its true name, William Herschel was forced to run away from the
army. We must not judge too harshly of this desertion, for the
times were hard, and the lives of men in Herschel's position were
valued at very little by the constituted authorities. Long after,
it is said, when Herschel had distinguished himself by the
discovery of the planet Uranus, a pardon for this high military
offence was duly handed to him by the king in person on the
occasion of his first presentation. George III. was not a
particularly wise or brilliant man; but even he had sense enough to
perceive that William Herschel could serve the country far better
by mapping out the stars of heaven than by playing the oboe to the
royal regiment of Hanoverian Guards.

William was nineteen when he ran away. His good mother packed his
boxes for him with such necessaries as she could manage, and sent
them after him to Hamburg; but, to the boy's intense disgust, she
forgot to send the copy of "Locke on the Human Understanding."
What a sturdy deserter we have here, to be sure! "She, dear
woman," he says plaintively, "knew no other wants than good linen
and clothing!" So William Herschel the oboe-player started off
alone to earn his living as best he might in the great world of
England. It is strange he should have chosen that, of all European
countries; for there alone he was liable to be arrested as a
deserter: but perhaps his twelvemonth's stay in London may have
given him a sense of being at home amongst us which he would have
lacked in any other part of Europe. At any rate, hither he came,
and for the next three years picked up a livelihood, we know not
how, as many other excellent German bandsmen have done before and
since him. Our information about his early life is very meagre,
and at this period we lose sight of him for a while altogether.