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pened, by rare accident, to be below my calculation, and, indeed, below any calculation, calico at ninepence, fine, thick, strong, wide calico, at ninepence, (did ever man hear of any thing so cheap ?) absolutely enchanted me, and I took the whole piece; then, after buying for M. a gown, according to order, I saw one that I liked better, and bought that too. Then I fell in love, was actually captivated by a sky-blue sash and handkerchief-not the poor, thin, greeny colour which usually passes under that dishonoured name, but the rich, full tint of the noon-day sky; and a cap-ribbon, really pink, that might have vied with the inside leaves of a moss-rose. Then, in hunting after cheapness, I got into obscure shops, where, not finding what I asked for, I was fain to take something that they had, purely to make a proper compensation for the trouble of lugging out drawers, and answering questions. Lastly, I was fairly coaxed into some articles by the irresistibility of the sellers-by the demure and truth-telling look of a pretty quaker, who could almost have persuaded the head off one's shoulders, and who did persuade me that ell-wide muslin would go as far as yard and a half; and by the fluent impudence of a lying shopman, who, under cover of a well-darkened window, affirmed, on his honour, that his brown satin was a perfect match to my green pattern, and forced the said satin down my throat accordingly. With these helps, my money melted all too fast; at half-past five my purse was entirely empty; and, as shopping with an empty purse has by no means the relish and savour of shopping with a full one, I was quite willing and ready to go home to dinner, pleased as a child with my purchases, and wholly unsuspecting the sins of omission, the errands unperformed, which were the natural result of my unconsulted memoranda and my treacherous memory.

Home I returned, a happy and proud woman, wise in my own conceit, a thrifty fashion-monger, laden, like a pedlar, with huge packages in stout brown-holland, tied

up with whipcord, and genteel little parcels, papered and packthreaded in shopmanlike style. At last we were safely stowed in the pony-chaise, which had much ado to hold us, my little bag lying, as usual, in my lap; when, as we ascended the steep hill out of B. a sudden puff of wind took at once my cottage-bonnet and my large cloak, blew the bonnet off my head, so that it hung behind me, suspended by the ribbon, and fairly snapped the string of the cloak, which flew away, much in the style of John Gilpin's, renowned in story. My companion, pitying my plight, exerted himself manfully to regain the fly-away garments, shoved the head into the bonnet, or the bonnet over the head (I do not know which phrase best describes the manœuvre), with one hand, and recovered the refractory cloak with the other. At last the contumacious garment was mastered. We righted; and, by dint of sitting sideways, and by turning my back upon my kind comrade, I got home without any farther damage than the loss of my bag, which, though not missed before the chaise had been unladen, had undoubtedly gone by the board in the gale; and I lamented my old and trusty companion, without in the least foreseeing the use it would probably be of to my reputation.

Immediately after dinner I produced my purchases, They were much admired; and the quantity, when spread out in our little room, being altogether dazzling, and the quality satisfactory, the cheapness was never doubted. Every body thought the bargains were exactly such as I meant to get-for nobody calculated; and the bills being really lost in the lost bag, and the particular prices just as much lost in my memory (the ninepenny calico was the only article whose cost occurred to me), I passed, without telling any thing like a fib, merely by a discreet silence, for the best and thriftiest bargainer that ever went shopping. After some time, spent very pleasantly, in admiration on one side, and display on the other, we were interrupted by a demand for some of the

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little articles which I had forgotten. “ The sewing-silk, please maʼam, for my mistress's gown." Sewing-silk ! I don't know-look about." Ah, she might look long enough! no sewing-silk was there.-" Very strange !”Presently came other inquiries-"Where's the tape, Mary ?”—“ The tape?”;- Yes, my dear; and the needles, pins, cotton, stay-laces, boot-laces;". bin, the ferret, shirt-buttons, shoe-strings?" quoth she of the sewing silk, taking up the cry; and forthwith began a search as bustling, as active, and as vain, as that of our old spaniel, Brush, after a hare that has stolen away from her form. At last she suddenly desisted from her rummage "Without doubt, ma'am, they are in the reticule, and all lost," said she, in a very pathetic tone. "Really," cried I, a little conscience-stricken, "I don't recollect; perhaps I might forget." Depend on it, my love, that Harriet's right," interrupted one, whose interruptions are always kind; "those are just the little articles that people put in reticules, and you never could forget so many things; besides, you wrote them down." I don't know -I am not sure"-But I was not listened to; Harriet's conjecture had been metamorphosed into a certainty; all my sins of omission were stowed in the reticule; and, before bed-time, the little black bag held forgotten things enough to fill a sack.

