in the captain's cabin. The result may be easily anticipated; the wind sprang up fair, and he reached Helvoet Sluys before he had recovered from the effects of his intemperance. He enlisted into Lord Orrery's regiment of foot, now the First Royals. His wife determined to leave her children and go to Flanders in search of her husband. Her eldest child she left with her mother, and the one born after her husband's departure with a nurse; her second son was dead. Cutting off her hair, she dressed herself in a suit of her husband's clothes; and reaching the "Golden Last," where Ensign Herbert Laurence was beating up for recruits, she enlisted under the name of Christopher Welsh, in the regiment commanded by the Marquis de Pisare. Shortly afterwards, our heroine joined the grand army, and was present at the battle of Landen, in which she was wounded a little above the ancle. In her own words: "When I heard the Cannon play, and the small Shot rattle about me, which, at first, threw me into a sort of Panick, having not been used to such rough Music." This wound incapacitated her from service for two months; shortly after she was taken prisoner with others by the French, and endeavours were made to secure the captives for the service of France. Here she was met by her first cousin Captain Cavenaugh, a French officer, but was not recognized. After nine days' imprisonment she was exchanged, and returned to the army; here she gained the affections of a burgher's daughter, which led to a duel with a rival lover, a sergeant of the same regiment who had insulted the lady in question, and was wounded; for this she was imprisoned, the sergeant's wounds being considered mortal. The

father of the young lady obtained the release of our heroine, her arrears of pay, and her discharge. She escaped from this love affair because she was sensible that the father would not bestow his daughter's hand on a poor foot soldier, and at the same time remarked to the young lady, that although "no more than a common sentinel," she had as much honour "as a general," and purposed to gain a commission by bravery.

She afterwards entered Lord John Hay's regiment of dragoons, now the Second Scots Greys, and served during the siege of Namur (1695). An odd adventure subsequently befell her, for a child was laid to her charge, as being the father, and refusing to expose the perjury of the mother, she defrayed the expense of the infant, who did not live above a month. After the peace of Ryswick, the regiment was reduced, and she returned to Ireland, but none of her friends recognized her, as she was so much altered by the fatigues she had undergone; this suited her purpose, for the nurse's charge for her youngest child was more than she could pay. War again breaking out, she enlisted in her old corps of dragoons, commanded by Lord John Hay, and was engaged at Nimeguen. At the siege of Venloo, her horse was wounded by treading on a scythe left by the frightened peasants. At Liege she obtained as booty a large silver chalice, and some other pieces of plate, which she disposed of to a Dutch Jew for a third part of their value. In the second attack at Schellenberg she received a ball in the hip, which could never be afterwards extracted; her sex narrowly escaped detection while in hospital. After the battle of Blenheim, she was detached to

guri the prismes, må man vil bær Inshali vie was embracing & Darwomen. She made hasa kuova 10 ber husband who was serving in CrineT S Begiment, and the recognition may be more ass-T imagined the depened; his fits were

looked, bur she resoired to pass as his brother un the termination of the war, and left him after going him a piese of gold. The prey dragoon." for so she was called, subsequently gained the affections of a young Dutch girl. At Ramilles she escaped unhurt through the hottest of the bale; but when the French were defeated, an unlucky shell from a steeple, on which before the battle, they had planted some mortars and cannon, which played all the time of the engagement, struck the back part of her head and fractured her skull. She was trepanned, and did not recover in less than ten weeks. Although she suffered much, yet the discovery of her sex was a greater grief to her. The surprising news spread far and near, and Lord John Hay declared she should want for nothing. Brigadier Preston made her a present of a handsome silk gown, and the officers all contributed what was necessary to furnish her with proper costume, and she was dismissed the service with a handsome compliment. His lordship hoped she would not continue her cruelty to her husband, now she could no longer pass under a disguise. There was a new marriage, all the officers being invited to the solemnity; the old practice of throwing the stocking not being forgotten and a kiss being given to the bride by all on taking leave.

At the siege of Ath she took a piece out of a soldier's hand, and killed one of the enemy;

a

musket shot from the town, at the same time, split her under lip, bent one of her teeth into her mouth, and knocked her down. She adds, "Both this Shot and mine, with which I killed the Soldier, were so exactly at a Time, that none could distinguish whether I fell by the recoiling of the Piece, or the Enemy's Ball. My Husband and some of his Comrades, ran to take me up, and seeing the blood imagined I was shot through the head, but I convinced them to the contrary, by spitting the Ball and Tooth into my Hand." While in Ghent, the Dutchwoman, to whom allusion has been made, took lodgings opposite, and inveigled our heroine's husband to an alehouse ; Mrs. Welsh struck her with a case knife, and cut her nose off close to the face; her husband, by order of the colonel, was confined and reprimanded, but his wife obtained his liberty. She was useful to the army as a suttler, and in obtaining information. Whilst at Courtray she won a race with her mare, on which she carried provisions, with Captain Montgomery, of the Grenadiers, in Lord Orkney's regiment, who ridiculed her habit and her poor animal. To quote once more from her book: "I offer'd to run her against his Horse for a Pistole, and we would both ride. Brigadier Godfrey, who was by, laid another Pistole on my Side. We both went to the place chosen to run upon, and starting at the beat of Drum, placed to give the Signal, he suffer'd me to keep pace with him for some time, but finding he was going to leave me, I made a furious Push at him, flung Man and Horse into a Ditch, and thus won the Race! The Brigadier laugh'd heartily at my Stratagem, the Captain was half angry, but I got a couple of pistoles; for the Brigadier gave

me that he had won, and did not much concern myself,. nor should I have given myself any Trouble had he been irritated, for I may safely say, I had as little Fear about me as any Man in the Army."

She always followed her husband, and at the siege of Ghent, when he was one of the forlorn hope, Colonel Hamilton stopped her; but subsequently she finds him and takes a bottle of brandy, which was of comfort to him.

Many other adventures are related in this singular work, which the Reverend G. R. Gleig, M.A., Chaplain General to the Forces, has worked up into an amusing tale in his delightful "Traditions of Chelsea Hospital." Her husband was killed at the battle of Malplaquet, and she found his body being stripped by a stranger, who at her approach retired. Whilst she was deploring her loss, Captain Ross came by, and attempted to console her; this compassion gained for her the soubriquet of Mother Ross. She threw her husband's body across the mare, dug a grave, and buried it, and would have thrown herself in had she not been prevented. Her dog used to lie constantly on his master's grave, but on her approach would run to the rear of the regiment, where her partner used to be while living. Her grief was powerful, but she married Hugh Jones, a grenadier, about eleven weeks afterwards. At the siege of St. Venant, her second husband was wounded, and she covered him with her clothes, which she stripped off to her stays, whilst his comrades carried him to the trench; of this wound he died in about ten weeks. After the peace she presented a petition to Queen Anne, who said it would be her care to provide for her,.