iquity, and
recollect that it is your lordship's property, I shall feel in better
quarters here than if I were in the best hotel London could afford."

"I trust--I have no doubt--that you will find yourself as comfortable as I
wish you, my dear general," said the young nobleman; and once more bidding
his guest good night, he shook him by the hand and withdrew.

The general once more looked about him, and internally congratulating
himself on his return to peaceful life, the comforts of which were
endeared by the recollection of the hardships and dangers he had lately
sustained, undressed himself, and prepared for a luxurious night's rest.

Here, contrary to the custom of this species of tale, we leave the general
in possession of his apartment until the next morning.

The company assembled for breakfast at an early hour, but without the
appearance of General Browne, who seemed the guest that Lord Woodville was
desirous of honoring above all whom his hospitality had assembled around
him.

He more than once expressed surprise at the general's absence, and at
length sent a servant to make inquiry after him. The man brought back
information that General Browne had been walking abroad since an early
hour of the morning, in defiance of the weather, which was misty and
ungenial.

"The custom of a soldier," said the young nobleman to his friends; "many
of them acquire habitual vigilance, and cannot sleep after the early hour
at which their duty usually commands them to be alert."

Yet the explanation which Lord Woodville thus offered to the company
seemed hardly satisfactory to his own mind, and it was in a fit of silence
and abstraction that he awaited the return of the general.

It took place near an hour after the breakfast bell had rung. He looked
fatigued and feverish. His hair, the powdering and arrangement of which
was at this time one of the most important occupations of a man's whole
day, and marked his fashion as much as, in the present time, the tying of
a cravat, or the want of one, was disheveled, uncurled, void of powder,
and dank with dew. His clothes were huddled on with a careless negligence,
remarkable in a military man, whose real or supposed duties are usually
held to include some attention to the toilet, and his looks were haggard
and ghastly.

"So you have stolen a march upon us this morning, my dear general," said
Lord Woodville; "or you have not found your bed so much to your mind as I
had hoped