tion was as given. Report ran that he thus called
every one, promiscuously; but, although I was his aide for nearly six
months, I only heard him use it once or twice. Possibly he was
breaking a bad habit.

Judged by my experience, which I believe was no worse than the
average, the life of an aide is literally that of a dog; it was
chiefly following round, or else sitting in a boat at a landing, just
as a dog waits outside for his master, to all hours of the night, till
your superior comes down from his dinner or out from the theatre. A
coachman has a "cinch," to use our present-day slang; for he has only
his own behavior to look to, while the aide has to see that the dozen
bargemen also behave, don't skip up the wharf for a drink, and then
forget the way back to the boat. If one or two do, no matter how good
his dinner may have been, the remarks of the flag-officer are apt to
be unpleasant; not to speak of subsequent interviews with the
first-lieutenant. I trace to those days a horror which has never left
me of keeping servants waiting. Flag-officers apparently never heard
that punctuality is the politeness of kings. There are, however,
occasional compensations; bones, I might say, pursuing the dog
analogy. One incident very interesting to me occurred. The
flag-officer had a well-deserved reputation for great bravery, and in
his early career had fought two or three duels. One of these had been
at Rio Janeiro, on an island in the harbor, and he had there killed
his man. On this occasion, the barge being manned and I along, we
pulled over to the island. In the thirty intervening years it must
have changed greatly, for many buildings were now on it; but his
memory evidently was busy and serving him well. He walked round
meditatively, uttering a low, humming whistle, his hands in his
pockets, his secretary and myself following. At last he reached a
point where he stopped and mused for some moments, after which he went
quietly and silently to the boat. Not a word passed from him to us
during our stay, nor the subsequent pull to shore; but there can be
little doubt where his thoughts were. It is right to add that on the
occasion in question not only was the provocation all on the other
side, but it was endured by him to the utmost that the standards of
1830 would permit.

To my aideship also I owed an unusual opportunity to see an incident
of bygone times--the heaving down of a fair-sized ship of war. One of
our sloops, of