Page:Interesting history of Robert Burns (1).pdf/18

believed rash actions, of which he was guilty in relation to political matters. The French Revolution was then beginning to break out, and the fascinating glare with which it was at first surrounded, misled, as every one knows, the minds of many men of virtue and understanding, and none more so, perhaps, than such as, like our poet, were embued with the largest portion of philanthropy. The sickening horrors of that sanguinary drama, as it came to unfold itself, of course soon dispelled the illusion; but at the early period we speak of, the Revolution came recommended to the wishes and sympathies of many. The interest of his friends at the head of the Excise saved Burns, but his indiscretions were remembered for a time, and were the cause of much uneasiness to him. He was also in the habit o indulging in jests on his new profession without much circumspection, but these were comparatively harmless. On one occasion, for instance, while glancing at what he considered the discreditable nature of his employ, he said, “I have the same consolation, however, which I once heard a recruting sergeant give to his auditors on one of the streets of Kilinarnock— “Gentle-men,” said he, “I can assure you, for your further encouragement, that ours is the most blackguard corps under the crown, consequently honest man has the better chance of promo