about. If Messrs. Howell and James were his might in the direction of George's apart

If Captain Dobbin expected to get any personal comfort and satisfaction from having “I—I didn't like to go off without saying one more view of Amelia before the regigood by, you know," Dobbin said in a very in- ment marched away, his selfishness was coherent manner; "because you know some punished just as such odious egotism deof us mayn't come back again, and I like to served to be. The door of Jos's bedroom see you all well and—and that sort of thing, opened into the sitting-room which was comyou know." mon to the family party, and opposite this "What do you mean?" Jos asked, rub-door was that of Amelia's chamber. The bing his eyes. The captain did not in the bugles had wakened every body: there was least hear him or look at the stout gentle- no use in concealment now. George's servman in the night-cap, about whom he pro-ant was packing in this room: Osborne comfessed to have such a tender interest. The ing in and out of the contiguous bedroom, hypocrite was looking and listening with all flinging to the man such articles as he thought

fit to carry on the campaign. And presently and place military valor so far beyond every Dobbin had the opportunity which his heart other quality for reward and worship? coveted, and he got sight of Amelia's face So, at the sound of that stirring call to ence more. But what a face it was! So battle, George jumped away from the gentle white, so wild and despair-stricken, that arms in which he had been dallying; not the remembrance of it haunted him after- without a feeling of shame (although his ward like a crime, and the sight smote him wife's hold on him had been but feeble), that with inexpressible pangs of longing and he should have been detained there so long. pity. The same feeling of eagerness and excitement was among all those friends of his of whom we have had occasional glimpses, from the stout senior major, who led the regiment into action, to little Stubble, the ensign, who was to bear its colors on that day.

She was wrapped in a white morning dress, her hair falling on her shoulders, and her large eyes fixed and without light. By way of helping on the preparations for the departure, and showing that she, too, could be useful at a moment so critical, this poor soul had taken up a sash of George's from the drawers whereon it lay, and followed him to and fro with the sash in her hand, looking on mutely as his packing proceeded. She came out and stood, leaning at the wall, holding this sash against her bosom, from which the heavy net of crimson dropped like a large stain of blood. Our gentle-hearted captain felt a guilty shock as he looked at her. "Good God," thought he, "and is it grief like this I dared to pry into?" And there was no help: no means to soothe and comfort this helpless, speechless misery. He stood for a moment and looked at her, powerless and torn with pity, as a parent regards an infant in pain.

At last, George took Emmy's hand, and led her back into the bed-room, from whence he came out alone. The parting had taken place in that moment, and he was gone.

The sun was just rising as the march began-it was a gallant sight—the band led the column, playing the regimental march-then came the major in command, riding upon Pyramus, his stout charger-then marched the grenadiers, their captain at their head; in the center were the colors, borne by the senior and junior ensigns-then George came marching at the head of his company. He looked up and smiled at Amelia, and passed on; and even the sound of the music died away.

CHAPTER XXXI.

IN WHICH JOS SEDLEY TAKES CARE OF HIS

SISTER.

THUS all the superior officers being summoned on duty elsewhere, Jos Sedley was left in command of the little colony at Brussels, with Amelia invalid, Isidor his Belgian servant, and the bonne, who was maid-of-allwork for the establishment, as a garrison under him. Though he was disturbed in spirit, and his rest destroyed by Dobbin's interruption and the occurrences of the morning, Jos nevertheless remained for many hours in bed, wakeful and rolling about there until his usual hour of rising had arrived. The sun was high in the heavens, and our gallant friends of the -th miles on their march, before the civilian appeared in his flowered dressing-gown at breakfast.

"Thank Heaven that is over," George thought, bounding down the stair, his sword under his arm, and as he ran swiftly to the alarm-ground, where the regiment was mustered, and whither trooped men and officers hurrying from their billets, his pulse was throbbing and his cheeks flushed: the great game of war was going to be played, and he one of the players. What a fierce excitement of doubt, hope, and pleasure! What tremendous hazards of loss or gain! What were all the games of chance he had ever played compared to this one? Into all contests requiring athletic skill and courage, About George's absence, his brother-inthe young man, from his boyhood upward, law was very easy in mind. Perhaps Jos had flung himself with all his might. The was rather pleased in his heart that Osborne champion of his school and his regiment, the was gone, for during George's presence, the bravos of his companions had followed him other had played but a very secondary part in every where; from the boys' cricket-match the household, and Osborne did not scruple to the garrison-races, he had won a hundred to show his contempt for the stout civilian. of triumphs; and wherever he went, women But Emmy had always been good and atand men had admired and envied him. What qualities are there for which a man gets so speedy a return of applause, as those of bodily superiority, activity, and valor? Time out of mind strength and courage have been the theme of bards and romances; and from the story of Troy down to to-day, poetry has always chosen a soldier for a hero. I wonder is it because men are cowards in heart that they admire bravery so much, K

tentive to him. It was she who ministered to his comforts, who superintended the dishes that he liked, who walked or rode with him (as she had many, too many, opportunities of doing, for where was George?) and who interposed her sweet, kind face between his anger and her husband's scorn. Many timid remonstrances had she uttered to George in behalf of her brother. But the latter in his trenchant way cut these en

66

"Put the captain's hat into the anteroom," he said, to Isidor, the servant.

