himself with honour for a better occasion." When necessity called, however, he did not regard life; being ordered to proceed to Colberg, he was directed to "fight to the last man, and not to give over the castle." Upon being summoned to treat, although in great stress, Monro's reply was that "we had no such orders, but we had powder and ball at their service." Our colonel considers that " we must not preferre the safety of our owne bodies to the publique weale of our Camerades and countrimen dead or living, but we ought, with the hazard of our owne lives, to bring off the dead and hurt.” Instances Cæsar causing the head of Pompey to be buried: Alexander restoring unto the mother of Darius the dead body of her son; and Hannibal interring that of his enemy Marcellus. In reprehending plundering, an illustration is given of the Pythagorean who "bought a pair of shoees upon trust; the shoemaker dyes, the Philosopher is glad, and thinks them gaine; but a while after his Conscience touches him, and becomes a perpetuall chider, he repaires to the house of the dead, casts in his money with these words: There, take thy due; thou livest to me, though dead to all besides.' Certainly," Monro continues, "in my opinion, ill-gotten gaines are farre worse than losses with preserved honestie. These grieve but once, the others are continually grating upon our quiet; and he diminishes his owne contentment that would adde unto it by unlawfullnesse." The sixteenth observation commences with, "When cannons are roaring and bullets flying, he that would have honour must not fear dying." Sir Walter Scott, by a slight alteration, and by the addition of two lines, has turned the same into the song hummed by Dalgetty on more than one occasion:"When the cannons are roaring, lads, and the colours are flying, The lads that seek honour must never fear dying; Then stout cavaliers, let us toil our brave trade in, be a Monro was of opinion that "the world is but a perpetuall warre and a wedding. When the Assyrian fell, the Persian rose; when the Persian fell, the Grecian rose; the losse of one man is the gaine of another. It is vicissitude that maintaines the world." That "like leaves on trees, we are the sport of every puffe that bloweth, and with the least guste may shaken from our lives and nutriment." Speaking of men straining everything to "hoording up of fatall gold," and the uncertainty of life, from which “ haire or a flie may snatch him in a moment," he winds up his observation by remarking, "We should never care too much for that we are not sure to keepe; yet we should respect somewhat more than for our owne time, that we may be beneficiall to posteritie; but for my owne parte, I will cast this, as my life, on Gods providence, and live here as a Pilgrime of one night, not being sure to see the morrow." The enemy's cannon having shot four great bullets, of a hundred and sixty pounds weight, out of mortars, through the top of his lodging where he was sleeping, Monro recommended his soul to God, and resolved that he was well guarded whom the Lord had a care of, and that He would not suffer him to be smothered under walls, after having delivered him from so many dangers. Our hero's idea of married life and its duties, viewed in relation to military discipline, is too curious to be passed over. Speaking of Gustavus, who was in the Dutch wars deprived for two years "from the sweete society of his Queene," Monro remarks, "We see here that cavaliers, though tied by Gods ordinance to live with their wives, being once severed and tied to serve, they cannot with credit quit their charge to come to their wives." The colonel thinks very highly of soldiers' wives-instances many examples from antiquity-and gives the following anecdote of Felt-Marshal Gustave Horne: "The peste having entred his lodging, and taken away two of his children, seazed on his vertuous Lady, daughter to the chancellor of Sweden; the Cavaliers love was so great, that in the extremitie of her sicknesse, he never suffered her to be out of his armes till she died, and then caused her to be put in a silver coffin, that she might be transported for her country, to be buried amongst her friends; and his love was so great unto her, that after her death, though a young man, he could never be moved to lead his life with any other woman." Leigh Hunt in "The Indicator," has written "A word upon Indexes," in order to prove that indexmaking is neither the lowest nor the dryest species of writing, and has shown that indexes often present us with a variety of pleasant memories and contrasts. No one, he continues, can read the indexes of the "Tatler" and "Spectator," and call them dry. That writer also remarks, "As grapes, ready to burst with wine, issue out of the most stony places, like jolly fellows bringing Burgundy out of a cellar; so an index, like the Tatler's,' often gives us a taste of the quintessence of his humour;" this is especially the case with Monro's index: for instance, "A Commander keeping a Fort, is like a body infected with a canker, who to preserve the body must resolve to lose a member, 11. Many will desire to be partakers of our good fortunes, who never minded to taste the bitter cup of our adversity, 44. The King of Sweden, in extremity of cold, being all wet, did eate before he changed clothes, 21. Men of our profession ought to beare their troubles patiently, that in the ende they may gaine credit and honour, 72. sometimes are made sicke with Cannon before they come neare danger, 70. As the Rudder in the ship doth governe, so God moves and governes the world, and doth not stirre himselfe, 60. The Spade and the Shovel ever good companions in danger, 52. The want of feathers is a great impedi ment unto flying, 87." Novices in warre the thundering of In parting with our colonel it is well to refer to his address: "Therefore, worthy Reader, what you find here, if you please like; but howsoever, remember always to censure sparingly the writings of the shallow-brained Souldier, not adorned with eloquent phrase, but with truth and simplicitie." The foregoing selections will show that our hero was no "shallow-brained Souldier," as he styles himself, but one of whom his country may be proud; for the religious spirit still breathes in our officers and men; while in other respects, they resemble him in giving to the world their experiences of battle-fields, without the quaintness it is true, but with all the modesty that distinguished Monro. COLONEL BLACKADER. : "Every subject's duty is the king's; but every subject's soul is his own. Therefore should every soldier in the wars do as every sick man in his bed, wash every mote out of his conscience and dying so, death is to him advantage; or not dying, the time was blessedly lost, wherein such preparation was gained: and, in him that escapes, it were not sin to think, that making God so free an offer, He let him outlive that day to see His greatness, and to teach others how they should prepare.”—HENRY V. |
