British -- India -- Fiction; India -- History -- British occupation, 1765-1947 -- Fiction; Short stories, English
On the Monday following the burial, the Colonel sought revenge on the
White Hussars. Unfortunately, being at that time temporarily in Command
of the Station, he ordered a Brigade field-day. He said that he wished
to make the regiment “sweat for their damned insolence,” and he carried
out his notion thoroughly. That Monday was one of the hardest days
in the memory of the White Hussars. They were thrown against a
skeleton-enemy, and pushed forward, and withdrawn, and dismounted, and
“scientifically handled” in every possible fashion over dusty country,
till they sweated profusely. Their only amusement came late in the day,
when they fell upon the battery of Horse Artillery and chased it for two
mile's. This was a personal question, and most of the troopers had money
on the event; the Gunners saying openly that they had the legs of the
White Hussars. They were wrong. A march-past concluded the campaign, and
when the Regiment got back to their Lines, the men were coated with dirt
from spur to chin-strap.
The White Hussars have one great and peculiar privilege. They won it at
Fontenoy, I think.
Many Regiments possess special rights, such as wearing collars with
undress uniform, or a bow of ribbon between the shoulders, or red and
white roses in their helmets on certain days of the year. Some
rights are connected with regimental saints, and some with regimental
successes. All are valued highly; but none so highly as the right of
the White Hussars to have the Band playing when their horses are being
watered in the Lines. Only one tune is played, and that tune never
varies. I don't know its real name, but the White Hussars call
it:--“Take me to London again.” It sound's very pretty. The Regiment
would sooner be struck off the roster than forego their distinction.
After the “dismiss” was sounded, the officers rode off home to prepare
for stables; and the men filed into the lines, riding easy. That is to
say, they opened their tight buttons, shifted their helmets, and began
to joke or to swear as the humor took them; the more careful slipping
off and easing girths and curbs. A good trooper values his mount exactly
as much as he values himself, and believes, or should believe, that the
two together are irresistible where women or men, girl's or gun's, are
concerned.
Then the Orderly-Officer gave the order:--“Water horses,” and the
Regiment loafed off to the squadron-troughs, which were in rear of
the stables and between these and the barracks. There were four huge
troughs, one for each squadron, arranged en echelon, so that the whole
Regiment could water in ten minutes if it liked. But it lingered for
seventeen, as a rule, while the Band played.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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