66

treaties short. "I'm an honest man," he and toilet knicknacks to a young lady of said, "and if I have a feeling I show it, as whom he was fond; and keep the English an honest man will. How the deuce, my cutlery and the large ruby pin for himself. dear, would you have me behave respectful- It would look very smart upon one of the ly to such a fool as your brother?" So fine frilled shirts, which, with the gold-laced Jos was pleased with George's absence. cap and the frogged frock coat, that might His plain hat, and gloves on a sideboard, and easily be cut down to suit his shape, and the the idea that the owner was away, caused captain's gold-headed cane, and the great Jos I don't know what secret thrill of pleas- double ring with the rubies, which he would ure. He won't be troubling me this morn- have made into a pair of beautiful ear-rings, ing," Jos thought, "with his dandified airs he calculated would make a perfect Adonis and his impudence." of himself, and render Madamoiselle Reine an easy prey. "How those sleeve-buttons will suit me," thought he, as he fixed a pair on the fat, pudgy wrist of Mr. Sedley. "I long for sleeve-buttons; and the captain's boots with brass spurs, in the next room, corbleu what an effect they will make in the Allée-Verté !" So while Monsieur Isidor with bodily fingers was holding on to his master's nose, and shaving the lower part of Jos's face, his imagination was rambling along the Green Avenue, dressed out in a frogged coat and lace, and in company with Mademoiselle Reine; he was loitering in spirit on the banks, and examining the barges sailing slowly under the cool shadows of the trees by the canal, or refreshing himself with a mug of Faro at the bench of a beerhouse on the road to Laeken.

Perhaps he won't want it again," replied the lackey, looking knowingly at his master. He hated George, too, whose insolence toward him was quite of the English

sort.

"And ask if madam is coming to breakfast," Mr. Sedley said with great majesty, ashamed to enter with a servant upon the subject of his dislike for George. The truth is, he had abused his brother to the valet a score of times before.

Alas! madam could not come to breakfast, and cut the tartines that Mr. Jos liked. Madam was a great deal too ill, and had been in a frightful state ever since her husband's departure, so her bonne said. Jos showed his sympathy, by pouring her out a large cup of tea. It was his way of exhibiting kindness: and he improved on this; he not only sent her breakfast, but he bethought him what delicacies she would most like for

dinner.

Isidor, the valet, had looked on very sulkily, while Osborne's servant was disposing of his master's baggage previous to the captain's departure for in the first place he hated Mr. Osborne, whose conduct to him, and to all inferiors, was generally overbearing (nor does the continental domestic like to be treated with insolence as our own bettertempered servants do); and secondly, he was angry that so many valuables should be removed from under his hands, to fall into other people's possession when the English discomfiture should arrive. Of this defeat he and a vast number of other persons in Brussels and Belgium did not make the slightest doubt. The almost universal belief was, that the emperor would divide the Prussian and English armies, annihilate one after the other, and march into Brussels before three days were over; when all the movables of his present masters, who would be killed, or fugitives, or prisoners, would lawfully become the property of Monsieur Isidor.

As he helped Jos through his toilsome and complicated daily toilet, this faithful servant would calculate what he should do with the very articles with which he was decorating his master's person. He would make a present of the silver essence-bottles

But Mr. Joseph Sedley, luckily for his own peace, no more knew what was passing in his domestic's mind than the respected reader and I suspect what John or Mary, whose wages we pay, think of ourselves. What our servants think of us! Did we know what our intimates and dear relations thought of us, we should live in a world that we should be glad to quit, and in a frame of mind and a constant terror, that would be perfectly unbearable. So Jos's man was marking his victim down, as you see one of Mr. Paynter's assistants in Leadenhall street ornament an unconscious turtle with a placard on which is written, "Soup tomorrow."

Amelia's attendant was much less selfishly disposed. Few dependents could come near that kind and gentle creature without paying their usual tribute of loyalty and affection to her sweet and affectionate nature. And it is a fact that Pauline, the cook, consoled her mistress more than any body whom she saw on this wretched morning; for when she found how Amelia remained for hours, silent, motionless, and haggard, by the windows in which she had placed herself to watch the last bayonets of the column as it marched away, the honest girl took the lady's hand, and said, Tenez, Madame, est-ce qu'il ne'st pas aussi à l'armée, mon homme à moi? with which she burst into tears, and Amelia falling into her arms, did likewise, and so each pitied and soothed the other.

