The _personnel_ consisted of--Second Captain, Mercer, commanding; Captain Pakenham (subsequently Newland) as Second Captain; Lieutenants Bell, Hincks, Ingleby, and Leathes--the former acting as adjutant to Sir A. Frazer, the latter as supernumerary; and before we left Strytem, Ingleby exchanged with Lieutenant Breton, and joined Sir Robert Gardiner’s troop; so that, finally, it stood: Breton, Hincks, Leathes--surgeon, Hitchins; 2 staff-sergeants, 3 sergeants, 3 corporals, 6 bombardiers, 1 farrier, 3 shoeing smiths, 2 collar-makers, 1 wheeler, 1 trumpeter, and 1 acting do., 80 gunners, 84 drivers--the 1 acting trumpeter not included. The organisation was in three divisions, of two subdivisions each--a subdivision being one piece of ordnance, with its ammunition-waggon and detachment. Each division had one spare ammunition-waggon and a proportion of the other carriages, &c. The division was commanded by a lieutenant, and the subdivisions, the right of the division by a sergeant, the left by a corporal--a bombardier to each subdivision. On parade, the 5½-inch howitzer was the right of the centre division. Perhaps at this time a troop of horse-artillery was the completest thing in the army; and whether broken up into half-brigades under the first and second captains, or into divisions under their lieutenants, or subdivisions under their sergeants and corporals, still each body was a perfect whole. CHAPTER VIII. I have confessed a little farther back that the happiness of our sojourn in this lovely country was not without some alloy; and having done so, I may add one or two more items to this balance, _per contra_. Soon after our arrival at Strytem, an officer of the commissariat was attached to the troop, for the purpose of feeding us and our animals. His first care was to secure a sufficient number of country waggons, with their drivers and horses, intending to keep them together ready for a move. The farmers, finding this a grievance, besieged me, personally and through Mynheer Evenpoel, to allow them to remain at home until wanted. This Mr Coates (who, by the way, was an experienced and excellent commissary) strongly opposed, foretelling the consequences but too truly; however, I yielded, upon a solemn promise of M. l’Adjoint that they should be held ready to move at a moment’s notice. Having committed this folly, I was well punished for it by the anxiety I experienced at every report of a move; and at last when the hour did come, they were called and found wanting, and poor Mr Coates had to mount and hunt them up, when they ought to have been loaded and on the road. This was a lesson to me.