I did so, and saw no more of him at Bath. I soon after left England for the continent. At Dover, before the quarters of some general officer, I saw the ci-devant Major Egerton on duty as a sentinel-a private soldier. I did not speak to him nor did he seem to observe me; but I was sure of my man.

The studies and the amusements of Paris, during the winter, and the excitement of travel for the rest of the year, soon put my unlucky major out of my head; except that now and then when I fell into a narrative mood, I would tell his story to some of my young countrymen, generally ending it with a Johnsonian morality; "that nothing could supply the want of prudence, and that continued irregularity will make knowledge useless, wit ridiculous, and talent contemptible."

In those days it was not easy to get a comfortable passage from France to the United States, so that I was obliged to return home by the way of England. I therefore crossed from Holland to Harwich. Not far from the road up to London was the country seat of a wealthy gentleman, who had married a pretty American cousin of mine. I gladly seized the opportunity of paying Sophia a visit, and as willingly accepted her husband's invitation to spend a day or two with them. The next day was Sunday.

"You will go with us to church," said Sophia; 66 your passion for gothic churches and old monuments will be gratified there. We have an old carved pulpit, said to be without its match in England."

66 Yes, cousin, but what shall we find in the pulpit to-day?"

66

Oh, our rector I suppose. He is not quite such a preacher as your Dr. Mason, yet they say he is very agreeable in society; though I know little about him, for my husband holds him in perfect detestation."

As I fol

So we went to the village church. lowed Sophia up the aisle, the " Dearly beloved brethren," grated on my ear in that voice which I can never forget. I looked up in amazement. In the reading desk, duly attired in surplice and band, stood Major Egerton!"

I could not allow my cousin to enter the pew, without asking her, in a hurried whisper-" who is the clergyman?" "Mr. Egerton, the rector," she replied, as coldly as if there was nothing strange in the matter. I was lost in wonder, and stood during the whole service leaning over the high oak pew, gazing at the rector in all the fidgetty impatience of curiosity. He rattled through the service, psalms, lessons, litany and all, in little more than half an hour, and then preached a

sermon of twelve minutes, which I believe was a paper of the Rambler, with a scriptural text substituted for the classical motto. To do Egerton justice, there was nothing of levity or affectation in his manner; but it was as rapid, cold, and mechanical as possible.

As soon as it was over, without thinking of my friends, or any one else, I bustled through the retiring congregation, and met the rector alone at the foot of his pulpit stairs. He had observed me before, and now greeted me with a laugh. “So,” said he, “Herbert, you see circumstances have altered with me since you saw me at Dover, a poor private in the 49th."

66

"They have indeed, but what does it mean?" Nothing more than that a rich and noble cousin was ashamed of having a relation and a godson who bore his name, and had borne a commission in his Majesty's service, now known to be a private of foot. He paid my debts, took me out of the ranks, and was about to ship me off for Sierra Leone, as clerk of the courts there, when this living, which is his gift, became vacant. I had Greek and Latin enough left out of my old Harrow stock for any ordinary parson; and the living is not bad. So having no particular fancy to spend my days all among the Hottentots a

capering on shore,' I begged the living, and got myself japanned."

"Yes, got my red coat dyed black, you know. The Bishop of London was squeamish about me, though I don't see why; but his Lordship of had no such silly scruples, and I have been these two months rector of Buffington com Norton."

My fair cousin and her worthy husband were waiting for me at the church door, and our conversation ended abruptly with some commonplace offers of civility. When I rejoined my friends, the suspicious looks which my host cast at me, showed that my apparent intimacy with his new rector was not at all calculated to raise me in his estimation. I had to explain, by relating my former New-York acquaintance with the ex-major; and then, by way of repelling all suspicions of too close intimacy, on our way home took occasion to vent my indignation at the system of church and state, which could tolerate such abuses of the ecclesiastical establishment. At last I grew eloquent and declamatory, and finished by quoting Cowper:

From such apostles, oh ye mitred heads,

Preserve the church! and lay not careless hands
On skulls that cannot teach and will not learn."

The John Bullism of my good host was roused. He could not bear that a foreigner should censure any institution of his country, whatever he might think of it himself. He too became eloquent; and thus we lost sight of the rector in the dust of an argument which lasted till evening.

On Monday I went up to London, and soon after returned home.

On my second visit to Europe some years after, I became very intimate with a party of young Cantabs, some of them rich, and all of them well educated, who were suffering under that uneasiness at home, and desire of locomotion abroad, which infects idle Englishmen of all ages; a malady of which, by the way, we have inherited a full share with our English blood. Shut out from the common tour of Europe by the domination of Napoleon, my Cambridge friends had planned a grand tour to Russia, Greece, Turkey, Egypt, and thence perhaps to Persia and India. I was easily persuaded to be of the party.

This, of course, is not the place to relate my travels, nor, indeed, is it necessary that I should ever do it. My companions have long ago anticipated me in sundry well-printed London quartos, with splendid engravings; wherein I have the honour to be perpetuated by the burin of Heath and other great artists, now, perched half way up