attached received orders to file off to the right. We obeyed, and
passing along the front of the hospital, we skirted to the rear of the
village, and established ourselves in the field beyond. It was a
positive blessing this restoration to something like personal freedom.
The men set busily to work, lighting fires and cooking provisions;--the
officers strolled about, with no other apparent design than to give
employment to their limbs, which had become stiff with so protracted a
state of inaction. For ourselves we visited the wounded, said a few kind
words to such as we recognised, and pitied, as they deserved to be
pitied, the rest. Then retiring to our fire, we addressed ourselves with
hearty good will to a frugal supper, and gladly composed ourselves to
sleep.--_A Subaltern in America.--Blackwood's Magazine._

* * * * *


SONNET--NOCHE SERENA.


How tranquil is the night! The torrent's roar
Dies off far distant; through the lattice streams
The pure, white, silvery moonshine, mantling o'er
The couch and curtains with its fairy gleams.
Sweet is the prospect; sweeter are the dreams
From which my loathful eyelid now unclosed:--
Methought beside a forest we reposed,
Marking the summer sun's far western beams,
A dear-loved friend and I. The nightingale
To silence and to us her pensive tale
Sang forth; the very tone of vanish'd years