220 "Be Senectuter 



supporting the first line, and when we made the last charge 

 my horse was shot under me, and I caught a French horse 

 and charged with the 18th Hussars, having lost my regi- 

 ment, and we rested for that night near Belle Alhance, on 

 the position the French held in the morning ; and we got 

 our first real meal early on the 19th. We afterwards 

 moved on to Cambray and saw the reduction of the town, 

 and then our fighting was over, and we marched on to 

 Paris." 



The rest of the old gentleman's narrative contained the 

 incidents of the occupation of Paris, the grand review by 

 the Duke of Wellington, and Mr. Simmonds' subsequent 

 service when the regiment came home. At St. Omer he 

 was soldier-servant to three different officers, from time to 

 time, and his anecdotes are very amusing. It is no use 

 mentioning names and particulars, as the families of the 

 officers might not like it, but they may depend upon it that 

 their forefathers did not lead anchorite lives when peace 

 came, and 1 expect they were pretty much what the old 

 soldier described them, " the most dare-devil lot in the 

 world, sj)lendid officers under whom no man would be 

 afraid, but by no means ' a regular family.' " He stuck to 

 the regiment till it came home, the last which landed, and 

 on being offered his discharge after seven years' service 

 accepted it, the fighting being over ; and, like Oincinnatus, 

 returned to the farm and did the early Covent Garden 

 business for his father. On the sale of some of the horses 

 he bought one, which had a bullet in the thigh, called 

 *'■ Button Stick Joe " — so called because his rider lost his 

 kit and everything except his sword, his horse, and his 

 button-stick — and having made his purchase, he rode the 

 horse home to his father's house on Mitcham Common, and 

 made not a little sensation in his hussar jacket and cap, 

 which are now under a glass case at the museum at 



