Many an old campaigner, who has looked upon scenes of horror and slaughter sufficient to make the flesh creep and the blood curdle, could tell a tale which would show the French took a deal of beating sometimes. I have observed the same thing amongst people of higher rank," continued the Major, "and when an old soldier has been describing the fluctuations of the fight, the mishaps of the campaign, the annihilation of the storming-party, and the disasters of the siege, or even the retire of the English troops when overwhelmed or outnumbered, I have seen the auditors open their eyes with amazement, as if they doubted the possibility of an Islander clad in a red uniform, turned up with blue, and guarded with lace and crown-buttons, using his heels for the purpose of saving his head on occasion."

"Precisely so," said Squire Rigmarole, "I'm no soldier, Major, but I can't altogether away with the idea of a British regiment retiring, except for advantage. That's a sight our foes have seldom seen. The god of battles be praised for it. I am myself a man of peace; but methinks I should have liked hugely to have looked upon our squadrons in the field. What a tremendous sight it must be to see the armies engage. Certainly the most awfully-grand and dreadful spectacle that Providence permits to be enacted upon the earth's surface. You have been in a great many engagements, General Pipeclay. Tell us what is a battle like."

" I find it difficult to answer your question," returned the General. "In many battles wherein I have been an actor, aye, and for the whole day, in the very thickest of the fight, I have never seen anything at all for the smoke which enveloped all around. My men have been struck down, as it were, in a dense fog of their own creating, without ever seeing the foe, and amidst a noise which drove thought and reflection from the distracted brain. Then, perhaps, came upon us the sudden charge, the hand-to-hand slaughter, and then, again, the volleying musketry from wing to wing, along the blazing line, which wrapped us once more from view of all around; and so on from hour to hour during the day, till we were either victors or the reverse.

"At such times as this it is almost impossible to describe the progress of a battle. On go the battalions engaged amidst showers of shot and shell, enveloped in the smoke and fire of their own muskets, and, indeed, to simplify the matter, at such time, little better than a fighting mob, until, with the aid of the advancing battalions in support, they somehow or other achieve the day. Such, gentlemen," said the General, relighting his pipe, "is frequently all that an officer engaged can tell of the battle in which he has assisted. To him who has the management of the affair, and who moves the springs of the battle, more of the game is, of course, understood. And yet, during the heat of an engagement, your modern General is frequently obliged as much to his ears as his eyes. For instance, if he suddenly hears an amazing pounding at a distant spot, where he himself possessed but a small battery, such a disagreeable sound would be a sufficient intelligencer that something was all wrong in that quarter of the field. I quite agree with my worthy host in what he has just advanced. Our reverses ought to be as much studied by the soldier as our victories. They are to be looked at as dear bought experience purchased by rivers of blood, and regarded accordingly. The battle of New Orleans, as described by that distinguished officer, Major Cook, in his volume called a Narrative of Events in the South of France, &c., ought to be read by every officer in the Service, from the General to the Ensign. Come, my masters," continued the General, rising and filling his glass, "let us drink to the remembrance of those brave fellows who fell during the last struggle in the Peninsula. In that thought how many 'industrious scenes and acts of death' are embodied. How many dearly-cherished comrades of the camp and bivouac again die fearfully, yet gloriously, amidst storm and siege. But a few years more, and the soldiers of the war will all sleep with their fathers.

'The car of victory, the plume, the wreath,
Defend not from the bolt of fate the brave.
No note the clarion of renown can breathe
T' alarm the long night of the lonely grave,
Or check the headlong haste of time's o'erwhelming wave.'

"I have seen it remarked by a foreign writer," said the Major, "that no man can be a good soldier who has not considered his profession as a speculative science, as well as a practicable art. It is necessary that he should have as many points as possible presented to his imagination, in order to give him the caution, decision, and rapidity necessary for command. What has been may be again, and even in the number of battles and sieges fought, followed and won so gloriously by our troops during the last war, there are many little checks and reverses which the young soldier should mark when he hears related, in order that he may consider how they might have been avoided.

"The capture of Gúznee was mainly owing to the clear head, gallantry, and talent of the chief Engineer Officer, Major Thomson. The whole British army were in a most critical situation when he stepped forward to their rescue; and part of the success of the attack might be attributed to his recollection of what, at any other period, would perhaps be called a trifling incident he had observed in a former Indian siege. He calculated upon the shadows in the clear moonlight, which would hide the working party, who were to attempt, their only chance, the bursting open of the great gates of the fortress.

