HOW "QUIET QUENTIN" WON THE VICTORIA CROSS.
"So you want me to tell you something about the Victoria Cross, eh?" said Private Jack Phillips, of the —th Lancers, as he sat over his bread and cheese outside the door of the "First and Last," amid a circle of open-mouthed listeners. "Well, I can just do that; for although I never got it myself (worse luck!), I've got a friend who did, only the other day; and he wasn't a soldier, neither, but only a sort o' clerk. Think o' that, now!
"There's a many different kinds of crosses, but I can only call to mind three or four just this minute. First and foremost, there's our own Victoria, made o' gun-metal (the guns taken in the Crimea, you know). There's a V to support the cross, which hangs from a clasp with two laurel branches on it; and upon the cross there's the English lion and crown, with 'For Valor' underneath, 'cause it's only given for some special feat o' bravery in presence of the enemy. The ribbon's red for the army, and blue for the navy; and there's a pension of ten pounds" (fifty dollars) "goes along with it.
"Then there's the Iron Cross of Germany, given for bravery in action, same as our own Victoria. Mr. Archibald Forbes, the great war correspondent that you've all heerd of, got it in the war of 1870 for bringin' in a wounded German under fire. Then there's the French Cross o' the Legion of Honor, started by old Napoleon Bonaparty when he was a-fightin' against us; but that's given to painters, and writers, and inventors, and all sorts o' fellows besides soldiers. They say old Nap used sometimes to give the cross off his own breast to any man that he saw do anything werry good; and the man that got it was fit to jump out of his skin for joy.
"Then there's the Rooshian Cross of St. George, the biggest of all their orders, which is more to any Rooshian soldier than if he'd been made a General. I've heerd tell of some battle where one o' them Rooshian Marshals, seeing his men giving way, pulled a lot o' these Georges out of his pocket, and shied 'em right in among the enemy, callin' out, 'Lads, who's for the Cross of St. George?' The minute his men saw that, for'ard they all went like mad, and swept the enemy all to nowhere. Pretty 'cute of the old chap, wasn't it? We found one of 'em on the body of a Rooshian officer that was killed at Balaklava; but none of us liked to take it, 'cause we thought that as he'd never have parted with it living, he ought to keep it dead; and so we just buried it with him. 'Twas a cross with all four sides equal, and the figure o' St. George and the Dragon in gold on a white ground, and very pretty it looked.
"But I was a-going to tell you about that man who got the Victoria Cross without bein' a soldier. You see, just before the Mutiny, a lot of us were quartered at a little place on the Upper Ganges called Huttee-Bagh. The chief of the station (who's like what a district magistrate 'ud be in England) had a young fellow for under-secretary whose father had run through all his property, and died without leavin' enough to bury him; so the lad had to come out to India and work for a livin'.
"Quentin Masterton his name was; it's one I won't forget in a hurry, nor my comrades neither. Some of our officers used to call him Quentin Durward, after that feller in Sir Walter Scott; but the most of 'em called him 'Quiet Quentin,' 'cause he was always so quiet and gentle that he seemed to have nothin' in him at all. But hadn't he, just? Wait a bit.
"Well, the Mutiny broke out, and one morning, first thing we knew, the whole place was full of sepoys, yellin' and firin' like so many madmen. Most of our men were killed before they knew what hurt 'em, and the rest of us fought our way down to the river, with the ladies in the centre, and got on board one o' them big rice boats that they have out there. But before half of us were aboard, a fresh lot o' the villains came howling down upon us, and we had to turn to and fight 'em again.
"Then you should have seen 'Quiet Quentin'!—he did the work of five men all to himself. When our two officers were killed, he led us on, and gave the black rogues sich a dose that they fairly turned tail and ran. Before they could rally again we were all in the boat; but she wouldn't budge, and then we found she was hard and fast to a rope under the water.
"Quick as lightning Quentin Masterton jumps overboard, cuts the rope, and shoves the boat away from him, right out into the stream, just as another gang of the rascals came pouring down upon him. There was a crackle of musketry along the bank, and down went poor Quentin. We saw his head rise once, and then, bang! there came another volley, and down he went for good.
"That was a sore sight for us all, I tell ye. Some of the ladies cried outright, and we men felt the biggest cowards that ever was for lettin' him do it. But we soon had something else to think about, for all that night and all the next day we were drifting along, with nothing to eat, seeing the smoke of the burning villages all round us, and expecting to be attacked every minute.
"At last, by God's mercy, we fell in with a British detachment, which brought us safe across country to General S——'s division; and when we got there, whom should we see, all alive and jolly, but 'Quiet Quentin'?
"Sich a hurrah as we gave then you never heerd in your life; and we crowded about him, and nearly pulled him to bits, tellin' him that we'd all thought him dead.
"'Not a bit,' says he, laughing; 'there's plenty of life in me yet. You see, I dived as they fired at me, and then let my cap float up to the top, keeping myself well in the shadow of the bushes; and while they were peppering the cap I got off.'
"Just then the old General (who'd been listening with his eyes wide open) asked what all this meant; and when we told him he faces round on Masterton and says, quite angry like, 'Why didn't you tell me all this before?'
"'How could I?' says Masterton; ''twould be blowing my own trumpet.'
"'Well,' says the General, 'I'll blow it for you, and pretty loud, too. You shall have the Victoria Cross for this, my boy, as sure as my name's Richard S——.'
"And so he did have it, sure enough; and if you can find me any man that deserves it better, why, I'll be werry glad to see him, that's all."