“And how did you get over here?”

“There was no great difficulty about that.  In spite of the activity of the English cruisers, constant communication is kept up between Ireland and France, and fortunately I had, a short time before, made the acquaintance of one of your officers, who was over there, in disguise, gathering recruits for the Brigade.”

“Yes, there are a good many agents in Ireland engaged in that work.  There is no difficulty in obtaining recruits, for there is scarcely a young Irishman who does not long to be with his countrymen, who have won such credit out here, and many abstain from joining only because they do not know how to set about it.  The work of the agents, then, is principally to arrange means for their crossing the channel.  It is well that the supply is steadily kept up, for, I can assure you, every battle fought makes very heavy gaps in our ranks; but in spite of that, three fresh regiments have been raised, in the last year, partly by fresh comers from Ireland, and partly by Irish deserters from Marlborough’s regiments.

“But I am interrupting your story.”

“Well, after leaving Mr. O’Carroll, and making my preparations, I paid a visit to the cottage where the officer was staying, in disguise, and told him that I wanted to cross.  He gave instructions as to how to proceed.  I was to go to a certain street in Cork, and knock at a certain door.  When it was opened, I was to say, ’The sea is calm and the sky is bright’.

“‘Then’, he said, ’you will be taken in hand, and put on board one of the craft engaged in the work of carrying our recruits across the water.  You will be landed at Saint Malo, where there is an agent of the Brigade, who gives instructions to the recruits as to how they are to proceed, supplies them with money enough for the journey, and a man to accompany each party, and act as interpreter on the way.

“I carried out his instructions, crossed the channel in a lugger with thirty young peasants, bound also for Paris, and, on landing at Saint Malo, took my place in the diligence for Paris; having, fortunately, no need for an interpreter.  On my presenting my letter to the Marquis de Noailles, he received me with great kindness, and treated me as a guest, until he had obtained me a commission in your regiment.

“Now, when are we likely to go on active service?”

“Soon, I expect,” O’Neil said; “but whether we shall be sent to the Peninsula, or to Flanders, no one knows.  In fact, it is likely enough that we shall, for the present, remain here; until it is seen how matters go, and where reinforcements will be most required.  It is but ten months since we came into garrison, in Paris, and we may therefore expect to be one of the last regiments ordered off.

“For my part, I am in no particular hurry to exchange comfortable quarters, and good living, and such adventures as may fall to the lot of a humble subaltern, for roughing it in the field; where, as has been the case ever since the Brigade was formed, we get a good deal more than our fair share of hard work and fighting.”