may do.' He
mounted as he spoke, and saluted as if on duty. Slight as the incident
was, its effect was magical. Old habits of discipline revived at the
first signal of obedience, and the corporal having made his men fall in,
came up to my side for orders.

'Select the best of these horses,' said I, 'and let us press forward
at once. We are about eighteen miles from the village of Wangheim; by
halting a short distance outside of it, I can enter alone, and learn
something about the state of the country, and the nearest French post.
The cattle are all fresh, and we can easily reach the village before
daybreak.'

Three of my little 'command' were tolerable horsemen, two of them having
served in the artillery train, and the third being the dragoon I have
alluded to. I accordingly threw out a couple of these as an advanced
picket, keeping the last as my aide-de-camp at my side. The remainder
formed the rear, with orders, if attacked, to dismount at once, and fire
over the saddle, leaving myself and the others to manoeuvre as cavalry.
This was the only way to give confidence to those soldiers, who in the
ranks would have marched up to a battery, but on horseback were totally
devoid of self-reliance. Meanwhile I imparted such instructions in
equitation as I could, my own old experience as a riding-master well
enabling me to select the most necessary and least difficult of a
horseman's duties. Except the old corporal, all were very creditable
pupils; but he, possibly deeming it a point of honour not to discredit
his old career, rejected everything like teaching, and openly protested
that, save to run away from a victorious enemy, or follow a beaten one,
he saw no use in cavalry.

Nothing could be in better temper, however, nor more amicable than our
discourses on this head; and as I let drop, from time to time, little
hints of my services on the Rhine and in Italy, I gradually perceived
that I grew higher in the esteem of my companions, so that ere we rode a
dozen miles together, their confidence in me became complete.

In return for all their anecdotes of 'blood and field,' I told them
several stories of my own life, and, at least, convinced them that if
they had not chanced upon the very luckiest of mankind, they had, at
least, fallen upon one who had seen enough of casualties not to be
easily baffled, and who felt in every difficulty a self-confidence that
no amount of discomfiture could ever entirely obliterate. No sold