The International Monthly, Volume 5, No. 4, April, 1852Various
History
The International Monthly, Volume 5, No. 4, April, 1852
Various
Art, Modern -- 19th century -- Periodicals; Literature, Modern -- 19th century -- Periodicals; Science -- History -- Periodicals
On entering the town he was challenged by a soldier, who, having learned
he had no passport, carried him before a magistrate, by whom he was
forthwith condemned as a vagabond, and remitted to the custody of a
recruiting sergeant. This worthy, in turn, introduced him to the
commanding officer, who politely gave our traveller the choice of
serving his Imperial and Apostolic Majesty, the Emperor of Germany,
either in his cavalry or his infantry forces. But Jackson, strangely
insensible to the honor, flatly refused to serve his Majesty in these or
any other ways, and desired to be at once set free, and suffered to
continue his journey. The officer, doubtless, amazed at such
presumption, desired the sergeant to convey him to the barracks, where
he was placed in a large room, in which were congregated some two
hundred or so involuntary recruits like himself--harmless travellers,
who, being destitute of passports, the emperor forcibly enlisted into
his service. Jackson found his co-mates in misfortune very dirty, very
ragged, but perfectly civil and good-tempered. Having a little recovered
his serenity--for it is easy to see, though our hero is described as a
man of placid demeanor and somewhat Quakerly appearance, he could be not
a little fiery at times--he sat down and wrote to the commanding
officer, entreating leave to sleep at an inn, and proffering the deposit
of all his money as a pledge for his reappearance next morning. The
reply was an order that he should surrender his writing materials. At
seven o'clock, the appointed sleeping hour, the sergeant returned and
gave the signal for bed by rapping with his cane on the floor, which was
speedily covered by a number of dirty bags of mouldy straw--the
regulation mattresses, it would seem, for involuntary recruits.
Jackson--peppery again--refused to lie down, but was at last compelled
to do so, and between two of the dirtiest fellows of the lot, each of
whom had a leg chained to an arm. The next morning, at his own request,
he was brought before the commandant of the town, who had only arrived
late the preceding evening, and whom he found seated in his bedroom,
"with all his officers standing round him receiving orders," says
Jackson, "with more humility than orderly-sergeants." The commandant
repeated the offer of "cavalry or infantry;" adding that a war was about
to commence with the Turks, and that good-behavior would insure
promotion. However, finding Jackson obstinately persistent in his
refusal, he quietly observed, in conclusion, that the emperor, as a
matter of rule and of right, "impressed" into his army all such as
entered his dominions without certificates of character. "The order was
so tyrannical," declares our _détenu_, "that I could not contain myself.
'Put me in chains, if you please,' I said, 'but I tell you, all Germany
shall not make me carry a musket for the emperor.'" This impetuous burst
of indignation seems to have alarmed the pglegmatic commandant, who
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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