a great many returned soldiers, among whom there was a large
percentage of the Fenian element; for the majority of the rank and
file of these miscreants were tavern loafers. Their denunciation of
England was not only strong, but blatant and couched in language both
blasphemous and obscene. This Ashton felt he could not endure,
this land of freedom was far too free for him. He said he loved
liberty, but not license, and, therefore, stimulated by the spirit of
patriotism, and by another spirit, which in his case was far the more
potent, he resolved to move to Canada, to shelter again under the
protecting folds of the "Union Jack." I have already given the reader
to understand, in another chapter, that he acted upon that
resolution.




CHAPTER V.

GOOD RESOLUTIONS; A TEMPTER, AND A FALL.


On the morning we introduced him to the reader he took the train
to Charlotte and secured a berth on the steamer _Corinthian_
for a port on the Canadian side, and as it would not start for an
hour after he arrived, he thought he would endeavor to compose his
perturbed mind by a quiet walk up the river. For in his sober
moments he suffered intensely from the "pricks of an outraged
conscience," and more than once he had been tempted to take his
own life, but the thought of wife and children had restrained him
from the rash and cowardly act. It may be, there was intermingled