The Roll-Call of The Reef | Page 5

or a musket fired;
and that's not Christian burial for British soldiers.'
"'Phut!' says the trumpeter, and spat on the ground; 'a parcel of
Marines!'
"The boy eyed him a second or so, and answered up: 'If I'd a tav of turf
handy, I'd bung it at your mouth, you greasy cavalryman, and learn you
to speak respectful of your betters. The Marines are the handiest body
o' men in the service.'
"The trumpeter looked down on him from the height of six-foot two,
and asked: 'Did they die well?'
"'They died very well. There was a lot of running to and fro at first, and
some of the men began to cry, and a few to strip off their clothes. But
when the ship fell off for the last time, Captain Mein turned and said
something to Major Griffiths, the commanding officer on board, and
the Major called out to me to beat to quarters. It might have been for a
wedding, he sang it out so cheerful. We'd had word already that 'twas to
be parade order; and the men fell in as trim and decent as if they were
going to church. One or two even tried to shave at the last moment. The
Major wore his medals. One of the seamen, seeing I had work to keep
the drum steady--the sling being a bit loose for me, and the wind what
you remember--lashed it tight with a piece of rope; and that saved my
life afterward, a drum being as good as a cork until it's stove, I kept
beating away until every man was on decks and then the Major formed
them up and told them to die like British soldiers, and the chaplain was
in the middle of a prayer when she struck. In ten minutes she was gone.
That was how they died, cavalryman.'
"'And that was very well done, drummer of the Marines. What's your
name?'

"'John Christian.'
"'Mine's William George Tallifer, trumpeter, of the Seventh Light
Dragoons--the Queen's Own. I played "God Save the King" while our
men were drowning. Captain Duncanfield told me to sound a call or
two, to put them in heart; but that matter of "God Save the King" was a
notion of my own. I won't say anything to hurt the feelings of a Marine,
even if he's not much over five-foot tall; but the Queen's Own Hussars
is a tearin' fine regiment. As between horse and foot, 'tis a question o'
which gets a chance. All the way from Sahagun to Corunna 'twas we
that took and gave the knocks--at Mayorga and Rueda, and
Bennyventy.'--The reason, sir, I can speak the names so pat, is that my
father learnt 'em by heart afterward from the trumpeter, who was
always talking about Mayorga and Rueda and Bennyventy.'--We made
the rear-guard, under General Paget; and drove the French every time;
and all the infantry did was to sit about in wine-shops till we whipped
'em out, an' steal an' straggle an' play the tomfool in general. And when
it came to a stand-up fight at Corunna, 'twas we that had to stay seasick
aboard the transports, an' watch the infantry in the thick o' the caper.
Very well they behaved, too--specially the Fourth Regiment, an' the
Forty-Second Highlanders, an' the Dirty Half-Hundred. Oh, ay; they're
decent regiments, all three. But the Queen's Own Hussars is a tearin'
fine regiment. So you played on your drum when the ship was goin'
down? Drummer John Christian, I'll have to get you a new pair of
sticks.'
"The very next day the trumpeter marched into Helston, and got a
carpenter there to turn him a pair of box-wood drumsticks for the boy.
And this was the beginning of one of the most curious friendships you
ever heard tell of. Nothing delighted the pair more than to borrow a
boat off my father and pull out to the rocks where the 'Primrose' and the
'Despatch' had struck and sunk; and on still days 'twas pretty to hear
them out there off the Manacles, the drummer playing his tattoo--for
they always took their music with them--and the trumpeter practising
calls, and making his trumpet speak like an angel. But if the weather
turned roughish, they'd be walking together and talking; leastwise the
youngster listened while the other discoursed about Sir John's

campaign in Spain and Portugal, telling how each little skirmish befell;
and of Sir John himself, and General Baird, and General Paget, and
Colonel Vivian, his own commanding officer, and what kind of men
they were; and of the last bloody stand-up at Corunna, and so forth, as
if neither could have enough.
"But all this had to come to an end in the late summer, for the boy, John
Christian, being now