ight like devils." So they always will while they are
Irish. In some situations they are, perhaps, too impetuous, but if I
know anything of the service, this is a fault on the right side; and,
what at the moment was thought rashness and madness, has gained Old
England many a glorious victory.

Our magical or aerial flight up the ghauts, with guns and elephants,
seemed to have bewildered the enemy, for we could not get a glimpse of
one of them; and it is not clear to me that they had not flown to their
capital, to see if some of us had alighted there, or that we were not
soaring in the air in that vicinity.

The sun rose in majestic splendour, and the scene before us was a little
world of woody hills and valleys. The brilliant rays of the luminary of
day exhibited to the eye nature's masterpiece in scenery. Golden woods,
that would have defied the pencil of an artist, and which surpassed the
sublimest creation of the imagination; glittering hills, that vied in
brilliancy with the rising sun; rippling rills, that whispered, "Come,
ye thirsty souls, and drink of the crystal brook; and, ye passing
seraphs, stay and dip your wings in the pure stream, ere ye ascend to
the realms of love;" lofty towering pines, that nodded, "Come and see
the things on high;" and cataracts, that rushed headlong down the rocky
cliff, and imparted a wild beauty to the whole, beyond the power of
words to describe. There sighed the weeping willows, which, by the cool
brookside, dipped their new-born leaves in the rippling waters, to steal
more tears that they might weep again. There sported the golden fish,
sheltering themselves from the meridian sun, beneath the shade of the
overhanging foliage. There grew the blushing rose, calmly reposing on
its downy moss, and smiling that it had, when fair maidens were asleep,
robbed their cheeks of all their beauty. There flourished the gaudy
tulip; and the blue-eyed violet dwelt on the mossy banks. The little
minstrels of the grove tuned their morning notes, and their seraphic
melody lulled the whole to sweet repose. Oh, that ever human blood
should defile these beauteous scenes! or that the horrors of war should
disturb the sweet harmony established by nature in the fertile valleys
of this sweet and picturesque country! But in this paradise of beauty
dwelt a cruel and barbarous people, proverbial for their bloody deeds,
whose hearts were more callous than the flinty rocks that reared their
majestic heads a