ionate
couple my heart will ever cherish the fond remembrance of gratitude, and
I hope this humble declaration may meet them in the far-distant clime in
which they sojourn. When Captain Marshall saw the sentence, he turned
from me, and walked into another room--for what purpose, I leave the
sympathizing reader to guess. He soon returned to me, and said, "Come,
Shipp, you have often mounted the breach of danger--cheer up--and
recollect you have those dear babes to clothe and feed." Here my little
boy, supposing that this was meant as a kind of rebuke, said, "I don't
want anything to eat, Captain Marshall; therefore, don't cry." These are
touches which the feeling heart can alone appreciate. To prevent, for
the time, any further indulgence in sorrow, I was prevailed on to
accompany my kind neighbour to his hospitable house, where I spent the
day with him, and where a little musical party assembled in the evening,
to rouse me from the state of despondency into which this last blow had
plunged me. But all attempts to divert me from the recollections of my
misfortunes were fruitless. Music and society but added to my pain; and
I found that I was never, for a length of time, so composed as in those
days and nights which I spent free from all company but that of my two
motherless babes, with whom only I could, if I may so express myself,
luxuriate in grief.

[Illustration: GHAUT ON THE GANGES.

From a Drawing by W. DANIELL, R.A.]

In one month after the confirmed sentence of the court-martial had been
made known to me, I was compelled to obey the orders which I had
received to repair to Calcutta, previous to embarkation for England. To
enable me to comply with these directions, I was obliged to sacrifice
all my property for a mere nothing, and I set out for the Presidency
with my little boy, now my only comfort, having made the little infant
over to my brother-in-law, J.P. Mellaird, Esq., indigo-planter Tirhoot,
where his grandmother, somewhat recovered, found refuge also.

The voyage down the lonely river Ganges was not calculated to soothe my
sorrows or to cheer my prospects. I reached Calcutta in safety, and
remained there a considerable time waiting for a ship, where, strange to
say, I received an order to proceed home with invalids, and to place
myself immediately under the command of Captain Mathers, of his
Majesty's 59th regiment. This order I was bound to obey; but it
prevented me from bringing home my little boy,