“I was studying at one and the same time, Dr. Lowth’s _Grammar_, Dr. Watts’s _Logic_, the _Rhetoric_ of some fellow whom I have forgotten, a book on _Geometry_, … Vauban’s _Fortifications_, and (_ex-officio_) the famous Duke of York’s _Military Exercise and Evolutions_, explaining these latter by ground-plans.… Never did these cause me to neglect my duty in one single particular; a duty of almost every hour in the day, from daylight till nine o’clock at night.” … “When I was sergeant-major … I found time to study _French_ and _Fortification_. My _chef-d’œuvre_ in the latter was the plan of a regular sexagon with every description of outwork. When I had finished my plan, on a small scale, and in the middle of a very large piece of drawing-paper, I set to work to lay down the plan of a siege, made my line of circumvallation, fixed my batteries and cantonments, opened my trenches, made my approaches, covered by my gabions and fascines,--at last effected a mine, and had all prepared for blowing up the citadel.” … “When I was in the army, I made, for the teaching of young corporals and sergeants, a little book on _arithmetic_; and it is truly surprising in how short a time they learned all that was necessary for them to know of that necessary department of learning. I used to make each of them copy the book.” Those were days when a man might rise above the rank-and-file.[4] Cobbett himself had the promise of an ensigncy, when he came to make application for his discharge. As a matter of course, such officers, through their skill, prudence, and general knowledge, became the crack men of their regiments; the best practically-instructed men, perhaps, in the army. For the rest, the average officer must have been a curious make-up; sent into the army, often as early as fourteen years of age--without any special training--he was there for his social position; and, except when on active service, passed a frivolous sort of existence; often so ignorant of his professional duties (_i.e._ everything beyond daily routine) that they were habitually shirked, excepting when the colonel was a Tartar, or when a clever _factotum_ could be found among his subordinates. Such a _factotum_ was the new clerk to the 54th regiment:--