fore they
make up their mind whether anything is to be done, and if so what; and
long before they come to any decision on the subject we shall be on
the other side of the Atlantic, and then, possibly, after all the
trials and monotony of perhaps a two months' voyage, we may land there
only to be fetched back again. I quite agree with you that England can
put nothing worth calling an army in the field, and that it would be
madness to send a fine regiment out of the country at the present
moment. But everyone knows the lack of wisdom with which we are
governed, and the miserable slowness of our military authorities. It
is not likely even to occur to any one to countermand our orders, but
it will certainly be disgusting in the extreme to have to start just
at the present moment."

"Beside," another officer said, "it will be maddening to be two months
at sea without news, and to know that perhaps all Europe is in arms
and tremendous events going on and we out of it altogether."

"I should think nothing will be done just at present," the major said.
"Every country in Europe has been disbanding its armies just as we
have since peace was proclaimed, and it will be a long time before any
of them are ready to take the field in anything like force. Even
Napoleon himself, great organizer as he is, will take some time to put
all France under arms again. An army is a machine that cannot be
created in a day. The soldiers have to clothed, arms to be
manufactured, the cavalry to be mounted, the artillery to be
organized, and a field train got together. No, I should say that at
least four months must elapse before fighting begins in earnest. With
anything like a favorable wind we should be across in America in a
month. If orders are sent out a month after we start we may be back in
time for the opening ball. Judging from the past, it is likely to be a
long business unseating Napoleon again, and if we are not in for the
first of it we may be in plenty of time for a fair share of the
fighting, always supposing that the authorities are sufficiently awake
to the merits of the regiment to recall us."

"How is the wind this evening?" one of the officers asked.

"It was westerly when we came in," Lieutenant Desmond said. "Why do
you ask?"

"Why, as long as it blows from the west there is not much chance of
the transports getting in here."

"That is so," the major agreed. "The question for us to consider is
whether we ought to pray for