The Merry Past 



under arrest, and reported their conduct to the Com- 

 mander-in-Chief. 



At the court-martial which was subsequently held, 

 Captain Maclellan was sentenced to be dismissed the 

 service, and Ensign Lloyd suspended and deprived 

 of pay for six months. 



Nevertheless, the majority of officers, if wild 

 spirits, were brave and honourable men. 



The bold intrepid spirit which animated so many 

 of them appears from numberless anecdotes which 

 have been preserved. One of the most characteristic 

 of these is of a certain Colonel Johnson, who had served 

 under the Duke of York in the Netherlands. 

 I A fine swordsman, his great height and length of 

 arm rendered him a most formidable opponent. 



Colonel Johnson, travelling on the Continent alone 

 with a groom, happened to halt at a small inn, glad to 

 seek anywhere rest and refreshment for himself, his 

 servant, and the jaded steeds. The only decent 

 apartment in the house was occupied by a party of 

 French officers. All the provisions the house afforded 

 they had bespoken ; and the colonel was informed 

 that not a ragout or an omelet was to be had for love 

 or money, and under these circumstances sent a polite 

 request to the party that a British officer might be 

 permitted to share in the rations of their mess. 

 The messenger was sent back with a rude message of 

 an insulting kind. Under this unmerited insult 

 Colonel Johnson showed the greatest coolness and 

 intrepidity imaginable. He commanded that the 

 joint then being dished up should be laid before him. 



260 



