218 "De Seneduter 



in 1812, and was always being wanted to go to Tooting 

 Common and Clapham Common, and was bothered to death 

 by a sergeant who kept me with old Brown Bess at ' present 

 arms,' recover arms,' till my own arms were fit to drop off, 

 and I said to myself, ' I'll do the regular thing sooner than 

 this,' and went off and enlisted in the 7th Hussars at 

 Mitcham, along with a neighbour, Bichard Alfrey, who was 

 in that Begiment in 1813. I was with the depot, first at 

 Guildford and then at Arundel, and afterwards the Begi- 

 ment had come home and we lay at Brighton under Lord 

 Uxbridge as colonel. We had been wanted once or twice in 

 London for bread riots, and lay at the King's Mews, where 

 Trafalgar Square now is. The news came in 1815, that 

 Napoleon had escaped, and we were ordered to the Low 

 Countries, and marched to Dover and embarked for Ostend, 

 we carrying our saddles and kit on board ship, and waiting 

 at Ostend for our horses, which were shipped separate. 

 When we got our horses we marched first fifteen miles from 

 Ostend, and then went into cantonments, and subsequently 

 marched across to the scene of the three great battles, on 

 the 15th of June being in the neighbourhood of Quatre 

 Bras and Genappe. On that day we were ordered to 

 sharpen our swords and prepare for active service, and to 

 draw double rations on the morning of the 1 6th ; but at 

 3 o'clock a.m., the trumpet sounded, and officers and ser- 

 geants were rushing about calling the men to turn out at 

 once, so we went without rations ; and from that moment 

 until after the battle of Waterloo on the 18th, we had no 

 rations, and were never off duty. The horses had a glorious 

 time of it, as they ate as much standing corn as they 

 pleased everywhere, but as for us, beyond a chance piece of 

 bread and biscuit which we sometimes came across, and 

 some bad spirits which we bought from sutlers, who hung 

 about, we went without. But then you know w^e were too 



