had received orders to send all the half-pay officers, that were in Ireland, to Spain, and he entered the names of my sons Peter and John upon the list, without saying any thing to us until it was done. The boys were wild with joy at the idea of entering the army, and escaping from the drudgery of study.
I gave them but little recreation, it is true; I tried, however, to make it easy by alternations from one employment to another so as to relieve the mind by variety. Latin and Greek were studies which they were obliged to attend to as tasks. I endeavored to make them look upon all the other things which they learned as relaxation and indulgence.
Mr. Secretary Dawson was not so favorably disposed, as General Ingoldsby was, towards us, and he refused to make out the commissions for my sons. He told the General that he had exceeded his powers by entering, upon the half-pay list, officers who had never served. Our kind friend was much chagrined at this unexpected obstacle, but he told us not to fret and he should probably yet have it in his power to serve us. The boys were most grievously disappointed; I was not. I had felt unwilling to decline an offer that promised to be advantageous, and which my sons were themselves so desirous to accept, but at the same time I thought them fully too young to venture from the shelter of a parent's wing. I also preferred their continuing longer at study.
The half-pay officers embarked at Cork to go to Plymouth, there to join the fleet for Spain, my sons not of the number. On the passage, they were attacked by a French man-of-war, and though confessedly so inferior in size as not to warrant resistance, yet the officers of the army who were on board, being very numerous, would not consent to sur-
