Zebedee,
perceiving this, made all allowance for him, and bought a new Sunday hat
the very next day, for fear of wearing out the one he had taken off to
His Majesty, when His Majesty looked at him, and Her Majesty as well,
and they manifestly said to one another, what a very fine subject they
had found. Such was loyalty--aye, and royalty--in those times that we
despise.
But larger events demand our heed. There were forty thousand gallant
fellows, from the age of fifteen upwards, doing their best to look like
soldiers, and some almost succeeding. True it is that their legs and
arms were not all of one pattern, nor their hats put on their heads
alike--any more than the heads on their shoulders were--neither did they
swing together, as they would have done to a good swathe of grass; but
for all that, and making due allowance for the necessity they were under
of staring incessantly at the King, any man who understood them
would have praised them wonderfully. And they went about in such
wide formation, and occupied so much of their native land, that the
best-drilled regiment Napoleon possessed would have looked quite small
among them.
"They understand furze," said a fine young officer of the staff, who
had ridden up to Admiral Darling's carriage and saluted three ladies who
kept watch there. "I doubt whether many of the Regular forces would
have got through that brake half so well; certainly not without double
gaiters.
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