old her a secret. Some
months before that time he had made a vow, and written out and signed
it solemnly. It was in these words:--"I make on this day a promiss,
that if I marry my Cousin Kate Doughty, this year, or before three
years are over, at the latest, to build a church or chapel at
Tichborne to the Holy Virgin, in thanksgiving for the protection which
she has showed us in praying God that our wishes might be fulfilled."
Roger went back to his regiment and indulged his habitual melancholy.
To his great regret, the order for the Carabineers to go to India had
been countermanded; but he had no intention of leading the dull round
of barrack life in Canterbury. He had determined to go abroad for a
year and a half or two years; by that time the allotted period of
trial would be near an end. He had determined to leave a profession
which offered no outlet for his energies. The tame round of the cities
and picture-galleries of Europe had no charms for him. Among the many
books which he had read at this time were the Indian romances of
Chateaubriand, "Rene," "Attila," and "Le Dernier Abencerage." How
deeply these stories had impressed his mind is apparent in his letters
to Lady Doughty. "Happy," he says, "was the life of Rene. He knew how
to take his troubles with courage, and keep them to himself,--retired
from all his friends to be more at liberty to think about his sorrows
and misfortunes, and bury them in himself. I admire that man for his
courage; that is, the courage to carry those sorrows to the grave
which drove him into solitude." Among his intimate friends and
schoolfellows at Stonyhurst, was Mr. Edward Waterton, whose father, the
celebrated naturalist, had given to the college a collection of
stuffed foreign birds and other preserved animals; and there can be no
doubt that the famous narratives of adventure in South America of that
distinguished traveller were among the books which Roger and other
college friends read at that period. How deeply the splendours of the
natural history collection of Stonyhurst had impressed the mind of the
boy is evidenced in the fact that Roger took delight at school in
practising the art of preserving birds and other animals; while long
afterwards, in humble emulation of the great naturalist's achievement,
he gathered and sent home, when on his travels, many a specimen of
birds of splendid plumage. South America, in short, had long been the
subject of his dreams; and now in travell