"In the dilemma into which the invading force was thrown, before an almost impregnable fortress, and without means or provision for the siege, he instantly hit upon the only chance which afforded any hope of success, 'seized the instant by the forward top,' and saved the army.

"To return, however, to the subject under discussion, namely, the successes of our arms, there is no question but that the British have proved themselves (wherever they have spread their colours) most intrepid soldiers and irresistible in battle when fairly matched and properly led. But late successes ought not to intoxicate; the next war (come when it may) will be a terrific struggle, and we should profit by example and experience."

"There are few maxims in war," said Rigmarole, "of greater consequence to a Commanding Officer than the knowledge of the character of those he is about to fight against, and how they are likely to be influenced by circumstances. This was one of Julius Cæsar's maxims. In his inquiries about the Gauls, he learned that they were possessed of great bravery, proud and overbearing in spirit, were sudden and quick in quarrel, but had no perseverance; and that they were indeed better calculated to rush headlong to an attack than to repel or sustain one. Something of the same disposition may be said to characterize the French of latter days. The mighty Julius turned this knowledge to account in all his battles with the Gauls; their very virtues stood them but as enemies when opposed to one possessing his extraordinary talents, and which were peculiarly fitted for all the casualties of war."

"It is Marechal Saxe," said Ensign Marigold, "who asserts that perfection in generalship can never be acquired. He who is not a soldier born will never become one by study and perseverance-and the Marshal is right. Let any one encounter the glance of the great Captain of the age, and he will have a very pretty idea of the military coup d'œil-that glance which in an instant comprehends the advantage or disadvantage of the enemy's position, the nature of the country, the posts to occupy, and the momentary design to act upon. Yes," continued the Ensign, "genius is the gift of the gods, and is not to be acquired. Give me, my masters all, a heaven-born soldier.

Small have continual plodders ever won,
Save base authority from others' books.
Too much to know is to know nought but fame,
And every godfather can give a name.'"

"I grant ye," said the Major, "genius may outstrip study; but study and application will sometimes supply the want of genius, and the two together formed such men as Epaminondas, Lucullus, Alexander, Spinola, Cromwell, and Charles XII.-men who in an instant leaped into their saddles, and the first day they took command defeated whole armies."

"The French have a decided military genius," said General Pipeclay, "and are more au fait at campaigning than ourselves. They are capital cooks, endure privation without a grumble, 'pour la gloire ou l'amour,' and are the most light-hearted soldiers in the world. They sing their own description to the life

'La guerre est ma patrie,

Mon harnois, ma maison;
Et en toute saison,
Combattre c'est ma vie.'

"The French are described as quick as lightning in an attack, retreating with equal alacrity, returning to the charge again and again, not in the least disheartened at losing ground; and the inferior officers being all well educated in the military art, when the superiors fall there is not any great confusion or want of order. The French are excellent skirmishers, and their tirailleurs and new tactics confounded all the principles of the trade of war which had been in vogue from the time of Frederick the Great. Albeit, our own light bobs were equally skilful when they once learned the trade. At Vimiera,' says old Rifleman Harris, 'I first saw the French light infantry; they were called Boney's Invincibles, but the Rifles soon took that conceit out of them. I knocked over a good many Invincibles myself before sunset that day, as I lay under cover of a small rise in the ground, and blazed away till the barrel of my rifle was so hot that I was obliged to be careful in grasping it with my left hand for fear of burning my fingers.' This man killed an incredible number of the enemy during the late war. The Rifles, indeed, were an extraordinary band of resolutes, and performed most heroic actions. They may be said, during the several battles in the Peninsula, to have fought a succession of duels all day long with the French skirmishers, cracking jokes amongst each other, and enjoying the sport as carelessly as if they had been playing a game with pea-shooters. One man, named Plunket, was a most extraordinary marksman; he picked off the French officers everywhere he could get a shot at them; and in one engagement, after knocking over numbers of the enemy, he killed the French General."

"Our superiority over other nations," said the Ensign, "was, I think, more apparent before the present system of fighting and the introduction of gunpowder, as then the physical strength, intrepidity, and cool determination of the English soldier were of more avail. The introduction of gunpowder has considerably equalized the odds of physical strength; and the pressure of the forefinger of a dastard who blinks at the flash of his own weapon, will often bring down, at the distance of half a mile, a hero with the form and bravery of a Cœur de Lion."

