“Just so,” rejoined he; “every man of sense and discretion must confess it. Happily for you, too, I know it; ay, Tiernay, I know it, and practice it. When a young fellow has acquitted himself to my satisfaction during the day—not that I mean to say that the performance has not its fair share of activity and zeal—when evening comes and stable duty finished, arms burnished, and accoutrements cleaned, what do you think I say to him?—eh, Tiernay, just guess now?” “Probably, sir, you tell him he is free to spend an hour at the canteen, or take his sweetheart to the theatre.” “What! more fatigue! more exhaustion to an already tired and worn-out nature!” “I ask pardon, sir, I see I was wrong; but I had forgotten how thoroughly the poor fellow was done up. I now see that you told him to go to bed.” “To bed! to bed! Is it that he might writhe in the nightmare, or suffer agony from cramps? To bed after fatigue like this! No, no, Tiernay, that was not the school in which _I_ was brought up; _we_ were taught to think of the men under our command; to remember that they had wants, sympathies, hopes, fears, and emotions like our own. I tell him to seat himself at the table, and with pen, ink, and paper before him, to write up the blanks. I see you don’t quite understand me, Tiernay, as to the meaning of the phrase, but I’ll let you into the secret. You have been kind enough to give me a peep at your note-book, and you shall in return have a look at mine. Open that volume, and tell me what you find in it.” I obeyed the direction, and read at the top of a page, the words “Skeleton, 5th Prairial,” in large characters, followed by several isolated words, denoting the strength of a brigade, the number of guns in a battery, the depth of a fosse, the height of a parapet, and such like. These were usually followed by a flourish of the pen, or sometimes by the word “Bom.” which singular monosyllable always occurred at the foot of the pages. “Well, have you caught the key to the cipher?” said he, after a pause. “Not quite, sir,” said I, pondering; “I can perceive that the chief facts stand prominently forward, in a fair, round hand; I can also guess that the flourishes may be spaces left for detail; but this word ‘Bom.’ puzzles me completely.” “Quite correct, as to the first part,” said he, approvingly; “and as to the mysterious monosyllable, it is nothing more than an abbreviation for ‘Bombaste,’ which is always to be done to the taste of each particular commanding officer.” “I perceive, sir,” said I, quickly; “like the wadding of a gun, which may increase the loudness, but never affect the strength of the shot.” “Precisely, Tiernay; you have hit it exactly. Now I hope that, with a little practice, you may be able to acquit yourself respectably in this walk; and now to begin our skeleton. Turn over to a fresh page, and write as I dictate to you.”