ands of Scotland. During my boyhood I had ever accustomed myself
to athletic exercises, and loved to excite myself by encountering
danger in its most terrific forms. Often had I passed whole days in
climbing the steep and precipitous crags which overhang the sea in the
neighbourhood of Morton Castle, ostensibly in the pursuit of the heron
or the seagull, but self-acknowledgedly for the mere pleasure of
grappling with the difficulties they opposed to me. Often, too, in the
most terrific tempests, when sea and sky have met in one black and
threatening mass, and when the startled fishermen have in vain
attempted to dissuade me from my purpose, have I ventured, in sheer
bravado, out of sight of land, and unaccompanied by a human soul. Then,
when wind and tide have been against me on my return, have I, with my
simple sculls alone, caused my faithful bark to leap through the
foaming brine as though a press of canvass had impelled her on. Oh,
that this spirit of adventure had never grown with my growth and
strengthened with my strength!" sorrowfully added the warrior, again
apostrophising himself: "then had I never been the wretch I am.

"The wild daring by which my boyhood had been marked was again
powerfully awakened by the bold and romantic scenery of the Scottish
Highlands; and as the regiment was at that time quartered in a part of
these mountainous districts, where, from the disturbed nature of the
times, society was difficult of attainment, many of the officers were
driven from necessity, as I was from choice, to indulge in the sports
of the chase. On one occasion a party of four of us set out early in
the morning in pursuit of deer, numbers of which we knew were to be met
with in the mountainous tracts of Bute and Argyleshire. The course we
happened to take lay through a succession of dark deep glens, and over
frowning rocks; the difficulties of access to which only stirred up my
dormant spirit of enterprise the more. We had continued in this course
for many hours, overcoming one difficulty only to be encountered by
another, and yet without meeting a single deer; when, at length, the
faint blast of a horn was heard far above our heads in the distance,
and presently a noble stag was seen to ascend a ledge of rocks
immediately in front of us. To raise my gun to my shoulder and fire was
the work of a moment, after which we all followed in pursuit. On
reaching the spot where the deer had first been seen, we observed
traces