The service ended, the Governor, dismounting from his horse, took the
place of the Bishop in a service which had a sacred as well as patriotic
character. Two officers, the youngest of the Regiment, advancing,
surrendered the old flags, which had been carried for so many years and
through so many wars, and then each bending on one knee, received from
his hands the new colors which were to have a like glorious history. As
they rose from their knees, the Governor remounted his horse, and from
the saddle delivered an address as full of patriotic sentiment, of
loyalty to the Queen and country, and as spirit-stirring to the brave
men before him, as if they were to be summoned to immediate battle. With
that he turned and galloped off the ground, while the Regiment unfurling
its new standards, with drums beating and band playing, marched proudly
away.
As it wound up the height, the long scarlet line had a most picturesque
effect. It has been objected to these brilliant uniforms that they make
the soldiers too conspicuous a mark for the sharpshooters of the enemy.
But, however it may be in war, nothing can be finer on parade. Our
modern architects and decorators, who attach so much importance to
color, and insist that everything, from cottage to castle, should be
"picked out in red," would have been in ecstasies at the colors which
that day gleamed among the rocks and trees of Gibraltar.
Indeed, if you should happen to be sauntering on the Alameda just at
evening, as the sunset-gun is fired, and should look upward to see
the smoke curling away, you might see above it a gathering of black
clouds--the sure sign of the coming of the terrible East wind known as
the "Levanter"; and if at the same moment the afterglow of the dying day
should touch a group of soldiers standing on the mountain's crest (where
colors could be clearly distinguished even if figures were confused),
it might seem as if that last gleam under the shadow of the clouds were
itself the red cross of England soaring against a dark and stormy sky.
This was the brilliant side of war: pity that there should be another
side! But the next day, walking near the barracks, I met a company with
reversed arms bearing the body of a comrade to the grave. There was no
funeral pomp, no waving plumes nor roll of muffled drums: for it was
only a common soldier, who might have fallen on any field, and be buried
where he fell, with not a stone to mark his resting-place. But for all
that, he may have been a true hero; for it is such as he, the unknown
brave, who have fought all the battles and gained all the victories of
the world.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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