24 REMINISCENCES OF A HUNTSMAN 



lantern over his head, peered all round him in the direction of 

 the moving noise, for it evidently changed its place, with in- 

 tense anxiety to ascertain the cause. When a lantern is lifted 

 over the head in a dark night, and the eyes of the bearer cease 

 to look before him, it is not likely that any stumbling-block 

 should be avoided, and all in a moment I missed the drummer 

 from before me, lost his light, and heard a splashing of water. 

 At first I thought we must have wandered to the Serpentine, 

 but my next act was to feel the way with my foot, and to ask 

 " Where the devil are you ? " My foot told me I stood on the 

 brink of something, and a voice answered, " In the pool, sir ! " 

 The butt of the sergeant's halbert soon brought the drummer 

 to dry land, and I suppose he must have fallen into some place 

 either to hold gold and silver fish, or to water the gardens from. 

 I never saw "the pool," so can't tell. The noise round the 

 garden, accompanied now by the occasional crushing of a shrub, 

 still continued, when all at once we heard the bleat of a sheep. 

 The fact was, one of those odd dogs who attach themselves to 

 the different guards, and always attend the mounting and relief 

 without showing a predilection for either regiment, had entered 

 the guard-room with the men, and accompanied us in the rounds 

 at night, and took a slight turn at some sheep, penned in 

 hurdles to improve the turf on the lawn. In writing my report 

 in the morning, I described the temporary loss of a drummer in 

 a cesspool or something like it, but as the report was rather 

 droll, the " C. O." would not have it, and told me to be serious, 

 and write another. 



