Page:Life of the honourable Col. James Gardiner (1).pdf/19

 meekness, and command of his passions, prevented indecent sallies of ungovernable anger towards those in a state of subjection to him, so the natural greatness of his mind made him solicitous to render their inferior stations as easy as he could: and he had also such a sense of the dignity and worth of an immortal soul, as engaged him to give his servants frequent religious exhortations and instructions.

To consider him in his military character—His bravery was as remarkable in the field of battle, as his milder virtues in the domestic circle; and he was particularly careful to prevent the various duties of religion, and his profession, from interfering with one another, either in himself, or in others. He therefore abhorred every thing that should look like a contrivance to keep the soldiers employed about their horses and their arms, at the season of public worship; far from that, he used to have them drawn up just before it began, and from the parade they went off to the house of God, where they behaved with as much reverence, gravity and decorum, during the time of divine service, as any of their fellow worshippers.

That his remarkable care to maintain good discipline among them might be the more effectual, he made himself, on all occasions, accessible to them, and expressed a great concern for their interest, temporal as well as spiritual; yet he had all the firmness requisite to the infliction of punishment, where he judged it necessary.

We may notice one instance of his conduct, which happened at Leicester. While part of his regiment, was encamped in that neighbourhood, the Colonel went incognito to the camp, in the middle of the night; for he sometimes lodged at his quarters in the town. One of the centinels had abandoned his post, and, on being seized, broke out into some oaths and profane execrations against those that discovered him—a crime of which the Colonel had the greatest abhorrence, and on which he never filled to animadvert. The man afterwards appeared much ashamed, and concerned for what