The following day, at eleven, Rattleton and I walked over to the adjutant’s bungalow. I had had two or three days’ law and liberty, and it was intimated to me by Tom that I must now attend to duty, or expose myself to be considered one of what are cantly denominated “John Company’s hard bargains.”
The adjutant was a good-looking young man, of five-and-twenty, somewhat of an exquisite in dress, with large Cossack trousers (then the fashion), and long brass spurs, which I thought he clanked rather ostentatiously.
With all this, however (for the exquisite and the soldier are not incompatible), Adjutant Wigwell was evidently a zealous officer, proud of his regiment, and devoted to drill and duty; this I had learnt, indeed, from recent observation and common report.
We found him amidst a bevy of khote havildars (i.e. pay-sergeants), with the sergeant-major, havildar-major—deeply engaged in the very important matter of regulating the length of a pouch-strap, the number of holes it should have, and the precise position of the buckle, and trying the fit of the same on a stalwart grenadier of some six feet two.
The sergeant-major, a thick-set Englishman, little more than half the length and twice the breadth of the gigantic sepoy, was in the act of adjusting it, with the assistance of the havildar-major, the adjutant’s native right hand in a sepoy regiment.
Adjutant Wigwell received us kindly, shook me by the hand, and begged us to be seated and amuse ourselves till he had dismissed the business he was then attending to, which would not detain him a moment. This being over, he asked me if I had ever been drilled, and knew any thing of the manual and platoon, &c.; to which questions I was constrained to reply in the negative.
“Well,” said he, smiling, “we must take you in hand a little, and make a soldier of you. Sergeant-major,” said he, addressing that sturdy little functionary, standing in the verandah.
“Sir,” said the sergeant, touching his hat, and slipping in.
“Sergeant Giblett,” continued he, “this young gentleman, Mr. Gernon, is doing duty with us; he will soon have to attend all drills and parades; but, in the meantime, you must give him a little instruction in marching, and the manual and platoon, with the other young officers recently arrived to do duty.”
The sergeant again saluted, and said it should be atended to.