The local authorities, however, with the praiseworthy object of dispersing the scabby flock under their charge, provided the ranks of my corps with some desperate cases, whom they ordered to enlist as the alternative of going to prison. I had a shrewd guess as to the meaning of these energetic efforts to strengthen the force under my command; but I used to shut my eyes as closely as possible in accepting the proffered services of some of my recruits, and unless something too glaring forced itself on my attention--such as a man with one arm, a wooden leg, or stone blind--I used to accept the services of almost all, and place them at her Majesty’s disposal,--taking often, when tempted, a cripple, as the necessary evil attendant upon the services of a good man, these being the conditions on which the contract was several times concluded between myself and the police. No doubt I was often undecided as to whether or not I should attempt to knock down the authors of some of the practical jokes that were played upon me; but when I came to reflect that my best friends at the Cape advised me strongly to go home and leave the Kaffirs alone, I could not feel much surprised that stupid people, to whom I was unknown, should be much more practical in their method of enforcing the same opinion upon me. And truly my position seemed a riddle in more ways than one. I was very young--scarcely twenty-two, and looked still younger. I was spending large sums at the Cape to regain a footing in the British army, when I might have easily purchased, for a tenth of the money, a commission at home. My ways were foreign. I had been brought up mostly abroad--in France and Germany. My military notions were based on their schools. My actual experience of war had been gained in Algeria, Hungary, and in the streets of Paris and Vienna during the late revolutions, where I had taken somewhat more than a strict observer’s part on the side of legal authority. I could not understand the half-military, half-civilian existence of a British officer, and, excepting the Artillery and Engineers, thought them a very unscientific lot. No one could doubt their fighting capacity; but their capabilities for undertaking a campaign against European armies was very dubious in my sight. An enthusiast myself in my belief in Christ, I yet belonged to no Church in Christendom--in short, I have often wondered since how I escaped shipwreck amidst the shoals and breakers that surrounded me.