to
see the irrepressible English riding hurdles in the Campagna, and
talking of ratting in the shadow of the Parthenon, as though within the
beloved chimes of Bow; but it was stranger still to see those
roughened, grimed men, with soleless boots and pants tattered "as if an
imp had worn them," rolling out town-talk and well-known names in such
perfectly natural manner.

And this was only a slice from any camp in the service. The gentlemen
troops stood hardships better, and bore their troubles and difficulties
with lighter hearts, than any of the mixed corps. It is true that few
of them were left as organizations at the end of the war.

As the army increased, men of ability and education naturally sifted to
higher place; but they wore their spurs after they had won them. They
got their commissions when they had been through the baptism of blood
and fire, and of mud and drudgery as well. They never flinched. The
dreariest march--the shortest rations--the deepest snow and the
midnight "long roll"--found them ready and willing. History furnishes
no parallel. The bloods of the cavalier wars rode hard and fought
long. They went to the battle with the jest upon their lips, and
walked gaily to the scaffold if need be. But they not only died as
gentlemen--they lived as they died. Their perfumed locks were never
draggled in the mire of the camp, and their silken hose never smirched
but in the fray. Light songs from dainty lips and brimming goblets
from choice _flacons_ were theirs; and they could be merry to-night if
they died to-morrow.

The long rapiers of the Regency flashed as keen in the smoke of the
fight as the jest had lately rung in the mistress' bower; and how the
_blase_ club man and the lisping dandy of Rotten Row could change to
the avenging war god, the annals of the "Light Brigade" can tell.

But these lived as gentlemen. In the blackest hour, when none believed
"the king should have his own again;" in the deadliest fray and in the
snow-bound trench, _they_ waved the sword of command, and the only
equality they had with their men was who should fight the furthest.

But here were gentlemen born--men of worth and wealth, education and
fashion--delving side by side with the veriest drudge; fighting as only
gentlemen can fight, and then working as gentlemen never worked before!

Delicately bred youths who had never known rougher work than the _deux
temps_, now trudged through blinding snows on post, or slept in