Life and diary of Lieut. Col. J. Blackader

LIFE OF COL. BLACKADER. CHAP. XI.
as a great mercy that I have left the camp so soon ;
for I wearied more these twenty days by-gone, than
I had done all the campaign.
September 8. Coming in to the Busse this day.
Next day set out for Rotterdam : we were very late
upon the water.
September 11. Here have I reason to he grateful;
after a campaign of fatigues, hazards, and dangers,
the Lord has brought me back safe to this place, and
given me a comfortable meeting with my wife. He
has compassed me about with songs of deliverance.
He continued in Rotterdam for some time, enjoy-
ing the ordinances of the gospel, and the fellowship
of religious people, which was always his greatest
happiness. " I am always," says he, " cheerful and
merry in good and innocent company. Perhaps I
am now too much so, but I would wish to commend
religion by a cheerful conversation, to convince the
world that religion does not make people sour and
morose."
About the middle of October he returned again to
the Busse, where he got the melancholy news of Bri-
gadier Ferguson's death.
September 13. I got the surprising account of our
Brigadier's death, with which I was greatly affected.
Marts breath goeth out, to earth he turns, that day his
tlioughts ' perish. O the vanity of human grandeur !
He was just come from court, where he was sent for
that he might be raised a step higher for his services.
September 15. This day we were employed in the
funeral of our Brigadier.
November 1. This day our regiment came in to
the Busse, and I went out to meet them,