CHAPTER IV. In which Peregrine Pultuney practises in the school of PEREGRINE PULTUNEY was awakened on the following morning by the obstreperous blast of a bugle, right under his chamber window, upon which he started up, rubbed his eyes, looked around him, wondered where he was, and finally settled that he was in No. 2 room, No. 4 barrack, at Addiscombe. There are few things more unpleasant in their way, or indeed in any other way, than getting out of a bed on a cold morning, with the consciousness that you might offer your kingdom for some hot water, without getting it. Fortunately, Peregrine Pultuney's cheeks were smooth as a maiden's; the measure of his offences not having as yet entailed upon him the grievous curse of a beard. If young gentlemen could be fully impressed with the truth, that the necessity of shaving a strong beard is one of the greatest penances in existence, they would not indulge so frequently in an amateur perform ance on imaginary down, by scraping their smooth cheeks with a sharp penknife, or borrowing the usher's razor on Sundays. other But to return from this little amiable digression. Peregrine Pultuney got out of bed, and fourteen young gentlemen followed the example of our hero. It is a fine cure for false delicacy, this dressing and undressing in squadrons; Peregrine thought so at the time, but as he had never been troubled with much of the disease, he performed the initial part of his talent with the utmost serenity of mind; and having mollified a stiff frozen towel by smiting the walls with it for a few minutes, he proceeded to face the dangers of frigid ablution, with a magnanimity worthy of a hero-his friend, Julian Jenks, all the while declaiming against the "confounded hole," and the miseries of cold water. Peregrine Pultuney had just finished dressing, when the bugle sounded again; and he was apprised that this was an invitation for him to make his appearance on parade; so Peregrine buttoned up his Petersham, went down stairs, joined the squad of tyros, and in consideration of his brown Petersham and drab trousers was ordered to fall in the rear of his division, a command which he willingly obeyed, for when he fell in with the rest, he had received sundry kicks on the heels, which he had not altogether forgotten, although he willingly forgave for these things must happen now and then when a division of six-and-thirty boys, who have never seen a drill-sergeant in their lives, endeavour to take ground to the front after six-andthirty different fashions. It is a singular thing at Addiscombe, to observe what may properly be called the "march of marching." The young gentlemen, in the tiger-boy uniform, are never allowed to walk; they are marched everywhere- they march to breakfast; they march to dinner, and they march to supper; they march into study, and they march out of study; they march into chapel, and they march out of chapel; they march into the library to get a book; they march into stores for a pair of unmentionables; they march to bed at night, and march out of bed in the morning. In fact there is nothing but marching, and all by word of command, quite according to Torrens. It seems to be an easy thing enough, and it is, when you are used to it; but it is astonishing how long it takes, to march, with any degree of precision proper-thirty inch paces, with your little fingers feeling the seams of your trousers, and your toe at a proper angle with the ground. The mere standing, at "attention," is not quite so easy as it seems-breast out, belly in, and feet at an angle of 45—a regular mathematical angle, bisectable by a perpendicular, let fall on a line parallel to the front you are standing on-which every body must see is a very complex sort of complicated thing. It was the late Lord Ellenborough, we believe, who during the volunteer mania, declared that he was ignorant of any intellectual process whereby he could determine the right position of his feet, without looking down at them-a thing unallowable in the attitude of "attention." And surely, if this was so difficult a matter to one of the brightest intellects in the country, it is not to be wondered at, that duller souls should not find it very easy. But Peregrine Pultuney: return we to him. He fell in the rear, looked about him-and was told to look to his "front;" he kicked about some pebbles with the toe of his boot, by way of diversionand was told to stand "steady;" he put his hands into the pockets of his Petersham, to keep them warm-and was told to stand at "attention;" he said he was attentive; and the gentleman corporal told him to take his hands out of his pockets and not to answer in the ranks. Then Lieutenant Somebody of the Madras Artillery, a subaltern on furlough increasing his means by a home-appointment of orderly officer at the Company's Military Seminary, rushed upon parade, with every appearance of having considerably overslept himself after partial intoxication on the night before, and gave the word of command, "attention," which not being productive of the slightest effect on the cadets, he looked at the force and saw it was at attention; so he gave the word "stand at ease," and one hundred and fifty young gentlemen clapped their hands very hard, sent up a shower of pipe-clay, bent their knees, shifted their feet, and settled themselves into a position, indicative of the deepest reflection. Then the orderly officer gave "attention" again, and up started the hundred and fifty gentlemencadets, as though they had been galvanized; and the orderly officer "opened the ranks," and gave a word of command, that threw the rear division into great confusion to the considerable amusement of Peregrine Pultuney, who expected something of the kind. Then the orderly officer went through the ranks, and inspected a number of indifferently cut trousers, and clumsy badly-polished boots, with as much attention as though they had been Buckmaster's and Hoby's; and every now and then, for the sake of effect, he sent a boy to the rear for having some "fluff" on his coat; and that boy was "put down for drill"-extra drill as it is called -and when the officer reached Peregrine, who stood in the rear of the whole, he looked very intently at that young gentleman, apparently much to his own satisfaction, though not very much to Peregrine's; and then told the gentlemen-corporals to march their divisions into chapel. When Peregrine Pultuney arrived in the chapel, which he did after walking a few yards, he found himself in the same room which, on the preceding day, had gone by the name of the examination-hall; and was certainly as unlike a chapel as a salmon is to a small tooth-comb. However, it answered the |