disease. Sanitation on a large scale, never having been
practised in peace, could not be improvised in this
hurried, though disastrously slow, preparation for a war.
The ship in which Wolfe was to sail had been lying idle
for years; and her pestilential bilge-water soon began
to make the sailors and soldiers sicken and die. Most
fortunately, Wolfe was among the first to take ill; and
so he was sent home in time to save him from the fevers
of Spanish America.

Wolfe was happy to see his mother again, to have his pony
to ride and his dogs to play with. But, though he tried
his best to stick to his lessons, his heart was wild for
the war. He and George Warde used to go every day during
the Christmas holidays behind the pigeon-house at Squerryes
Court and practise with their swords and pistols. One
day they stopped when they heard the post-horn blowing
at the gate; and both of them became very much excited
when George's father came out himself with a big official
envelope marked 'On His Majesty's Service' and addressed
to 'James Wolfe, Esquire.' Inside was a commission as
second lieutenant in the Marines, signed by George II
and dated at St James's Palace, November 3, 1741. Eighteen
years later, when the fame of the conquest of Canada was
the talk of the kingdom, the Wardes had a stone monument
built to mark the spot where Wolfe was standing when the
squire handed him his first commission. And there it is
to-day; and on it are the verses ending,

This spot so sacred will forever claim