lay spread out on the canvas of his future. Of trade, and its many weary accompaniments, he seemed to have got quite enough at an early day after entering on his apprenticeship. He formed the resolution to leave his employer and master altogether; and it is noticeable, too, that his guardians were well advised of his determination long before he undertook to carry it into effect. Indeed, with the few shillings which they had allowed him to retain in his pocket, it is probable that he ran away from the merchant immediately to them again, and demanded sufficient additional funds to enable him to realize his early dreams of the sea. Eager to be finally rid of him, they humored his request, and he very soon found a place as page, or travelling servant, to the young sons of Lord Willoughby, who were then about to make the customary tour of the continent.

They all went to France together. He controlled his vagrant propensities sufficiently to remain with them there for some five or six weeks, and then begged to be dismissed from their service altogether. They gave him a liberal supply of money, and let him go, supposing that he would be sure to return to his friends agair

But this he had no mind to do. He had had quite enough of such friends; and so, with his money, he made the best of his way to Paris, without companion or adviser.

At this time he was about fifteen years old; and, for a boy of fifteen, he certainly showed a rare courage and self-reliance that would do no discredit to a person of twice his years. While he was in Paris he fell in with a gentleman named Hume, a native of Scotland, who conceived a great liking to our young hero, and proposed to send him with letters of introduction to his own friends at home. He also filled his purse, and generously supplied all his wants. It was the gentleman's wish to have the youth trained to be a courtier of King James, then living in Scotland, but destined soon to succeed Elizabeth on the throne of England. He liked the lad's spirit and intelligence, and felt sure that, even at that age, he promised uncommon things. And his after life showed how accurate was the judg ment of his Scottish friend.

Undoubtedly Smith honestly engaged to go to Scotland, just as his new friend desired. But he was a youth of such a vagrant disposition, of

such erratic ways of thinking, of such dazzling and uncertain hopes for the future, and thus far so entirely accustomed to follow out only his · own unfettered impulses, that the reader must not wonder to find that, as soon as he was once away from the influence of his benefactor, he forgot him altogether. Such was the fact. He thought and cared no more for his hopes of preferment at court. He was wholly taken up with the vague propensities for roving and wandering that beset him on every hand.

By the time he reached Rouen his money was all gone. This was about the period of the civil wars that prevailed in France between the Catholics and Protestants, and ended with the violent death of King Henry the Fourth. From the Narrative of his own life, which he wrote a great many years afterwards, it seems that he was then attracted by the sound of martial music, and the pomp of military preparations; and that at length he enlisted as a soldier, and fought on the side of the Protestants. Having once tasted of this strange excitement, it was difficult for him to give it up; and, as soon, therefore, as peace followed in France, he was anxious to hurry

away to the next field where his services might be needed. His life was now little more than a headlong race, and it would seem as if he was trying to see how fast he could throw it away. Yet, out of all these aimless pursuits and impulses, he was insensibly extracting lessons of courage, and endurance, and self-command, that we shall see were of the greatest value to him in the rugged years of his after life.

Accordingly, he enlisted in a band of English troops, that were at that time acting as auxiliaries against Spain in the Netherlands, and served on this famous European battle-field for about four years. Little or nothing is known of his personal conduct during that time; and even in his Narrative he has chosen to be silent about it all. Yet, with his naturally strong tastes for a life of such excitement, it is not to be supposed that he let pass any opportunity of distinguishing himself among his comrades. What lessons were set him he probably learned with all the greediness of an earnest and ambitious nature.

After the expiration of about four years, he suddenly bethought himself of the letters entrusted to him by his friend, the Scotch gentle

man, in Paris. Acting immediately on his thought, he hurried away to take ship for Leith, a port in Scotland. The vessel in which he embarked was wrecked on the voyage; but his own life was providentially saved. Hardly was he free of this disaster, when he was overtaken by a fit of severe sickness on the Isle of Northumberland, and his life for some time despaired of. But he recovered at length, and hastened to Scotland to deliver his letters. There he was received with the utmost kindness, and found friends everywhere at his hand. But circumstances conspired to prevent his success at court, and he was thrown back upon the support of his own proud and self-reliant spirit again. King James was already impatient to put on the crown that Elizabeth had worn so long; and it is not at all likely that he cared to surround himself in Scotland with a large army of fawning friends and flattering courtiers. Besides, our hero would really have made but a sorry figure at such a business; and, with his proud and imaginative nature, would have failed even of the smallest There was a wider and a nobler field

success.

opening for him far away.