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Never was reticule so lamented by all but its owner; a boy was immediately dispatched to look for it, and, on his returning empty-handed, there was even a talk of having it cried. My care, on the other hand, was all directed to prevent its being found. I had had the good luck to lose it in a suburb of B. renowned for filching, and I remembered that the street was, at that moment, full of people the bag did actually contain more than enough to tempt those who were naturally disposed to steal for stealing's sake; so I went to bed in the comfortable assurance that it was gone for ever. But there is nothing certain in this world-not even a thief's dishonesty. Two

old women, who had pounced at once on my valuable property, quarrelled about the plunder, and one of them, in a fit of resentment at being cheated in her share, went to the mayor of B. and informed against her companion. The mayor, an intelligent and active magistrate, immediately took the disputed bag, and all its contents, into his own possession; and, as he is also a man of great politeness, he restored it as soon as possible to the right owner. The very first thing that saluted my eyes, when I awoke in the morning, was a note from Mr. Mayor, with a sealed packet. The fatal truth was visible; I had recovered my reticule, and lost my reputation. There it lay, that identical black bag, with its name-tickets, its cambric handkerchief, its empty purse, its unconsulted list, its thirteen bills, and its two letters; one from a good sort of ladyfarmer, inquiring the character of a cook, with half a sonnet written on the blank pages; the other from a literary friend, containing a critique on the plot of a play, advising me not to kill the king too soon, with other good counsel, such as might, if our mayor had not been a man of sagacity, have sent a poor authoress, in a MademoiselleScuderi-mistake, to the Tower. That catastrophe would hardly have been worse than the real one. All my omissions have been found out. compared with the bills. I have forfeited my credit for bargaining. I am become a bye-word for forgetting. Nobody trusts me to purchase a paper of pins, or to remember the cost of a penny ribbon. I am a lost woman. My bag is come back, but my fame is gone.

My priced list has been

WINTER QUARTERS.
A Tale of the Late War.

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BY THE AUTHOR OF THE SUBALTERN."

THE reader has, doubtless, not forgotten, that the movements of the French army, and his own want of adequate

means to prosecute the siege to a successful issue, compelled Lord Wellington, in the night of the 20th October, 1812, to break up from before Burgos, and to commence his retreat towards the Douro. The weather chanced to be remarkably inclement for the season, heavy showers of rain continually falling, and cold blasts of wind prevailing : the roads were deep and rutty; few magazines of provisions lay along the line of march, and the ordinary supplies of the country were entirely exhausted; the troops, accordingly, began their journey in no very comfortable tone of mind. Nor were the apprehensions which they entertained, relative to the hardships and privations that awaited them, by any means ill-founded. Perhaps, the British army never suffered more, from cold, exposure to damp, absolute hunger and fatigue, than it suffered, during the retreat from Burgos to the Portuguese frontier; nor did sickness ever prevail to a more alarming degree, than, in some divisions at least, it did prevail, after the different corps had established themselves in winter quarters.

It is well known, that, at this period of the war, the Portuguese infantry had acquired so high a degree of discipline, as to be not unworthy of fighting in the same ranks with the English. For this, a very sufficient reason may be assigned:-more humble, though not, perhaps, more zealous, than their neighbours of Spain, the Portuguese consented to learn the rudiments of the military art from British masters; and admitted British officers, not only to subordinate stations in their army, but, to the command of whole divisions, brigades, and battalions. Their Cacadores, that is, the Portuguese light infantry, in particular, were chiefly committed to the guidance of British officers: and the writer of these pages can testify, from personal observation, that a finer body of men never entered the field. They were brave, obedient, and patient of fatigue, in no ordinary degree; indeed, if they yielded, in any respect, to their allies, it was in that obstinate and unconquerable hardihood, which, without in

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