The heavy lashing and rush of the weltering sea on the quarters--the
groaning and straining of the vessel--the regular strokes of the engines
which boomed indistinctly yet surely on the ear, were alike unattended to.
Impelled by that mighty power, we almost bid defiance to wind and weather.
As the glass circulated, the Lieutenant amused us in his own dry way with
some early recollections of service; and knowing that the Major had been
quartered in the Emerald Isle in "Ninety-eight," I pressed him to give us
some memento of that eventful period. "Come F----, spin us a yarn, as our
topmen used to say round the galley-fire, during the night-watch," added
the Lieutenant.

"Now you mention ninety-eight," he replied, "I remember a 'beautiful bit
of a story,' as Pat would say, which occurred that autumn; its hero was a
brother officer, a particular friend of mine--it may serve to keep you
awake."

Here it is:

Lieutenant Smyth had entered the army only a few months, when his regiment
was suddenly ordered to march from very pleasant quarters in Devonshire to
the north-west of Ireland. The change at any time would have been
unpleasant, but the service they were entering upon was particularly
irksome and jarring to the feelings. Grumbling, in a military man, is,
however, downright folly, and they soon made themselves tolerably at home
in their new quarters. It is needless to dwell upon the disturbed and
distracted state of the country, or on the military movements of the time.
After the regiment had been quartered at the town of ---- for some months,
Smyth obtained a week's leave of absence from the commanding officer,
having received a pressing invitation to visit a gentleman's family, to
whom he had letters of introduction, and who resided more than twenty