he is a Kennedy, and that his father had to
fly from Ireland, two years after the siege of Limerick, owing to
a participation in some plot to bring about a fresh rising in
favour of King James, he is unacquainted with his family history.
He has never heard from his father, and only knows that he made
for France after throwing the usurper's spies off his track, and
there can be little doubt that it was his intention to take
service in this brigade. There have been several Kennedys in the
service, and I have little doubt that this young gentleman's
father was the Murroch Kennedy who joined the third regiment,
about that time, and was killed a few months afterwards at the
battle of Breda. His death would account for the fact that his son
never received a letter from him. At the time when he left
Ireland, the child was some two years old, and, as communication
was difficult, and the boy so young, Murroch might very well have
put off writing until the boy grew older, not thinking that death
might intervene, as it did, to prevent his doing so.

"This is all simple and straightforward enough, and you will, I am
sure, have no hesitation in extending the hand of friendship to
the son of a gallant Irishman, who died fighting in the ranks of
the Irish Brigade, exiled, like the rest of us, for loyalty to our
king.

"Still, gentlemen, you might, perhaps, wonder how it is that he
knows no more of his family, and it was that this question might
be disposed of, once for all, that I am making this statement to
you on his behalf. He was not brought up, as you might expect,
with some of his father's connections. Whether the family were so
scattered t