Agnews of Lochnaw

486 THE PKESS-GANG. [^OS-
sufficiently wealthy to have been able to equip a troop of horse
for Cromwell from amongst the men in his employment. He
somewhat overstepped his means in his enthusiasm, and falling
sadly into disgrace at the Eestoration, he sank so far in position
as to become a simple publican. His house, nevertheless, was
moderately prosperous ; and at his death the business was carried
on by his wife and this daughter, who engaged a waiter named
Christian to collect their debts, who gained their entire confi-
dence, and married the heiress of the inn (the lady who now lay
wounded).
One unlucky day, her husband, having collected a large sum,
was enticed on board a man-of-war in Kingstown harbour ; was
made drunk, induced to play, lost all his money, and was then im-
pressed. In vain he protested ; they did strange things then !
but finding it quite impossible to make a sailor of the barman,
he was landed in England, though only to be handed over to a
recruiting sergeant, there to be enlisted as a soldier in the 1st
Eegiment of Foot. He wrote home, but his letters were inter-
cepted ; and when at last he found means to communicate his
new profession to his wife, he could not manage to tell her his
whereabouts. By a strange freak, she at once donned man's
clothes, and in hopes of finding her husband, she enlisted in a
marching regiment. But she soon became so fond of the service
that she exchanged into the Scots Greys, mastered the duties of
a soldier's calling, and became a first-rate dragoon. She was
wounded at Schellenberg, fought at Blenheim, and had a duel
with a foreign non-commissioned officer, in a dispute as to a
mistress. One day, as she rode on escort guarding French
prisoners, she suddenly recognised her husband seated before
a wine shop, and making fierce love to a German belle. She
was so mortified at this, that, though she discovered herself to
him, she declined to return under his protection ; but made him
a small present of money under a strict promise that he would
keep her secret, and that they should pass as brothers. Our
heroine's own account of her discovery after Eamilies is this : —
" I escaped unhurt through the hottest of the battle till the