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his principality, that the fields remained untilled: even the
children of twelve years old were driven off to the war, and I saw
herds of these wretches marching forwards, attended by a few
troopers, now under the guidance of a red-coated Hanovarian
sergeant, now with a Prussian sub-officer accompanying them; with
some of whom my companion exchanged signs of recognition.
'It hurts my feelings,' said he, 'to be obliged to commune with such
wretches; but the stern necessities of war demand men continually,
and hence these recruiters whom you see market in human flesh. They
get five-and-twenty dollars from our Government for every man they
bring in. For fine men--for men like you,' he added, laughing, 'we
would go as high as a hundred. In the old King's time we would have
given a thousand for you, when he had his giant regiment that our
present monarch disbanded.'
'I knew one of them,' said I, 'who served with you: we used to call
him Morgan Prussia.'
'Indeed; and who was this Morgan Prussia?'
'Why, a huge grenadier of ours, who was somehow snapped up in
Hanover by some of your recruiters.'
'The rascals!' said my friend: 'and did they dare take an
Englishman?'
''Faith this was an Irishman, and a great deal too sharp for them;
as you shall hear. Morgan was taken, then, and drafted into the
giant guard, and was the biggest man almost among all the giants
there. Many of these monsters used to complain of their life, and
their caning, and their long drills, and their small pay; but Morgan
was not one of the grumblers. "It's a deal better," said he, "to get
fat here in Berlin, than to starve in rags in Tipperary!"'
'Where is Tipperary?' asked my companion.
'That is exactly what Morgan's friends asked him. It is a beautiful
district in Ireland, the capital of which is the magnificent city of
Clonmel: a city, let me tell you, sir, only inferior to Dublin and
London, and far more sumptuous than any on the Continent. Well,
Morgan said that his birthplace was near that city, and the only
thing which caused him unhappiness, in his present situation, was
the thought that his brothers were still starving at home, when they
might be so much better off in His Majesty's service.
'"'Faith," says Morgan to the sergeant, to whom he imparted the
information, "it's my brother Bin that would make the fine sergeant
of the guards, entirely!"
'"Is Ben as tall as you are?" asked the sergeant.
'"As tall as ME, is it? Why, man, I'm the shortest of my family!
There's six more of us, but Bin's the biggest of all. Oh! out and
out the biggest. Seven feet in his stockin-FUT, as sure as my name's
Morgan!"
'"Can't we send and fetch them over, these brothers of yours?"
'"Not you. Ever since I was seduced by one of you gentlemen of the
cane, they've a mortal aversion to all sergeants," answered Morgan:
"but it's a pity they cannot come, too. What a monster Bin would be
in a grenadier's cap!"
'He said nothing more at the time regarding his brothers, but only
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