"Strength and agility," said the Major, "must have formerly been of the greatest advantage in the field, so also was skill in the use of the weapon. At the present time, I am free to confess that our soldiery are hardly taught the use of the arms they carry. Cressy and Poictiers were both won by the skill of our English archers. In those days every Englishman was, by law, obliged to have a bow of his own height. Butts were made in every township, and the inhabitants obliged to practise archery under certain penalties; so that the archers were always ready with their arms in their hands, and, as Shakspeare says of the power which besieged Angiers, Like a jolly troop of huntsmen came our lusty English.'

"Cressy* and Poictiers were both won by the skill of the English

* At Cressy, a shower of rain rendered unserviceable the strings of the Genoese cross-bows. Not so the bows of the English archers; they stepped to the front, and let fly such showers of arrows, that nothing could stand before them. In the reign of Edward IV. one thousand English archers were ordered to be sent to the Duke of Burgundy. Their pay was sixpence per day, in those times a very large remuneration, and showing the high estimation in which the bowmen of England were held. In Henry the Eighth's reign, it was forbidden to have a cross-bow in the house, under a penalty of ten pounds; and archery was proportionably encouraged. Archery was indeed the glory of the British nation till the time of the civil wars, when clumsy ill-contrived matchlocks and pistols superseded its use. The last time the legislature attempted to protect or encourage archery was during the reign of Charles I. Sir Walter Scott makes Dugald Dalgetty laugh at the idea of bringing bows and arrows to the field; but Dugald's regiment of Finland cuirassiers would have looked foolish under the discharge of the old English bowmen, when they might indeed have laughed at a shower of bullets. At Agincourt the French knights actually bowed down their casques to the shower, and, although clad in armour from head to heel, fell like corn before the reaper. The neglect into which archery fell rendered the art useless, from the long time it requires to train an archer. Muskets are amongst the most unwieldy instruments of war-not one bullet in a hundred kills; besides the smoke hides the object after a few discharges. A man can discharge four arrows whilst charging and discharging one musket. His object is never hidden from view, and an arrow sticking in any part of a man, renders him useless until it is extracted. Lastly, if such terrific execution was done when men were armed in proof from head to heel, what would the old bowmen work upon our battalions now? No, no! let not Sir Dugald laugh at bows and arrows.

archers-Holmidon, against the Scots, was also mainly achieved by the English bowmen. The archers in these engagements discharged their arrows with so much truth and force, that they pierced everywhere through the armour of the knights and men-at-arms, killing some, maiming and maddening others, and carrying dismay and confusion wherever their showers fell. The victory of Agincourt was also mainly attributable to the terrible execution done by the English archers."

"In that battle," said the Major, "may be seen the ill effects of too much confidence in one's own powers, and a despisal of the foe. What Englishman has not looked from camp to camp,' as described by nature's private secretary, on that eventful night, when,

'Proud of their numbers, and secure in soul,
The confident and over-lusty French
Did the low-rated English play at dice."

"The condition of Harry the Fifth was indeed melancholy to contemplate. Opposed to him was an army four times the number of his own power. His soldiers were worn down by dreadful marches, and gaunt with famine and sickness, no retreat was in his rear, and victory seemed impossible.

The poor condemned English,

Like sacrifices, by their watchful fires

Sit patiently, and inly ruminate

The morning's danger; and their gesture sad,
Investing lank-lean cheeks and war-worn coats,
Presented them unto the gazing moon
So many horrid ghosts.'

"The English, indeed, had nothing to favour them in this unequal struggle, but their own indomitable and bull-dog courage, and the comfort they must have felt in the cheerful semblance, majesty, and skill of their lion-hearted King.

"The French in this battle, indeed, made a glorious mistake; they brought into the field an overwhelming power, which their Generals could not wield. They crowded this enormous mass into so narrow a space, that their vast numbers were their ruin; and so anxious were they that the nobles of the land should have a full share in the glory of the intended English defeat, that they rejected all plebeian aid, and left their archers behind them.

"The French chivalry behaved with their wonted valour, but were everywhere beaten and slaughtered; they could not manœuvre with effect. One enormous body of heavily-armed knights, mounted on steeds 'barbed from counter to tail,' according to a French writer, was actually posted in a swamp, where their horses sinking knee deep, when they were ordered to charge, found it impossible to move, and were destroyed helplessly by the dreadful discharge of the English bowmen. The gentry of England, also, on this day 'showed the metal of their pasture,' and committed a tremendous slaughter. The words of the tigerhearted player*, and which he puts into another of England's aspiring Kings, again come across the memory, like the trumpet's voice in the raging field.

* A contemporary of Shakspeare's describes him as possessing "a tiger's heart wrapped in a player's hide."