Page:Interesting stories.pdf/8

8 His life had been literally a continual warfare- but he had been raised only to a halberd. Mr Martin expressed surprize-merit is ever modest. "I deserved no more," was the reply. He proceeded-He had been thrice imprisoned in France, once in Spain, and once in Holland. “But I trust in God!" said the hero. " And he delivered thee," returned the divine.--During an interview between the two last imprisonments he had suffered, or the second time since he was two years of age, he saw England. He then married, and his wife had been his constant companion in all his succeeding troubles. At fifty, he lost his arm in the lamentable war that separated England and America ; at Bunker's Hill he received the fatal shot: and, with the united testimony of all his officers concerning his fidelity and bravery, was sent to finish his days in the mother country. He applied for the pension. Merit is not always successful: he was modest; and had not a friend at court He applied in vain !

His wife had a relation in Wales, a creditable, though not a rich farmer: to him they went, and lived with him, labouring for their maintenance four years. He then died; and, being ignorant of any other relations, left them his all. They were industrious, they were frugal: but prosperity is not always the reward of industry, and the frugal are sometimes sparing in vain; The band of Providence seemed against them; but the ways of Heaven are inscrutable! Their cattle died; their crops failed! Their all was nearly gone, when the honest pair called their creditors together, and surrendered to them the little that remained; and taking an affectionate farewell of their neighbours.