The men too were learning their business with all the elaborate exercise of musket and of pike, and familiarising themselves with the innumerable words of command and with the refinements in the execution of the same. The pikeman learned by interminable directions to handle his weapon with the better grace, and listened to such cautions as the following. "Now at the word _Order your pikes_, you place the butt end of your pike by the outside of your right foot, your right hand holding it even with your eye and your thumb right up; then your left arm being set akimbo by your side you shall stand with a full body in a comely posture." The musketeer too grasped that the minutest motion must be executed by word of command. Stray grains of powder spilled around the pan disappeared at the word _Blow off your loose corns_, sometimes by a puff or two sometimes by a "sudden strong blast," but always in accordance with regulation. At the word _Give fire_ again he learned the supreme importance of "gently pressing the trigger without starting or winking," and soon revived the old English reputation, first won by the archers, for fine marksmanship. An eye-witness records with delight that after each shot they would lean on their rests and look for the result as coolly as though they had been so many fowlers watching for the fall of their bird. Lastly, they learned a new feat, untaught in any drill-book, with which this section may fitly be closed. Pikemen and musketeers were drawn up in line, every pike with a wisp of straw at its head, and every musket loaded with powder only; and at the word every wisp was kindled and every musket fired in rapid succession. The volley met with a stop at first, to use the words of our authority, as was perhaps natural at a first attempt, but eventually it ran well; and thus was fired before Bois le Duc in the year 1629 the first _feu de joie_ that is recorded of the British Army.[143] AUTHORITIES.--The chief sources of information for the actions of the British in the Low Countries are the histories of Meteren, Grimeston and Commelyn; Roger Williams's _Actions of the Low Countries_; Hexham; Vere's _Commentaries_; the _Leicester Correspondence_ (Camden Society); the _Calendars of State Papers, Domestic and Foreign Series_; and the _Holland Papers_ in the Record Office. These last, consisting of several scores of portfolios of manuscript documents, I cannot pretend to have studied exhaustively. Sir Clements Markham's _Fighting Veres_ and Mr. Dalton's _Life of Lord Wimbledon_ are the best modern books on the subject, and I wish to acknowledge to the full my obligation to them. Hexham's _Principles of the Art Military_ is the best authority for the Dutch system of drill. The _Tactics of Ælian_, translated with commentary by Captain John Bingham, 1616, is also valuable. Last, but not least, the reader will supply for himself the familiar name of Motley. CHAPTER VI