Wellesley is a Duke and a
Marshal, I but a simple Major of Irregulars. Such is fortune and war!
But my feelings carry me away from my narrative, which had better
proceed with more order.
On arriving, I say, at our barracks at Dum Dum, I for the first time put
on the beautiful uniform of the Invincibles: a light blue swallow-tailed
jacket with silver lace and wings, ornamented with about 3,000
sugar-loaf buttons, rhubarb-colored leather inexpressibles (tights), and
red morocco boots with silver spurs and tassels, set off to admiration
the handsome persons of the officers of our corps. We wore powder in
those days; and a regulation pigtail of seventeen inches, a brass helmet
surrounded by leopard-skin with a bearskin top and a horsetail feather,
gave the head a fierce and chivalrous appearance, which is far more
easily imagined than described.
Attired in this magnificent costume, I first presented myself before
Colonel Jowler. He was habited in a manner precisely similar, but not
being more than five feet in height, and weighing at least fifteen
stone, the dress he wore did not become him quite so much as slimmer and
taller men. Flanked by his tall Majors, Thrupp and Gutch, he looked like
a stumpy skittle-ball between two attenuated skittles. The plump little
Colonel received me with vast cordiality, and I speedily became a prime
favorite with himself and the other officers of the corps.
Pages:
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
223
224
225
226
227
228
229
230