'Twas
on that beautiful evening when she told me all her heart! as, seated
on a mossy bank, she dissected, with downcast eyes, every part of the
flower; chives, pointal, and petal, all were displayed; though I am
sure she never even thought of the class. My destiny through life I
considered as fixed from that hour.--Shortly afterwards I was called,
by the death of a relative, to a distant part of England; upon
my return, _Constance_ was no more. The army was not my original
destination; but my mind began to be enfeebled by hourly musing upon
one subject alone, without cessation or available termination; yet
reason enough remained to convince me, that, without change and
excitement, it would degenerate into fatuity.
The preparation and voyage to India, new companions, and ever-changing
scenes, hushed my feelings, and produced a calm that might be called
a state of blessedness--a condition in which the ignoble and inferior
ingredients of our nature were subdued by the divinity of mind. Years
rolled on in almost constant service; nor do I remember many of the
events of that time, even with interest or regret. In one advance of
the army to which I was attached, we had some skirmishing with the
irregulars of our foe; the pursuit was rapid, and I fell behind my
detachment, wounded and weary, in ascending a ghaut, resting in the
jungle, with languid eyes fixed on the ground, without any particular
feeling but that of fatigue, and the smarting of my shoulder.
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