ONE OF THE SIX HUNDRED
A Novel
BY JAMES GRANT
AUTHOR OF "THE ROMANCE OF WAR."
LONDON: GEORGE ROUTLEDGE AND SONS THE BROADWAY, LUDGATE NEW YORK: 416 BROOME STREET
1875
ONE OF THE SIX HUNDRED.
CHAPTER I.
To be handsome, young, and twenty-two,
With nothing else on earth to do;
But all day long to bill and coo,
It were a pleasant calling.—THACKERAY.
I was just in the act of humming the above verse, when the following announcement was put into my hand—
"Regimental Orders.—Head-quarters, Maidstone, December 31st.
"As the regiment is to be held in readiness for foreign service in spring, captains of troops will report to Lieutenant and Adjutant Studhome, for the information of the commanding officer, on the state of the saddlery, the holsters and lance-buckets; and the horses must be all re-shod under the immediate inspection of the veterinary surgeon and Farrier-Sergeant Snaffles.
"Leave of absence to the 31st proximo is granted to Lieutenant Newton Calderwood Norcliff, in consequence of his urgent private affairs."
"Hah! this is what most concerns me," I exclaimed, as I read the foregoing, and then handed the order-book, a squat vellum-bound quarto, to the orderly-serjeant who was in waiting.
"Any idea of where we are likely to go, sir?" he asked.
"The East, of course."
