The Trumpet-Major | Page 7

a dim irresponsible way. The soldiers
must have come there to camp: those men they had seen first were the
markers: they had come on before the rest to measure out the ground.
He who had accompanied them was the quartermaster. 'And so you see
they have got all the lines marked out by the time the regiment have
come up,' he added. 'And then they will-- well-a-deary! who'd ha'
supposed that Overcombe would see such a day as this!'
'And then they will--'
'Then-- Ah, it's gone from me again!' said Simon. 'O, and then they will
raise their tents, you know, and picket their horses. That was it; so it

was.'
By this time the column of horse had ascended into full view, and they
formed a lively spectacle as they rode along the high ground in
marching order, backed by the pale blue sky, and lit by the southerly
sun. Their uniform was bright and attractive; white buckskin
pantaloons, three-quarter boots, scarlet shakos set off with lace,
mustachios waxed to a needle point; and above all, those richly
ornamented blue jackets mantled with the historic pelisse-- that
fascination to women, and encumbrance to the wearers themselves.
''Tis the York Hussars!' said Simon Burden, brightening like a dying
ember fanned. 'Foreigners to a man, and enrolled long since my time.
But as good hearty comrades, they say, as you'll find in the King's
service.'
'Here are more and different ones,' said Mrs. Garland.
Other troops had, during the last few minutes, been ascending the down
at a remoter point, and now drew near. These were of different weight
and build from the others; lighter men, in helmet hats, with white
plumes.
'I don't know which I like best,' said Anne. 'These, I think, after all.'
Simon, who had been looking hard at the latter, now said that they were
the --th Dragoons.
'All Englishmen they,' said the old man. 'They lay at Budmouth
barracks a few years ago.'
'They did. I remember it,' said Mrs. Garland.
'And lots of the chaps about here 'listed at the time,' said Simon. 'I can
call to mind that there was--ah, 'tis gone from me again! However, all
that's of little account now.'
The dragoons passed in front of the lookers-on as the others had done,

and their gay plumes, which had hung lazily during the ascent, swung
to northward as they reached the top, showing that on the summit a
fresh breeze blew. 'But look across there,' said Anne. There had entered
upon the down from another direction several battalions of foot, in
white kerseymere breeches and cloth gaiters. They seemed to be weary
from a long march, the original black of their gaiters and boots being
whity-brown with dust. Presently came regimental waggons, and the
private canteen carts which followed at the end of a convoy.
The space in front of the mill-pond was now occupied by nearly all the
inhabitants of the village, who had turned out in alarm, and remained
for pleasure, their eyes lighted up with interest in what they saw; for
trappings and regimentals, war horses and men, in towns an attraction,
were here almost a sublimity.
The troops filed to their lines, dismounted, and in quick time took off
their accoutrements, rolled up their sheep-skins, picketed and unbitted
their horses, and made ready to erect the tents as soon as they could be
taken from the waggons and brought forward. When this was done, at a
given signal the canvases flew up from the sod; and thenceforth every
man had a place in which to lay his head.
Though nobody seemed to be looking on but the few at the window and
in the village street, there were, as a matter of fact, many eyes
converging upon that military arrival in its high and conspicuous
position, not to mention the glances of birds and other wild creatures.
Men in distant gardens, women in orchards and at cottage-doors,
shepherds on remote hills, turnip-hoers in blue-green enclosures miles
away, captains with spy-glasses out at sea, were regarding the picture
keenly. Those three or four thousand men of one machine-like
movement, some of them swashbucklers by nature; others, doubtless,
of a quiet shop-keeping disposition who had inadvertently got into
uniform--all of them had arrived from nobody knew where, and hence
were matter of great curiosity. They seemed to the mere eye to belong
to a different order of beings from those who inhabited the valleys
below. Apparently unconscious and careless of what all the world was
doing elsewhere, they remained picturesquely engrossed in the business

of making themselves a habitation on the isolated spot which they had
chosen.
Mrs. Garland was of a festive and sanguine turn of mind, a woman
soon set up and soon set down, and the coming