te Majesty's accession to the throne. It was a sufficiently solemn
proceeding on my own part, for I was warned that I was being guilty of
a military misdemeanour of the gravest sort But if the thing was serious
to me, it was a matter of rejoicing comedy--or even, if you like, of
screaming farce--to the troops who were paraded for church that Sunday
morning. Men fairly shrieked with laughter at the sight of the old
Kilmarnock cap, the ridiculous tailed jacket, and the rough shoddy
trousers bagging at the seat. The officers made an attempt at decorum
which was not too successful; and I was hustled from the ground, and
escorted to the guard-room, for the high crime and misdemeanour of
presuming to appear in the clothes which had officially been served
out to me. I appeared at the orderly-room next morning, and underwent
a severe wigging from the officer who was in temporary command of the
regiment; but the incident was mercifully allowed to close with a mere
reprimand. It did a little good, perhaps, for I never knew any other
recruit to be served out with an utterly obsolete and useless kit so
long as I remained with the regiment; but, until the hour at which
my discharge was purchased, I was taught that it was not conducive to
personal comfort to rebel against any form of tyranny and extortion
which might be condoned by tradition in the Army.

Honestly, I do not think that I look with a jaundiced eye upon my
remembrances of that most unhappy time, but, as I remember, to have had
an education a little better than that of the average ploughman, and
to show an inclination to be smart and quick at duty, was a certain
passport to the hostility of the non-commissioned officers of the time.
They regarded themselves, as I am now inclined to fancy, as a sort of
close corporation, and I cannot help thinking that they felt it a kind
of duty to themselves to repress the ambitions of any youngster who
seemed likely to be marked for promotion. A mere recruit, who had not
yet learned the simple mysteries of the goose-step, had registered an
objection to being robbed at the outset of his career, and had thereby
revealed himself as a person of dangerous ideas which, if pursued to
their ultimate, would make an end of all manner of illegitimate
profits; and I am not careful to suggest that any special aptitude for a
soldier's life on my own part was responsible for the dead set which
was made at me by all the non-coms, of the regiment. There