“Very true. My curiosity was excited, and I wished to hear all I could about modern arms, from the poniard to the pike, from the cutlass to the carbine, from the hand-grenade to the Congreve rocket, from the six-pounder to the big brass cannon at Bejapoor in Hindoostan, and from the horse-pistol in the houlster of a dragoon to the monster mortar used at the siege of Antwerp.”
“And we wish to hear all about these things, too.”
“There was another circumstance, too, that did much towards leading me into the army. I chanced to form an acquaintance with an old soldier who knew everything about fortification, engineering, and gunnery. He had had his share of sieges and storming-parties, and seemed as familiar with trenches, ditches, fascines and scaling-ladders, as a schoolboy is with his peg-top and his kite. He used to describe to me the whole affair, from first breaking ground to the taking of a garrison, the glacis, scarps, and counter-scarps, ramparts, lunettes, bastions, batteries and citadel.”
“No wonder that you should listen to a man like him.”
“He was, indeed, wondrously interesting, and we talked together by the hour of Soldiers and Sailors. ‘Forward,’ and ‘Off she goes,’ were our mottoes. We advanced in double quick time with the red-coats, and only halted in a case of necessity. We shared the birth of honest Jack when buffeted on the billows, nor left him till he put into harbour, mingled his prize-money with his pig-tail tobacco, and sang ‘Britannia rules the waves.’”
“Did the old soldier describe a battle to you?”
“He did, and many of them, too. The plan of an engagement was unknown to me, and I had formed strange notions of one army attacking another. He explained to me the movements of the advanced guard, the main body, the wings, the reserve, and the artillery; and discoursed freely of sentinels, vedettes, patrols, piquets, and the general arrangements of an army in the field.”
“He would be quite at home there!”
“Such conversation as this led me to read of celebrated military and naval commanders, with the battles they had fought, and the victories they had won. Of Frederick the Great, of Prussia; Charles of Sweden; Peter the Great, of Russia; Buonaparte of France; and Marlborough and Wellington of England; with Hawkins, Drake, Frobisher, Rodney, Howe, Duncan and Nelson. At that time I knew nothing, or next to nothing, of a sea-fight, of the order of battle, of ships taking their stations, of signals, and the several duties of officers and men during the action; and of broadsides, raking, and boarding; but since then I have picked up some information on most of these points.”
“That old soldier must have known a great deal!”