Thus I remained master of the field; and for this victory, was rewarded by His Most Gracious Majesty, with—A Company!
MESS-TABLE CHAT.
No. II.
“A band of gallant souls, who knew
The olive wood, the mountain blue,
The ration rum, the biscuit black,
The long bleak road, the bivouac,
The cannon's thunder, and the bays
That wave o'er glorious victories,
Better than city's midnight dress,
Her luxuries, and gaudiness.”
Scene—the mess-room of an Infantry regiment.
By way of introduction to the present number of “Mess-Table Chat,” a short description of the scene, as well as the actors in it, will not be amiss; it will assist the reader very considerably in the conception of the picture.
Let him, then, imagine a spacious apartment well-carpeted, containing a large sideboard, on which are spread all the shining accompaniments of good eating and good drinking; the windows richly curtained; a large blazing fire at one extremity of the room (the season requiring it); an oblong table, at which are seated about eight-and-twenty officers, all in their full regimentals;—scarlet coat, yellow facings buttoned back on the breast; the field officers (a colonel and two majors) having two rich silver epaulettes each; the staff (three surgeons, one pay-master, and one quarter-master) in single-breasted coats without epaulettes; and all the other officers (three of the grenadiers and three of the light company excepted—they having two wings instead) wearing one epaulette each on the right shoulder; white pantaloons, and Hessian boots on all; sashes (except with the staff) but no swords.
Let the reader also imagine the countenances of the officers; the greatest number well tanned by the sunshine of foreign climes, and exhibiting the marks of various ages from thirty to fifty, amongst them, of course, a few “young hands,” ensigns and lieutenants, with youthful and good-looking faces, in which might be discovered a peculiarity that promised well to honour, at a future period, the more advanced ages of the corps by assuming their present uniformity of “phiz.”