43 







him to the place of execution. We can not help 

 it, Sir! we have no other method of explaining 

 to him the full meaning of this word, which is 

 hereafter to petrify him. Besides, he is guilty, 

 manifestly guilty, of a neglect, if not of con- 

 tempt of authority ; he has turned a deaf ear 

 to your warning, and resisted your summons of 

 recall. On the spot, therefore, where he broke 

 ground from your challenge upon fire, make 

 him " DOWN !" with his head turned towards 

 the spring of the birds; pin him, as before 

 directed, and give him, to the tune of " DOWN 

 CHARGE !" most solemnly and deliberately urged 

 over him, such an explanation, engraven in 

 stroke (as an artist would express it) upon his 

 back and sides as, with a view to the urgency 

 of the case, evinced by the amount of his dis- 

 obedience, may most effectually open his per- 

 ceptions to the inflexible truth of this corollary, 

 that, if he means to sleep in a sound skin, he 

 must know his post, and keep at it in future. 



I know, Sir, that, to a novice in the business 

 of the field, or to a man who never witnessed a 

 review of regular troops, the beauty of a perfect 

 down charge appears wonderful. I do recollect 

 the time when I was more struck with it than 

 the animal before me : but, believe me, by an 

 undeviating recurrence to this discipline on the 