"The Prussians were three to one at Jena, and he took their army and kingdoni in a week. They were six to one at Montmirail, and he scattered them like sheep. The Austrian army is coming, but with the empress and the King of Rome at its head; and the Russians, bah! the Russians will withdraw. No quarter is to be given to the English, on account of their cruelty to our braves on board the infamous pontoons. Look here, here it is in black and white. Here's the proclamation of his majesty the emperor and king," said the now declared partisan of Napoleon, and taking the document from his pocket, Isidor sternly thrust it into his master's face, and already looked upon the frogged coat and valuables as his own spoil.

Several times during the forenoon Mr. | against any force Bony can bring in the Jos's Isidor went from his lodgings into the field," Mr. Sedley objected; "the Austrians town, and to the gates of the hotels and and the Russians are on their march. He lodging-houses round about the Parc, where must, he shall be crushed," Jos said, slapping the English were congregated, and there his hand on the table. mingling with other valets, couriers, and lackeys, gathered such news as was abroad, and brought back bulletins for his master's information. Almost all these gentlemen were in heart partisans of the emperor, and had their opinions about the speedy end of the campaign. The emperor's proclamation from Avesnes had been distributed every where plentifully in Brussels. "Soldiers," it said, "this is the anniversary of Marengo and Friedland, by which the destinies of Europe were twice decided. Then, as after Austerlitz, as after Wagram, we were too generous. We believed in the oaths and promises of princes whom we suffered to remain upon their thrones. Let us march once more to meet them. We and they, are we not still the same men? Soldiers! these same Prussians who are so arrogant Jos was, if not seriously alarmed as yet, to-day, were three to one against you at at least considerably disturbed in mind. Jena, and six to one at Montmirail. Those "Give me my coat and cap, sir," said he, among you who were prisoners in England" and follow me. I will go myself and learn can tell their comrades what frightful tor- the truth of these reports." Isidor was ments they suffered on board the English furious as Jos put on the braided frock. hulks. Madmen! a moment of prosperity" Milor had better not wear that military has blinded them, and if they enter into coat," said he; "the Frenchinen have sworn France it will be to find a grave there!" not to give quarter to a single British solBut the partisans of the French prophesied a more speedy extermination of the emperor's enemies than this; and it was agreed on all hands that Prussians and British would never return except as prisoners in the rear of the conquering army.

These opinions in the course of the day were brought to operate upon Mr. Sedley. He was told that the Duke of Wellington had gone to try and rally his army, the advance of which had been utterly crushed the night before.

"Crushed, psha!" said Jos, whose heart was pretty stout at breakfast-time. "The duke has gone to beat the emperor, as he has beaten all his generals before."

"His papers are burned, his effects are removed, and his quarters are being got ready for the Duke of Dalmatia," Jos's informant replied. "I had it from his own maître d'hotel. Milor Duc de Richemont's people are packing up every thing. His grace has fled already, and the duchess is only waiting to see the plate packed to join the King of France at Ostend."

"The King of France is at Ghent, fellow," replied Jos, affecting incredulity.

"He fled last night to Bruges, and embarks to-day from Östend. The Duke de Berri is taken prisoner. Those who wish to be safe had better go soon, for the dykes will be open to-morrow, and who can fly when the whole country is under water?" "Nonsense, sir, we are three to one, sir,

dier."

"Silence, sirrah!" said Jos, with a resolute countenance still, and thrust his arm into the sleeve with indomitable resolution, in the performance of which heroic act he was found by Mrs. Rawdon Crawley, who at this juncture came up to visit Amelia, and entered without ringing at the ante-chamber door.

Rebecca was dressed very neatly and smartly, as usual; her quiet sleep after Rawdon's departure had refreshed her, and her pink smiling cheeks were quite pleasant to look at, in a town and on a day when every body else's countenance wore the appearance of the deepest anxiety and gloom. She laughed at the attitude in which Jos was discovered, and the struggles and convulsions with which the stout gentleman thrust himself into the braided coat.

"Are you preparing to join the army, Mr. Joseph ?" she said. Is there to be nobody left in Brussels to protect us poor women?" Jos succeeded in plunging into the coat, and came forward blushing and stuttering out excuses to his fair visitor. "How was she after the events of the morning-after the fatigues of the ball the night before?" Monsieur Isidor disappeared into his master's adjacent bed-room, bearing off the flowered dressing-gown.

"How good of you to ask," said she, pressing one of his hands in both her own. How cool and collected you look when

66

every body else is frightened! How is our | putting her handkerchief to her eyes, and dear little Emmy? It must have been an smelling the cau-de-cologne with which it awful, awful parting." was scented. "I have done you injustice: you have got a heart. I thought you had not."