High words and threatening gestures, pulling and scuffling, seemed the order of the day, but no blows were interchanged. Both parties seemed equally enraged, but neither understood the other,--for one swore in German, the other in English; the gestures, however, spoke a sort of universal language which all parties comprehended perfectly. At the moment of my arrival one of the hussars, having rescued his horse from the grip of his opponent, had raised his foot to the stirrup, and was in the act of mounting, when an athletic gunner, seizing him by the waist, swung him to some distance, rolling on the turf. The fellow, springing up again, had half drawn his sabre as I emerged from the shrubbery with an authoritative “_Halt da!_” which was instantly obeyed by all; whilst old Hall, the moment he saw me, cried, “They are off, sir--they are going off.” The hint was sufficient. I despatched a gunner with orders to the guard to shut the iron gates and allow none to pass, then proceeded to investigate the origin of this quarrel. I had placed these people in the grounds from the first, that they might be more under surveillance. They have a tent for themselves, and their horses are picketed near our guns. This I have found necessary, from the sulky mutinous spirit they have always evinced since the first day of joining us. They have always been a source of considerable worry to me, and have been getting worse lately. According to their own account, they are all _volunteers_ and _gentlemen_; therefore they feel very severely the degradation of their present position, particularly being put under a vile commissary, whom they affect to treat with the utmost contempt. Their present complaint was about their bread, which they said “was not even fit for _common soldiers_;” and they accused Mr Coates of having purposely given them this bread as an insult. In their rage they had saddled their horses with the intention of returning home, or the Lord knows where, when Hall interfered, and the scuffle took place. The corporal (a fine young man) was particularly indignant, and held forth most vehemently on what was due to a gentleman, partly in German, partly in French. Hall’s insolence he spoke of with great bitterness, giving me to understand that he expected my men should pay him somewhat of the same deference as to their own officers. My answer to all this was short: “The bread is of the same quality as that served out to our own men; therefore, if the _gentlemen_ disliked it, they might leave it. As to their rank in civil society, I know nothing about it; they were put under my orders as any other soldiers, and as such should do their duty.” Two or three of the most refractory I made prisoners of, and if they still remained discontented, they at least remained quiet. This disturbance, however, spoilt my evening; so, having consumed my cigar whilst lecturing the gentlemen, I retired to my room and spent an hour or two over Voltaire’s ‘Philosophical Dictionary.’