THE STUART HORSE ARTILLERY.
An hour afterward I was at the camp of the Stuart horse artillery.
Five minutes after greeting Tom, who had sought Katy, at
"Disaway's"--been directed to the woods--and there speedily joined
us--I left the young ones together, and made my way back to the
mansion. There are few things, my dear reader, more disagreeable
than--just when you are growing poetical--when blue eyes have excited
your romantic feelings--when your heart has begun to glow--when you
think "I am the cause of all this happiness, and gayety!"--there are
few things I say--but why say it? In thirty seconds the rosy-faced
youngster Tom, had driven the antique and battered Surry quite from the
mind of the Bird of Beauty. That discomfited individual, therefore,
took his way back sadly to Disaway's, leaving the children his
blessing; declined the cordial invitations to spend the night, mounted
his horse, and rode to find Will Davenant, at the horse artillery.
Their camp was in the edge of a wood, near the banks of the Rowanty;
and having exchanged greetings with my old comrades of the various
batteries, and the gallant Colonel Chew, their chieftain, I repaired to
Will Davenant's head-quarters.
These consisted of a breadth of canvass, stretched beneath a tree in
the field--in front of which burned a fire.
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