Produced by Al Haines. *ONE OF THE SIX HUNDRED* *A Novel* BY JAMES GRANT AUTHOR OF "THE ROMANCE OF WAR." "Half a league, half a league, Half a league, onward, Into the Valley of Death, Rode the Six Hundred!" TENNYSON. LONDON: GEORGE ROUTLEDGE AND SONS THE BROADWAY, LUDGATE NEW YORK: 416 BROOME STREET 1875 *ONE OF THE SIX HUNDRED.* *CHAPTER I.* To be handsome, young, and twenty-two, With nothing else on earth to do; But all day long to bill and coo, It were a pleasant calling.—THACKERAY. I was just in the act of humming the above verse, when the following announcement was put into my hand— "Regimental Orders.—Head-quarters, Maidstone, December 31st. "As the regiment is to be held in readiness for foreign service in spring, captains of troops will report to Lieutenant and Adjutant Studhome, for the information of the commanding officer, on the state of the saddlery, the holsters and lance-buckets; and the horses must be all re-shod under the immediate inspection of the veterinary surgeon and Farrier-Sergeant Snaffles. "Leave of absence to the 31st proximo is granted to Lieutenant Newton Calderwood Norcliff, in consequence of his urgent private affairs." "Hah! this is what most concerns _me_," I exclaimed, as I read the foregoing, and then handed the order-book, a squat vellum-bound quarto, to the orderly-serjeant who was in waiting. "Any idea of where we are likely to go, sir?" he asked. "The East, of course." "So say the men in the barracks; for the present, good-bye, sir," said he, as he wheeled about on his spurred heel, and saluted; "I wish you a pleasant journey." "Thanks, Stapylton," said I; "and now to be off by the night train for London and the north. Ugh! the last night of December; I shall have a cold journey of it." Despatching my man, Willie Pitblado—of whom more hereafter—to the mess-house to report that I should not dine there that evening, I proposed at once to start for home, resolved to make the most of the favour granted me—leave between returns, as it is technically termed.