DINING OUT MAKES STRANGE BEDFELLOWS. 29 



was hurled down stairs. " Not all done yet," said the 

 listeners, and a long interval of quiet followed, 

 broken only by an occasional step about the room, as 

 of a man undressing. It seemed then that a tall 

 form threw itself on the bed, and either with head 

 or arms, or both, swept the cock and hens from their 

 quiet roost just above the pillow. Cock, cock, cock, 

 cock, cackle, cackle, cackle, was then the cry, and the 

 screams of the feathered intruders, who were caught 

 and fluno: out of the window, followed. 



The last reminiscence of the Guards arises from an 

 order that was issued for a piquet at Carlton House 

 every night : it marched in at dark, and out again at 

 daylight — no bed for the officer, and no dinner. Now 

 as nothing was to be done by sitting up, and as our 

 mess dinner on guard at St. James's was a long way 

 off to have a slice cut from, I think we might have 

 been cared for better. In command of one of these 

 piquets, on a dark winter's night, made doubly black by 

 a thick fog from the east, I was vigilantly going my 

 rounds, accompanied by a drummer with a lantern, a 

 sergeant, and a file of men. The light, such as it 

 was, only made darkness visible, and afforded no 

 insight as to the road we were traversing. A sentry's 

 customary stamp was heard, and towards it we 

 thought we were making progress, when all of a 

 sudden a most fearful crash echoed through those 

 sacred gardens, accompanied with a rumbling sound 

 for which I could not account. It surprised us all, 

 particularly the little drummer, who, raising the dim 

 lantern over his head, peered all round him in the 

 direction of the moving noise, for it evidently changed 

 its place, with intense anxiety to ascertain the cause. 

 When a lantern is lifted over the head in a dark 



