The Romance of the Ranks
by Thomas William John Connolly (9780217133463)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: and also for his constant zeal and valour in superintending the rebuilding of No. 8 battery, left attack. A comrade, (himself a fine soldier, and discharged on account of his wounds,) summed up Cray's character in these words : He " is no tap-room bounce. His deeds and exploits, had he been educated, would have done honor to an officer. It's a pity he is not a scholar; but there is, nevertheless, a beauty in his want of education, from the mere fact that he knows his deficiency." Cray wears two medals for the Danube and the Crimea, and one clasp for Sebastopol. He has also received, as I have been informed, the order of the Medjidie. These, with the Humane Society's medallion, complete his decorations and honours. Unanswerable.?Colonel Bastion abhorred anything like soiled or shabby clothes. If ever he felt pleased, and this did sometimes happen, it was to see his men unimpeachably clean and soldier-like. One fine summer's holiday, as he was strolling over the lines, he met private Duce, wearing a pair of " bags" that would have disgraced the limbs of a costermonger. " Stop, sir " shouted the colonel, wrathfully. " How dare you appear in public in such shameful trousers?" Duce was taken aback at the sudden attack, and not having framed a sufficiently-plausible excuse, was silent. " Have you not," continued the colonel, " another pair in barracks ?" " Yes, sir," was the meek response. " Then why the devil didn't you put them on ?" " Because,' replied Duce, with true military self-possession, " they're worse than these, sir " THE PASSPORT. In 1838, corporal Down and private M'Rae, under lieutenant Vicars, crossed the frontiers of Spain in plain clothes on a secret service. A night or two before commencing the march, M'Rae, having imbibed a great deal more ...

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