''
it was kindly meant, at any rate.''
The reader cannot doubt that the seal was safely
and carefully preserved.
CHAPTER VI.
A lazar-house it seemed, wherein were laid
Numbers of all diseased.
Milton.
After the Captain had finished his business,
amongst which he did not forget to have his recruit
regularly attested, as a candidate for glory in the
service of the Honourable East India Company,
the friends left Edinburgh. From thence they
got a passage by sea to Newcastle, where Hillary
had also some regimental affairs to transact, before
he joined his regiment. At Newcastle the Captain
had the good luck to find a small brig, commanded
by an old acquaintance and schoolfellow, which
was just about to sail for the Isle of Wight. ``I
have arranged for our passage with him,'' he said
to Middlemas---``for when you are at the dep
t,
you can learn a little of your duty, which cannot
be so well taught on board of ship, and then I will
find it easier to have you promoted.''
``Do you mean,'' said Richard, ``that I am to
stay at the Isle of Wight all the time that you are
jigging it away in London?''
``Ay, indeed do I!,'' said his comrade, ``and it's
best for you too; whatever business you have in
London, I can do it for you as well, or something
better than yourself.
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