Page:Life and transactions of Mrs. Jane Shore (2).pdf/14

 ALLAN BARCLAY. AMONG those soldiers who survived the battle of Waterloo, was a private belonging to the -- regiment of foot, of the name of Allan Barclay. He was a native of Ayr, and had received an education calculated for a higher rank in life than the one lie held. His parents, indeed, were respectable burghers of that respectable town ; and Allan, with some little caution and persever- ance, might have succeeded them in their quiet and easy path, had not a restless and rambling turn of mind male him dissatisfied with all around-occasioned endless dis- cords at home-and brought him into a thousand petty scrapes, until at last, in a youthful frolic or passion, he enlisted into the regiment above-mentioned, and crossed the British channel along with the troops, before his parents were apprized of the circumstance: Although the battle of Waterloo struck a death-blow to the hopes of the Bonapartists, it was judged neces- sary to the peace of France, that the victorious armies should be quartered throughout the kingdom until its agitation should subside: and those soldiers, therefore, who had survived the conflict, had not the satisfaction of witnessing, in their own country, the burst of en- thusiasm that followed the news of their success, ol O. returning home while home ring with their deeds. Allan Barclay was one of the few who had escaped the battle unhurt, and it was his fate to be billeted in a small cottage at a considerable distance from Paris. The only inmates of the cottage were an elderly woman and her daughter. Dame Clerville, the name of the woman, was the widow of one who had been killed while serving Bonaparte about the commeneement of his