70 HORSE, FOOT, AND DRAGOONS. 



A long line of railway-carriages and horse-trucks, their wet tops 

 glistening, and the black smoke from the locomotive curling 

 over them, stand in readiness alongside the platforni. Some 

 porters are engaged taking off the tarpaulins that have covered 

 a little pile of luggage, and are stowing it away in one of the 

 vans, and the station-master and his assistants are hurrying 

 about, busy in their preparations for the reception of their 

 freight. Up the station road two horsemen, trotting rapidly 

 along, loom up through the mist ; farther behind them we can 

 see a dark mass moving slowly towards us, and the sound of 

 the music grows louder and more distinct as the troops come 

 forward and halt on the brow of the hill above the station. 

 They are cavalry, and as the leading squadron breaks from the 

 column and marches in through the gates we see that they are 

 hussars. The men are clad in their campaign dresses — dark- 

 blue serge blouses, white sun -helmets and "puggarees," well- 

 filled haversacks and canteens, untanned leather boots, carbines, 

 and sabres. Their saddles are packed in heavy marching order, 

 and there is a decidedly business-like look about both men and 

 horses. They dismount and form their horses into line, un- 

 buckle their sabres, and together with the carbines, place them 

 on the ground in their rear, and immediately commence the 

 business of embarking. One by one the horses are led forward, 

 and driven, pushed, and forced into the trucks ; one honest 

 fellow, whose horse is rather nervous, coaxing it, and calling 

 it by all kinds of endearing names, kissing it on the nose, and 

 finally triumphantly persuading it to enter, step by step, into 

 the car. Gradually the enclosure about the station is filling 

 up. A general officer with his aide and a couple of orderlies 

 have arrived, a brake filled with officers who have come to bid 

 their friends farewell drives up, and here and there a poor 

 soldiers wife with tear-stained face, perhaps two or three tow- 



